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The Writer's Handbook
addresses, contacts, resources, and advice for writers
This is the 'other' reference manual for writers and people working in the media. It lists publishers in the UK and the US, offers advice to would-be writers on how to place their work, and counsels them on how to deal with agents and middlemen if they have the luck to be 'accepted'.
It's a comprehensive guide which even goes into the details of listing the key personnel you need to contact if that deathless prose of yours is ever to see the light of public day. How does it differ from the more established Writers and Artists Year Book and the new-ish Writers Marketplace? Well, it spreads itself just a little more generously across a wider range of media. There's a bit more here on newspapers and magazines, more on radio, TV, small presses and theatre companies.
There's a particularly good section on library services, and there are tips on writing from well-known authors.
It's updated every year, and many of the entries are annotated with subjective but useful comments on how much people pay - an important issue for hard-pressed writers. New features for the latest edition include how to crack the American market; e-books and the future of hard print; how to get into travel writing; and how newspaper serialisations work. Also new in the latest edition: Google and Books, Comedy Writing, The Ins and Outs of a Publishing House, and Approaching a Literary Agent.
This is the information you will need for Getting Published. Recent editions have also featured best-seller lists and articles written by successful authors. There's not a lot to choose between this and the Yearbook. Have a look at both and decide which one suits you.
© Roy Johnson 2009
[more WRITERS' REFERENCE books]
Barry Turner (ed), The Writer's Handbook, London: Macmillan, (issued annually) pp.784,
ISBN: 023057324X
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