4.8 stars

Books for Authors: Writing Craft and Guides

Benjamin LohrerReviewed by Benjamin Lohrer, editor at corrected.eu · Last updated: 2 October 2026

Books for authors: writing, revising, publishing

Reading time approx. 6 min. · last updated: 2 October 2026 · Books

This category brings together books for authors on writing craft, revision and the route to publication, with sourced publisher statements and bibliographic data for the titles listed.

  • Zur Sache, Experten!Daniela Pucher, 2019, SpringerAimed at subject experts, consultants and coaches who want to write a non-fiction or specialist book and market it themselves.
  • Vom Vortrag zum SachbuchNatascha Miljković, 2019, Springer GablerSuited to experts and lecturers who want to turn their knowledge and talks into a non-fiction book.
  • Das Leben und das SchreibenStephen King, 2011, HeyneRecommended for aspiring novelists who want to learn from the experience of a successful practitioner.
  • Wort für WortElizabeth George, 2022, GoldmannFor hobby and aspiring authors who want to learn the craft of the novel from an experienced crime writer.
  • Über das SchreibenSol Stein, 2015, AutorenhausFor authors who want to revise a manuscript and improve characters and structure.
  • Schreiben in CafésNatalie Goldberg, 2009, AutorenhausFor anyone starting to write, or looking to overcome writer's block and build a writing practice.
  • Story: Die Prinzipien des DrehbuchschreibensRobert McKee, 2000, Alexander VerlagFor authors and screenwriters who want to plan plot, scene structure and characters deliberately.
  • Deutsch für ProfisWolf Schneider, 1999, GoldmannFor authors, copywriters and journalists who want to write more clearly, more vividly and with a surer style.

The titles are listed as published in German, and the short descriptions are in English so you can see who each book is for.

Which topics the category covers

The books for authors in this category cover several topics that come together when you write a work of your own: the craft of writing itself, the revision of an existing manuscript and later publication. These three phases overlap depending on the stage of a project, because a manuscript can still be refined sentence by sentence while already raising questions about later publication. Working on a text means moving between these phases, depending on how far a project has progressed.

The craft includes questions of language, structure and your own way of working when you write. Practical writing tips go deeper into the craft at the level of the writing process and so extend the topics of this category with a step-by-step approach to everyday writing. Revising a manuscript is a separate step that differs from the first draft. This is where book editing comes in: it deals with the linguistic and structural check of a text that has already been written and so links up with the revision literature in this category, because both look at the same work step.

Publication itself is a third field that can be considered separately from the questions of writing and revision. Within these topics the books also differ in whether they address a particular text form, for example non-fiction authors, or deal with writing without committing to a specific form such as the novel or the screenplay. An overview of these topics helps you narrow your search for a suitable book instead of going through the whole category.

Which criteria help you choose

Four criteria that follow your own writing project help when choosing a book from this category: your stage of writing, the genre, the aim of the project and a sample from the book itself. Your stage of writing describes whether a manuscript already exists or whether work on a text is only beginning. Publishers' descriptions can be used for this: some books promise guidance in several steps from concept to marketing, while others contain interviews with experienced non-fiction authors and a checklist.

The genre is a second criterion. Some books clearly address a particular text form, such as the non-fiction book, or forms such as the novel or the screenplay, while others are worded more generally and relate to writing as a whole. For projects with a fixed text form, the blurb lets you check whether a book fits your own form. The aim of the project is a third criterion: is the goal to finish a text at all, to improve it as a craft or to publish it later? For the last step it is worth looking at the routes to publishing a book, because they classify the different paths from finishing a manuscript to publishing it and so follow directly from the criterion of aim.

The fourth criterion is the sample chapter. Blurbs and publisher statements give a first impression of a book's approach, for example when they speak of guidance in several steps from concept to marketing or when a book announces interviews and a checklist. Such statements do not replace a sample of your own, but they give a clue whether style and approach suit your plans. Searching for a literary agency follows on from the criterion of aim, because both concern the transition from a finished manuscript to professional representation. The four criteria can be combined: an advanced manuscript in a particular genre with the aim of publication needs different reading from a first draft without a fixed text form.

How the statements about the books are sourced

Bibliographic data such as publisher, edition and page count are confirmed through records of the German National Library (Deutsche Nationalbibliothek), for example for a title from the Springer programme with a first edition in 2019 and 228 pages, or for a title from the Springer Gabler programme from the same year with 243 pages, retrieved on 5 October 2026. For both titles there are also citation counts from Crossref: the first title is recorded there with zero citations, the second with one citation, each retrieved on 5 October 2026.

Publishers' texts provide further information on content, for example that an author adviser and ghostwriter guides you in ten steps from concept to marketing, or that a book contains interviews with experienced non-fiction authors and a checklist. Publishers' pages such as that of Penguin Random House also give details on individual titles, for example a worldwide sales figure of over 400 million copies stated by the publisher itself for an author's entire body of work, not for the single title listed here, and a new edition of another title dated 28 March 2022, for which no print run is given. When you look for the right publisher for a manuscript of your own, it pays to look just as closely at publishers' statements, because both tasks use the same type of source.

Further statements come from quotations on publishers' pages, for example an assessment from the newspaper Die Welt on a title from the Autorenhaus publisher, which appeared in a new edition in 2015 after earlier editions in 1997 and 2009, and from a publisher's statement on another Autorenhaus title with more than one million copies of the original edition sold in nine languages. For a title on writing screenplays, the publisher's text gives its own assessment of the book's position in the field, while the German Wikipedia article on the author lists the German edition from Alexander Verlag in 2011 with the same ISBN. For a title on questions of style in the German language, the German Wikipedia article on the author lists the work among his standard works and gives the Goldmann paperback edition of 1999 with the corresponding ISBN, also listed at Penguin Random House, in each case without a print run. The German National Library, Crossref and the publishers' pages named therefore form the basis of these statements. Download figures from publishers' pages could not be read for some titles at the time of retrieval because of a technical block, which is why no bestseller statement is made at those points.

What you can take away for your own manuscript

The books in this category give you ideas for your own manuscript, but they are only one building block among other steps on the way to a finished text. The works collected here can provide impulses for your own practice, for instance on how other authors approach a project or which steps they describe for conceiving and marketing a book. Such ideas replace neither editing nor the search for a publisher. They stand alongside and can make preparing for both steps easier.

Besides reading, revising your own manuscript remains a work step in its own right, for which editing can make sense when a text is to be checked for language and structure before it is passed on. The search for a publisher also follows its own rules, which differ from reading a guide. An overview of self-publishing describes this route alongside the traditional search for a publisher and classifies an alternative that follows directly from the books on publishing collected here.

For your own practice this means: reading a book from this category can shed light on individual aspects of writing, revision or publication, without any particular result for your own manuscript being attached to it. The requirements of an editor, literary agency or publisher can each be asked about directly at the body responsible. A guide can describe this check but not replace it. The books collected here therefore offer a starting point for your own engagement with the craft of writing, which can be combined with further steps such as editing, searching for a publisher or self-publishing, without replacing any of them.

Sources and status

The classification "Books for authors: what this category collects" sums up the full context.

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Frequently asked questions about books for authors

Does this category contain books on different text forms?

Yes, the range runs from works on a particular text form such as the non-fiction book to titles that deal with writing more generally, including the screenplay as a form of its own.

Are sales figures given for the books?

Sales figures are only given if they come from a publisher's statement, for example a figure stated by the publisher of more than one million copies sold of the original edition of a title in nine languages. For other titles the download figures on the publisher's page could not be read at the time of retrieval because of a technical block.

Where do the bibliographic details such as edition and page count come from?

These details come from records of the German National Library, for example for a title from the Springer programme with a first edition in 2019 and 228 pages or a title from the Springer Gabler programme with 243 pages, each retrieved on 5 October 2026.

Are there details on citations in research for the books?

Crossref citation counts are given for two titles: one title is recorded there with zero citations and another with one citation, both retrieved on 5 October 2026.

Does the category quote assessments from newspapers or Wikipedia on individual books?

Yes. For a title from the Autorenhaus publisher, the publisher's text quotes an assessment from the newspaper Die Welt, and for two further titles the German Wikipedia article on the author lists the German edition with its ISBN, including a title on questions of style in the German language that is named there among the author's standard works.

How do books for beginners differ from books for advanced authors?

One difference is that some publishers' texts describe guidance in several steps from concept to marketing, while other titles expressly announce interviews with experienced non-fiction authors and a checklist for projects that already exist.

Does this category also list books on writing screenplays?

Yes. According to the publisher's text, one title deals with writing screenplays. The German edition appeared from Alexander Verlag in 2011, as the German Wikipedia article on the author lists it with the corresponding ISBN.