Telling Lies for Fun & Profit: **Signed**

Block, Lawrence

ISBN 10: 0877953341 / ISBN 13: 9780877953340

Published by Arbor House Pub Co, New York, New York, U.S.A., 1981

About this Item

A Very Nice Copy - SIGNED by the AUTHOR on the Title page. Author's Signature only. First edition, First printing, with the corresponding number line. Book is in Very Good condition. Boards are clean, not bumped. Fore edges have a small amount of shelf wear and foxing. Interior is clean and legible. Not remaindered. Dust Jacket is in Near Fine condition. Not chipped or crinkled. Not price clipped. Dust Jacket is covered by Mylar wrapper. Thanks and Enjoy.

Seller Inventory # 005102

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Telling Lies for Fun & Profit: **Signed**
• Publisher: Arbor House Pub Co, New York, New York, U.S.A.
• Publication Date: 1981
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0877953341
• ISBN 13: 9780877953340
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Book Type: Book
• Seller catalogs:
  • Signed Hard Cover Editions
  • Non-Fiction

About this title

Synopsis

Offers practical advice on assessing the market for works of fiction, handling rejections, and practicing self-discipline as well as providing other useful hints for the aspiring writer

Review

It's a good thing Lawrence Block is so friendly and generous with his writing advice. Otherwise, you'd just have to hate the guy. After all, it took him a mere two weeks to write his first novel. He was still a teenager at the time, and he promptly sold it to Fawcett, the first publisher to see it. What can a guy like that tell the rest of us about fiction writing that could possibly apply to our lives? Lots, actually. Telling Lies for Fun & Profit comprises four years' worth of Block's monthly fiction-writing column from Writer's Digest magazine. In it, Block turns his witty, welcoming prose to many aspects of the writing life, including collaboration, which Block maintains he does "largely as a means of avoiding work"; speed writing (surprise: "Sometimes a book or story will be better for having been written more rapidly"); the benefits of using strong verbs; and the importance of good character names.

As one might expect from a man who seems to have such a facile way with the typewriter, Block can make writing seem a lot easier than it does in real life. "If you write one page a day," he says, "you will produce a substantial novel in a year.... Don't you figure you could produce one measly little page, even on a bad day? Even on a rotten day?"

Still, just because he's published about, oh, 50 books, don't think Block considers novel writing to be all fun and profit. "Those of us who are driven to produce great quantities of manuscript don't necessarily get any real pleasure out of the act," he says. "It's just that we feel worse when we don't write." --Jane Steinberg