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Description
Self-Editing: How to Get Your Manuscript Out of the Drawer and Onto the ShelvesABOUT THE WEBINAR All published authors can tell you that their first draft looks nothing like the finished book they sign at bookstores. How do they edit their material to take their work to a professional level? How do they edit themselves before they can get an agent or an editor to say yes? What are editors looking for today in terms of a polished manuscript? Is grammar all that important, or should the story speak for itself? How many revisions
ABOUT THE WEBINAR
All published authors can tell you that their first draft looks nothing like the finished book they sign at bookstores. How do they edit their material to take their work to a professional level? How do they edit themselves before they can get an agent or an editor to say yes? What are editors looking for today in terms of a polished manuscript? Is grammar all that important, or should the story speak for itself? How many revisions should a manuscript go through before it's considered “ready"? What are some principles on cutting down your word count and streamlining your story?
In this webinar, literary agent Michelle Brower answers these questions and more,shedding light on how she edits her clients' material, what authors do before they get a book contract, and providing commentary on how the self-editing process makes all the difference in today's publishing landscape.
WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:
- How to developmentally edit for concept, structure, characters, and more
- How to line edit for elegant, powerful sentences
- Tips and tricks from authors who have successfully navigated the submission process
- How to edit so that your book is most likely to appeal to today's agents and editors
- How to find and incorporate feedback from the right readers
INSTRUCTOR
Michelle Brower began her career in publishing in 2004 while studying for her Master's degree in English Literature at New York University, and has been hooked ever since. During that time, she assisted the agents Wendy Sherman and Joelle Delbourgo, and found herself in love with the process of discovering new writers and helping existing writers further their careers. After graduating, she became an agent with Wendy Sherman Associates, and there began representing books in many different areas of fiction and nonfiction. In 2009, she joined Folio Literary Management (foliolit.com). She enjoys digging into a manuscript and working with authors to make their project as saleable as it can be, and her list includes the authors S.G. Browne, Rebecca Rasmussen, Jason Mott, and Michele Young-Stone, among many others.
WHO SHOULD LISTEN?
- Writers currently composing a novel
- Writers in the brainstorming phase of a novel
- Writers who have been rejected by agents and editors, and want to evaluate why their novel didn't make the cut
- Writers who want a professional critique by a literary agent
- Writers who have only self-published, but now are considering traditional publishing
- Anyone with non-novel publishing credits considering making the jump to fiction writing
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4.0 ★★★★★
Based on 15 reviews
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Product Reviews
★★★★★ 5
Work well
They’re a little smaller than I thought but you can fit a dove bar in them. They work well.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2022
★★★★★ 5
Stellar information!
Format: Paperback
I bought this book to help with gathering information for a long research paper I was writing for university but I loved this book! From the cultural anthropological history to the braided neuroscience and historical analysis in between, this has become one of my recent favorites. I've even asked for other books written by this author on my Christmas list. Very fascinating read!
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Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2025
★★★★★ 5
Leveling the playing field
Format: Hardcover
It is a not so tightly held secret that the Republicans know how to manipulate emotions for political advantage; with this book Drew Westen levels the playing field by not only providing insight into how emotions are evoked and taken advantage of politically, but also provides evidence-driven suggestions for the Democratic party to follow. The question, of course, is will the Democrats change their electoral strategies taking Dr. Westen's suggestions to heart, or will they follow the failed tactics of the Gore and Kerry campaigns, which relied on consultants following a rational-choice model of politics that prefers watered down political positions and milquetoast candidates in hopes of taking the "center".
While some may argue that this book is unethical by advocating the targeting of voters' emotions, instead of their "rational thought process", and thus is supportive of public manipulation, a very strong counter-argument might be made that putting this information in the public domain will help voters inoculate themselves against current Republican strategies which rely on scaring the public and arousing their anger against others using a range of techniques that border on the illegal. Specifically, the "RATS" subliminal advertisement used by the Bush 2000 campaign to attack Gore is, on close scrutiny, a very astute and professional advertisement that takes advantage of knowledge in the academic sphere that humans process information outside of conscious awareness. Specifically, a 1986 article in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology by Fazio et al. provided evidence that not only did the term "RATS" have a negative effect on peoples' evaluation of items presented afterwards, but that further, the term "Reagan" had a weak positive effect. Likewise, both Westen and colleagues and Stewart and Schubert(in Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, 2006), in separate studies, suggest that the term "RATS" is an effective subliminal.
Furthermore, the use of fear/anxiety by the current administration is well established, with studies showing a correlation between changes in the Homeland Security color-coded threat indicator and political tactics. While one might argue over the timing of the Iraq invasion, and whether it was carried out for short-term political expediency, or to address a perceived threat in the region, one cannot argue with the rally effect that bolstered President Bush's ratings to over 90% immediately after 9-11 and over 70% after the Iraq invasion. Knowing that humans respond in predictable ways when different emotions are evoked allows not just politicians, consultants, academics and wonks to understand human behavior, but also will give the average citizen greater awareness of how the emotions evoked affect their decisions and responses. In other words, a more intelligent population may come from a more emotionally astute population.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2007
★★★★★ 4
A compelling counternarrative
Format: Hardcover
"The Political Brain" by Drew Westen is an important contribution to the political science literature in general and an inspiration for Democratic Party supporters in particular. Mr. Westen's knowledge of psychology and the cognitive sciences provides insight into how the individual develops a political consciousness. Showing how the Republican Party has gained advantage by developing an emotionally fear-laden narrative designed to exploit the electorate's psychic sensibilities, Mr. Westen argues that Democrats can and must develop a compelling counternarrative that appeals to the American public's better angels in order to inspire their supporters and win consistently at the polls.
The first section discusses the mind, brain and emotion in politics. Mr. Westen draws upon the latest scientific research to explain how emotion is integral to the brain's cognitive function. Mr. Westen recites passages delivered by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Bill Clinton to illustrate how political messages are most effective when they tie issues to emotionally resonant themes and images. Importantly, Mr. Westen also deconstructs the neoliberal ideology of Ronald Reagan to help us better understand the importance of evolutionary psychology and crafting popular messages with curb appeal.
The second section provides a blueprint for executing emotionally compelling campaigns. Mr. Westen explores the multiple layers of voter intelligence to reveal how Republicans have successfully used subliminal messaging to activate the public's feelings of anxiety in order to get people to vote against their own material self-interests. The author stresses that when Democratics shy away from conflict, voters instinctively detect weakness; therefore he recommends that Democrats cede nothing and go after issues that many voters tend to perceive as Republican. To that end, Mr. Westen offers a series of principled narratives on contentious issues such as abortion, affirmative action, gay rights and gun control that he believes could easily help the Democrats gain majority support by activating the American voter's sense of fairness, freedom and equality of opportunity. While perhaps not fully convincing on all subjects, Mr. Westen amply demonstrates that a coherent and inspirational counternarrative is possible.
Unfortunately, this otherwise excellent book succumbs to a transparent attempt at self-promotion by forcing readers to go to the author's website to read the footnotes. Boo! Yet despite this minor deficiency, I highly recommend this timely and fascinating book to everyone.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2008
★★★★★ 5
Essential reading for Democratic campaign managers
Format: Kindle
For decades it has frustrated me that, while most of the country shares Democratic beliefs over Republican ones, Democrats keep losing elections. Why?
Because the very values Democrats hold dear...taking the higher road, trying to stay "above the fray", concentrating on issues over personalities...fail to speak to the emotional brain that makes most voters' electoral decisions. Whether it's the language they use while failing to understand its connotations, over-handling by committees that blunt the message, or simple refusal to debate some topics at all (abortion, gun control, race) thereby defaulting on them to the Republicans, Democrats systematically undermine their own campaigns.
Westen's book is must reading for every Democrat who wants to hold public office! Thus, the five stars.
On the other hand, Westen makes his point clearly and firmly in the first third of the book, and then beats us over the head with it, taking us point by point through campaigns, tweaking the information endlessly, and frankly, about halfway through I started skimming and eventually put it down. "I get it already!" I thought, and moved on.
Also, this is horribly produced ebook. It's obviously scanned from a printed copy and poorly proofread, it at all. When Westen talks about the perception of the word "gull" and how it affects elections, you have to read a bit to understand that it's the word "gun" he's talking about! Words bizarrely split, words run together, bizarre punctuation and misspelling due to OCR errors are rife on every single page.
Furthermore, the type looks like bad photocopying with the machine set on "light." Ugly, ugly, ugly. Yet the publisher (Hatchette) charges nearly as much for the ebook as for the print book, which I'm sure looks a lot better. It couldn't look any worse.
If I could, I'd rate it "five stars" for the content, downgrade it to "three stars" for being redundant, and finally give it "one star" for being so terribly produced.
That first third of the book, though, is so important for Democrats to understand (the Republicans already have a masterful grasp of it) that I went with the "five star" rating.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2011
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