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How to Write Short Stories for Magazines: And Get Them Published (How to Books)
 
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How to Write Short Stories for Magazines: And Get Them Published (How to Books) (Paperback)

by Sophie King (Author)
2.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 197 pages
  • Publisher: How To Books Ltd (25 Jul 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1845282809
  • ISBN-13: 978-1845282806
  • Product Dimensions: 23 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 241,346 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review
'Sophie guides you through both the business and creative aspects of short story writing, and tells you just about everything you need to know to succeed.' --Writing Magazine

Product Description
Writing short stories is both a science and an art. You need a certain amount of skill but you will increase your chances by studying your market and learning what magazine editors are looking for. It is not always obvious. "How to Write Short Stories" will take you as a would-be writer through the tricks of the trade by: helping you discover what the different magazines are looking for and how to think up ideas to suit; demonstrating how you can write different slants, such as twist in the tales and feel-good stories; and, advising on how you can win fiction competitions. "How To Write Short Stories" is packed with tips, quotes and inside angles from magazine editors and relevant experts.

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Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
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 (1)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:
 (1)
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Average Customer Review
2.8 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Don't Waste Your Money, 9 Nov 2008
By Ms. H. Kara (England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Sophie King has written a very short book. The text is in 1.5 line spacing and the margins are huge. Her own previously published stories (which she has therefore already been paid for) take up one-quarter of the book.

I have had success with a couple of short stories, and maybe if I was a complete beginner I would have found something useful here. But it's very basic. For example, the chapter on the Internet is a whole page long, and says you can use the Internet to get published (but beware of vanity publishing and lack of copyright control), source competitions, and do research. There is no mention of how to do these things (other than Googling 'short stories'), or of the myriad of other potential uses of the Internet for short story writers such as finding and joining virtual writing groups, reading helpful writers' blogs, searching news sites to generate ideas, etc.

I think this book would have had much more credibility if it had used excerpts of published stories to illustrate points made rather than printing stories in their entirety for little apparent reason. I would also have found it more credible if it had featured other writers' stories as well as Ms King's. There are some tips from other writers in the final chapter, and I learned more from these than from the whole of the rest of the book. So I would recommend that anyone wanting a how-to book on writing short stories for magazines should probably give this one a miss, and buy Della Galton's 'How to Write and Sell Short Stories' instead.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Useful nuggets of information here, 8 Oct 2008
By Simon Whaley (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
As someone who has had a couple of short stories published, I'm always looking for advice on how to improve.

Sophie King (aka Jane Bidder) has written for a wide variety of publications and uses some of her stories at the end of her chapters to illustrate the points she's making. However, the chapters do not go into a lot of detail and in some cases the stories at the end of the chapter are the longest section of the chapter.

I was surprised to see her including some guidelines from some of the magazines. Some of these change quite frequently, and will be out of date soon.

However, there are some useful nuggets of information in there and the variety of Sophie's included stories means it's possible to learn some of the writing technique by analysing her work.

This doesn't tell you everything you need to know, but it goes a long way. I would recommend that you buy this, and if you can get hold of a copy at the same time, "Cracking the Short Story Market" by Iain Pattison (978-1903119006)
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Curate's Egg, 2 Jul 2009
By Shutsumon (Staffordshire, UK) - See all my reviews
When I first started reading this after I bought it I wondered if I'd made a mistake. It deals primarily with the type of short fiction you find in Women's Magazines like "Woman's Weekly" and "Best", and this is not a genre of fiction I generally read or write.

However on the principle that a short story is a short story I persevered. I thought I might still get some value from it, and I did, but not much.

The stuff about characterisation and plotting was especially useful. The viewpoint chapter is good, but didn't tell me anything I didn't know.

The dialogue chapter, however, is a curate's egg - some of it is good but some of it is horrible. This woman actually suggests using alternatives to said and gives some suggestions that are bad. And the chapter on First or Third Person contains a major editing gaff. Throughout the book there are examples of stories she's had published as examples (and I suspect to boost page count). In this chapter she states that she's using one story at the end and then uses another completely.

The rest of the book is full of reasonable advice, but somehow the whole book feels a bit anaemic. It's the first book I've read on writing short stories, but it seems lacking. The internal layout is odd compared to most books and it, and the 'example' stories seem to be aimed at boosting the page count. I'm absolutely sure there must be better books about the art of short story writing than this one. It might be worth getting out of the library, but I wouldn't recommend buying it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Sophie King's good advice
I found this book to be packed with good advice on the art of writing short stories. This is one to keep on your shelves as it is worth revisiting time and again.
Published 4 months ago by Sue

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