Writer’s Digest University: Editors’ Intensive

Your exclusive chance to learn

first-hand from publishing experts!

December 13-14, 2008

Cincinnati, OH

Click here to register now!

You’ve been asking us for years… and now, for the first time ever, Writer’s Digest is opening its doors for a brand-new publishing event. That’s right—you’re invited to the heart of WD Headquarters to take part in exclusive panel discussions and manuscript critiques featuring these top editors:

Jane Friedman, Publisher & Editorial Director, Writer’s Digest
Chuck Sambuchino, Editor, Guide to Literary Agents
Alice Pope, Editor, Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market
Joe Stollenwerk, Director, WritersOnlineWorkshops.com

During a full-day’s worth of workshops, they’ll give you the insider tips you need to publish your work in today’s competitive market. You’ll learn how to…

> Research and identify the right agent
> Write a killer one-page query for your novel
> Write a bulletproof nonfiction book proposal
> Avoid sabotaging your career and move faster down the publishing path
> Break into tough markets and get responses from busy editors and agents

Best of all, you’ll meet one-on-one with a WD editor who will provide an individual critique of either your query letter and proposal package (up to 50 pages), or the first 50 pages of your manuscript—plus offer a customized list of best-bet markets for selling your work!

Please Note: Due to the personalized nature of this event, space is limited to 50 attendees.

Click here to learn more and reserve your space today!

WRITER'S DIGEST FREELANCE SUCCESS STORIES CONTEST

Once question every writer, novice or seasoned asks from time to time is how to decide where to submit a particular article, story or poem. For some great discussions on this topic you can visit the Writer's Digest Forum on How to Decide Where to Submit Your Work.

Also in this month's Writer's Digest:

FREELANCE SUCCESS STORIES CONTEST

This year's contest has a deadline of December 31. It's open to any writer and should be between 800-1,500 words in length. As usual, there is no entry fee. An exciting development is that I've increased the first place prize to $500 along with publication in the 2010 Writer's Market!

Entries can be sent to writersmarket@fwmedia.com with "Freelance Success Stories Entry" in the subject line.

This month's Writer's Digest issue is full of great information about latest industry news as well as how to network with other Writer's Digest subscribers. Go to www.WritersMarket.com to log in or sign up now.

A New Book Review Program for Bloggers

by Michael S. Hyatt, President & CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers

A few months ago, we began an experiment. We offered a free book to anyone who agreed to post a 200-word review on their blog. We were so pleased with the results, we decided to do it again.

I challenged Lindsey Nobles, my Director of Corporate Communications, to create a Web site specifically designed for bloggers who are interested in reviewing our books. As a result, we launched the Thomas Nelson Book Review Bloggers (BRB) site

If you are a blogger, this new site has at least three benefits:

1. Free copies of our best books. We will send you a free copy of the book you are interested in reviewing. In addition, after you have requested a review copy, we will email you a PDF of the first two chapters so you can immediately get started. Meanwhile, we will drop a physical copy of the book in the mail.
2. Content resources for your blog. We will provide you with free resources to use in your review. These include things like cover art, video or audio clips (when available), external links to other related items, etc. Frankly, this is the part of the site that we need to expand upon the most.
3. External links to your blog. We will provide a link back to the your actual review of the book. As you may know, external links are what drive up your blog’s ranking on Google. In general, the more links the better.

What do we require? Bloggers must agree to write a 200-word review—good, bad, or ugly—and post it on their blog and on the Amazon detail page for that book. Obviously, the review can be longer, but we wanted to set the bar low in order to encourage participation.

If you are interested in checking it out, click here to sign up for the program.