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Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Magazine Articles
by Sheree Bykofsky, Jennifer Basye Sander
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Alpha (2000-06-08)
ISBN: 0028638352
EAN: 9780028638355
UPC: 021898638359
Dewy Decimal #: 808.02
Paperback: 384 pages
Edition: illustrated edition
SKU: 08030357
Condition: Very Good As issued
Comments: Oversize Trade Paperback. Very Good condition with no markings. Owners plate on title page. No highlights, underlines or notes in text. No creases to spine. Diagonal crease on top half of back cover and final 4 pages of text. Minor wear to cover. Tight binding and clean crisp text. Very Nice copy.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Take the mystery out of selling your ideas to magazine, newspapers, and web sites by reading this book. It explains who hires writers, what editors want from freelancers, how much you can expect to be paid, how you can write effective query and pitch letters, and how the Internet can help your writing career take off.
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Amazon.com Review
"Freelance writing is not easy, but it is doable," say the authors of this primer. There will be times, they add, when there is no work. When there is no money. When no one returns your calls. Hardly sounds alluring. But if you've got the bug, or suspect you do, this is as fine a place as any to get a feel for the freelance life. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Magazine Articles features interviews with freelancers and editors, and chapters on generating ideas, querying, writing, interviewing ("there's no such thing as a stupid question"), and developing a niche. Other sections give the inside skinny on the industry: who the big players are, who the top editors are, what firsthand accounts are worth reading. And there is even advice for dealing with taxes and contracts. Breathe easy: "The new media world still needs the old-fashioned writer." In fact, writing for the Web, the authors say, can be quite lucrative. Just be sure, for writing online as well as in print, to avoid committing any of the authors' "Ten ways to turn off an editor" (including: be a stalker, misspell the editor's name, balk at changes). And remember: "Persistent people make it as writers." --Jane Steinberg
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Customer Reviews
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Great Resource
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-01-29
The Candidate (Jill Lewis Mystery Trilogy #3)The Replacement (Jill Lewis Mystery Trilogy #2[[ASIN:0800759346 The Chase (Jill Lewis Mystery Trilogy #1)
I have found this book to be invaluable in my search for a new agent, a publisher and how to query. Many writers make the mistake of launching out without knowledge of how to approach publishing houses or what they specialize in. This is a clear, consice book of how to presnt your manuscript to a market saturated with wonderful pennings of authors. If you are a serious Christian writer, then this book is a must get.
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What a great guide
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-05-07
2 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
This book has shown me how to actually get published in magazines. It will not only give you the 'how to' but it will also encourage you to take the risk and put yourself out there.
If you are serious about making money writing this book is a must.
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Easy to read and very helpful
Rating  (4)
Date: 2006-08-05
3 out of 6 customers found this reveiw helpful
The authors of this book wrote a book that is very easy to read and provides alot of very helpful information for those trying to get published in magazines. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is laying the foundation of becoming freelance article writer.
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Best Purchase on this subject!
Rating (5)
Date: 2005-09-05
6 out of 8 customers found this reveiw helpful
I had so many questions and this book has answered them all! I have had it wire bound because I am refering to it so much.Just can't recommend it highly enough!
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Good content-- in between the jokes & verbose chatty writing
Rating (4)
Date: 2005-02-27
38 out of 39 customers found this reveiw helpful
If jokes and verbose trying-to-be-clever writing were advertising, this book would be Oprah Magazine. But more on that later--I just needed a lead as per chapter 19 "Hook 'Em Early, Hook 'Em Hard."
"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Magazine Articles" is like an introduction 101 survey class to this topic. Among many other things, it covers the basics of the entire process from generating article ideas, to writing query letters to conducting interviews, writing basics, and even how freelance writers deal with taxes. Like a 101 class, this book provides breadth but not depth. Most beginning magazine writers will likely need more of the material on earlier parts of the process such as studying the market and writing query letters rather than dealing with taxes and contracts. However, as a survey course, they do have their place, with the exception of the chapter on writing books and book proposals. For an excellent, more in depth treatment of query letters, a topic a novice will definitely need, I recommend "How to Write Irresistible Query Letters" by Lisa Collier Cool.
Having published a handful of freelance pieces and knowing the basics of the process, I can tell you the information is provided is good, sound advice. My problem with the book is that you have to wade through so much verbose trying-to-be clever chatty writing to get to the basics you need as a freelance magazine writer. It's like the authors, unbridled from the tight word counts and no nonsense editing of magazines went nuts trying to be cute and clever. For one of many examples, there's a section called "Ratatatatat: Machine Gun Writing" which begins, "Do you feel like Bruce Willis in 'Die Hard' right about now? What the heck do we mean when we say machine gun writing?" Then there's another paragraph before they get to the definition. I think this book could have been edited by about 1/3 with no loss of content.
None-the-less, I appreciated the content in between the jokes, even though some of it was not in depth enough to my liking, such as the brief section on how to get clips. I especially liked the interviews with magazine editors discussing what writers need to do to break into writing for their publications. If you need an intro 101 survey of the career of freelance writing and don't mind wading through all the chatty wisecracking writing, this is the book for you.
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