Sure, there are lots of great books on writing out there. But for those who don't have time to read them all (and who does, really?) we've put together some information about a handful of our very favorite books on writing craft and process here at The Editorial Department and what's most useful, informative, or inspiring about them.

Renni Browne

Stein on Writing, by Sol Stein. More than any other writer I know, Sol Stein teaches the invaluable art of writing to satisfy the reader. He does it with wit and panache, so that the lessons go down easily and won't be forgotten.

R.J. Cavender 

On Writing, by Stephen King. I know what you’re thinking—"Of course the horror editor would chose that book." But, truly it’s a fantastic collection of thoughts and reflections upon a career and life-long love affair with the written word. The lessons in the book are often cautionary and come from a place of learned experience, and it pulls no punches. It’s not a book that will teach you how to write, it’s a book that will make you want to write. 

If I wrote a mystery—haven’t done it yet, but I might—it would be known in the trade as a “cozy.” The sleuth in a cozy won’t be an assistant coroner, an officer of the law, or a private eye. She—in a cozy it’s usually a she, though a male associate is permissible—will be a fairly ordinary person, if nosier than most, with a keen mind, active intuition, and ability to put two and two together. If her first sum happens to be three, she’ll stay the course till she makes it four. No worry if things in a cozy seem unusually coincidental, for life is full of coincidences. In a cozy, as in every other novel, plot and style and characterization matter—and especially the character at center stage.

I’d probably shape my own cozy around a book editor who rents a holiday cottage for two weeks in the English countryside, taking her widowed mother along. On their second day there, the editor (call her Amelia), venturing out to explore the neighborhood, stumbles over a corpse in an abandoned dovecote. And then the plot begins to thicken.

The cozy heroine is someone I understand, someone not unlike you or me. She could be a schoolteacher, a retired civil servant or airline attendant, but she won’t be an honest-to-God detective. She may hire a car so she and Mother can get about, but she won’t undertake a car chase, have a shootout, or search the national database for suspects. She won’t have sex during the novel either, not with Mother along. She may think about it, dream of it, get an email or mobile call from her stateside beau, but on this outing sex will not happen.

After exhibiting and presenting at last month’s Tucson Festival of Books, I’m reminded just how lucky I feel about being able to do what we do here at The Editorial Department. With an estimated 100,000 people in attendance over the weekend-long event came a steady stream of people of all ages stopping by our booth, many of whom wanted to know, among other things, how to become a book editor in the first place and what to expect from that career path, should they choose it.

One thing that's great about working at TED is the suggestions we get from our authors about books that have been helpful in their journey. Here's one from mystery writer Paula Cappa.

Yesterday I was poking around TED's Web site and found your list of suggested reading books for writers and saw many familiar titles. Everyone at TED is so up on everything in the writing/reading world, and you probably know of this book already, but I thought I put in a good word for "Reading Like a Writer" by Francine Prose for you to consider adding to that list.

by Kristi Jenkins

The other day, the Tucson office staff got into a discussion of books we loved as children. A lot of the standard classics were mentioned, and we all reminisced fondly over A Cricket in Times Square, but it got me thinking of the books I loved that others might not have experienced. Over the years, I have never met anyone who has read, or even heard of, one of my favorite authors - Clare Bell. Since one of my favorite childhood series has recently been re-issued by Firebird books, I thought it would be nice to take a trip down memory lane and hopefully introduce some new readers to this author.