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Romance

Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published
by Julie Beard
We sincerely wish this series had a less-insulting title, but we also note that several of the writing guides are simply the best overall books for beginning writers (and often others) in specific fields. Beard's book covers subgenres in detail, discusses current trends and how to spot future ones, defines the lingo, explains the biz and offers some insider tidbits as well.

Writing Romances : A Handbook by the Romance Writers of America
Rita Gallagher (Editor)
Twenty-five instructive essays by members of the Romance Writers of America that each emphasize a particular and important area of writing or publishing romance fiction. Divided into four sections, the business of romance is discussed in the first section, including thorough treatments of subjects such as agents, handling publicity, networking, and "the life and times of a manuscript." The following two sections examine the processes of researching and writing a novel while the final section focuses on writing specific types of romances. All 25 topics are handled by experts in the field including bestselling authors such as Jude Deveraux, Diana Gabaldon, and Janet Dailey.

How to Write Romances
Phyllis Taylor Pianka
(When we updated this section, we found several good titles had gone out of print. We found only one new title, by Julie Beard, we felt should be added. We also discovered Amazon was advising a one-to-two day wait for this title. That's usually a warning that it may not be around for much longer, but we've included it anyway because it is still on of the very best.) By a noted romance author (and Writers on the Net instructor), this nuts-and-bolts introduction to the craft of romance writing provides checklists and charts for character, dialogue, and plot; how-to help on writing synopses and doing research; quotes from writers and editors; writing exercises; and a list of 53 reasons why a manuscript might be rejected. While cautioningthe incipient romance writer that one is unlikely to write good romances if one does not enjoy reading them, she presents an enlightening guide for those who do.

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