by Slim Randles
Foreword by Max Evans and Introduction by George Cornell
ISBN 978-936744-31-2 $15.95
146 pages, 5 illustrations 5x7
Runner-Up, Guides & Travel Books, 2015 Southwest Book Design & Production Awards, NMBA
Category Finalist, 2015 Eric Hoffer Book Awards
Honorable Mention, Adult Nonfiction-General, 2015 New Mexico Press Women Book Awards
BEST HOW-TO BOOK: 2014 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards
BEST COVER DESIGN (SMALLER THAN 6x9): 2014 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards
SADDLE-UP ON KOB-TV GOOD MORNING NEW MEXICO -- http://www.kob.com/article/stories/s3530484.shtml
REVIEWS
Albuquerque the Magazine features an interview with Slim Randles that puts this new book in context:
REVIEWS
Midwest Book Reviews
Journalist, outdoorsman, novelist, and award-winning author Saddle Up: A Cowboy Guide to Writing, a thoroughly accessible, no-nonsense guide for professional authors. The primary emphasis is upon getting one's work published for money, whether it's an article for a magazine (Randles emphasizes that many specialty-interest magazines are still alive and well, even though general-interest magazines have mostly gone out of business) or a fiction or nonfiction book for a publishing house. Tips, tricks, and techniques for the creative process are also included, but the topic of self-publishing is (more or less) left for other guides to cover. One of the most valuable lessons the reader will learn is the importance of sending a well-crafted query letter to publication editors, before pouring hours of time into creating an article or a book. "You should never 'shotgun' query letters... By that I mean changing only the editor's name and address on the query and sending it to every magazine that might be interested in the piece. This is a real temptation for beginning writers... It's actually something close to journalistic suicide." Saddle Up is an absolute "must-read" for aspiring professional writers; even those who pursue self-publishing as their primary path will find Randles' life-tested writing advice indispensable.
The Western Way (Western Music Association)
The title, by the author’s own admission, is a bit misleading…and not his idea. The cowboy part could mean the cowboy logic embedded in this volume. Simply …. and realize this statement comes from a buyer of multitudinous writers’ guides and magazines…this is the best book on selling your writing I have ever read. Hands down, bar none, the best! If you’ve been stalled in marketing your writing, Slim Randles shovels the mystique out of the stalls for you. As both a seasoned writer and an editor on the other side of the curtain, Randles blows the lid off the secrets of getting it sold without agents. If you want to make money writing, you’ll never find a better guide than this little treasure. For the aspiring freelancer, this one is a must, must, must-have!!
Straightforward steps to:
• Getting started the right way
• Avoiding common pitfalls
• Eliminating rejection slips
• Getting checks in the mail
Slim Randles has been a journalist, editor, author, sportsman, and speaker. After years of making a living from the pen, he is passing on advice to those who want to write for a living. Slim’s advice is spiced up with his signature view of what the world is and could be. This book is filled with an award-winning author’s gentle but firm words to live and write by.
In my many decades of living, working and reading in the great state of New Mexico, there is no one better than Slim Randles at writing 500 to 1,000 words. Slim’s sense of the tragedy and comedy of life was expertly done. — Max Evans, author of The Rounders, Bluefeather Fellini, and The Hi-Lo Country.
Building memories and stories is what it’s all about. Writing is hard work at times but if you have the desire and need to write, as Slim does, life can be a wonderful thing. Let’s hope you heed his advice and enjoy the fruits that are waiting to be plucked. — Dr. George L. Cornell, Professor and Director Emeritus, History and American Studies and the Native American Institute, Michigan State University
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Slim Randles learned mule packing from Gene Burkhart and Slim Nivens. He learned mustanging and wild burro catching from Hap Pierce. He learned horse shoeing from Rocky Earick. He learned horse training from Dick Johnson and Joe Cabral. He learned humility from the mules of the eastern High Sierra.
For the last 40 years or so, he’s written a lot of stuff, too, especially in his Home Country column, which is syndicated all across this country.
He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and in a small cabin in the middle of nowhere at the foot of the Manzano Mountains.