"How To Write . . ." Books - answering some questions

According to Amazon, 25th March is the official publication date of the 3rd Edition of my first How To book - A Straightforward Guide to Writing Romantic Fiction. The new cover is much more attractive than the 2nd edition - and way better than the sickly pink first edition which had a clichéd pen and a rose on the cover too!

I've had several people wondering about this edition and whether they want to buy it so in the interests of accuracy, I thought I'd better clear things up.

Question 1. Is this edition of The Straightforward Guide different from the previous one?

Answer: On the Amazon page for this book, it says that this is the 3rd revised edition. This is not strictly true. If you have a copy of the 2nd revised edition, then the 3rd has not been revised from the second edition (except to do basic changes like returning the line Tender Romance to it's 'new' - and original title of Romance). So if you have the orange and black edition of this book, you do not need to buy the 3rd edition. Unless of course you want one that no longer tells you about the 'invisible heroes' who are listed under the topics on the back cover. These have now become the 'irresistible heroes' I actually wrote about and not the invisible ones the publisher made a mistake about in printing.

However - if you have a sickly pink first edition of the Straightforward Guide - then the third edition is very definitely revised and expanded from then.

The second question I'm getting is - Is the Straightforward Guide the same as the 12 Point Guide - do they reproduce the same material?

The answer is that they are not the same. The Straighforward Guide was the first guide I ever wrote - it was created for a publisher who had a series of short informative guides to all sorts of topics - Book-keeping, Consumer Rights, Speech Writing etc are all covered in the series. The BM was commissioned to write Guides to Creative Writing, Freelance Writing - and he later added Performance Poetry and he suggested I might like to add a guide to writing Romance. The first edition was very very basic - they really were only 'guides' - but by the second edition I added more material including a Q&A I had done on the eHarlequin site (The 5 W's - Who, Where, When, What and Why - of writing romance. A very basic and skeletal description of the 12 Point Plan for writing Romance, and an article on targetting your work) . This is the information that is in the 3rd edition now.

Kate Walker's 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance is a much expanded and very much more detailed book that has developed from that original 12 Point Guide chapter. It is not just a 'how to' guide but includes questions and working suggestion - things to think about and things to write to develop the skills discussed in the main chapters. It is partly a workbook as well as an information book.

The 12 Point Guide is also the book that has won the Cata Romance Reviewers' Choice Best Book for Writers 2004

Final question - is the 12 Point Guide available in the USA/Canada and Australia and if so where.

Answer - Officially the 12 Point Guide is available in America- it can be ordered through bookshops. Though from the number of letters I've had about it, it seems that most bookshops are saying they can't order it! Hmmmph.
So - a quick run down of information on where this book can be bought:
Australia:
From Dymocks (inc on line) and other bookshops and to order from Footprint Books

USA: Amazon.com B&N.com
It can also be ordered from bookshops via Trans-Atlantic publications

UK- both books can be ordered from good bookshops and are available at Amazon.co.uk

So I think that's the questions answered and the details on these books are up to date.

Oh - one final point.
The first edition of the 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance is rapidly running out and the publishers are looking into a second edition. It will be a very slightly different format - basically a smaller sized book - but the same material inside. They hope to get this edition into actual Barnes & Noble shops though B&N say there is no demand for UK authors. So if you'd like to help get this book more easily available for unpublished writers of romance (and not have to wait for Amazon shipping time - and pay their delivery costs ) why not ask for it in your local bookshop - tell them where they can order it from and create a demand?

PS I'm running some courses on the 12 Point Guide this year - one in Fishguard, Wales (details on my web site) and one in Leicester with the Arts Council Write Away courses - details to follow late. If you'd like any more information on either of these, then