Writing Books I Recommend: The Business of Being a Writer
Cover of Jane Friedman's THE BUSINESS OF BEING A WRITER
This is another book that wouldn’t be assigned in a traditional MFA, and it’s one I always recommend to writers, along with Courtney Maum’s Before and After the Book Deal. Whenever I teach a creative writing course with a focus or unit on publishing, this is my go-to assigned text.
WHO IT’S FOR:
This book is for anyone who wants to understand the business of being a writer (apt title, no?). Do you want to figure out how to make an income writing? Do you want to better understand the publishing industry and learn best steps for getting published? Do you want to figure out how to build platform? If you answered yes to any of these questions, this book is for you.
WHAT IT’S ABOUT:
It walks you through taking the first steps toward a writing life, understanding the publishing industry and getting published, becoming a writing entrepreneur, and figuring out how to make money. Friedman runs an influential, super useful blog dedicated to helping you develop in your writing career, with a big focus on building platform. One of the best resources out there, honestly.
WHAT’S USEFUL:
This is a clear-eyed look at an industry that doesn’t allow outsiders ready access. It’s hard to find a more useful text in this space, honestly.
The book talks you through the differences between trad publishing and indie publishing, and it shows you how advances work in reality. It talks about author websites and SEO. It talks about converting social media followers into sales.
One of the things I have students do as they read this book is to make their own assignments. Some examples (But be aware that nearly every chapter has a similar possible exercise, making this book a handbook rather than just a text you read once, cover to cover):
On page 16, Friedman offers a series of questions designed to help you determine your brand: Who are you? How did you get here? What do you care about and why? Students spend time writing the answers to these questions, figuring out their own writerly personality.
On pages 24-26, Friedman offers descriptions of different types of writer bios. Students write their own "kitchen-sink” bios, capsule bios, social media bios, and professional bios. Simply understanding the nuances here is important, but it’s even more useful to draft working statements for each of these types of bios.
Figure out what your next step in publishing is, and focus on that section. If your next step is querying, go look at the necessary components (pp. 106-110), and try to articulate what your project is doing. Is your next step publishing in a literary journal? Check out pp. 146-148. For this mini-assignment, I ask students to tell me their next move, based on what they learned in the book.
WHAT THE BOOK DOESN’T DO:
There’s not a lot of craft talk here, though Friedman does talk craft on her blog, particularly with columns from guest writers. This is a book that is focused on the industry itself, and on finding your place in the industry.
If you want to learn how to write a novel, there are better introductions. (See my post on learning how to structure a novel here.) If you want to learn how to revise that novel and get it ready for querying, see Jennie Nash’s Blueprint for a Book (a review here) or Matt Bell’s Refuse to Be Done.
WHAT TO READ FIRST:
It depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. I think this is the single most helpful intro to the publishing industry and writing business out there, so this is the book I would recommend first. But maybe you’re not ready for the industry talk yet. Maybe you need to concentrate on craft. If so, seek out books that help with the genre in which you’re trying to write.
WHAT TO READ NEXT:
Courtney Maum’s Before and After the Book Deal: I assign this book quite a bit, as well, and students love the tone of this book. Maum is conversational and funny while still being productive and useful. There’s a lot of overlap between these two books, but I think it’s worth reading both of them. Maum also spends time thinking about polishing the work (see her “Getting It Right” section). (Review here.)
Ricardo Fayet’s How to Market a Book was recommended to me by students, and I found this book fascinating. It goes into great detail on this very niche part of publishing, but there’s a lot to learn here. This is a part of Reedsy’s platform, if you’re familiar with this editor-for-hire site.