The book is titled "WRITING the Breakout Novel," but the author acknowledges that in order to apply the book's principles and techniques, you'll *already* need to have a completed manuscript or at least a work-in-progress to refer to.

As a writer of short fiction, the title made me expect to see more process-oriented material for developing and managing longer and more complex stories. I was disappointed that you had to already have completed a considerable amount of the writing.

I do like that he mentions other genres and literary fiction besides the usual mysteries, thrillers and romances, and I'm still keeping the book, but I think of it as "REVISING the Breakout Novel."

Female author: You couldn't find the 17 novels he's published because he published them under a pseudonym.

I just took Maass' seminar on writing and the man nailed it. Yes, he includes bestsellers that don't have a lot of literary merit -- and yet they managed to sell a few million more than most novels. (Presumably more than yours.) He's also guided his authors to write more engaging, more well crafted, more gripping stories.

He's in the business of selling novels -- and it's getting harder and harder to sell them. Who better than to define what the breakout novel is than a guy whose job is to find them, like needles in a haystack?

And make no mistake, that's exactly what a breakout novel is. Something about it -- the voice, the character development, the way the story compels you to finish it before you do anything else -- spreads like a virus through the population and before you know it, millions have bought that book. It may not be Wharton, but something about it compels people to read it.

That is a breakout novel. Have you written any lately? I haven't. But I just might be able to, now that Maass has made a few things clear to me via his book. Read it and use some of his tactics before you dismiss it, why don't you.

It would be easy for me to write a long, flattering review of this book, but I don't want to waste your time. You should be ordering this book right now. And while you're at it, get the handbook, too--check out my review on it; you won't believe what I say. This book will help you zero in on the traits your own books MUST posses to get agented, get published and get on the bestseller list. Period.

Would you go to a failed stockbroker for advice on investing? Would you ask a lousy baseball player how to improve your technique? Would you take Spanish lessons from someone who hasn't mastered the language? Of course not. Why would you?
Unfortunately, when it comes to writing, the world is full of self-proclaimed experts: people who claim to know how to write "a breakout novel," a bestseller, the great American novel, etc., but have proven incapable of doing so themselves.
I checked this book more out of curiosity than anything and, unsurprisingly, I found it to be rather shallow and unhelpful. For great writing advice I suggest reading two brilliant authors: Sol Stein ("Sol Stein on Writing"), Edith Wharton ("The Writing of Fiction"), or anyone else who has actually been able to do what they are supposedly teaching you. (And, S. F. Williams, rating a book you haven't read with five stars only makes you look like a fool.)

Maass does go beyond the usual bland advice found in how-to-write books in that he tries to say which methods produce better results. He discusses "Premise", Stakes, Time and Place, Characters, Plot, "Contemporary Plot Techniques" ("nonlinear" narratives, character-driven stories), "Multiple Viewpoints, Subplots, Pace, Voice, Endings" (all in one chapter), "Advanced Plot Structures" (generational novels, whole life novels, historical novels, linked short stories), and Theme. His chapter on Stakes is particularly useful.
The problem I have with the book is the usual one: that the book assumes that every reader (and the would-be writer reading this book) has more or less the same tastes. Some of the books held up as exemplary novels to learn from, I found appalling.
Another problem is the occasional attempt to pander to the avant-garde. An example is "Nonlinear Narrative". There is no discussion/evaluation of this experimental technique. Nor is there any mention of how few readers there are for such material. But that's okay, because the matter is immediately dropped after two pages anyway, and it's back to the thrillers again.
Still, even when he's rehashing the same old ABCs, Maass does so in a lively way. So, beginning writers will certainly learn much from this book. And it is a valid point that Maass has not written a "breakout" novel himself, so how could this book tell us all we need to know to do it! It doesn't, but that does not mean that there isn't some useful information in the book.
No serious writer should read only one book on writing. The only protection from the author's tastes is to read a variety of books--not as easy as it sounds because most of them have the same tastes and most say the same things in different words and with different examples.