An indispensable guide 
I don’t own all that many books on writing. And since culling almost 500 books from my personal library last year, I have even fewer than I did before. But the books that are on my shelf are pretty darned good. And very useful.
One of the most indispensable writing books that I have is The Freelance Writer’s Handbook by Dennis E. Hensley and Holly G. Miller. I bought it in 1987, and the book — all 130 or so pages of it — is still a reference that I regularly use. Not bad for a 21 year old book!
The book explains how to become more productive, more profitable, and how to catch the eye of the editor. The authors advise tapping uncommon markets (like trade publications and alumni magazines) and going against the prevailing trends. They also discuss how to prepare for and conduct interviews, the five steps to writing an article that sells, and how to write quickly and accurately. The latter is something that I took to heart, and it’s helped me on many occasions. I blogged about speed writing here. In fact, the speed writing formats that the blog entry links to are taken from The Freelance Writer’s Handbook.
As far as I know, The Freelance Writer’s Handbook is out of print. Which is too bad, because it’s a wonderfully concise and useful volume for both the freelancer who’s starting out and the more experienced writer. If you can find a copy, buy it and read it. It will definitely be worth your time.
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