2003 Writer's Market

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Editorial Review:

Writer's Market is THE indispensable writer's reference. It informs your customers who the editors are, what they want, how much they buy and how much they pay. Every writer needs it; that's why it's the best-selling writing title each and every year.

This year, Writer's Market has more entries and benefits than ever before. Readers will find more phone numbers, contact names, and e-mail addresses--everything they need to get in touch with the people who can make their dreams come true! They'll find:

The Query Letter Clinic--this ever-popular feature illustrating the dos and don'ts of crafting effective query letters has been expanded to include electronic queries

Insider reports from Karen Joy Fowler, author of Black Glass, Joy Johannessen, freelance editor, and Adair Lara, award-winning San Francisco Chronicle columnist

Workshop articles that help writers craft winning book proposals, novel outlines or script synopses

Editors are so accustomed to receiving inappropriate queries that they "rejoice," according to a Writer's Market tip from the University of Arizona Press, "in receiving material that is clearly targeted to [them]." So, please, do not send your article about porcelain-doll collecting to Sport Fishing magazine. Put your postage toward this updated edition of the Writer's Market instead. This book might not seem to change much from year to year, but it does. Editors move, publishing houses are gobbled up by one another, and magazines open and fold like Japanese fans. And where else can you learn both that Focal Press is publishing fewer photography books, and that Ide House is inaugurating a poetry branch?

Given the unbelievable variety and sheer number of publishers listed here--1,170 book publishers, 1,534 consumer magazines, 464 trade magazines, 250 script buyers, plus book producers, syndicates, and greeting-card publishers--it's almost hard to imagine a writer not finding a publisher. New this year are large icons indicating new listings, a limited section on literary agents, and a chart showing the owners and imprints of the major book publishers. In addition to the standard articles about query letters, book proposals, and freelance rates are profiles of authors, including nature writer and prisoner Ken Lamberton, Sebastian Junger (The Perfect Storm), and Anna Quindlen (Black and Blue), who says that "Writing is like anything else. You fall, you pick yourself up, and you try again. When you're discouraged, you eat ice cream." (Also available with CD-ROM.) --Jane Steinberg

Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0

I Buy it, I Use it, I Like it ... BUT::

One day in 1973 I decided to stop on the way home from work and browse the science fiction section at my local Walden Books (we didn't have SmashedWords back then). By happenstance, the Reference shelves were adjacent to the Science Fiction & Fantasy section. There wasn't much new in SF that day, and my eyes wandered as I scanned the shelves...

By some quirk of fate, my gaze came to rest on a book titled WRITER'S MARKET.

"Hey," I said to myself, "I wonder if that's what the title implies?" I pulled... more info

Not worth the money - too generic and untailored:

This book has hardly been used since I bought it a year ago. I would suggest that you borrow a copy from the library or from a friend rather than purchase it.

As a freelancer of lifestyle magazine articles and the occasional news report, I find this book not very useful. The magazines listed in the book tend to be very subject-specific, e.g. will only accept in-depth articles about medical issues, or Korean American life, or hunting. It's not very helpful at all if you are not already a speciality subject... more info

A Very Important and Handy Tool for Writers:

If you are a serious writer and really want to know where you can send your work, the "Writer's Market 2003" is just the thing for you. It doesn't guarantee that you'll get published, but it increases the chance of it. I'm still waiting and working, but I know one of these days it's going to pay off. And this is something I always manage to pick up each year.

The "Writer's Market 2003" is a book filled with hundreds upon hundreds of listings for different publications and publishing organizations. From... more info

Stop. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.:

....without buying this book.

If you are looking for THE resource for helping you to sell your writing, this is the book.