I read this particular book well into the night while Harry snored away, oblivious to the fact that his life was about to change because of what his wife was reading in a book! This book was such an encouragement because it gave me a pat on the back at a time when I needed it most. It also made me realize my true potential as both a writer and self-publisher. Best of all, this book was a virtual roadmap to success. If you're an aspiring writer or would-author, I believe this book will do the same for you. I can't recommend it highly enough.

There are many other fine books for writers, of course, and a search on Amazon.com will turn them up. In your desire to learn, be sure to read writer's magazines, too. One of the first things I did when I decided to become a professional writer was subscribe to Writer's Digest Magazine and order five years' worth of back issues. What an incredibly helpful magazine for both beginners and seasoned pros! (I had no idea then that I would someday be working with the folks who own Writer's Digest. They acquired the publishing rights to one edition of my Homemade Money book before it found a permanent home with M. Evans & Co.)

From experience I've learned that average writers become good writers only with considerable effort and attention to detail. And good writers don't just write, they become specialists in the art of rewriting, which, in my opinion, is the real secret to good writing.

When I was writing my first book, I used to read issues of Writer's Digest in the evening, and my husband would often hear me mutter, "Oh, no! I'm doing it all wrong." Next morning, I'd go back to my book-in-progress and start rewriting, correcting my bad writing, grammar and punctuation, and attempting to avoid other common errors beginning writers always make. I literally rewrote my first book a dozen times and, by the time it was finished, I felt like I'd taken a college course in writing.

My first book, Creative Cash, was published almost word for word as I wrote it and I was pretty proud of myself when it began to get rave reviews and went on to sell more than 100,000 copies. Twenty years later, however, when I reread that book with an eye to doing a sixth edition for a new publisher, I was embarrassed to find that my writing wasn't nearly as good as I thought it was, and my organization of material was not good at all. In the end, I simply wrote a brand new book, giving it a new subtitle in the process.

In my defense, I was writing on a typewriter in the 70s, which made it much more difficult to reorganize content once it had been typed. Having word processing power greatly improved my ability to write well because it's so easy to make changes and move blocks of text from place to place right up to the last minute before submitting a manuscript to a publisher.

The real point I want to make here, however, is that writers (myself included) tend to let their egos get the best of them as soon as they have been published, and that's a big mistake. Writing, like woodworking, or growing roses, or designing Web sites, is both an art and craft that must be continually practiced, honed and improved for maximum success. The most successful writers are never satisfied that they are as good as they can be, but are always striving to become better. I've often related to something Samuel Johnson once wrote: 

The most successful writers also write about things they know. I like this quote from Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey, one of my favorite fiction writers:

Closing on a humorous note, also consider this tip from Don Marquis: