In the 2001 edition, the book is set up the same way it’s always been, but the CD-ROM has only the bare essentials to get you connected to their web site. This is where you will find the searchable database of everything that is in the book. The good news is that the site is updated frequently, whereas before you had to wait for the next year's book/CD to come out. Now you can get the most recent information on the markets you’re looking for, right at the web site. The bad news is that if you don’t want or don’t have Internet access, you’re basically out of luck and stuck with just purchasing the book at $29.99. If you go with the Internet edition, it includes one year of updates, then the updates cost $2.99/month or $29.99/year. Or you can just subscribe to the web site, forget the book, at the same $2.99/month or $29.99/year.
The sidebar offers
Search matches - This is the place to go to search for the markets you want to write
for
Writer’s Encyclopedia - Alphabetical, find anything you need to know about
writing
Resources - Links to dictionaries, the business of writing and more
Free Newsletter - A weekly e-mail newsletter (I get it and it’s very good)
Tips Library - Searchable writing advice and tips
Your Writer’s Market - Once you create your personal profile, you can use this to
manage your preferred markets, be notified when a market matching you is
updated/added/changed, and more
Favorites Folders - Create folders for the markets you want to write for or currently
write for
FAQ - Everything you want to know about the site and how to use it
and more
Searching the web site for a certain market is pretty easy. You can select from the following categories
Book Publishers
Trade Magazines
Screenwriting Markets
Consumer Magazines
Playwriting Markets
Greeting Cards & Gift Ideas
Contests & Awards
Literary Agents
Syndicates
You can do a search from this page by typing in what you’re looking for in the text box, and/or selection a search by market location, area code or by Web site URL. If you want to refine the search a bit, you can select one of the major categories, I’ll use Consumer Magazines as an example. This brings you to a more advanced search engine. You can type in or choose the following:
Market Name Search text box
Needs (Select one) All, nonfiction, fiction, poetry, fillers, photos, departments
Location (Select one) All, the entire U.S. one state, Canada or other country
Area Code text box
Accepts Queries by (Select one) All, moderate and up, intermediate and up, advanced
and up, top rates
Only markets that (checkbox one or more) Don’t buy all rights, Pay on acceptance,
Buy reprints, Have been added/changed in the past two months, Accept simultaneous
submissions, Have a web site, Publish online-exclusive material
Search list order by (Select one) Name, section, date of most recent change
Subjects (Select one) All or one of 50 selections)
Nonfiction Article Types (Select one) All or one of 16 selections
Fiction Article Types (Select one) All or one of 20 selections
I decided to search for magazines about Japan and entered “Japan” in the Market Name Search text box, left all the others default at “All” and clicked on the “Search Writersmarket.com” button. I got the result of just Japanophile, although I know there are other magazines about Japan. When using the CD-ROM versions of Writer’s Market from previous years, I could put in one word like Japan and it would bring up all magazines that published anything about Japan. I think this is a big fault of the web site and hope they update the search engine to reflect this, or offer an advanced search function to take care of this problem.
Other than that, it was easy finding magazines I was interested in possibly writing for. Clicking on DogFancy in search results for dog-related magazines brought me to a page describing the magazine, it’s contact info (including links to the web site and clickable e-mail addresses), “freelance facts” (including how much of the magazine is freelance written - 95%, when it was established, what rights they buy, when they pay and more), it’s nonfiction needs broken down by category, what it does not want (in this case “No stories written from a dog's point of view, poetry, anything that advocates irresponsible dog care, tributes to dogs that have died or beloved family pets”), how many manuscripts they buy each year and how much they pay, among other information. There were also two icons at the top of the page, a star and two dollar signs, meaning this market offers greater opportunities by buying a large number of freelance/unagented submissions and it pays 10-49¢/word or $151-750/article
There is a lot of information available on this site and it’s very easy to navigate and use. If you’re online a lot, this is a useful tool for you. If you don’t go online very often, this may not be your cup of tea. If you wish the CD-ROM was still included in full like previous years, let the people at Writer’s Digest Books know. But if you’re “connected,” Writer’s Market 2001: The Internet Edition is the way to go!
J.A. Hitchcock is a regular contributor to Compute Me. Visit her web site at jahitchcock.com.