Articles in the Book Reviews Category

Before I began reading The Author’s Guide to Planning Book Events: Tips and Tools for Bookselling Success by Carol Hoenig, I thought I knew quite a bit about book promotions. While I have not yet finished my first book, I’ve been reading about how to write book proposals, build a platform, and promote a book for several years. (Yes, it’s time for me to get off my “buts” and finish writing a book!)

But Carol Hoenig’s book offers excellent, creative advice for everyone from first-time authors who may not know how to market their book to professionals who’ve written multiple titles and are looking for book promotion ideas that will set them apart.

Publishing is especially competitive today, with so many self-published titles competing with books from traditional publishers. People today have even less time to read and many people believe they can find all the information about a topic on the Internet. Authors compete not only with authors of other print books, but with eBook authors, as well.

The Author’s Guide to Planning Book Events covers a very important aspect of promoting and selling your books, and it covers it concisely (in just 135 pages, including photos and an index) and comprehensively.

About Carol Hoenig

The author of the award-winning novel Without Grace, Carol Hoenig has worked as an events coordinator for a major bookstore chain for more than 11 years. She worked with Suze Orman on her first book, and booked signings for former President Jimmy Carter — twice. In addition to being a published non-fiction author and novelist, she is a freelance publishing consultant and editor.

In short, Carol Hoenig knows her stuff… and she shares significant amounts of her knowledge about coordinating book events in this title.

About the Book

The Author’s Guide to Planning Book Events is divided into three parts, with numerous chapters within each.

1. Before You Publish – Covers the planning that must go into building your platform before your book even hits print. You should be considering your audience, and determining where your audience hangs out, so that, when it’s published, you can bring your book to them.
2. You Have a Due Date – The meatiest section of the book, the chapters of this section cover exactly how to create a media kit, approach event planners to set up book events, and even how to create a memorable book launch.
3. Tips and Techniques – Expanding upon previous sections, this part covers what to do during your book events — and how to prepare. Hoenig talks about what to do if you feel overwhelmed by the tasks in front of you, as well as how to use serendipitous events to your advantage in promoting your book. She even talks about how to work a book event into your vacation.

Should You Buy This Book?

With its unique perspective and creative ideas (including unique locales, other than bookstores, to hold events), I’d go so far as to call this book a “must-read” for any published author. I especially like Hoenig’s suggestions to tie your book promotions into a not-for-profit cause, if possible. These are the types of ideas (there are lots more!) that I haven’t seen in other books and articles on the topic.

Those with experience in PR and marketing may find themselves skimming the first chapters, which cover the basics of writing press releases and building media kits, and also stresses professionalism above all else.

I’d recommend authors read every page of the book, even if it seems like review. We can all use a reminder about always projecting professionalism. (I feel terrible as I’m writing this, because earlier this month, I completely blew off an interview with the book’s author. It was a comedy of errors. I won’t make excuses. Suffice it to say, it is not like me and I hope — by the time this review goes live — to have re-connected with Hoenig for a nice, informative chat.)

I found the entire book exceptionally inspirational — another reason to read it cover-to-cover. As a soon-to-be published eBook author, I’m eager to begin implementing Hoenig’s suggestions. And one thing I learned in this book is that it is NEVER too early to begin building your platform and promoting your book.

In spite of its title, The Author’s Guide to Planning Book Events covers more than just setting up a book event, book signing or book launch. (You’ll learn the difference between the three within its pages.) Because promotions, platform and book events are all inextricably connected, it is impossible to discuss one without covering the others, as well.

When Melissa Hart’s mother left her father to live with another woman in the 1970s, the custody decision was no surprise for the times—lesbians would not be allowed to raise three young children. Gringa: A Contradictory Girlhood is Hart’s account of her life after her forced separation from her mother and through her formative years into college.

The disparity between every-other-weekend days spent with her mother in a small home in a Southern California Latino neighborhood and the rest of her life spent in her father and stepmother’s middle-class home is stark. At first too young to understand anything but her own desire to spend more time with her mother, Hart grows into a teenager embarrassed by her mother’s living situation.

She questions her own sexuality, and she struggles to find a cultural identity in school. Dark-skinned students seem to have the most interesting lives, and Hart’s white skin is often the fodder for comments and jokes. She yearns for the ethnic food her classmates bring for lunch and for the cultural background that goes with it.

Each chapter of Gringa almost stands on its own as a snapshot of a different experience or a different time in Hart’s childhood. Taken together, the chapters form a fascinating account that shows not only Hart’s personal family experience, but the times she grew up in as well. As a child of the 70s myself, I recognized references to popular television shows and music, and I found it interesting to compare what was happening in my life at the same time.

Whimsical recipes close out each chapter. The recipes not only relate to food featured in the narrative, but also to the emotions that went along with the events of the food. For instance, for a chapter titled, “Ethiopia,” in which one of Hart’s classmates tells Ethiopian jokes (remember those?), the recipe is for White Girl Cookies. During the chapter Hart tells how bringing white cookies to an event ended up as part of a joke about her white skin. Her preparations for the event and her emotions about once again having her skin tone stand out are as much a part of the recipe as the ingredients. It’s an interesting technique that livens up both the narrative and the recipes.

At times Gringa is funny, contemplative and sad, although it doesn’t rely on emotion to carry the story along. Hart is not afraid to highlight her own flaws, her own anger and confusion, and her own role in some of the events that frustrate her as she grows. As I read it, I felt that Hart could have been any girl who sat next to me in school, quietly concealing a turbulent home life while appearing to be sure of who she was.

Although part of me longed for more details about Hart’s life with her father, her stepmother and her mother, I also recognized that having that detail would not have helped me to understand Hart’s experience. All in all, I feel I got just enough of what she was feeling to help me see the root of her choices. Recently I heard Hart give a speech in which she advised that memoirist write about various pieces of their lives and weave those pieces together to form a complete narrative. Gringa is a testament that her advice is sound.

Find out more about, Gringa: A Contradictory Girlhood and Melissa Hart.

Stay tuned this month for a guest post from, talented memoirist Melissa Hart, author of “Gringa: A Contradictory Girlhood”. And on Saturday, our own Rebecca Laffar-Smith interviews Melissa about the value of relationships in writing and how family played a significant role in her memoir. Subscribe right now so you won’t miss out.



Is it a novel or a book of writing tips?

It’s both actually, if you want it to be.  On her website, the author says it came out of “discussions I had with my mother”.  So it is about a writer and her mother, but also about a creative writing class.  Since Breen herself has taught such a class, parts of it are autobiographical, although she declares there is a lot of fiction woven in.

“Susan Breen has written a beautiful and inspiring story with a few surprises thrown in for good measure. Read it! There are so many layers to this book, you’ll find something that touches you or inspires you.” ~ Mary Evelyn Lewis at Virtual Wordsmith

The story is structured around the nine weekly classes and what happens in between them.  The sections on the classes are numbered sequentially, but they are interspersed with numbered chapters, so Chapter One comes after First Class, and is followed by Second Class.  Another element enters the structure part way through, but it would spoil the story to tell you about that in this review.

The writing tips fall out of the description of the classes.  In the first class, the teacher tells her students they will find it easier to start writing if they pick subjects that are important to them.  I love the way she expresses it: “Write about the thing that sets up a commotion in your mind, and you will find that the words come flowing.”  That’s one of the great things about this book.  Many aspects of writing may be familiar, but the language used to explain them is unique and wonderful.

Each class ends with an assignment that the students have to complete before the next, and the assignment follows the book section that describes the class.  For aspiring writers or blocked writers, these assignments alone could be helpful as prompts to get them going.

“This is a delightful first novel written with genuine wit and personality.” ~ Dennis Lythgoe at Deseret News

The first sections also include a brilliant demonstration of how to show your readers what your characters are like.  The main characters in this novel are the teacher and the students of the writing class, plus the teacher’s mother and her carers.

In Chapter One, after the class the teacher visits the nursing home where her mother wants to hear all about it.  The story of their relationship forms a backdrop to the classes, or it could be the other way around, depending on your point of view.  There is also a little love interest, so this book could appeal to quite a wide readership.

But writers, or aspiring writers, will certainly take away lots of writing tips from the class sections.  The section called Second Class discusses characters and what to do with them once the initial ideas for them have germinated – how to make them come alive on the page.  Third class concentrates on plot, the narrative arc, the inciting incident and the climactic scene.  (If you want to know what all that is about, you need to read this book.)

The fourth, fifth and sixth classes cover points of view, description and descriptive language, and dialogue.  In the sections on the final three classes you can learn, or revise, pacing, theme and voice – not active and passive, but the author’s voice that makes each one different from every other.

After reading this book, we should have no trouble writing our own novels.

And interspersed with all these tips and guidance are some hilarious goings-on, plus a very touching story about a mother/daughter relationship developing into a greater understanding and affection, through the medium of language and learning to write.

“Susan Breen teaches fiction classes for Gotham Writers’ Workshop in Manhattan. Her stories have been published by a number of literary magazines, among them American Literary Review and North Dakota Quarterly. She lives in Irvington, NY with her husband, children, two dogs and a cat. In her free time, which she has none of, she likes to read.” ~ From SusanjBreen.com

After reading about Sue Silverman and her book, “Fearless Confessions – A Writer’s Guide to Memoir” on Writer’s Roundabout I was keen to get a copy. It wasn’t long afterwards that a copy was sent to me after winning a contest on WRA.

Once started, I couldn’t put the book down; I was learning so much from it. I’m a budding writer, unpublished. This book is going to help my first book change from ordinary to wow.

Don’t get me wrong, I know it’s a tough business; the ‘wow’ above is for me personally, I want to feel that ‘wow factor’ for myself.

My father wrote his memoirs, it was directed at his friends and family who knew him well. He wrote the way many would “this is my life and how it happened.” I didn’t want that but hadn’t the first idea how to turn it into something with more punch. Sue Silverman’s book did just that!

I learned so much while reading this book, I believe the most important lesson is where to start, how to create what Sue calls the it-was-a-dark-and-stormy-night effect and catch the reader’s attention immediately.

I also liked how she reminds us to reveal our scenes rather than state them; using the senses to hold the reader in that moment with you so they can almost taste, smell, see, feel, and hear everything going on.

Losing unnecessary words and tightening up sentences is extremely important, especially for me as I can float away a little. Another useful lessons was the vital use of metaphors to engage the reader, to bring them on your ‘ride’.

Overall, I really loved the book and Sue’s style of writing. This book isn’t a ‘how-to’, it’s a guide with important information for budding writers like myself or those who need a refresher.

Thanks to this book, my book won’t be a “this is my life and this is how it happened” styled memoir, instead it will invite readers to “ride this roller coaster with me” and I thank Sue Silverman’s Fearless Confessions for introducing me to the new direction.

When Angela and Jodi first approached me to host Sue Silverman on her book tour I saw the word, “Memoir” and thought, “I don’t write Memoir and I don’t ever plan to.” But, Sue is a writer and “Fearless Confessions: A Writer’s Guide to Memoir” is not a book about memoir, it’s a book about writing.

Sue is incredible. After our initial contact she got a copy of her book into the post for me and it arrived within days. That was over two months ago, and while at the time I promised to move “Fearless Confessions” to the top of my reading list, I put it off, and off. Some deep, secret reserve held me back from opening the covers. Fear and perhaps an inner knowing kept the book at arms length. I would glance at the cover, feeling guilty because I knew that I would be reviewing the book this month and I really needed to have read it to do that.

Fear comes at us in all areas of writing, be it memoir or fiction, because, ultimately, with each word we write we tell the story of ourselves. I’ve struggled with my current novel because I know that there are elements of myself in each of my characters and I don’t know them. I don’t know myself enough to know these characters. Knowing that in finishing this novel I will have to truly learn who I am creates gargantuan writer’s blocks built of fear.

Perhaps, that is why “Fearless Confessions” found its way to me. I opened the pages and began to read and I could see myself in Sue’s words. I knew, from the first page, that this book would force me to look at my own situation, and, if I could muster Sue’s courage, it would force me to explore who I am. In turn, perhaps it would allow me to finish my novel.

Toward the end of each chapter, Sue William Silverman asks us to participate. It is not enough to be actively engaged in her voice and the heart she shares on her pages. Sue pushes her readers to take action, to begin now, to grasp courage and move forward. In book form it is tempting to skip over these writing exercises. It takes courage to commit to the exercises just as it takes courage to begin reading. But in claiming that courage with each exercise, it becomes easier to do the next.

Although there is a definite slant toward memoir writing through the book, “Fearless Confessions” is about all writing, particularly fiction writing. The techniques Sue shares are cornerstones in all excellent writing. Learning these skills and developing the craft of storytelling will improve your writing in every aspect of your life.

When we are first learning to read and write we are taught to distinguish facts, “An apple is red.”. As we grow older we’re told to expand on this, “An apple is red and round.”. As we discover writing as an art we learn that there is far more to every aspect of our lives then the simple facts. “Red” and “round” are no longer descriptive enough to truly convey what an apple is.

Sue Silverman’s “Fearless Confessions” asks us to look deeper. To see with adult eyes the complexity of life and express that complexity, in full, rich, evocative color, on the page. She asks us to discover ourselves in our writing and in turn, discover our writing within ourselves.

If you’ve ever wondered how to develop your writer’s voice, how to put emotion on the page, how to tell a story that readers live and won’t want to put aside, then you need to discover your own “Fearless Confessions“.

Now, it’s time to return to my own story.

Please, don’t forget that Sue will be visiting Writer’s Round-About on the 21st of August and you still have a few days to ask your questions and enter the draw to receive your very own copy of “Fearless Confessions: A Writer’s Guide to Memoir“.

How much do you really know about language usage? Are you sure you use “they’re“, “there“, and “their” correctly? When is it appropriate to use “whom“, “whome“, or just “who“? Confused about whether to “lay” or “lie“? Grammar Girl has the answers and she gives them in a way that makes it simple to understand.

I can’t think of any book that covers so many language quirks within its pages. To be honest, I found it a little draining to read. I read Grammar Girl’s book, several pages an hour, one tip after another without pause, but it is a book better suited to reflective browsing. In the same way that reading a dictionary will do wonders for your vocabulary but can be exhausting if attempted in a single sitting, Grammar Girls’ Quick and Dirty Tips for Betting Writing will do wonders for your writing but can be overwhelming if rushed. It is the kind of book one needs to savor, allowing each tip to simmer in your mind before sampling the next.

Having failed ninth grade English, and dropped out of school soon after, I never learned the ‘rules’ in a formal setting. I am amazed at what my nine-year-old daughter brings home from school about phonics and usage. She is learning things in grade four that I had never learned before; she teaches me! Twelve years removed from school I’m beginning to understand the difference between nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc. I’m still working on understanding objects, subjects, and participles. I write instinctively, having read extensively, but am beginning to learn WHY a sentence works one way better than another and WHY this word differs depending on tense.

Feeling a little out of my element with grammatical context I found every page was a learning experience. There was so much to absorb in this plethora of information and insight that I had never truly comprehended before. Every tip offers an opportunity to learn about language from regional distinctions to popular adaptations. Not only does Grammar Girl, Mignon Fogarty, share simple tricks to help us remember ‘the rules’, she also explains the grammatical reason, the ‘proof’, that they are, in fact, the grammatically correct.

I found Grammar Girl’s book intense. I am learning so much! I LOVE IT!

Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing is a book I know will sit upon my desk for years to come. It is not the kind I might read once then allow to gather dust on the shelf of the formerly loved. Despite it’s cheery cover and warm voice this is definitely a writers reference, and it includes a detailed index to make it even more effective as a reference guide.

If you’re looking for an addition to your desk, particularly a comprehensive guide to modern word usage and grammar, then this is the book you need. I want to give a big shout out, “THANK YOU!” to Michele Tune. I had never heard of Grammar Girl, or her book before Michele shared both on her blog and had I not won my copy of Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing it might still be sitting on my Amazon wish list! Thank you, Michele.

Do you have a particular usage stumbling block? Want to know if Mignon Fogarty covers it in Quick and Dirty Tips? Drop a comment below and I’ll look it up for you!

Writing compelling copy that engages readers and entices them to take action is a powerful skill, particularly when writing for the web. All writing, from landing pages, sales copy, press releases, and marketing documentation, to something as simple as a blog post or email requires an element of persuasive writing.

Recently, a new client hired me to write landing pages for affiliate products. It is a fantastic job, giving me everything I love about this business; in particular, a new challenge that pushes my boundaries and forces me to expand my writing repertoire. To do the job well I’ve had to spend time researching how to write copy that compels visitors to buy.

Lindsay Camp‘s book, “Can I Change Your Mind?” had been on my ‘to-be-read’ writing shelf for several months but with this new challenge it leaped out of the waiting pile. 240 pages later I came away with a deep sense of how writing can be used to transform people, to compel them to act, or change their opinions and beliefs.

First, we discover how persuasive writing is useful for everyone, not just professional writers. These days, we all use written language for all sorts of reasons from a simple note or email to blogs and fiction.

Persuasive writing plays a part in all writing because the key aspect of persuasive writing is to ‘change’ your reader. That change might just be to convince them that they want to keep reading (as in a novel) or it might be to have them part with their money or support a cause.

You need to know how to write persuasively. Not just so that you can write for clients, like the one who hires me to write affiliate landing pages, but so that every word you write connects with your readers.

Ultimately, the craft and art of persuasive writing comes down to a single rule. Lindsay covers this with “The three Rs of good persuasive writing”.

“Remember the Reader and the Result” ~ Linsday Camp

There are two things you must know about any writing project. You must know these things down to the elemental facts. You should have a these two elements honed to a fine tip pen before you begin writing.

Remember the Reader

Who are you trying to persuade? In freelancing we know this better as our reader, our target audience.

For example, YOU are my target reader, or you wouldn’t be reading this right now. My sharpened image of you is, “An adult who is interested in making a career from freelance writing, particularly in an online environment.” Now, there may be a few who read WRA who don’t fall into this ‘target’ but when I write, these people, ‘those interested in making a career from freelance writing, particularly in an online environment’ are the people I’m talking to. (If you’re not one of these people, PLEASE, leave a comment and let me know what brings you to WRA.)

Remember the Result

What do you want them to do? Simply keep reading? Leave a comment? Buy a product? Subscribe to your blog? Learn something new?

There are millions of results you might be aiming for when you sit down to write. One of the biggest mistakes we can make as a writers, is to begin writing with no concept of our intended result. Every form of writing evokes a result of some kind and not having a firm grasp of the result we want, the very reason we are writing, can often lead to unfocused, jumbled, and meandering writing.

For example, the result I want from this review is: ‘to give you enough information about “Can I Change Your Mind?” to decide for yourself if it will interest you’. Notice, that in this case, my result isn’t, ‘convince you to buy’. I don’t want you to buy the book if you don’t think you need it. I could set my result as, ‘convince reader they need this book’. But, I’m not brave enough to be so pushy and opinionated in a review.

Lindsay discusses this “Big Theory” far better than I have done in this blog post. Obviously, there is so much more to writing persuasively then I can cover in less than 800 words. In fact, “Can I Change Your Mind?” has a whole A to Z and several post scripts that go into more detail.

Readers Want Results Too

Ultimately, I have to ask myself if Lindsay Camp‘s book had the result its target reader wanted. Did this book help me produce the persuasive copy I was hired to write? It sure did! And now I can turn these new skills and techniques toward all my future writing projects.

Now you need to ask yourself: Would your writing benefit from learning how to convince your reader to take action? If it would, find yourself a copy of Can I Change Your Mind?

What do you already know about persuasive writing? I’d love to know more so if you have any resources you recommend or information you’ve learned, please, share your thoughts!

One of the most notable things I realized while reading “Pep Talks, Warnings & Screeds: Indispensable wisdom and cautionary advice for writers” is that its author, George Singleton, must have a great deal of ‘STUFF’ on his desk. I wonder how he manages to write between his can of WD-40* (a reminder that writing daily prevents rusting), his compass* (because “stories and novels need direction”), his grappling hook* (“to remind him that every foray into pulling stories and novels from the depths doesn’t always succeed”), and the several other trinkets he has gathered. Somehow, he does manage to write, and has turned his pen to over 100 published stories and two novels.

While I don’t think that a cluttered desk is essential, the points George makes with his “Essential Tools” are important to remember. Beyond these tools, George includes sage advice on how to approach being a writer and the rocks beneath the muddy surface of the publishing industry.

Dead Meat

Every last story should be considered dead meat. If anyone ever asks, “What’s your favorite story or novel that you’ve written?” it should be what you’re working on at the moment, for you are always getting better, and striving.

~ Pep Talk: 98 (Dead Meat) from Pep Talks, Warnings & Screeds by George Singleton

Singleton is an opinionated writer with firm ideas of what being a writer is and how writing should be done. In some respects his advice could be controversial. How would Starbucks survive the current economical downturn if writers and wanna-be writers remained at home in their shoeboxes rather than downing caramel lattes?

How many writers would remain obscure if not for their blogs? Indeed, one might wonder how George Singleton can justify his Blog Tour this month given his poor opinion of bloggers and the “bloodsucking parasites” we carry?

Despite getting my hackles firmly spiked and my own opinions leaping to the defensive, “Pep Talks, Warnings & Screeds” has its mix of great content. For authors this book is worth reading.

George has a strident voice, he knows how to hook a reader, how to influence their thoughts, and he has done his time in the trenches of fiction. Much of his advice and wisdom has rich value to new writers. More experienced writers will find themselves laughing out loud (to strange glances from family) at the ring of truth in some parts of this book.

Getting to the Marrow

A butcher might argue that there’s a relationship between meat’s taste and its proximity to the bone. The closer to the marrow, the better the flavor. I don’t know how to complete this analogy for vegetarians. Maybe the center cuts of beets, carrots, and tomatoes offer more excitement for the consumer. Let’s pretend that’s the case.

In stories, the closer to the marrow a writer can get, the more enjoyment a reader will receive.

~ Pep Talk: 150 (Getting to the Marrow) from Pep Talks, Warnings & Screeds by George Singleton

“Pep Talks, Warnings & Screeds” is worth reading on any road of your writing journey. It is a valuable mulch to cultivate your future as a writer. Go forward into each new pep talk, warning, and screed with an open mind but allow your own experiences and preferences to discern which lessons you will take to heart. You’ll enjoy the ideas George expresses, and be eager to get back to your own writing.

Title: The Forward Book of Poetry
Author: Various Artists
Publisher: Faber and Faber
ISBN 10: Various Editions

“The Forward Book of Poetry” is one of the most impressive and remarkable poetry collections currently being published. Presenting poets who are both well known and new to the scene, the book is a shining example of all that is great about poetry in the UK at the moment.

Published annually the book is a collection of the short listed entries for the Forward Poetry Prizes. The Prizes were first established in 1991 with the goal of correcting the woeful lack of recognition and attention contemporary poetry receives and of extending its audience. The Forward Poetry Prizes themselves are currently the most financially rewarding poetry competition in the UK. Offering the competitive categories of Best Collection (10,000), Best First Collection (5000) and Best Single Poem (1000) the Prizes are regarded as hotly contested and only the very best poets shine through. The Prizes are only open to published poets and the poets cannot nominate themselves, their publishers must enter their collections and poems in their stead.

Poets and poems that do indeed manage to shine through above and beyond their competitors but perhaps do not manage to win are recognized by inclusion in “The Forward Book of Poetry“. Five highly respected literary judges debate long and hard to decide which poems should be included in the annual collection, so it is of little surprise that the poetry offered in the book is of an exceptional quality.

The poets featured in the book are a mixed bunch, sometimes well known names and ex-poet laureates that are recognizable to even those with little knowledge of poetry, and sometimes previously unknown poets making their public debut. The result is a refreshing mixture of poetry about a wide ranging but always griping variety of subjects. Each and every poem is an experience and delight in its own right and the collection as a whole can serve as a fantastic introduction to contemporary poetry for someone new to the genre, or as the treat in the form of the collation of the very best modern poetry for someone already familiar with contemporary British poetry.

I definitely recommend you get hold of a copy today, and see what you have been missing out on.

5/5 – Simply peerless.

Nicholas Cockayne is a 23-year-old UK based writer with a BA in English and a MA in Creative and Critical Writing. Nicholas is passionate about literature, writing, and publishing. He is currently trying to adjust to living in the countryside, finish several novels, and find time to read.

Title: The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Starting Your Own Business
Author: Edward Paulson and Marcia Layton
Publisher: Alpha Books
ISBN 10: 1592575846

If you’re thinking about starting a business, there’s no shortage of books available on the subject. You can find how-to business guides that range from bare business basics all the way to MBA level in-depth business guides.

Edward Paulson and Marcia Layton collaborated on the Alpha Books release, “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Starting Your Own Business“. Paulson is an MBA and engineer with entrepreneurial experience, and Layton is an MBA who runs her own business and marketing consulting group. The authors have years of background in starting and running small and large businesses, and they give real world advice in this basic business guide.

Like most books in the “Complete Idiot’s Guide” series, the Guide to Starting Your Own Business breaks down the basics of starting a business into easy to understand sections. Graphics are used to highlight special points and advice throughout the text.

All of the basic business topics are covered: what type of business is right for you, whether or not to incorporate, how to write a business plan, and sales and marketing techniques. The book addresses each topic clearly and most of the information is general enough to be applicable to many types of businesses.

The one drawback of this book, and this may be addressed in later editions, is the relative lack of information on home based and internet businesses. Granted, there are entire books written on those two topics themselves, but if you’re looking for information specific to those two industries, you may want to consider a different book.

As a basic business reference guide, “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Starting Your Own Business” skims the surface of A to Z. It provides worksheets for discovering your talents and what type of business you’d like to run, and it walks you through all the most basic business procedures like incorporation. There’s even a section on hiring employees, and a very brief section on independent contractors and how they differ from employees.

Overall, if you’ve just begun to think about starting your own business and you’re looking for a basic reference guide to get you started, this book will suffice. If you already know the type of business you’d like to start, or if you’ve already started the process of working for yourself, you might be better served by a more in-depth book more closely related to the field you’re interested in.

Reviewer: AJ Kerr