Which magazines should writers subscribe to?

Budget is an issue for most writers. Yet there are a lot of great magazines that are geared toward writers. And I don't mean magazines such as "Writer's Digest" -- I mean the "Oh my God, my writing is improving, I might get a book published one of these days" magazines. In this category, which ones should we get? What do published writers get?

I write SF and fantasy, although I follow romance very closely. I get Chronicle now and sometimes buy Locus for SF coverage. I keep meaning to subscribe to SFWA Bulletin again. Are there any other genre-specific titles I should consider?

I'd love to get Publisher's Weekly, but it's more than $200 per year. :eek So I'd rather subscribe pick up the occasional special issue and subscribe to something genre-specific, such as SFWA Bulletin. Am I way off-base here?

SF/F mags

I subscribe to Locus, which is my carrot-on-a-stick sometimes. I tell myself that when I die at the age of 96, surrounded by loved ones and small corgis, there will shortly follow a writeup in Locus's milestones section. (I have nearly 69 years to achieve that ambition, and hopefully lots of books too.) It's got interesting interviews with a wide variety of writers, plus they review books and do a quick rundown of the SF/F magazines for the month, so I can decide if I want to run out and buy or backorder an issue before reading it. (I notice that you pick it up occasionally...I think my own subscription has been worthwhile.)

I used to pick up Realms of Fantasy, SF Age, and The Magazine of SF&F. (SF Age is now defunct, I think. But Realms and SF&F are still going strong.)

Re: SF/F mags

if you find one of those, let me know. i've bought those writing mags from time to time, though i never felt the urge to subscribe. seems one out of about every three issues might have a nugget of information worth promptly forgetting. somehow most of the articles seem to be written by english teachers who have never been published except in magazines on how to write wonderfully, yet can tell you down to the nth degree what's wrong with *your* story, lol. my favourite articles are the '101 worst things a writer can write/say/do,' because without fail i've done 99 of them. i'm almost inspired to make my own list.

i don't know, are these things absolutely necessary to get published in the modern world? if you've got a great story at the right time and the right people see it, it gets published, right? i mean, more often than not? otherwise i'd complete my novel to the best of my ability, not hold back on the 'good stuff,' and see if an agent can hook me up with a publisher. what's the mystery there? 'how to write' a story or book or toothpaste instructions i can find by the mile-ful for free on the 'nut. why waste my money otherwise?

to me, there are only a few reasons why a person isn't getting published: they can't/won't do the things they need to be doing, which, again, is that/are those secrets keeping captain kidd's buried treasure company? i doubt it.

i think my money and time is better spent on magazines i enjoy and inspire me, like 'smithsonian.' if there are some hoops of fire i should be jumping through, someone clue me in, because it seems clear that if i'm in the right place at the right time and the right eyes are seeing my junk, if it's rejected the problem runs much deeper than as a result of me not taking every ort of advice i ever read in a how-to magazine. i shouldn't even get by the agent stage if the quality is that bad, and if it *is* that bad, i'll try being a heart surgeon with a diploma from arizona state online college.

seriously, i've looked at all these things available on the newstands for years, and i've yet seen anything that's guaranteed to propel an average writer onto everyone's must-read list. if you're a great writer, you'll get published hopefully sooner than later, i imagine, if you're an average writer, well, hell, let's kill a few trees just to have something to sell and see if we can squeeze something really good out eventually and try to wring a couple of bucks out in the process, and if you suck as a writer and there's no amount of books and articles and classes you can take that will salvage your pitiful stories, so you should quit.

if there's one sure-fire hit-making magazine out there, i must have missed the meeting on that telling me which one it is.

I think you're right on target. Most published writers I know buy as many magazines as possible in the genre they write in, and any other magazines that simply interest them. I subscribe to more than two dozen magazines, but none are the how-to type magazines, though I think these can often be very helpful to new writers.

If you want to write articles, you read as many nonfiction magazines as possible. If you want to write short stories, you subscribe to as many fiction magazines as possible. If you want to write novels, you read as many classic and currect novels in your chosen genre as possible.

And it's always wise to subscribe (or beg, borrow) magazines that let you keep up with industry news.

Only magazine I ever subscribed to was for airbrush artists.

Someone, on a thread I posted recently, recommended The Writer. Said it was worth it.

The Writer

I'm asking for it for Christmas.

Subscribe to the magazines you write for.

News magazines aren't bad, either. Lots of story ideas in 'em.

Subscribe to the magazines you write for.

Click to expand...

Oh, right. How could I forget that one? :\

Wife picks up a Writers Digest almost every time she goes to the bookstore - pretty generic, lots of ads, sometimes a decent article or two.

from the swamp - dub

I sub to the Writer and Writer's Digest - even tho I've had some success, there's nothing like a good reminder in their columns every few months to keep me on the track, hopefully... repetative, yep... but thick skulls like mine need repeated cracking!

Unless The Writer has changed a lot in the past year (last time I saw an issue was about that long ago), it's a bit below Writer's Digest in terms of the usefulness and accuracy of its articles. Which is to say, not very useful and dubiously accurate, quite a lot of the time. (And for God's sake avoid the ads in the back.) Some of the columns are decent, though.

I subscribe to Locus and Chronicle for news of the SF/fantasy market (though I periodically get burnout with those magazines and don't look at them for months), and to Publishers Lunch, PW Newsline, and Book Trade News Digest for publishing news. I also skim the Publishers Weekly website a couple of times a month. I also get the Authors Guild Bulletin, which has good coverage of legal and other issues affecting writers.

Anne, if I weren't a SFWA member, I wouldn't bother with the SFWA Bulletin. It's probably heresy, but I rarely find much of interest there. I think in part that's because I write fantasy; the Bulletin, like much of SFWA's Old Guard, is very much biased toward SF.

- Victoria

Unless The Writer has changed a lot in the past year (last time I saw an issue was about that long ago), it's a bit below Writer's Digest in terms of the usefulness and accuracy of its articles.

Click to expand...

I suppose it's a mater of personal taste, but I've always found The Writer to be far more useful and helpful than Writer's Digest.

... and to Publishers Lunch, PW Newsline, and Book Trade News Digest for publishing news. ...

Click to expand...

I might have to spring for Publisher's Weekly one of these days. :eek Oh, and I checked the Publishers Lunch web site, and they said it's sent to "qualified book trade professionals." Do they include unpublished authors? :\ (Well, I am an editor who works on a major scientific journal, but that's not a book, although then again, each issue of our journal is longer than a Robert Jordan novel.)

I also get the Authors Guild Bulletin, which has good coverage of legal and other issues affecting writers.

Click to expand...

Do I have to be a member to get that one?

Anne, if I weren't a SFWA member, I wouldn't bother with the SFWA Bulletin. It's probably heresy, but I rarely find much of interest there.

Click to expand...

:eek

I think in part that's because I write fantasy; the Bulletin, like much of SFWA's Old Guard, is very much biased toward SF.

Click to expand...

They're gonna love me. I've written two fantasy novels, one involving a gay barbarian and gay mage who wind up (gasp) falling in love (gasp) at the end. Well I subscribed anyway. After all, they take PayPal, and I can't resist a PayPal link. :lol

Oooh, maybe I should subscribe to Speculations again...

good choices there. i mean, a gay elf... that would be redundant, wouldn't it?

There are no niches left unexplored. There is a whole anthology about the gay fey open for submissions at the mo'