Amazon.com Review
Don't know your royalties from your retainers? Your dedications from your defamations? The Writer's Encyclopedia is a versatile writer's reference detailing more than 1,300 items in a broad range of relevant topics. It delves into various contests and awards, organizations and associations, writing techniques and editorial jargon, explains all manner of publishing practices, and explores a number of writer- and editor-related ethical issues. The Encyclopedia provides the purpose, scope--and address--of the Editorial Freelancers Association, describes standard editorial rewriting practices, and summarizes the debate over the value of journalism degrees as opposed to a liberal-arts education. There are items on first-draft revisions, first-person short stories, and first serial rights, discussions of gossip columns, gospel music, and go-aheads, plus charts of Library of Congress systems, magazine-organization systems, and a table of magazine revenues compared to costs and profits. For freelancers, especially, who haven't a ready cohort of office colleagues to offer clear explanations, savvy experience, and rational perspective, the Writer's Encyclopedia is a useful and reliable professional resource. --Stephanie Gold
