Amazon.co.uk Review
With the radical and rapid changes that have occurred in publishing recently, it would be almost impossible to provide an up-to-date reference guide to this market, but
The Writer's Handbook 2000 tries its very best to do the job. Featuring over 5000 entries, this is a weighty guide and is impressive by any standards.
Editor Barry Turner has updated the Handbook to include comprehensive international lists of magazines/newspapers, publishers, television/radio/film/theatre, agents, literary prizes and associations, among other categories. The poetry section is especially comprehensive and extensive, going from the initial stage of submitting your work to "Organisations of Interest to Poets". The book also supplies useful guidelines on freelance rates for newspapers and a section on the all-important issue of copyright. The entries are divided up by short essays from leading writers--Minette Walters writes on "The Future of Crime", Philip Pullman on "Writing Children's Fiction", Elizabeth Buchan on "Popular Fiction for Women"--and PD James supplies an enthusiastic introduction to this new edition. The section on electronic publishing is admittedly quite short and many of the publisher's email/Web site addresses are missing from the listings. The index is also very detailed, arguably too much so, at over 100 pages. This is, however, an invaluable resource if you are a writer or would-be writer and at nearly 800 pages, The Writer's Handbook 2000 is great value for money. --Aruna Vasudevan
Synopsis
Twelfth edition of this guide to all markets for creative writing with over 5000 entries detailing opportunities in book and magazine publishing, newspapers, poetry, radio, theatre, TV, video and film. Also gives details of agents, prizes, writers' circles, associations and festivals.