Review: Brooke Warner's "What's Your Book?"

Ten years ago, I started writing a young adult novel based on a situation that happened with my daughter and athletics. I've written, erased, rewritten, revised, removed characters, created new ones. For the past two years, it's taken space on a flash drive. Once every few months, I open the file and fix what I perceive as weaknesses. Someday, it will be "good enough" to publish.

After reading Brooke Warner's What's Your Book? A Step-by-Step Guide To Get You From Inspiration to Published Author, I am ready to take the next steps to seeing my words come to fruition. You can, too, if you use this solidly-written guide as a tool.

Warner breaks down the creative process and the path to publishing in five chapters. In "The Art of Becoming an Author," Warner starts by making you think about your purpose. Why write a book? After penning your top five reasons, Brooke walks you through exercises that categorize your work, target your audience, and focus on the final product.

Chapter two is devoted to six obstacles that may prevent you from reaching your writing goal. What I really enjoyed about this chapter were the exercises that forced me to confront what stands in my way and set new goals, free of excuses.

Next, Warner urges writers to challenge their mindset and accomplish established goals. This chapter is loaded (maybe overloaded) with about dealing with daily writing life, including procrastination and perfectionism—two of my worst enemies. There's a lot of information to absorb in this chapter. Or maybe I don't want admit where my weaknesses are so I avoid reading about them. (smile)

My favorite chapter talks about building a solid platform. It's filled with honest and realistic approaches to handling social media, blogging, and communications. It's a must-read for any author!

The final chapter builds a road map toward publication. Whether you're ready to shop your book to an agent or plan to pursue self-publishing, this chapter offers positives and negatives of both worlds.

Straight forward, honest, and maybe even a bit eye-opening, I'm ready to tackle this project and end up with one of my books in my hand after reading Brooke Warner's What's Your Book?

****About the Author****

Brooke Warner is founder of Warner Coaching Inc., publisher of She Writes Press, and author of What's Your Book? A Step-by-Step Guide to Get You from Inspiration to Published Author. In her thirteen years in the publication industry, Brooke shepherded over 500 books through the publication process. Her expertise is in traditional and new publishing, and she is an equal advocate for publishing with a traditional house and self-publishing.

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3 comments becoming a published author, book review, Brooke Warner, What's Your Book?, Writer's Guide