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You Can Write for Magazines |
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 You Can Write for Magazines byGreg Daugherty Writer's Digest Books 128pages, 1999 ISBN 0898799023 Reviewed by John A. Broussard, PhD The emphasis of this book is on what you should NOT do when you write for magazines, and that is exactly where the emphasis should be. Don't phone, don't fax, don't miss deadlines, don't complain about assignments - in general don't pick on the editor. Some of the don'ts are repeated, and they deserve repetition. A warning not to depend too heavily on guidelines is well taken. But some of the don'ts are a bit baffling and are in need of further explanation, while others seem unwarranted. An example of the former is Daugherty's objection to sending the same query simultaneously to different magazines. Why not? An example of the latter is his feeling that e-mail queries are almost as undesirable as phone and fax queries. An editor is going to be less annoyed by something to be dismissed (deleted) so easily. The view Daugherty has of e-mail seems to be part of his larger view of the world of computer communication. For example, he considers the Internet to be an ideal research tool but feels that searching the Internet for ideas is a waste of time. It is his almost total disregard of that medium as a market, however, that seems particularly strange in this day and age. The Internet equivalents of magazines are springing up like dragons' teeth. There can be no better place for the beginning writer to test his mettle, yet Daugherty almost entirely ignores that significant marketplace. But all in all, this is a small matter, since the advice he gives is sound and applies to the worldwide web as much as it does to the printed media. The brief chapter on Money Matters for Writers alone is worth the price of the book. In addition, there is a wealth of information on what sells to magazines: reviews, interviews, personal experience and much else. "Profiting from Rejection" should provide welcome and instructive advice to any writer. The recommendation to accumulate and make use of clips is sound - though, again, Daugherty overlooks the value of the Internet as an author’s marketing tool for making writing samples available. As can be expected from a veteran writer, You Can Write for Magazines is entertaining, clear, and easy to read. More importantly, it should prove of value for a beginning writer as well as for the author who has already had some success in marketing his writing efforts. |
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