Only as Good as Your Word by Susan Shapiro

Only as Good as Your Word 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 career--along the way.

Growing up in the Midwest, Susan Shapiro knew at a young age that all she wanted in life was to become a writer. And so, as soon as she graduated from college, she headed straight to New York City, determined to break into the biz. A few hard knocks later, she learned that it takes more than being a good writer to make a living at it-the most successful professional writers, she discovered, have great mentors to support, promote, advise, admonish, inform, infuriate, and sometimes give them a good kick in the pants along the way. 

Only As Good As Your Word is a rollicking chronicle of Shapiro's coming of age as a journalist and author. It's also a revealing memoir that proves what Shapiro's been saying all along: The most important lessons about writing really are, at heart, important lessons about life. A must-read for all writers in the publishing trenches, from the very green to the veterans.

Overexposed, Speed Shrinking, Five Guys Who Shattered My Heart, Lighting Up, and Only as Good as Your Word are all written by Susan Shapiro. She teaches her popular quick pleasure takes too long lectures at The New School, NYU, and private workshops in Greenwich Village, where she lives with her husband, a TV/film writer.