Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #319251 in Books
• Published on: 2002-08-09
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 863 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
So you've written your article about sword dancing in Northumberland. You think it's publishable but have never published before and have no contacts. Where do you start? Enter The Writer's Handbook 2003 with its usual detailed listings and helpful advice about the marketing of words.

First published in 1998 the annual handbook includes long alphabetical lists of magazines and newspapers, contact details for book publishers, relevant website addresses and essays to entertain you even when they can't encourage. This year, for example, Mick Sinclair's contribution "Up, Up Away" tells you unequivocally that: "writers hoping to break into travel authorship by recounting a thrill-a-minute tale of death-defying adventure will probably find swimming the Atlantic with a pack of sharks or crossing Antarctic on a toboggan to be much easier than convincing a publisher to commission an account of the exploit."

Of course The Writer's Handbook isn't just for article writers. This is a book for writers in the widest sense so novelists, playwrights, screen writers, and radio "scripters" are all catered for. Neither is it a book just for beginners. There is plenty of useful information here for anyone active in the writing business whether he or she is an established practitioner, a raw recruit or somewhere in between.

Particularly useful are the contact details of festivals from The Round Festival in Wimborne to the well-known Cheltenham Festival of Literature. The organisation listings are good value too. They range from the Big Boys such as Society of Authors and Chartered Institute of Journalists to the Outdoor Writers' Guild and the Association of Christian Writers.

So, back to your sword dancers. Search the magazine and newspaper indexes in The Writer's Handbook for suitable titles, read the advice and try your luck.--Susan Elkin

The Times
'This is the book no writer should be without'

The Society of Authors
`A wise and witty book, packed with useful information'

Customer Reviews

Writers' and Artists' Yearbook is better
Before you buy Writers' Handbook, it's worth looking at the main competition, which I much prefer.

Writers and Artists Yearbook has by far the better coverage. There's also a lot more practical articles in it about how to get published, how to get an agent and how to understand a contract for instance. The fact that JK Rowling and Eoin Colfer used it to find their agents speaks volumes.

Obviously, if you've got the money, get both! But if you have to choose, I'd go for Writers' and Artists' Yearbook any time.

Hmm.....
Useful. I found publishers that might be willing to publish my works, and was given information on how to contact them.
Also talk about Literary Agents and publishing for those who have no experience (I am a prime example!) but we'll see if I get published!

If you're an author this book is worth a look, just at least so you know who is out there and what to do.

Useful Resource, But By No Means A Be All And End All
Let me begin by saying that purchasing The Writer's Handbook is a MUST for anyone in or wanting to break into the writing industry (ie. journalism, fiction writing etc.). However, whereas the book contains a lot of contact addresses and the like, its contents seem to fall short of the mark, and the included articles in this year's edition are not of any use at all, they're either anecdotal tales or telling you what you already know.

Buy this book for the updated contact list only, not for the other content. You'll be disappointed if you do.