Letters to the Editor - publishing credits

[aruna]

I just read on Miss Snark's blog something about Letters to the Editor, and whether such to the NYT may be mentioned as publishing credits (Miss Snark: doesn't hurt; they are hard to get).

http://misssnark.blogspot.com/, date 10/17

I've actually had several letters to the editor published, way beforew I got my novel published, and in big publications as well: Two inTime Magazine, One in Germany's Der Spiegel, on ein The Times and one in The Observer. I do write them fairly often. How about you? Do yuo write them, have you been "published"?

[maestrowork]

IMHO, letters to editors don't count as publishing credit.

[Jamesaritchie]

I just read on Miss Snark's blog something about Letters to the Editor, and whether such to the NYT may be mentioned as publishing credits (Miss Snark: doesn't hurt; they are hard to get).

http://misssnark.blogspot.com/, date 10/17

I've actually had several letters to the editor published, way beforew I got my novel published, and in big publications as well: Two inTime Magazine, One in Germany's Der Spiegel, on ein The Times and one in The Observer. I do write them fairly often. How about you? Do yuo write them, have you been "published"?

I've had letters to the editor published quite a few times, and some of those letters actually went to to become columns and articles. I really enjoy writing them.

But I'd never mention a letter to the editor as a publishing credit.

[aruna]

What I was basically saying is that Letters tothe Editor can be a good way in. Some letter writers become established names in local newspapers, and can go on to columns and articles. I know a few people who became columnists that way in my home country.

[mesh138]

I had a letter published in Ebony, written because author Terry Mcmillian had said in an interview that it was more difficult for black writers to get published than white ones.

[aka eraser]

I've had letters to the editor published in various media. Never considered them a credit - but then, I'd already been published and had other stuff I could point to.

[Pat~]

I've had a letter to the editor published in a major newspaper, but the consensus seems to be that they are not really valid publishing credits in the eyes of most publishers... (Technically I was "published" when I wrote my master's thesis, but I wouldn't use that as a credit, either.)

[reph]

I had parts of letters printed in the old Life and Saturday Review (one each), but I wouldn't cite them as publishing credits. If you could do that, I could say I'd been published in the New Yorker. They used a filler I sent. Unfortunately, I didn't write it. It was a classified ad from a local paper.