Parisian Phoenix Publishing

• Ventrella, Michael A. Learn from My Mistakes: Writing Advice from someone who now knows better.
  
  Michael is a lawyer by day and a writer by night, but unlike many hobby writers he takes his work very seriously and has learned to perfect his craft across decades of working with editors and publishers.While this review has what may sound like harsh criticism, Learn From My Mistakes has some of the best writing advice I have seen in a long time. First, let me get my criticisms out of the way:
  1. The book is called Learn from My Mistakes but does not offer an essay/chapter listing Mike’s mistakes. Minor, I know, but it left me disappointed.
  2. The essays in the book average three pages long. They are based on blog entries that make the book pithy and quick to read but leave me wishing some of the essays were more developed— think assigned reading for a college course versus a social media post.
  3. The interior book design is awful. The book is 5 by 8, and I think that is in part to make the short essays appear longer. BUT somewhere along the line, someone made the decision to treat the quotes Mike collected from other authors he knows as boxed-out sidebar blocks and not integrate them into the text.This means most of the book is two columns, which in itself makes it hard to read because it’s a narrow set of columns, but then we also have these bordered boxes with sans serif text inside that don’t have ample space set into the word wrap… And some of the columns tombstone terribly. It’s a lot of conflicting design in a small space which challenges the eye.

Lord knows authors don’t get much say over design, so let’s turn to some of my favorite chapters: “The Secret of Success,” “You are not in Competition with other Writers,” “Joining the 1%,” “What kind of ‘Person’ are you?,” and “Basic Reasons Why Your Story May Get Rejected.” Even in these titles, you can see Mike’s attempts to blend humor and good advice. This is a great resource for those writers who need a quick primer to explain some basics of the industry and trade.