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Excellent advice throughout. Cuts through the BS.
Frank and often hilarious collection of mini-essays and blog posts. Recommended for anyone looking to break into writing for the long haul, but also an entertaining insight into the life of the freelance writer in America, from MFA workshops to the ethically questionable (but, apparently, perfectly legal) art of writing term papers for a buck. Not all of the advice transcends international borders - for advice to be effective, it needs to be specific I suppose - but there's plenty of stuff that'...
Excellent book on writing, I really loved the no-nonsense, snarky approach and the focus on genre fiction. He blows the cobwebs off of a lot of the conventional advice mantras and either convinces you they're ridiculous or reworks them to make them better. A fun and quick read with a lot of great information, highly recommended.
While the advice in this book is not meant for everyone (Nick specializes in non-fiction over fiction) and some articles are a bit outdated, as the market keeps changing, I did find good advice inside, especially about the nitty-gritty details on how to deal with editors, submissions and so on. So, while you might want to read this book with a grain of salt, do read it.
A collection of essays from writer and editor, Nick Mamatas provides an excellent read for any interested writer. Some information feels aready dated, particularly where he quotes figures from the early 2000s and where he talks about payment for short stories when their value has pretty much collapsed in the genre world unless you are prepared to compete against the millions of other writers submitting for the same few outlets (which can be sole destroying). He provides practical advice on how t...
Not a bad collection of writing essays. SOme of them were smart and instructive. A few smug, but that seems to be a pattern in writing books. The smugness was not as dire as in others so pretty good. The essays in the appendix were the best in my opinion: the issues of MFA programs and working for a term paper mill.
I've read a lot of books about writing. I don't really read the "writer's advice" books anymore, because I don't need help with grammar and punctuation and I don't need to be told why it's bad to start your story with your protagonist waking up from a dream and examining herself in the mirror. But I like reading books by writers about writing. Of course I loved Stephen King's On Writing, and I also liked John Gardner's On Becoming a Novelist, even though if I ever do become a novelist, I'll be n...
Straight-talking (even brusque) advice on getting paying gigs as a writer, disdaining high-minded notions of Muse-borne artistic integrity in favour of writing to briefs, paying attention to what editors want and not dying of consumption in a garrett somewhere. Some of the observations concerning ebooks and self-publishing are a little dated - I'd love to see what Nick Mamatas has made of the self-publishing revolution since 2010 or so - and I would personally draw the line at making a living fr...
Starve Better by Nick Mamatas is a how-to-book for writers wishing to live solely off their words. Now I’ve wasted many hours reading books on how to write-the technical side and the business side and Mamatas is one of the more beneficial guides.Many of the essays inside cover fiction and explore the mechanics of writing such as revision and story structure. The non-fiction side explains how make money off your words but the truth may not be what you expect. Also, he touches the subject of self-...
Imma be honest here. Nick Mamatas came across like kind of a dick. I understand that this was not meant to be a hand-holding book, nor a misty-eyed celebration of Art and Life and The Mysteries of Creativity, but... he still came across like a dick.Admittedly, while I have a lot of interest in writing, I have absolutely no interest in the short story or magazine market, so I'm probably not the target audience to begin with. Nick Mamatas is certainly not to blame for my own weird ambivalence abou...
As a writer, I like to read at least a book a year by other writers, writing about writing. A bit circular, but there you go. I find it gives me a bit of perspective on my own approach to listen to others discussing theirs. Consider it the equivalent of water cooler chat at the workplace. Books like this are all a matter of perspective, in a literal sense. They're one person's point of view, usually a tract on 'what works for them'. They're not to be taken as gospel, and the key to a good tome i...
Kameron Hurley gave me this book last year, so thank you, Kameron! This book is a fabulous introduction to the real world of publishing. Because Mamatas is so prolific with short stories, he gives them the most time here, but he has plenty to say about other forms as well. If you want to write well, there are plenty of books out there to help you do that (Lamott, King, Zinsser, and of course Strunk and White come to mind). If you want to publish what you write, start here.
Funny, honest, incredibly useful advice. If you're a writer, especially a fledgling one, you need to read this immediately.
I liked a lot of what this book had to say. I do happen to the market reader for it, a freelance writer who writes short fiction and nonfiction articles. It was a quick read with some real, practical advice for how to write and submit. That being said, there were some things that I did not like. Some of what was said in the book is dates now, mostly in the freelancing section. Still, I found a lot of wisdom in the book and although for me, it was a lot of stuff I already knew, it was nice kick i...
review to come, but this is a definite must-buy for anybody who wants to write.
This is a great book for writers, especially genre short-story writers. Mamatas has been in the field for a long time, both as a writer and an editor. In Starve Better he gives advice on writing well and on how to earn money writing.
Nick Mamatas, do a sequel. You've managed to leave us wanting. You've been through another decade of writing, editing, publishing, milling. Your Twitter advice is killer. Don't just stitch them up next time. Grow the thing to memoir proportions. Give us your On Writing. Please!
Great essays on (making a ) living as a writer, and written in a funny, accessible style. I particularly liked the essays on freelancing in the various dark corners of the writing world (third tier publications, term paper Mills, etc...)
"If you know nothing, get to a damn library." Ah, sweet sweet words.
The best part of this book is the title, 'Starve Better.' It's brilliant.The subtitle is: Surviving the Endless Horror of the Writing Life, which succinctly tells you what it's all about.Any writer, or would be writer, has read a couple of hundred books like this. This is a run-of-the-mill book of this genre, neither startling good nor startling bed, just generally a good read and a lot of good advice.