Commercial realities: Review of Rhonda Whitton and Sheila Hollingworth 'A Decent Proposal: How to Sell your Book to an Australian Publisher' and 'Mission Possible: How to Make Money from your Writing'

Abstract

Taking on board Samuel Johnson's recommendation that "What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure", these two concise books urge writers to deal seriously with the business end of writing – addressing in particular the task of writing a winning book proposal and other ways of making writing pay its way. Authors Rhonda Whitton and Sheila Hollingworth offer a mass of basic information in the now-classic self-help format, presenting foundational information in bite-size chunks, this fare seasoned with humour and a series of cartoon illustrations.'A Decent Proposal: How to Sell your Book to an Australian Publisher' deals with the elements of writing and formatting a book proposal – from the tone and contents of the covering letter to advice on how many sample chapters to include. It also incorporates information on the various publishing options open to writers (commercial, on-line and self- and vanity-publishing) as well as on book contracts, advances, royalties, copyright, agents, manuscript appraisal services and writing centres.'Mission Possible: How to Make Money from your Writing' surveys the traditional areas of the pen-for-hire marketplace such as freelance journalism, corporate writing, and book publishing and reviewing, together with less immediately obvious opportunities. These include ghostwriting and speechwriting alongside the specialist niche markets of greeting card captioning, menu writing and teaching into the corporate marketplace. There are also brief sections on grants and writing competitions.