etc.

First Have Something to Say: Writing for the Library Profession, Walt Crawford
Published June 2003

First off, me liking this book has nothing to do with my name showing up in the index. Really it doesn’t.

I can’t think of a better person to write a how-to-write book. Walt Crawford has to be one of the most prolific people in the library-world; he also has to be one of the only people who can be engaging and thought-provoking for more than 20-pages a month. So it was with great anticipation that I ordered a copy of his book and cracked the spine last week. One word of advice: if you’re thinking about doing any library-writing, you’ll want to own a copy of this book. Those of you who read these pages with any regularity know that it’s a rare book I would recommend for purchase over a library loan, so act accordingly. Walt’s slim volume is chockful of valuable words of advice, some of which made me regret not having read it before getting into publication myself (mostly the bits about rights to your work, I realise now how naive I was about ownership over my own words and ideas). One of the main reasons why I enjoyed this book is also one of the main reasons why I enjoy most of Walt’s work and that is his ability to strike the perfect balance between palpable enthusiasm (“everyone can write”) and candid realism (“not everyone should write”). And that’s my clumsy paraphrasing, not Walt’s.