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 enlarge | Author: Hallie Ephron
Publisher: Writers Digest Books
Category: Book
List Price: $16.99
Buy New: $8.00
You Save: $8.99 (53%)
New (20) Used (11) Collectible (1) from $6.75
Avg. Customer Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 53306
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.8
ISBN: 1582973768
Dewey Decimal Number: 808.3872
EAN: 9781582973760
ASIN: 1582973768
Publication Date: September 1, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
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| Customer Reviews:
 Good for newbies May 22, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Writing instruction books penned by writers are a dime per every two dozen. Most of their advice amounts to a re-packaging of every writer cliché available for free: Show, don't tell; write a character bio; use he said/she said; conflict, conflict, conflict. Rarely does anything write-home-worthy come down the pike that we haven't read elsewhere. So it is with a mix of openness and skepticism that I picked up WRITING AND SELLING YOUR MYSTERY NOVEL by Hallie Ephron.
The result? A good primer for beginners, but mostly just another rehash of generic advice to the more seasoned writer. Ephron covers everything in this book: Characterization, dialogue, selecting a title, setting, plotting, suspense, revision, marketing, polishing, selling--I mean she covers it ALL. She also includes copious charts and graphs that illustrate her points for the reader's personal use. This is what makes it such a good, comprehensive tool for someone just getting into writing who could benefit from an all-in-one resource. But as much as that's a strength of the book, it's also a weakness. The book is too busy with charts, and Ephron breezes through every imaginable subject so quickly that she rarely scratches past the surface. In this way, WRITING AND SELLING is malnourished inasmuch as it's comprehensive.
For intermediate to advanced writers, there are a few good chapters in here. I particularly enjoyed the ones on plotting and suspense, and Ephron's itemization of different plot twists and turns, when coupled with the chapter on suspense, is almost worth the price of the book alone. So, if you're just starting out, feel free to buy WRITING AND SELLING YOUR MYSTERY NOVEL to get your beak wet. Then go deeper with DON'T MURDER YOUR MYSTERY or SELF-EDITING FOR FICTION WRITERS.
 The Davinci Code April 28, 2007
0 out of 5 found this review helpful
On page 84 the author says she won't pick "The Davinci Code" as a title. I wonder if Dan Brown refered to this book before writing his best seller of the same title???
Anyway, the book is helpful as a start for mystery writers.
 Midwest Book Review: December 2006 Issue December 1, 2006
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
Hallie Ephron's new How-To book is one of the best books on writing mysteries that I've ever read. Ephron, one half of the best-selling mystery duo G.H. Ephron, knows exactly how to construct interesting, twisty, and effective plots and characters, and she doesn't hesitate to divulge her secrets.
The book is divided into four sections: Planning, Writing, Revising, and Selling Your Mystery Novel. She provides apt examples, excellent charts, and interactive exercises that will help both the neophyte and the long-time practitioner. She includes an appendix of resources as well.
As SJ Rozan writes in her introduction: "The map in this book will make the process of writing your novel controllable, understandable, and as close to fun as it gets. You'll still have to do the work; this book won't write your book. But it will show you what work to do, so you can plan, structure, and write. And revise, rework, and rewrite. It will show you how to start, what to do when you're mired in the middle, and how to come to a triumphant finish. And, if you're still standing, it will help you market it to an agent an editor so that your book can end up, finally, in the hands of those most elusive, legendary, and desirable inhabitants of this loony Land: readers."
If you've ever wanted to write mysteries or if you seek merely to improve your mystery-writing craft and technique, this book will help you get there. Run right out and get this one. I can't recommend it highly enough. ~Lori L. Lake, Midwest Book Review
So you think you can write a genre novel? September 25, 2006
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
If you, reading this review, believe you have a mystery novel in you just waiting to be written but you're not quite sure how to start, go get this book. It will tell you what you need, how to start, how to get to the end, and how to finish. Then it will tell you what to do to revise your novel, who to get to read it before you market it, and how to start the process of getting an agent or an editor. If you believe you have a book in you, and you follow the directions, you WILL wind up with a finished product. The quality will reside in your skills as a writer, but the technical aspects will be taken care of.
WRITING AND SELLING not only tells you what to do, it tells you what NOT to do (which is probably just as important), and gives examples. Ephron has exercises in every chapter, specific suggestions for each phase of the writing process, and references for further research. She even gives technical advice on how to use tools already available to you, on your computer, in the revising and editing process.
WRITING AND SELLING is basically a workbook for a first-time writer. The tools and instructions would work, with minor modifications, for just about any genre fiction, and would probably do some good if used by some so-called "literary" authors.
Clear and Detailed Information for Learning and Applying to Your Writing Habits July 19, 2006
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
At the heart of every mystery novel lies a puzzle for the story's hero, and the reader, to solve. In the beginning the mystery seems to be about one thing, but in the end it turns out to be about something else.
To make it work, the writer develops a string of events and presents them in a series of twists and turns. The main story is tangled with sub plots and complicated by characters that may or may not have something to hide.
Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel takes you from planning a mystery novel to targeting potential markets and agents.
Beginning with the premise and continuing through to title selection, Part I provides a step-by-step guide to the process of planning a mystery novel. At the end of each Chapter the writer is instructed to add to the blueprint at the end of the section. The blueprint is the basic framework for a novel. By the end of the planning section the writer has a completed blueprint and is ready to write.
From the mystery novel's opening scene to its coda, Part II provides a guide to the writing process. It discusses crafting scenes, introducing characters, creating mystery and maintaining suspense. This is where the real work begins -- writing the first draft.
Part III suggests a range of techniques for polishing a novel. No one writes a publishable first draft. This section guides the reader through revision, pacing and characterization.
The final section gives tips on finding an agent and a publisher. Part IV shows how to prepare a query packet and send a manuscript out into the world. If the mystery is a good one it will find a home.
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