Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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156 of 158 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A solid introduction to writing markets, but by no means the end-all, be-all, July 17, 2007
Before you buy a Writer's Market, it might be helpful to understand the audience - those wishing to start a freelance writing career, especially writing for magazines. The vast majority of the book (several hundreds of pages) is composed of detailed information about consumer magazines and trade journals. While there are listings for other markets (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, newspapers, and even greeting cards), if you want to write novels, you should probably invest in Novel & Short Story Writer's Market 2008 (available July 31, 2007). And if you write novels, you'll likely need an agent, and so you should look at Guide to Literary Agents 2008 (available July 19, 2007).
However, Writer's Market 2008 is helpful for all writers, because it frames writing not in terms of the creative process - that is left to the writer - but in terms of business and marketing. The book opens with a series of essays and articles that explain how markets are constructed for fiction writers, poets, nonfiction writers, and of course writers of magazine articles. Not all of the opening essays are helpful. A few of them read like stories of how someone stumbled into publishing a book. The rest of the essays are in agreement that you, the writer, have control of your marketability. And so, the message of what it takes to break into a writing market is sometimes confusing.
The book introduces you on how to query and propose book ideas to publishers, editors, and agents: A proposal for a nonfiction book on the history of guitars will likely take more time and be more detailed than a proposal for a fantasy novel. The "good" query samples aren't particularly well written, and the "bad" query samples are truly silly. There is a "How Much Should I Charge?" table for a variety of freelancing work, including ghosting writing, copyediting, proofreading, fiction writing, poetry, and so on. I was somewhat annoyed that the table is incomplete; over half of the table is "n/a." And there is a small section on agents, all of whom are currently seeking new and established writers.
Overall, the book is a wealth of contact information - places to send your work, people to contact, and a rough idea of how much money you can make in a certain market. It's a great introduction to the business side of writing and the practicalities of publication.
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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Helped me to get my publisher, August 1, 2007
I bought 5 books to help me find an agent or publisher, and Writers Market ended up being the book that helped me find my publisher because of the online features. The fact that it had my publisher in it helped too! I was able to track my submissions for many months, which was good, since it took my publisher one year to finally call me up and tell me they wanted to publish my young adult fantasy book, Paraworld Zero. So if you're going to buy this book, I suggest you also use the online service from Writer's Market.
All of the books I bought were basically in the same format, but Writers Market had way more in it. However, if you're just looking for a specific function, like agents, then you might want to buy a book specifically on that, since you'll get more articles and tips on that subject... and you'll probably save some money. Writers Market has helpful articles, but since the book covers so many areas, they might not have enough articles on your topic.
One tip I'll suggest is to ALWAYS go to the publisher or agent's website before submitting, since the info you read in Writer's Market might be old. For example, Writers Market (the 2004 version) said that my publisher didn't do children's books, but if you go to my publisher's site, half of their books are children's books! Publishers and agents often will give you additional instructions on their sites that will help better your chances of not getting rejected by them.
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32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
indispensible but flawed, November 14, 2007
The Writer's Market is an essential tool for serious writers and is updated every year. However much of the information is inaccurate or simply faulty. Publications that are supposed to accept unsolicited MSS for consideration, don't. Editors move from publisher to publisher so often the risk of addressing an editor no longer employed at your chosen publisher is about 50-50. Magazines go out of business so quickly that it is essential to call before submitting anything or you will end up wasting postage, copying costs, etc. At over a thousand pages it does an excellent job of being all inclusive, but writers need to be careful because specifics are often inaccurate too - word limits are wrong, time periods for submitting change, and ones that say they will accept unagented MSS seldom do, and as for encouraging new writers, almost none do to any great degree. But, if you want to be a professional writer, it is still a necessary resource.
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