Bookshop

Bringing you a selection of the very best self-help books available to inspire and guide you on the path to success. There are old favourites, newer titles and famous names. What they have in common is clear and practical advice on the business of writing. Take a look at our reviews before you buy.

	Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande£5.99 The classic text back in print.
Cooldog Review:	Are you are writer - or someone who writes? This classic text – written in the 1930's – focuses on the how a writer needs to see the world if he or she is to cross the divide. Successful writers quote her, MA courses plagiarise her. Read the oracle herself in this short but definitive work.

Beginning Writer’s Answer Book (30th Anniversary Edition) by Edited by Jane Friedman£9.99
How can I get started?

Cooldog Review:

A writing career can seem daunting to the beginning writer. How can I get started? How will I know if I’m talented? The Beginning Writer’s Answer Book is a compilation of suggestions, recommendations and advice amassed by experts over 30 years, which provides answers to the above questions – and many more besides. Chapters further into the book deal with the publishing industry: How do I find an agent? What are my rights? Should I self-publish? Questions that are most frequently asked are helpfully marked for easier use. This is an essential resource for any writer at the start of their career, and some of the later chapters focus on such specialist areas as marketing scripts and songs, meaning that this book will remain indispensable long after you have passed the beginner stage.

Creative Writing (7th Edition) by Adele Ramet£9.99
A good all-rounder for those setting out on their writing journey.

Cooldog Review:

A useful companion for the beginning writer, this book contains plenty of helpful advice on how to think like a writer; for example, how to draw on your own experiences and incorporate them into your writing, and how to open your eyes and ears to the world around you. Ramet also includes sections on how to create characters with depth, and ways to construct realistic dialogue. Whether your aim is to write fiction (including romance, horror and children’s fiction) or non-fiction, Creative Writing covers a variety of creative techniques that will improve your writing.

Getting the Words Right by Theodore A Rees Cheney£12.99
For those who have finished that all-important first draft.

Cooldog Review:

Getting the Words Right is aimed specifically at those individuals who have finished the first draft of their project, and now need to revise and hone it. Cheney expertly shows the reader how to get more for less by stripping down and tightening their work, and stresses the importance of serendipity during the revision process, describing it as a “new source of inspiration” for writers. This book includes many examples on how to construct sentences more concisely, including extracts from student papers that Cheney has marked in the past, complete with his analyses and criticisms. The numbers speak for themselves: with over 80,000 copies sold, it’s clear that this book deserves a place on any serious writer’s bookshelf.

	How to Write Fiction (And Think About It) by Robert Graham£13.99 A step-by-step guide to building your own writers toolkit.
Cooldog Review:	With his deft, assured style, Robert Graham guides readers through many techniques required to write good fiction. Graham covers all key aspects of writing and uses extracts from existing fiction to explain how to use these methods effectively. He also places an emphasis on reworking and revising, showing readers how to successfully develop creative writing over several drafts.

	On Writing by Stephen King£8.99 A unique mix of autobiography and hard-headed advice.
Cooldog Review:	The master of the modern gothic blends autobiography with sound "how-to" advice for up-and-coming novelists of any genre. You may not like his mix of the fantastic and the folksy, but he is one of the most successful writers alive today – and he got there the hard way. Whatever your views on his work, this book contains the facts of life for any would-be novelist.

Writing Poetry by John Whitworth£12.99
An excellent guide to how to turn good ideas into good poetry.

Cooldog Review:

Whitworth begins at the beginning – with pure appreciation for rhythm and rhyme, and from there takes the reader through metaphor, syllable stress and how to write different kinds of poems, such as ballads and sonnets, as well as poems in blank and free verse. Peppered throughout the book are practical exercises that will help advance your poetry skills and the enjoyment to be had from writing poems. This new edition of Writing Poetry also includes a useful section on how the internet can be a good way for your poems to gain exposure.