I SWEAR I DON’T GET ANY KICKBACKS: But if you’re trying to be a fiction writer, you could do worse than if you start by reading Dwight Swain’s Techniques of the Selling Writer.  It’s that rarest thing among writers’ manuals: useful.

UPDATE: The reason for the kickback disclaimer is that I recommend this book so much that for a while my books were associated with the author’s on Amazon.  I don’t even know the family (the writer is no longer alive) but I know this book took first me, then years later my husband, then more years later my older son from unpublished to pro.