The Blurb
At last, a book that is easy to read and tells it how it is!
A book written to assist authors maximise their success when submitting work to agents or publishers, to help authors consider their priorities and preferences for getting work into print. To advise authors how to identify the agents and/or publishers they want to approach. It should also assist with editing their manuscript fully prior to submission. The book offers advice about how to prepare a submission package to give an author the best chance of success.
The road to becoming a successful author is not easy, but it is rewarding. Let this book take you on the journey.
The Review
A practical guide to getting published.
Val Penny’s Let’s Get Published is a really helpful little book that asks essential questions of an aspiring writer and then steers them to the right answers for them. She considers all aspects of writing from identifying readership and defining genre to publicity and drafting, writing a synopsis and submitting. Val Penny does not shy away from difficulties authors may face, such as being too painfully shy to promote their own books by standing in front of a large audience and delivering a speech or reading, and by raising awareness of the reader as a writer she is assisting the road to publication. There’s a piece of advice about writing a synopsis that was a complete lightbulb moment for me, but I’m not going to share it – you’ll have to read Let’s Get Published to find out what it was!
What I enjoyed most about Let’s Get Published was the way Val Penny gives gravitas and status to all forms of writing and all approaches to getting published. Times have changed and self-publication or hybrid approaches are no longer the Cinderella ways to get your book to a reader. Similarly, her use of quotations by and references to, other authors gives excellent kudos to her advice, making for an entertaining as well as informative read.
Let’s Get Published is a little cracker of a book. Eminently readable and packed with hints and tips, Val Penny has a straight-forward, no-nonsense style that creates confidence in her reader. Coupled with the excellent advice given I would heartily recommend Let’s Get Published to any aspiring author because the book is relevant to writers of any genre. I’m just plucking up the courage to send Val’s suggested questions to a beta reader. See you in print!
The Author
Val Penny is an American author living in SW Scotland. She has two adult daughters of whom she is justly proud and lives with her husband and two cats. She has a Law degree from Edinburgh University and her MSc from Napier University. She has had many jobs including hairdresser, waitress, lawyer, banker, azalea farmer and lecturer.
However, she has not yet achieved either of her childhood dreams of being a ballerina or owning a candy store. Until those dreams come true, she has turned her hand to writing poetry, short stories and novels.
Her crime novels, 'Hunter's Chase' Hunter's Revenge, Hunter's Force and Hunter's Blood form the bestselling series The Edinburgh Crime Mysteries. They are set in Edinburgh, Scotland, published by Crooked Cat Books. The fifth novel in the series, Hunter's Secret, is published by darkstroke.
Her first non-fiction book, Let's Get Published is available now.