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Sue on TV Good Day NY
Sue on CBS News with Cindy Hsu
AMERICAN SHIELD IS A USA TODAY BESTSELLER!
The Sergeant on CNN’s Jake Tapper
Booklist starred review of Book Bible
Library Journal starred review of World In Between
Book List starred review of World In Between
Publishers Weekly Starred Review of Forgiveness Tour
Business Insider ❤️s The Byline Bible & Sue’s Zoom class
Buy THE BOOK BIBLE
Winner of 2023 ASJA book Award
Buy THE BYLINE BIBLE
Winner of 2019 ASJA Book Award
Winner of 2018 Best Book Award for Writing & Publishing
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Only as Good as Your Word Writing Lessons From My Favorite Literary Gurus by Susan Shapiro In this funny, moving, and revealing ride, Susan Shapiro recounts her obsessive quest for success as a professional writer, and the beloved mentors who saved her life and her career along the way. On Sale Now! Buy at Amazon.com See Sue on Channel 7 Detroit Listen to Sue on Candace Bushnell Radio Read an excerpt from The Nervous Breakdown |
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Writer's Digest Susan Shapiro...has been fortunate in finding wonderful literary mentors...She concludes by offering sage advice ...Shapiro seems like a master at building personal relationships. While her book won't help writers with grammar or plot structuring, it will offer them plentiful insight into creating a rich, collaborative literary life of their own. The Writer A wild ride through the life of an accomplished and prolific writer...Along the way readers are entertained and taught by her sardonic musings... Highly recommended reading for the aspiring freelancer, poet or novelist...a great read that teaches writers quite a bit without too much effort... a good bedside book for freelancers. About.com Only As Good As Your Word, Susan Shapiro's wise/crazy/funny memoir ... demystifies the process of how you become a writer...My favorite quote is the mantra from her best selling cousin Howard Fast: "Plumbers don't get plumber's block. Don't be self-indulgent. A page a day is a book a year." Advicegoddess.com Serious kick-in-the-pants inspiration from a book and article publishing dynamo. Expect to grab your notebook or run to your computer several times before you've even hit the third chapter. Anti9to5guide.com Maybe what Britney needs is a good mentor. (Obviously Madonna didn't do the trick.) If she needs direction, she can get Shapiro's new book. We're big fans of Shapiro... we love her razor sharp take on relationships and human behavior. Now she talks about guides she's had in her career and how to get your own... Glamour.com This month, one of my mentors, Susan Shapiro, published Only As Good As Your Word, a dishy memoir that doubles as a career advice manual about the literary mentors who shaped her 25 year career in publishing. Marci Alboher, NYTimes.com Shapiro has excavated her life...with a compelling mix of merciless self-revelation, interspersed with wit that suggests a world of smart... Her high school teacher Jack Zucker told her that good writing "started in delight and ended in wisdom." Delight and wisdom are infused in this book. I highly recommend it. Ron Mwangaguhunga's blog: The Corsair ...went to Borders to hear Sue read ONLY AS GOOD AS YOUR WORD...She was fantastic and funny...one of the most dedicated and motivated writers I've ever met. She's absolutely inspirational and if you've been curious about how to really get yourself out there, read her new book. Claire Bidwell Smith's Blog: Life in Chicago ...a delightful memoir about her writing career and mentors...I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the career of...a writer trying to make it in New York...Remarkably honest... entertaining and surprisingly useful for the aspiring writer since lessons shine through when there isn't any bullshit or political correctness... Ben Casnocha: The Blog I love her storytelling style - funny, honest and crazy...Her latest memoir about her relationships with her literary gurus is just as hilarious as her other memoirs. I can relate to her struggle and joy when she finally got published... This book will motivate you to find your own mentors if you haven't already. The Trendsetter Blog ...Susan Shapiro's writing style is simple, conversational, light and fast-paced. At times the breathlessness comes through quite amusingly. To budding or growing writers, the tips are brutal but spot-on. I recommend the book highly... La Vie Quotidienne blog Great mentors make great writers. Susan Shapiro's ONLY AS GOOD AS YOUR WORD chronicles the impact of her seven most trusted guides on her life and writing career. Each guru imparted different, yet equally important, wisdom and hope. Shapiro shares her success story and in the process provides advice for struggling writers... Mediabistro.com In Shapiro's new book she recalls the wisdom of her favorite literary gurus. She takes the reader through... each relationship without taking the focus away from the strength of the lessons. Her successful career is bound to her ability to take words of her mentors to heart and her honest voice shows she knows it. The Cape May Herald Susan Shapiro's enjoyable memoir tracking her development from a lonely Midwestern adolescent to a professional freelance New York writer and teacher offers a refreshing view of the writing life...To her credit, she has made a habit of mentoring others... As the old Yiddish saying goes: "If you put something in, you can take something out." Jewish Book World Shapiro brings a wry voice and generous touch to stories about those who've affected her career. She looks at mentoring as both mentor and mentee... and tells her students the first time they come up with a piece their family hates means they've found their voice. Among other gems: "No never means no," when it comes to rejection. It means rewrite, re-edit, resubmit to a different editor. ASJA Monthly |
Kirkus Reviews ...A frank, entertaining exposition of mentors who nurtured her...In an earthy and self-analytical style, she paints colorful balanced portraits...Shapiro displays a firm grasp of the appeal of personal anecdotes... Her wry sense of humor and confessional, gossipy tone leavens this lively honest work. Suited to public and university libraries. Library Journal In this lively, inspiring, dishy memoir/advice book, Shapiro shares secrets of success... gleaned from her stellar mentors, including Ian Frazier, and Howard Fast, who cautioned against self-indulgence: "Remember, a plumber never gets plumber's block." Not everyone has a bestselling relative, but everybody has a high school English teacher - Shapiro's first guru. Publishers Weekly ...Wise and witty, Only As Good As Your Word...imparts important lessons...a thoughtful tribute to her mentors...Shapiro is one of the most self-revealing writers...She's also wickedly funny, compulsively readable, authentic, warm, and thankfully most self-aware, her style is no-holds-barred honest, edgy and bracingly refreshing. Princeton Public Library ...I love the heroine, a sexy Alice in Wonderland, a classy woman about town, adventurous and yet with a deep-set naiveté that moves her to look up to these marvelous people, and in adoring them, to tell us more about them than we could otherwise know... A wonderful book, in every way. Very liberating, liberated. Grace Schulman author of The Broken String In the guise of celebrating her gurus, a number of whom seem also to be co-conspirators, Susan Shapiro demonstrates that she is as much a mentor as mentee. Not only that, but she provides what amounts to nothing less than a survival guide for freelancers in her own inimitable voice - at once witty and intimate. Victor Navasky former editor of The Nation, author of Naming Names You think you’re a writer? Read this book. It’s everything you wanted to know about getting published but were too full of yourself (or too insecure) to ask...Susan Shapiro spares no egos in this fierce, candid, compelling memoir of making it to print any way you can. Unputdownable. Gael Greene New York Magazine critic, author of Insatiable Susan Shapiro has a pure writer’s soul. The attention and care she has received from others, she has returned by becoming a guardian angel to young writers. ONLY AS GOOD AS YOUR WORD is ardent, enthusiastic, intelligent and very funny. Alec Wilkinson New Yorker staff writer, author of My Mentor: A Young Writer’s Friendship With William Maxwell One can never have enough mentors, and in ONLY AS GOOD AS YOUR WORD, Susan Shapiro writes, with humor and brutal, unrelenting honesty, about a long career spent finding them, courting them, appreciating them, fighting with them, mourning them. And now, she can add, honoring them. A roadmap - along with an invitation and a warning - for aspiring writers to crack New York. David Margolick Vanity Fair contributing editor, author of Beyond Glory With an irresistible energy and winning humor that come at you in a rush, and a breathtakingly frank honesty that undercuts any potential schmaltz, Susan Shapiro’s superb account of significant mentors is one of the best books I know about the writing life. It also has invaluable insights about the educational process by which one attains an assertive literary self. All in all, a terrific read. Phillip Lopate author of Against Joie de Vivre and Getting Personal Another chatty intimate memoir from the author of FIVE MEN WHO BROKE MY HEART. Newsday Incredibly revealing...great reading...chock-full of useful advice. The Detroit News ...One thing every successful writer has - beside a fragile ego and need for therapy - is a good teacher. After spending years teaching writing at NYU and the New School and authoring several books, Shapiro knows a thing or two about mentoring. In her newest memoir she reflects on her own favorite gurus. Metro Have a lot of mentors so you don't drive one person crazy and hang out with people who tell you the truth...That's the bottom line in Shapiro's memoir...In a juicy and revealing chapter on her cousin Howard Fast, he says "Don't be self-indulgent...A plumber never gets plumber's block"... filled with smart, usable advice. Downtown Express The acclaimed memoirist who grew up in West Bloomfield has written five books. Her most recent "Only as Good as Your Word" about her mentors...includes Jack Zucker, her English teacher at Roeper. Shapiro has been married for 12 years to TV/film writer Charlie Rubin. She proudly notes they came to metro Detroit to teach a comedy seminar rather than go on a honeymoon. Detroit Free Press |