The Literary Handyman

By Danielle Ackley-McPhail

Effective tips to improve your writing and take advantage of marketing tips and tools to launch your writing career in newer and better directions. Get more sales.

“Danielle Ackley-McPhail’s take on the craft of writing is intelligent, insightful, and often quite funny—as is the woman, herself. She tackles, with style and skill, everything from the mysteries of dialogue to the vagaries of the modern publishing world.”
—Ty Drago, Author, Editor, Publisher

Have a Dream of Being An Author?
Frustrated with Banging Your Head?Against the Publishing Wall?
(Let’s Face It...Why Else Would You Be Reading This?)
Don’t Worry. You Are By No Means Alone!

Success in publishing is equal parts skill, determination, knowledge, and pure dumb luck. If you have the drive, and you have the skill, but you’re missing that little bit of insight into the industry, this book might just be the edge you’re looking for.

(For the luck...you’re on your own.)

Crack the cover to learn more about effective dialogue, the difference between the major publishers and small press, self-promoting, naming characters, avoiding procrastination...and so many other demons that haunt the aspiring author.

The Literary Handyman also includes a series of writing exercises tailored toward helping you to apply the information gained in the book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dark Quest Books
• Release date: Mar 31, 2013
• ISBN: 9781497777613

Danielle Ackley-McPhail

Award-winning author, editor, and publisher Danielle Ackley-McPhail has worked both sides of the publishing industry for longer than she cares to admit. In 2014 she joined forces with Mike McPhail and Greg Schauer to form eSpec Books. Her published works include eight novels, Yesterday's Dreams, Tomorrow's Memories, Today's Promise, The Halfling's Court, The Redcaps' Queen, Daire's Devils, The Play of Light, and Baba Ali and the Clockwork Djinn, written with Day Al-Mohamed. She is also the author of the solo collections Eternal Wanderings, A Legacy of Stars, Consigned to the Sea, Flash in the Can, Transcendence, The Kindly Ones, Dawns a New Day, The Fox's Fire, Between Darkness and Light, Echoes of the Divine, and the non-fiction writers' guides The Literary Handyman, More Tips from the Handyman, and LH: Build-A-Book Workshop. She is the senior editor of the Bad-Ass Faeries anthology series, No Longer Dreams, Heroes of the Realm, Clockwork Chaos, Gaslight & Grimm, Grimm Machinations, A Cast of Crows, A Cry of Hounds, Other Aether, The Chaos Clock, Grease Monkeys, Side of Good/Side of Evil, After Punk, and Footprints in the Stars. Her short stories are included in numerous other anthologies and collections. She is a full member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association.In addition to her literary acclaim, she crafts and sells original costume horns under the moniker The Hornie Lady Custom Costume Horns, and homemade flavor-infused candied ginger under the brand of Ginger KICK! at literary conventions, on commission, and wholesale.Danielle lives in New Jersey with husband and fellow writer, Mike McPhail and four extremely spoiled cats.