on Jane Friedman site:

Open by Andre Agassi is one of my favorite books I’ve read in the past few years. Agassi’s tennis memoir details his long emotional road from training as a child under the strict guidance of his father to his hardest-won achievements as a world-renowned tennis icon. Readers of Open are likely to miss one subtle interesting detail about the making of the book. It’s a brief story, buried in the acknowledgments section, about a disagreement between Agassi and his ghostwriter, J.R. Moehringer.

Writing the memoir required multiple years of close collaboration between Agassi and Moehringer. As the book neared publication, Agassi wanted Moehringer to receive public credit for all his hard work. Agassi insisted that both their names should appear on the cover.

Moehringer pushed back. He believed Agassi’s name alone should be on the front cover: it was Agassi’s story, after all. All you have…

on Helping Writers become Authors:

One of the most significant challenges for writers is crafting a beginning chapter that immediately grabs readers. Most commonly, writers are advised to accomplish this via two different methods: the hook and the technique of beginning in medias res, or “in the middle of things.” But are these really two different techniques? And if not, how exactly do they work, either in tandem or separately?

Most readers have limited time and are notinterested in reading just anything. These days, many readers make their purchasing decisions based as much on first chapter previews as on book descriptions. This means your first chapter needs to convince potential readers of two things:

1. This is exactly the type of story they’re personally looking for.

2. Your writing is solid enough to promise a good tale throughout.

Continue reading HERE

Here’s more about the mistakes I made so you don’t have to. If I had worked harder on these things instead of doggedly piling up wordcount without having a clue what I was doing, I’d have saved myself a lot of time and heartbreak on my road to publication.

Continue reading HERE

on Writer Beware:

A few weeks ago, the Bent Agency notified me that an email was doing the rounds falsely claiming to be from Jenny Bent.

Continue reading HERE