Foreward: A Writer's First Aid Kit

by A.J. Langguth

Beware.

You have in your hands a subversive book.

Not only does Donald Rutberg reveal to you the nastier secrets about writing and publishing, he tells you what most of us writers don't even want to admit. By the time you have finished the Rutberg First Aid Kit, you will have no illusions, misconceptions or impractical dreams about the life of a writer.

But you will be prepared to cope with an impenetrable and infuriating business and emerge successful.

Along the way, you will laugh a lot, usually at the author's expense. Rather than disguise his near-misses and outright failures, Rutberg treats them as badges of honor. You will seldom find such candor delivered so hilariously.

He has persevered, though, despite the mendacity and willful lack of vision around him. He will share many of the lessons he has mastered, but I can point to a fundamental one: Persistence.

Week in, week out, bubbling with fresh ideas and the talent to bring them to life, Rutberg kept working. He had faith that those projects that couldn't find a home when they left his typewriter would be adopted one day, when publishing and the television industry caught up with him.

And so it has proved.

Now it's time to turn the page and enter Don Rutberg's world—meeting former agents, loving family, ex-girlfriends and, above all, an antic imagination that will consistently amuse and inspire you.