The Writing Office

Writer’s Digest has announced that they have a new editor. Jessica Strawser was announced as the new editor on the Writer’s Digest Forum this past Tuesday. There is also an introduction in the way of a questions and answers article with the new Writer’s Digest editor on the Writer’s Digest website.

Strawser promises that there will be changes which she says will be aimed at meeting the needs of the magazine’s readers. As a hobby collector of Writer’s Digest Magazine, I am looking forward to seeing where the magazine goes under her leadership.

I am about one third of the way through Becoming A Writer by Dorothea Brande, and I have to say, i highly recommend the book to anyone that desires to be a writer.  The information that she has in the book is stuff that I wish I had read over when I first decided that I wanted to be a writer.  It is for the most part common sense things, but the kind of common sense that does not hit you until you hear someone else say it in a flat out plain English manner, and that is what she does.  She lays open the details of what it really means to want to be a writer and explains, in plain simple terms, why you might be failing to reach the goals you have set for yourself.

Well, it’s that time of year again, time to think about what you will be doing with your writing next year. No matter what you are planning to do with your writing, chances are you want to get a copy of Writer’s Market, but have you considered rather or not you are also going to be in the market for a literary agent?

Several years ago one of my sisters loaned me a copy of her Guide to Literary Agents, I found it to be indispensable for sorting through the confusion of finding a literary agent. At that time I was not ready for an agent, but the value I gleaned from that book has left me with the determination that when I am ready to find an agent, I will begin with the purchase of a current copy of the Guide to Literary Agents.

If you are in a position to be looking for an agent, or feel that you might be ready to look for one in the next year or two, I highly recommend picking up a copy of the Guide to Literary agents when you buy the 2008 Writer’s Market.

And right now Amazon.com has both books listed as discounted when you buy then together, so that makes it even easier to pick up the pair of books - or get them as a perfect Christmas gift for any writer you know to show them how much you believe in them.