For a great take on what’s happened to the U.S. magazine business over the past dozen years, be sure to catch Washington Post staff writer Peter Carlson’s latest and last entry in his column, The Magazine Reader. Carlson’s finale is titled “Looking at 12 Years Between the Covers”. In it he chronicles the magazines that […]
Why freelance queries get rejected
Freelancers deal with rejection all the time and it doesn’t get any easier. The worst is when you’ve put your heart and soul into a query only to have an editor say “Thanks but no thanks,” or worse, not say anything at all. I got dumped recently for the first time in a while, and […]
What editors want from freelance writers
If you hang around freelance writers enough, you know one of the biggest topics of conversation is editors: how to find them, pitch to them, work with them, get them to return your emails and phone calls and love you so much they call you with assignments. Editors have the same kinds of discussions about […]
Magazines: The good, the bad and the ugly
First the good. This year’s National Magazine Awards were announced a couple days ago. National Geographic won three, followed by Vanity Fair, which amidst the uproar over its suggestive pictures of squeeky-clean tween queen Miley Cyrus, grabbed two. Conde Nast Portfolio, the glossy monthly that debuted a year ago, took home one – not bad […]
WD's 2008 Best Sites for Writers + Contest
The June 2008 issue of Writer’s Digest features the magazine’s annual listing of 101 best Websites for writers. It’s interesting reading, as much for what it doesn’t include as for what it does. The listing is broken into research and reference Websites such as Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary and Wikipedia, resources on publishers, agents and the […]
Read All About It: Best Blogs on the Media Biz
These days freelance writers have to keep up with the times – the New York Times, that is, and the LA Times, the Washington Post and the Christian Science Monitor. Why? The fortunes of newspapers are changing and it’s changing what they want – or don’t want – from freelancers. Shrinking newspapers advertising means shrinking […]