Title: High Heeled Traders: Understand Trading with Shopping, Fashion, and Shoes!
Author: Charmel Delos Santos
I. Introduction
This manuscript is a strong draft of an interesting, niche-focused, how-to book. The author has done a good job setting the tone, pacing, and context of this work and the book feels ready to move to the next level of rewrite and development. The comments that follow in the Manuscript Critique section specifically address the structural, organizational, and maybe other content issues the author ought to consider as she moves forward with any rewrite effort.
From a marketing, or target audience perspective, this book should be attractive to a niche market of readers who enjoy personal finance and self-improvement.
Title:
The title of the book is thematically relevant and gives the reader a clear idea about the content, without giving away too much. This is exactly what a title should do: entice the reader, inform them about the topic, and give them a reason to open the book to read. This will be an attractive and effective title.
II. Manuscript Critique
The following comments address high-level structural, organizational, and other content issues that should be considered in any further development or rewriting. These comments relate to readability, content, marketing, and basic structural concerns that weaken the manuscript, as well as strengths and positive assets that can be leveraged for publication success.
Structure Elements:
Premise/Tone:
The premise of this book is straightforward and clear: an integrated guidebook for women interested in the empowerment that comes from investing and trading. At the premise level, this is generic and popular subject for a self-help book. There are many “women’s guides” to investing on the market. The reality of the nonfiction-how-to market is that unless the author is a celebrity, infamous, or notorious in some way the general audience will likely have little interest in the material. This is not because a story not a good book or well written, it’s just that sizzle sells.
There are literally hundreds of books about finance, trading, and personal success jamming bookshelves. So, readers are going to wonder as they read the cover, “What distinguishes this book from all the other ‘newbie trading” books out there?” One of the things that separate this book from the pack is the cheeky attitude. The clever title and the matter-of-fact writing help this otherwise generic premise to stand out nicely. Again, saying this is generic is not a statement on the value or significance of the writing; it is merely a statement about the realities of the marketplace. This is important for the author to appreciate, as this is a book for sale that will be competing with other books in the same category and genre.
I Got A Secret - photo by Andi Makkawaru
Structure/Pace:
Structurally, the author has done a great job organizing, presenting, and executing this draft. There is very little to say about the content itself; it is what it is, meaning that the author demonstrates her expertise, has a specific process for knowledge transfer, and builds on that process to give the reader an action plan for success. There is only one immediate issue facing this work that needs to be addressed, content flow.
Normally, this would also involve pacing, but not in this case. Pacing refers to the speed of the read and how effectively the text pulls readers into the matter of the book without jolting them with fits and starts, or boring them with long, drawn exposition. Next to a weak premise, bad pacing is one of the top-five killers of most books. The pacing for this work is good, overall.
For this book, the issue is not pace, but flow. Right now the flow is uniform, but there’s no room to breath. Where does a reader take a break? Where is the material broken up for a full stop so the reader can take a moment and integrate the information? People don’t think about it, but chapters provide resting stops for the reader, besides strategically pacing the dissemination of information for dramatic impact.
Organization:
When the book is ready for publication the author might consider adding traditional front matter elements. Front matter, or preliminaries, is the first third section of a book, and is usually the smallest section in terms of the number of pages. The fact is, all of these elements are optional, but readers have come to expect certain parts of a book to be present, and best practices in the publishing industry have established these as highly desirable components to be added to any novel.
(Proceeds to discuss the items needed for the book)
An author’s introduction is the section where the author talks about the book itself, its significance, its impact, and its place in the grand scheme. The author does not write about the process of writing the book, but comments on the meaning and significance of the work, overall. The present introduction will suffice.
The appendices are perfect for this book.
III. Conclusion
This book is a solid resource for folks looking to explore finance and personal empowerment though investing. The book could benefit from some reorganization, content flow redesign, and attention to front and back matter, but otherwise this is a solid and well-throughout book that the target audience will appreciate. If the author can address the issues, as mentioned above, then she will be well along the path to final publication. Well done.
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Well-put together!
Japanese lunch - photo by Yumiko Takatsuki
