THE AUTHOR’S CHECKLIST by Elizabeth K. Kracht is a helpful book full of tips from a publishing professional. Full of things to consider as a writer prepare’s their manuscript for submission to an agent or a critique group, this book will be the safety check all writers need to review their document. I thought it was very helpful. Thank you to NetGalley for the complimentary copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

A must read for anyone who dreams of writing anything. Insightful and informative, this book definitely encourages the reader to sit down and get to work!

This book has come in handy at a time when I'm planning to write another book for querying. I'm a huge fan of craft books and The Author's Checklist rates well on my list of writing craft books. I appreciate well-organized books where I can find the answers I'm seeking at an instant. And as a visual person that loves a to-do list, I most appreciated the checklists included after the chapter. I found myself bookmarking lots of them.

Thank you to Netgalley, The publisher, and the author for the opportunity to read and honestly review in exchange for this book.

This was a great book. It was full of great writing tips.

I highly recommend if you are anywhere in the process of writing a book.

(3.5 out of 5.0) Over the years, I have picked up several books here and there meant to guide writers in perfecting their craft and/or getting published. When I came upon this title on NetGalley, I realized just how much time had passed since I’d read The Elements of Style (by William Strunk Jr.) , so it seemed I was overdue for a new lesson.

The Author’s Checklist is organized almost in a random way, it seems. The “chapters” are specific topics, such as “Plot” or “Audience,” which works well enough; however, there is no path, at least nothing that struck me as obvious. It would seem better to have outlined these chapters in a more guided way, leading a writer from beginning (outlining, ideas) to end (sending out queries and how to find an agent/publisher). But, to be fair, the subtitle here is An Agent’s Guide to Developing and Editing Your Manuscript, not An Agent’s Guide to Writing Your Book and Getting It Signed. With that mind, the chapters do cover a variety of helpful topics, making tried and true points worth bearing in mind. For example, Kracht makes reminders (in multiple ways) to look for balance, whether it be in how often to use flashbacks, dream sequences, or even grammatical marks (including my favorite, the em dash).

There’s a long list of sections to explore here, but the issue really comes in the actual exploration. I’d say the majority of the topics tackled here are only lightly touched, often without example. Many of these chapters are only a page long, which leaves a lot to be desired. Throughout reading The Author’s Checklist, I felt a little cheated that examples weren’t being readily provided along the way. It seemed to me that this book would have been made invaluable had it backed itself up throughout, rather than just in a couple spots. It became a bit frustrating, to be honest.

Complaints aside, this guide still offers a lot of good points (however brief). In fact, I am using several chapters from it in editing some new manuscripts at this time, so doesn’t that mark it as a success? There’s help to be found here.

**
Highlights: Covers many topics that will be useful in developing your manuscript

Shadows: For a guide that says “show, don’t tell” more than once, it does more telling than showing (i.e. it lacks examples)

For fans of : How-To guides, writing nonfiction and/or fiction

Takeaway: The Author’s Guide comes in a little underweight - leaving things to be desired along the way - but also breaches a variety of helpful topics for writers to keep in mind in developing their latest work.

Would I read this author again? Yes

Review by Aiden Merchant
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This is a great resource for anyone who is writing a book or seeking an agent to represent their work.

Ms. Kracht lists the requirements in alphabetical order and gives an overview if each topic. While The Author's Checklist is not an exhaustive resource, it gives you a starting point and a whole lot of ideas as to what needs to be done. I liked that The Author's Checklist included a checklist at the end of every chapter with probing questions an author can use to ensure they've done what needs to be done.

She also includes sample query letters and synopses for both fiction and nonfiction.

I received an advanced reader's copy from the publishers through NetGalley; a positive review was not required.

Written by a professional authors’ agent, this is an extremely useful guidebook for anyone considering pursuing trad publishing. If you’ve been querying agents and publishers and got nowhere - or worse, got only offers from vanity pubs - and are beginning to despair, you could do a lot worse than sit down with this book and work through Kracht’s recommendations.

I have to admit I’m not entirely sold on the alphabetical arrangement of the book. I think it’s been chosen because Kracht takes a holistic approach - the whole thing has to be right, so it doesn’t really matter what order you do things - but I think it could be arranged in a more linear and logical way. In particular, I think the advice pertaining to fiction and non-fiction needed to be separated out and grouped together better, because the alphabetical arrangement muddled it all up.

There is some superb advice here that’s not all about the actual writing - things like the necessity of therapy while writing difficult memoirs - and many more excellent nuggets of wisdom under the various topics. Kracht is a professional of many years experience who knows what makes a great read and, more importantly here, what will make publishers sit up and reach for their checkbooks. While there is no One True Formula for success, what there are is a bunch of largely unwritten rules you have to follow, or you’ve got no hope of landing an agent or a trad pub deal. Kracht has put in the effort to set out those rules here for you. Follow them and you’ll massively boost your chances.

Of course, if you don't want to follow the rules, you might well decide to pursue self-publishing, and you could do very well at it. In general, though, the principles of ‘write a story people want to read and make sure it’s well-edited’ are always going to stand you in good stead.

I would strongly recommend this to any author with their heart set on pursuing traditional publishing, who hasn’t managed to land an agent or a deal yet. Take the time to work through every section and you should find some steps you can take to improve your work or your pitch, and just maybe land that dream agent or deal.

Four stars, mainly because I don’t think the alphabetical arrangement was the best way to communicate the information, but it’s an extremely useful reference book.

Brilliant and rich, full of helpful advice and counsel. I recommend this book for both fiction and nonfiction writers. I wish this book was published ten years ago. Highly excellent for diverse audiences and purposes.

A book that is written from the perspective of an editor on writing a good manuscript.
This book has its positive sides as it is very insightful. especially for people like myself who are aspiring authors. Moreover, the writing was easy to follow and not dull at all.
However, I was annoyed at the unreasonable amount of times she redirects you to the other previous chapters or to those that are to follow.
Also I find the arrangement of the chapters very irregular. She chose to arrange them by the first letter of the word in an alphabetical order. So you move from Symbolism to Title and back to Themes.
I believe it would be much better for the reading if they were arranged in different parts.

I've only been through a portion of Author's Checklist and I've already learned a lot. I like writing, but I know nothing about the publishing process. Author's Checklist told me right away that I wouldn't be ready to send my work to an agent without a checklist. It also has some solid writing advice, such as making sure each chapter contributes to the story in a meaningful way. I do agree with others that alphabetical categorization of subjects is strange and perhaps not the most useful.

I liked that this was short and to the point. I'm not really sure what I was expecting so I can't say that I was disappointed but also the order of the lists didn't feel very logical but writing is a creative process so who knows?

I absolutely loved this book!!

Being a writer myself, there were some things that I had never taken note of before and the guide is written in an easy way for the reader/writer to understand. It is a thorough guide, explaining all the things an aspiring author should take note of, and the alphabetical list with check boxes of each thing that you should complete is super cool and really useful. This is definitely a guide I will hold close to my heart, since it has inspired me to look for mistakes and things to improve upon in my current project i'm working on.
This book is a great choice for all the aspiring writers who have begun their writing journey and seek to be published. there's helpful advice for every type of writer.

Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for this book!

Authors who read about writing never read just one book. So by the time they get to Kracht's checklist they probably will have gone through many other writing advice books before. Filtering all the useful information from those books to have a handy guideline is the tricky part. That's where this book comes in. It covers all stages of writing, from the actual process to revisions and editing to publishing. Which is why I do not understand why the lists were put in alphabetical order instead of grouping them together alongside the writing process.
As a first introduction to writing and publishing this is not a good start. but this should provide writers with exactly the checklists they had to collect from several previously read books before.

ARC from NetGalley

I thought this was a very succinct guide without being too dry. It's in alphabetical order, and some of the sections link between others in the ebook, which I found handy. It definitely gives you points to ponder. I like the checklists. This might not be helpful for someone who has already researched this kind of thing to death, but it would be very helpful for someone just starting out.

AUTHOR

Elizabeth K. Kracht, is the writer of The Author’s Checklist. She is currently a literary agent with Kimberly Cameron & Associates and she is a freelance editor. You can read more about her here.

SYNOPSIS

The Author’s Checklist is Elizabeth’s Kracht’s debut publication. It is a monograph on the subject of improving your success when approaching an agent with your precious draft. The purpose is to help you increase the likely-hood of your work being accepted by avoiding the most common pitfalls.

The Author’s Checklist is meant to be utilized as a reference for aspiring writers wishing to become published authors through the traditional publishing route.

The book’s format is purposefully set out in an alphabetic manner in order to allow users to skip through to the most important sections for the end-user. I found it to be eminently practical as a reference and I am confident that a new or unpublished author would find it an intensive course of what not to do. The sections have a checklist with practical suggestions to enhance your writing. The Conclusion and associated Appendix A and B contain: Query Letter and Synopsis Examples.

The fact that Kracht has a long history of experience both as a literary agent and a freelance editor instills confidence in her valuable opinions. It is a handy and helpful guide for all those looking for professional advice on the many aspects of getting published.

CONCLUSION

The Author’s Checklist is clear, concise and would be a valuable addition to any prospective author’s library. It sensibly delivered, and has practical guidance for novice author’s taking their first steps into the world of traditional publishing.

I would have liked greater elaboration in some sections, but the limited length may have influenced the verbosity of the finished work.

I received an advance reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

As a writer myself, I am well aware of the difficulty of writing and then preparing a novel for submission to literary agents. Just when you think you have a grasp on what needs to be done, you come across some new tip or bit of advice that reminds you of what a daunting task this is.

The Author’s Checklist, written by literary agent Elizabeth Kracht, attempts to make the author’s job easy by providing a listing of and explanations for many of the common issues that writers need to consider when preparing their work for submission.


While there were sections of the book that were specific to non-fiction books and memoirs, I found several areas that should prove helpful in getting my next novel in shape for literary agent consideration. Those areas specifically included: Chapter arcs, Chapter length, Characterization, Pacing, Rejection, Symbolism, and Voice.

I gave The Author’s Checklist five stars on Goodreads. While a few of the topics tapped into some of my insecurities about my own writing and ability to earn an offer of literary representation, I found many more positives than negatives while reading this book. I’m certain I’ll be referring back to it many times as I continue my writing career.

This book was designed to provide a logical, step-by-step progression of tasks for a wide variety of writers. This book takes the often confusing labyrinthine process of writing & publishing and condensed it down into a manageable framework of 3 to 4 action oriented steps. While by no means fool proof, the checklist does provide a meaningful action oriented plan for struggling writers.
The book is organized in such a way that out of order reading is not only acceptable, but encouraged. Topics are varied and cross between fiction, non-fiction, and business tasks for authors.
Since the range of topics is wider than most individuals need, the book is bound to contain information beyond a particular writer’s interest. However, overall this is a useful addition to a professional library especially if you have difficulty breaking larger tasks into smaller action items.

This is such a helpful book, I hardly know where to begin.

Sometimes when I read, I take notes, and I can honestly say that I took a butt-ton of notes as I moved through this book! There is so much knowledge here, and I was frequently struck by how useful this book would be even for the average fan-fic writer. This is an accessible, easy to read book that doesn't talk down to the reader and that gives off an aura of wanting to be helpful. And it succeeds very well. You don't have to read it from front to back, you can skip around to whatever section you need help with whether that's characterization or chapter-length or whatever.

Everyone who want to do something with their writing (beyond leaving it in a drawer) should have this book, read it carefully and make notes. Then refer to it often. It's a valuable resource that should not be ignored.

Good Information, Not Wild About the Set-Up

As an author and freelance editor who often advises other writers, I am always drawn to books about writing when I see them at a favorite book review site. I was particularly intrigued by this book because it is written by an agent. I work with self-published authors and am self-published myself, so I was interested to see a take on writing by someone who is a part of the more traditional way of publishing. Seeing all the fussiness and demands of traditional publishing depicted in this book makes me happy that I'm self-published! Many of the basic writing tips and the typical author follies that she sees align with my understanding and experience. I have to say, though, that I just didn't like the A-to-Z setup of the book. It felt odd jumping around between unconnected topics. I think the reader would have been better served if this were set up so that the various topics were divided by broad categories, like writing your book or preparing your book for an agent or publisher. So while I enjoyed the information in the book, it was a hard one to just sit down and read because I don't like jumping from one unrelated topic to another constantly—and having to flip back to the table of contents every few minutes is annoying. If you don't mind that or if you like a glimpse into traditional publishing or are looking for another book on writing tips, you may very well find this book helpful.

This book is packed with tips to help writers avoid common and not so common mistakes that will improve their writing and chances of getting published. The tips are given in short to the point summaries with examples where needed and checklists after each section. The voice is down to earth and makes the advice easy to understand and implement. It covers a really wonderful range from things that are writing centered to things that are presentation centered- which often isn't covered in writing manuals. There are parts geared toward nonfiction as well as well fiction, making this a must have for all writers.