The Magazine Writer's Handbook

Preface to the Second Edition

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION Dear Frank and Judi, It isn't very often that I come across a book that evokes a spontaneous "I wish I'd written that!" Your Magazine Writers Handbook is one of my favorites. I can't imagine why I never found the book before this year! Although I already knew practically everything covered, I read the book with interest and enjoyment. And I was grateful to be reminded ofsome areas I'd half-forgotten. This is a valuable book for the beginner, the intermediate writer, and the well-seasoned professional. The information it contains is outstanding and the writing is superb. It is with great pleasure that I recommend The Magazine Writers Handbook to my writing classes. I just want to thank you again for doing such a wonderful job. Cordially, Louise Purwin Zobel, Professor ofJournalism, San Jose State University, author, The Travel Writers Handbook (Writer's Digest Books); contributor to Better Homes and Gardens, Brides Magazine, House Beautiful, Medical Economics, Modern Maturity, Parents Magazine and newspapers around the country. This flattering letter arrived in our mail four years after Frank and I first wrote The Magazine Writers Handbook. The funny thing is, we wrote it because we needed a textbook. We'd been teaching courses and seminars in magazine writing , first in New York City and on Long Island and then with the outreach arm ofthe University ofWisconsin. We'd been looking for a good textbook for serious students, with no luck. Most books on writing didn't even explain what a query is, much less how to write one-and the query is the one tool you need most to sell a magazine article. Few showed how to write a good lead or how to find live experts or interview them once you found them. Not one demonstrated the work that must go into writing a final draft for submission. So we wrote the book we needed for our courses-and soon began getting heartwarming letters like the one from Louise, reproduced here with her IX x Preface to the Second Edition kind permission. To our pride and satisfaction, we heard that other journalism professors were using the book in colleges around the country. We also heard that several top magazine editors were recommending it to favorite novice writers . Long after the first and second editions sold out, we were thrilled when University ofWisconsin Press wanted to publish this updated edition. Re-reading the prior editions carefully, we've seen little change in magazine publishing in twenty-four years. The only major innovation has been technologic . Computers are here to stay, and they've greatly evolved since the 1982 edition. They're a boon to magazine writers, making short work ofsending out many queries on the same topic and making it easy to resell reworked articles many times over. Since 1982, many magazines have folded and new ones have popped up; some have moved or been bought by other publishers. Editors have retired, moved up on the masthead or jumped to better paying jobs. In their place are new, unseasoned editors full ofdrive and anxious to discover new writers. In the intervening twenty-four years, several magazines raised their fees to freelancers; others lowered already low fees. A few more fiction markets opened up, but they faded just as fast. Otherwise, every word in the first edition is as true today as when we wrote it. A lot has changed in our lives, though. Back when The Magazine Writers Handbook and its companion The Authors Handbook were first published, Frank and I thought we'd go on writing books and magazine articles forever. In fact, during 1982 we wrote several articles for Fortune, OMNI and Parade and five more books in our Study Smart series for students and others (which has also recently been reprinted by the University ofWisconsin Press). But by January 1983, we were firmly committed to a new venture. To write those last five books, we had bought two early NEC computers. We learned fast how primitive they were and how incompletely they met manufacturers' promises. We also found out that most people understood nothing about them. So-just as we'd been doing throughout our careers-we decided to interpret this new phenomenon to the public. Frank was way ahead ofme. He'd worked as American liaison for a French computer company way back before he became a photojournalist. He understood the technology and some of the lingo...