Not renewing

I buy them for the pretty pictures....

(no, I don't read writer's magazines. Once in a while I will buy a copy if they cover something of interest)

I generally ignore writing magazines. I find the tone too often turns into a condescending "So, you want to write? Aw, 'aint that just too cute to kiss?" approach, with far too many puff pieces on individual writer profiles and often flat-out bad advice. I hit the roof when I found a long, know-it all column in one of them promoting AuthorHouse as a great modern alternative. It's always struck me that the one thing someone who can write can usually do is make themselves sound convincing, even if the advice is goddamned awful ("Send all your work on scented blue paper! It'll make the agent remember you, and that goes a long way!").

True, that can happen on forums as well, but at least on sites like this, you know that someone's likely to be along with the debunking hat on ;-)

The only exception I can think of is that I'd like to see more (I know, I'm on the subs list, but AW seems fairly US centric) with general pointers towards new opportunities and what various companies I might not have ever thought about approaching might be up to. Still to find a good one, either online or off, but it's something I'd very much like someone to expose my utter ignorance of

Writing magazines

Nateskate said:

I'm not renewing my subscription to a writer's magazine. I've learned much more on these pages than I ever learned in the magazine, or at least, everything I read in those magazines is redundant. Some of the threads here are equal to, or better than, most of the articles I've seen lately.

No, this is not an add for absolute write, but for those who are looking for the basics, I think most people are going to find it here, or at least on the links associated with this website.

Have you found the same?

If not, which magazines do you feel are worthwhile, and why?

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I think all the top writing magazines are worthwhile for new writers, or for pro writers who also write short stories, articles, or poetry. In order of my favorites, I prefer Publishers Weekly, The Writer, Poets & Writers, Writer's Digest, Byline, and Writer's Journal.

It's certainly true that much of what you read in the magazines will be redundant, but this is also true of forums. At any rate, I think the subscription price is a steal, considering what you get in return.

It takes one good article to pay for the subscription price many times over, and surely there's one worthwhile article over a twelve month period? And in all these magazines, I think the market listings and news of the publishing world alone is worth far more than the subscription price. One market listing you haven't seen before may well pay for all four magazines many times over.

And many of the articles in these magazines are written by top agents and editors, and almost all the rest are written by pro writers. If only one in ten says something that applies to you, you're way ahead of the game.

Yes, there's an awful lot of information available online, and some of it is wonderful. But much of it is poor, and far too much of it is nonsense.

My guess is you can learn anything online that you can learn from the magazines, but you'll really have to learn to sort the good from the bad, and you'll have to learn how to search for things you didn't even know existed.
On the other hand, while articles in the magazines may be redundant at times, I can think of dozens of very good articles I've found in the magazines over the years that simply are not available online.

I've been writing for a lot of years, but particularly where short fiction, articles, and poetry are concerned, I still find the magazines far more useful, and far easier to use, than the internet. And if I didn't have an agent, I have no doubt these magazines would be equally useful for novels.

I don't think there's ever been a year when I didn't find at least one feature article, or one column, or one bit of information, or one piece of advice, or one market listing in each of these magazines that wasn't worth many times the subscription price. I usually find many more, but one is really all it takes to justify the subscription price, and then some.

Forums are great places, but from my viewpoint, I see far more real information about how to actually get published in the magazines than I do on any forum.