Do you need professional training to write a book?

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James Frey
Owner, American Literary Press
www.americanliterarypress.com  
410-882-7700, 800-873-2003

James V. Frey is the current owner of American Literary Press, a Baltimore, MD-based book publisher that has published books written by more than 1,300 first-time authors during the past 20 years.

Jim is a Cum Laude graduate of Dartmouth College. Following graduation from Dartmouth, he served as a high school teacher in Southern New Hampshire. Subsequently, he spent 15 years with Xerox Corporation in various Sales and Marketing capacities, accountable as a senior manager in his last two assignments. During the 1990’s, he was a General Manager for several large office technology firms and served as a director on five companies’ Board of Directors. Since 1999, he has been an owner of/investor in six entrepreneurial ventures, including American Literary Press. 

In 2001, Jim self-published his own industry-targeted “how to” book, based on his experience with both big and small business, that generated $25,000 in sales. In his estimation, Jim considers the publication of his 86 year-old father’s autobiography by American Literary Press in 2006 to be one of one of his major professional accomplishments.

With nearly two decades of experience, American Literary Press has the knowledge necessary to produce books exactly as our authors envision them. Our ability to adapt to the wishes of our authors is one of the primary reasons our company has been chosen by more than 1,200 aspiring and first-time writers. Not a single book is published unless it is one that we can proudly claim as our own, for we require that our books meet the highest standards for editorial accuracy, design and production.

American Literary Press provides authors with a wide variety of options from which to choose, including author-marketed publishing and programs that include professional marketing services. One of these options is certain to serve your needs. First, let’s evaluate your publishing project.

American Literary Press is your best solution if:

You want a book of first-rate bookstore quality and durability perfectly suited in design and format to your work and its market.

You want to see your work published in an edition you will be proud to present to the literary marketplace.

You want to work with a publisher you can trust to stand behind its commitments.

No other company can do more to satisfy your expectations because publishing is our only business. We are a full-service publisher, not simply a printer or bookseller with a high-tech copy machine.

We can show you how to save money without compromising on quality.

We offer cost-effective alternatives designed for your specific needs.

We use our extensive database of current marketing and sales contacts to ensure that your work will get the kind of exposure you seek.

Do you need professional training to write a book?

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Host: Do you need professional training to write a book?

James Frey: Well, the old adage is that everybody has a book in them, that everybody because of their life experiences or their beliefs has the potential to write a book. The professional training that you would need would be the ability to use grammar properly and spell accurately, but anybody can write a book and depending on the content of the book some books are very short like children's books. A book may only have 16-20 pages in it. Some books are hundreds and hundreds of pages but the one constant truth is the ability through your words that you are writing to get the message across that you want to get across.

So, to answer your question you need the language and writing skills in terms of grammar and syntax to write a book, but there is no school to become a professional author.

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