Creating Your First Novel: A comprehensive guide spanning the entire long-term project: from planning through marketing and starting your author business by Hank Quense (Author)
I was immediately drawn to Creating Your First Novel: A comprehensive guide spanning the entire long-term project: from planning through marketing and starting your author business and how keeps us from feeling the intimidated when writing a book by outlining the entire process, from start to finish. You will find there isn’t any surprises as the author lays out what we should do. You will find the book is written like your having a conversation with a friend. It was nice to find out the author takes the time to share advice we can use in our writing. The book is easy to read and clearly written and prepares the reader to avoid mistakes.
For me personally Creating Your First Novel: A comprehensive guide spanning the entire long-term project: from planning through marketing and starting your author business was fast to read and hard to put down. I enjoyed how the author covers everything an beginning writer ie author needs to know.
Including planning and formatting a story to marking and publishing. The diagrams and illustrations are helpful, and they were easy to understand and Charlie will be using this information in his Homeschool Creative Writing Course. Thanks to the Author and this workbook he has given me the confidence to get started in writing a book and sharing the story of my daughters life.
Inside the book you will find chapters on Planning and Writing, are fundamental and the focus of aspiring authors. The Author shares his extensive experience having gone through the process over two dozen times, sharing insights and advice in these sections. The emphasis on planning is noteworthy, and addresses a common misconception among writers which is the belief that a compelling story alone is enough to guarantee success. I liked seeing how the author advocates for meticulous planning, emphasizing that even the most riveting narrative needs a strategic foundation.
The Marketing section of the book is where many authors, especially those venturing into self-publishing, often underestimate the importance of promoting their work. The Author underscores the need for writers to actively engage in marketing, taking away the notion that the books will naturally find its audience. While the reviewer wished for more detailed information in this area, the book serves as an effective springboard, prompting writers to delve deeper into the nuances of book promotion.
About the book:
Are you writing your first book? Or are you thinking about writing it?
Do you have any idea what you’re getting into?
No? Let’s talk about it
Most aspiring authors concentrate on writing the book to the exclusion of all else. However, the reality is that creating a book is a long-term, multi-phase project and writing it is only one facet of the project.
The complete project involves five separate phases:
- Planning the book
- Writing the book
- Publishing the book
- Marketing the book
- Author business issues
Unfortunately, planning and writing a book does nothing to prepare the author for the other phases of the project. The only commonality between the phases is that they are about a single book.
Another difficulty with the creative project is that almost all information on the process only discusses one phase of it.
Until now. Creating Your First Book covers all five phases. It is written by an author who has gone through the project over two dozen times.
Creating Your First Book provides a road map to get you through the process without losing your sanity.
About the author: Hank Quense
Early in his writing career, he was strongly influenced by two authors: Douglas Adams and his Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. Happily, Hank has never quite recovered from those experiences.
He lives with his wife in northern New Jersey, a mere 20 miles from Manhattan, thecenter of the galaxy (according to those who live in Manhattan). They have two daughters and five grandchildren all of whom live close by.
For vacations, Hank and Pat usually visit distant parts of the galaxy. Occasionally, they also time-travel.
Besides writing novels, Hank lectures on fiction writing, publishing and book marketing. He is most proud of his talk showing grammar school kids how to create a short story. He used these lectures to create an advanced ebook with embedded videos to coach the students on how to create characters, plots and setting. The target audience is 4th to 7th graders. The book’s title is Fiction Writing Workshop for Kids.
He has a number of links where you can follow his work and his occasional rants:
Strange Worlds website:
Writers and Authors Resource Center:
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
