It Takes a Certain Type to Be a Writer: Facts from the World of Writing and Publishing

by Erin Barrett, Jack Mingo

Erin Barrett and Jack Mingo are the Queen and King of trivia, relied upon by game shows including "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" and game manufacturers. Millions of people read their daily newspaper column and together they've written twenty books. The sixth book in the "Totally Riveting Utterly Entertaining (TRUE) Trivia Series" puts a magnifying lens on the wacky world of writers. "It Takes a Certain Type to Be a Writer" will tell you everything you could possibly want, or were afraid, to know about writers, publishing, and the writing life. Bite-sized facts are organized into chapters including "Everyone's a Critic," "Stranger than Fiction," "From Bad to Verse," "Kiddie Lit," "A Word's Worth," and many more. You'll learn things like: where Proust wrote (in bed with gloves on); what Voltaire drank (70 cups of coffee a day); and how James Cain prepared himself for yet another publisher's rejection. (The title The Postman Always Rings Twice had nothing to do with the plot of the best-selling novel. It was a private joke of author James Cain. His postman would ring his doorbell twice whenever the many-times-rejected manuscript came back from a publisher.)

Genres: Nonfiction

208 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 2003

About the author

Erin Barrett grew up in South East Asia and traveled extensively through her childhood years, instilling a lasting and deep curiosity about almost everything. This is reflected in the diversity of topics she has written about in her numerous book titles, dozens of articles, and her long-running nationally syndicated column, Random Kinds of Factness, which appeared in newspapers around the country for over seven years.

Her innate curiosity has produced a rather eclectic CV. Barrett is an editor, a certified Life Coach, an urban sustainability expert, a beekeeper and beer maker, a writing coach, a painter, photographer, singer, and fine wine specialist, with over a decade of work within the wine industry. She currently resides in Northern California with her partner and their 5 year old feline, Eleanor Rigby Soupstock.

Reviews

[Peyton Stafford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amusing anecdotes about writers.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice book to get some informations on campus writers

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining - yes.
Helpful - no.
After reading this, who would ever want to be a writer????

[C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting, fun read for writers:)

[Jadi · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's really interesting and funny and full of cool information but...

It's Robert Louis Stevenson, not Robert Lewis Stevenson.