Customer Reviews

2008 Novel & Short Story Writer's Market

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It seems this book improves every year while providing the core basic information on agents, magazines, book publishers, electronic markets, and conferences in an easily understandable manner.

I've found that submitting is actually a very frustrating process. A magazine may seem perfect for you until you see that they only accept stories shorter than yours or they aren't accepting new submissions during the month you're ready to submit or they only accept authors from their region. Really the only way to prevent pulling out all your hair by submitting to the wrong markets again and again is to read this book carefully. I'd still advise looking at the individual markets' websites just in case there is an update since publication, but four-fifths of the time what you need to know is in the book. However, enough information changes each year that acquiring (or reading) the newest edition is a good idea.

I've tried to move beyond this book in the last couple of years by looking for markets not listed in NSSWM which has taught me something else. A lot of markets they don't list (such as several I found in Poets and Writers) are less than stable, and you wind up "submitting to the black hole" never to learn what happened to your story or poem. While I'm sure there are exceptions, in my experience markets in NSSWM tend to be more reliable than ones I've found elsewhere.

Even though I've said this book is essential for new writers because of material on the "Business of Fiction Writing" which discusses cover letters, query letters and rights, there is a lot of information of interest to writers further in their careers such as interviews with major authors in a number of genres and lists of websites and resources important to each genre. This particular edition contains articles geared for authors considering hiring a publicist, the pluses and pitfalls of co-authoring, and the process of moving from published author to bestselling published author.

There are a couple things this book could do to be even better such as have a cross-referenced list of markets that accept submissions via e-mail as well as a cross-referenced list of "entry-level" markets. However, this is by far the best guide available, particularly for those writing for magazine markets.

I bought this book in order to find markets for some of my fantasy short stories. The list short story publications doesn't list even the most famous of the fantasy/ sci fi!

There is a dedicated information section, however. It included some articles, but over all the sci fi one was pathetic; the section on fantasy was even worse. The list of external resources for fantasy writers was thin, and included a broken link!

I don't doubt that this is a great book--for a very specific market. Fantasy and Sci Fi writers, save your money. Horror and Romance writers, you might fare a little better, but those sections looked pretty darn thin to me too.

Three years ago, I used N&SSWM to sell my first novel. It's very comprehensive and, by and large, user-friendly. The listings could be more consistently (and clearly) written, though. The sources (publishers and agents) aren't always as explicit about their submission guidelines or general accessibility as a user would hope. It would be great if the publisher of N&SSWM did a bit more follow-up with them. Many of the targets direct users to their websites, so the problem cures itself, but only with additional work.

Great tool. If you write short stories and you want them published you can't do without it.

I don't have as many short stories written as poems, so I did not have as much to submit. What I did have to submit- one story is being published in 2008. These books- "Short Stories Market," "Poet's Market," "Songwriters Market"- are well organized, easy to understand as far as what publications would work best for your writing.

An excellent guide for beginning fiction writers looking for an introduction to the fiction market with helpful, practical how-tos on query letters and more.

Back in 1991, I was studying creative writing under a published author. The one thing we learned was to expect an average 70 rejections no matter if were beginners or seasoned pros. So if you write something, and you send it to be published, and it is rejected...DON'T GIVE UP!!!
With that in mind let me say that this book is one of, if not THE most, respected publications in its field. There are literally over 1000 different publishers of various types of material in this huge book, complete with addresses and in some cases, phone numbers, email addresses, and websites.
This huge publication houses some of the most respected names in writing, which is another bonus of this book. You get "THE BIG BOYS", plus you get smaller publishers. Another bonus of this fine publication, is that it has tips for how to increase your chances of being published as well as notes some of the legal aspects of the art.
My first two articles I had printed and PAID for, were the result of sending my material to publishers in the Writer's Market, and the people who put together the Writer's Market are the same ones who put together this treasure trove of information.
So if you're looking for an publication that will greatly increase your chances of getting published, you need this long time established tool.

I must have this type of info in my library. As one will guess...I get so busy! But, every now and then I wish to let the authors know how much editions such as this are appreciated! From a fellow-writer!

Very useful and complete piece of work that would be a great start for any writer to get to know the real business of novels.

Novel & Short Story Writer's Market is a wonderful resource for any emerging author looking to get published. Having short stories published by online or traditional literary magazines provides a great source of publicity for new authors, especially if they eventually hope to publish a full length novel. This book contains a wealth of information about those markets. The markets are broken down into categories, and the book uses symbols so you can quickly identify the types of markets you're looking for (new vs. established authors, U.S. vs. international markets, etc.) The book also provides the names of editors for the publications, which can be difficult to find otherwise. Some say that the information in the book has a short life span, but I think that you can use a Writer's Market book for years to come. For example, even if you approach a magazine a couple of years from now, you could always call and ask if so-and-so is still the Fiction Editor. Networking is important in the writer's world, and what could be better than knowing the names of some important players? In addition, the book has interesting articles and other good information. All in all a great buy.