Anyone who enjoyed Annie Dillard's "The Writing Life" or Eudora Welty's "One Writer's Beginnings" is going to like "The Making of a Bestseller". It is an insightful look at the creative process and a realistic look at exactly what happens to a manuscript once it leaves the author's hands: not always a pretty sight. This book should be required reading for every writer, editor, agent, and publisher, as well as for anyone who loves to read.

This hand-wringing book is about bestsellers; it does not (and can not) define how bestsellers are made. This celebration of creative writing is about writers paying their dues and being discovered. Vanderbilt discusses the effects titles, advertising, author name recognition, perseverance, bestseller lists, reviews, testimonials and blind, dumb luck had on books that made it to the charts. It is a well-written, scholarly study of successful literature with references and footnotes. This book makes a couple of references to nonfiction but is almost entirely about fiction. If you like this book, you will also like Seven Strategies in Every Bestseller by Tam Mossman. I liked them both. Dan Poynter, author of 82 books (nonfiction). DanPoynter@ParaPublishing.com

All book lovers should read "The Making of a Bestseller." All hopeful authors must read it. This isn't another one of those formulaic, "how to" texts. This author has thoroughly researched the publishing industry, and the book abounds with provocative and inspirational experiences. Aspiring authors will be heartened to find the impressive company they're in as the voices of well-known writers speak of the trials and tribulations encountered on the road to publication. Mr. Vanderbilt's book not only provides encouragement to hopeful authors, it presents a frank and invaluable overview of the publication process. No reader or writer should miss this one.

The many impressions this book left me with, are almost overshadowed by the wonder that no one turned it into a mini series. Everything the Tv/Movie audience of today craves is here: Rags to Riches, Business back stabbing that makes JR Ewening look like mother Theresa, Mistress' divorce, goldigging women, History of steam ships and Railroads, The back drop of NY City, Political Weasles, Amusing stories, Sex , Extravagance beyond belief, The family tragedies( Alfred V> went down with Lusitania, Heroically), decline and financial ruin, Battles over the estates by rich heirs played out in public, and even the often unhappy state of people who have more money than anyone. The story of Consuelo being sold to an English 'lord' to acquire a title, while mommy locks her up to keep her from the man she loved. AND ITS ALL TRUE ! Truth is stranger, and better than fiction. Most people will enjoy this book, for many reasons. There is much to be learned in the lessons of the Vanderbilt family, all begun with the birth of 'The Commodore' 18 years after the birth of America. I only wish the author had added a chapter on how he felt about his ancestors, and their accomplishments/failures. Not only is the book worth the price, I've bought three copies because over the years I keep forgetting who borrowed it. And everyone I've recommended it to, has thanked me.

If you have toured a Vanderbilt house in Newport RI, Hyde Park NY, Northport NY, Florham NJ, or in New York City (Yes, one of the original Vanderbilt homes is a store on 5th Avenue and 52rd Street) and have had your interested piqued, then this is a excellent book for an overview of the family and there beginnings. The book never goes very deep but gives you a very good understanding of how the Commodore made his first $95 million and how his son, William, turned it into almost $200 million. But the best part of the book helps you understand how the next generation of William II and Cornelius III and wives spent almost all of the incredible fortune. The author, Arthur Vandy, is kinder to Alva than most books, but hey, they are related.

"Fortune's Children" is an enormously fun read. Arthur Vanderbilt relates how his ancestors accumulated and then depleted an almost unimaginable fortune. In the process they created a lot of majestic homes and even more miserable people.

It all starts with the Commodore, a poorly-educated miser with a mean-streak and a wild side. It ends with the battle over baby Gloria, whose genes prepared her for the jeans that brought the family a fresh infusion of cash. In between, a variety of Vanderbilt spendthrifts and misanthropes. There's George, who built the largest private home ever constructed in the US -- Biltmore Estate. By the time he was done, he was out of money, and his heirs couldn't afford to live there. There's Consuelo, bullied into marrying a Duke by a mother with royal-mania. And there's Reggie, a gin-soaked playboy whose greatest accomplishment was looking good in a tux. Oh, the humanity.

The author spends a little too much time on the supporting cast, including Ward McAllister and Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish. They're interesting but take the focus away from the main characters. He also fails to flesh-out a number of family members, including Alfred, who inherited the bulk of the fortune but had the misfortune of booking passage on the Lusitania.

Photos and a family-tree help you keep straight who's who, and all in all, this portrait of the people who personified the best and worst of "The Gilded Age" is most worthwhile. And, more proof that money can buy comfort, but not happiness.