For the writer at heart. Each issue focuses on the craft of writing, the tools and information for writing, and the markets for writing. Features examine how to write and sell magazine and newspaper articles, books, plays, poetry and scripts.
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Writer’s Digest (1-year) [Print +Kindle]3 comments to Writer’s Digest (1-year) [Print +Kindle]Leave a Reply |
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Essential Writer’s Tool If you are a new writer, this is one publication well worth the investment.
So generic it’s uesless Writer’s Digest puts out a lot of great resources for writers. The magazine ain’t one of them, however.For starters about half of the magazine is ads – mostly for other Writer’s Digest products. One you get past paying $19.95 a year for what’s essentially a brochure, you’ll notice that most of the articles don’t apply to you. Most writers stick to one genre, yet the magazine focuses on all aspects of writing – fiction, poetry, business writing, editing, non-fiction, etc. If you’re working on a biography of J. Edgar Hoover, do you need to look at an article on poetry in the stlye of ee cummings? I’ll take “no” for $600, Alex.So, now you’re down to about 10 pages that might be relevant. Well, let’s start chipping away at that:The letters about grammar questions are a waste: if you have a question about affect versus effect, would you write to a magazine and wait a month or two or would you pick up your style guide and have an answer in less time than it took for you to read this sentence? Thought so. (Furthermore the idea that someone would write to a magazine with a question like that is so incredulous one has to wonder if the questions aren’t just submitted by staff members in an attempt to fill space, like I used to do when I was the news editor at my college paper.)Writer’s Digest does review software and other technology that might be useful to writers. My favorite was when it reviewed Microsoft Word. Thanks – I’m sure most readers had no idea about the monopolistic word-processing program. To be fair, some of the reviews are useful, although you can get better information just by looking up the product on Amazon.com and reading the reviews there.If you’re going to Writer’s Digest for market information, you’d be better served elsewhere: the annual Writer’s Market publication has all the markets and is more thorough, whilst the Writer’s Market website has all that information and is up-to-date. Your money would be better spent on those two products.About the only articles I have found useful are the profiles on authors and how they have succeeded. There you have it: two or three pages an issue that are useful.If you’re trying to get your work published, Writer’s Digest has several other products that are a better investment than its magazine: go with the annual Writer’s Market book, the website, and pick up a style manual of your choosing (Chicago is the best). Don’t waste your money on this magazine.
About the business (not the skill) of writing The main target audience of Writer’s Digest appears to be freelance writers. Most of the authors are freelance magazine article writers who have finally `made it’, and that is what they write about. There are a few short articles about writing (usually written by the same people each month), but that is not the main focus of the magazine. A large portion of the articles are about technical topics related to publishing, and not writing. This magazine is not for people who want to learn about writing; it’s more for people who want to learn about how to sell their writing. The advertisements in the back of the magazine are so shady that Writer’s Digest actually has to put a disclaimer on each page (think results are not typical in the lose 100 pounds in ten minutes infomercial), and I now get `if you can write a letter like this one, you could make a million dollars a year’ junk mail as well. The best part is the writing calendar with writing prompts for each day. This is a great resource for writing exercises and generating story ideas. However, it can be accessed for free from their website.