Writer's Digest newsletters

 Here are the latest Writer's Digest newsletters, including details of upcoming courses:

Writer's Digest online writing workshops cover every aspect of writing, from how to get started all the way to getting your project published -- all from the comfort of your home! Click here to view the full course calendar >>   This Week's Webinar: Writing The Personal Essay: Your Guide to Getting it Right with Windy Lynn Harris Thursday, September 10, 1:00 PM EDT Personal essays are appealing first-person stories found in magazines, newspapers, and anthologies across the country. They are incredibly popular to read with plenty of submission opportunities for writers. In this live webinar, Windy will guide you through her step-by-step process for crafting your personal narrative in a way that captivates readers. This presentation is bursting with information and inspiration.   Courses Starting This Week:  12 Weeks to a First Draft Instructor: Terri Valentine Dive into the world of writing and learn all 12 steps needed to complete a first draft. In this writing workshop you will tackle the steps to writing a book, learn effective writing techniques along the way, and of course, begin writing your first draft.   Advanced Blogging Instructor: Naveed Saleh Do you want to dig deeper into what makes a successful and unique blog? Perhaps your blog isn't performing the way you would like? By the end of this course, you will have the confidence and the know-how to build your blog into something extraordinary.   Creativity and Expression Instructor: G. Miki Hayden When you take this online workshop, you’ll explore creative writing topics and learn how descriptive writing can breathe life into your characters, setting, and plot. Learn creative writing techniques to launch your writing and transform your ideas into your next story.   Form and Composition Instructor: Kelly Boyer Sagert Proper grammar, punctuation, and mechanics make your writing correct. In order to truly write well, you must also master the art of form and composition. From sentence structure to polishing your prose, this workshop will enhance your writing, no matter what type of writing you do.   Getting Started in Writing Instructor: Estelle Erasmus Have you always wanted to be a writer? Don't let doubt or fear get the best of you—take a chance and learn how to start writing a book, novel, short story, memoir, or essay. When you take this online writing workshop, you'll discover your voice, learn the basics of grammar, and examine the different types of writing.   Grammar and Mechanics Instructor: Kelly Boyer Sagert Do you remember the difference between the 8 parts of speech and how to use them? Are you comfortable with punctuation and mechanics? No matter what type of writing you do, mastering the fundamentals of grammar and mechanics is an important first step to having a successful writing career.   Writing Online Content Instructor: Naveed Saleh With the continued proliferation of online and virtual media, more readers than ever before are turning to the internet for news and opinions. This course will teach you how to effectively write online articles of all types including news, feature articles, opinion articles, alternative story forms (listicles, charticles, Q&As, and more), and blog postings.     September Boot Camp: Agent One-on-One: How to Craft Query Letters & Other Submission Materials That Get Noticed with Kimberley Cameron & Associates September 22-25, 2020 When your submission materials – a query letter, synopsis, manuscript, or book proposal – arrive in an agent's inbox, they land among hundreds of others. This WDU Boot Camp is designed to help you streamline your submission materials to stand out in a good way. Get valuable agent feedback on your submission materials and more! Seating is limited so sign up today.    Upcoming Webinar:   Writing the Memoir that Can Sell: How to Attract Agents & Editors to Your Story with Regina Brooks Thursday, September 24, 1:00 PM EDT Writing and selling a commercially viable memoir in today's marketplace can often seem difficult. But even more daunting is knowing how to get a competitive edge so that agents and editors will take your project seriously. Regina Brooks will explain what sells and why and how you can get YOUR memoir published. Critique of your query letter included!   View Full Course Calendar Hate being tied to a schedule? Our Self-Paced Courses are Now Only $19.99!   EXPERT INSTRUCTORS | CONVENIENT ACCESS INVALUABLE FEEDBACK    Privacy Policy Writer's Digest an Active Interest Media company 5720 Flatiron Parkway, Boulder, Colorado 80301 Announcing Jasmine Guillory as Opening Keynote! Writer’s Digest is thrilled to announce the exciting opening keynote for this year’s WD Novel Writing Conference: Jasmine Guillory! We can’t wait to hear what she has to say! Jasmine Guillory is the New York Times bestselling author of The Wedding Date, The Proposal, The Wedding Party, Royal Holiday, and Party of Two. The Proposal was chosen by Reese Witherspoon as the February 2019 Reese’s Book Club pick. Her work has appeared in O, The Oprah Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Real Simple, and Time. She lives in Oakland, California. With more than 30 sessions and two days of education, fun, and networking you can’t go wrong with the Writer’s Digest Novel Writing Conference. Hone your craft, refine your characters, explore the future of publishing, and get the tools you need to advance your career as a successful novelist. There are more exciting announcements coming soon, so stay tuned! Register today! PS - You may have noticed the Writer’s Digest Annual Conference is happening over the same dates. There will be some programming crossover for sessions that make sense for both audiences and unique programming for each conference. For those who would like access to everything, we’re offering a NEW All Access pass! Register Now Information SPONSORED BY:  Privacy Policy Writer's Digest an Active Interest Media company 5720 Flatiron Parkway, Boulder, Colorado 80301

. Create an Author Success Map Writing and publishing a book is a huge accomplishment, as authors pour enormous amounts of time, energy and creativity into their books. But once your baby is out in the world, how do you measure whether it's "successful" or not? What does "success" for a book even look like in a time when millions are released each year? Some authors define success by industry benchmarks, like hitting The New York Times bestseller list or scoring a review with major media outlets. Others compare themselves to fellow writers, the ones who are landing keynote speaking gigs, hosting sold-out book events, becoming national book club picks, or who just, well, seem to be doing better (whatever that means). And for some, success is all about the numbers: Sell 5,000, 10,000, 100,000, or a million books, and you'll know you've "made it." (8 blogging tips for writers to find success.) If you're not careful, you can begin to equate "success" with "fame" before you even realize the difference. It's critical to stop and ask yourself: How do you define success? What does it look like for you and your book specifically? Without a clear, realistic, and (perhaps most importantly) personalized definition of success, it's all-too-easy to miss your very own milestones and accomplishments. You may even begin to believe you're "failing" as an author, when in fact you are succeeding—just maybe by a different definition than the one you've internalized. Read the full article... Say goodbye to frustrating writing tools and hello to NovelPad—the immersive app designed to make writing easier! Write without distraction and effortlessly rearrange story beats by dragging and dropping scene cards, and simplify your workflow with automated Character, Location, and Plot tracking. Stay motivated with reminders, goals, and detailed analytics. While your writing tool can’t write your novel for you, it shouldn't work against you.  Try NovelPad completely for free with no credit card required at NovelPad.com Writing Prompt: Clothing Your Character Create a new character, beginning with the clothing they wear. Look in your closet, costume box, or search online vintage retailers such as Etsy for inspiration. Write a scene or story starring this character. Read More... This Week in Writing 9/8—Ann Beattie born 1947 9/9—Leo Tolstoy born 1828 9/10—Mary Oliver born 1935 (List of 100 poetic forms for poets) 9/10—Stephen Jay Gould born 1941 9/11—O. Henry born 1862 9/11—D.H. Lawrence born 1885 9/12—Alfred A. Knopf born 1892 9/12—Michael Ondaatje born 1943 9/12—David Foster Wallace died 2008 (On the death of David Foster Wallace) 9/13—Sherwood Anderson born 1876 9/13—Roald Dahl born 1916 (14 Roald Dahl quotes for writers) Robert Lee Brewer Robert Lee Brewer is a senior editor for Writer's Digest and former editor of the Writer's Market book series. He is also the author of Smash Poetry Journal and Solving the World's Problems. Find him on Twitter at @RobertLeeBrewer  Privacy Policy Writer's Digest an Active Interest Media company 5720 Flatiron Parkway, Boulder, Colorado 80301

There's still time to enter Writer’s Digest’s Annual Self-Published E-book Awards. Win $5,000 and a trip to the WD Conference in New York City. This competition spotlights e-books in 8 categories including Contemporary Fiction, Romance, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Mystery/Thriller, Memoir, Young Adult and Nonfiction. Here’s what you could win: $5,000 in cash A feature article about you and your book in the May/June 2021 issue of Writer’s Digest A paid trip to the ever-popular Writer’s Digest Conference AND more! For the chance to earn the prestige you deserve and watch your career soar to new heights, enter Writer’s Digest’s Self-Published E-book Awards. LEARN MORE | Privacy Policy Writer's Digest an Active Interest Media company 5720 Flatiron Parkway, Boulder, Colorado 80301

Check out our updated list of 20 literary agents actively seeking writers and their writing, a new market spotlight, the best job and market websites of 2020, and more!  20 Agents Actively Seeking Writers I love sharing our regular agent alerts, because these are the agents who are the hungriest for finding new writers and projects to represent. That said, I took this week off to update our list of 20 agents actively seeking writers and their writing. (How to Write Successful Queries for Any Writing Genre.) Let's get into this. Read the full article... Craft & Business of Writing Best Job and Market Websites of 2020 Here are the best job and market websites as identified in the 22nd Annual 101 Best Websites from the May/June 2020 issue of Writer's Digest. Read More... Spinning a Negative Situation Into a Positive "A month after lock-down, the economy was tanking, book deals (including mine) were canceled or put on-hold, and booksellers were closing their doors. I wanted to give back to my community: writers, readers, and booksellers. An anthology to raise money for the Book Industry Charitable Foundation (Binc) was a natural. "Within two weeks of posting a call for submissions on Facebook, 90 authors stepped up to contribute essays, poems, and a handful of interviews about their fears, hopes, and comforts during the pandemic. Every author donated their work, my publisher and the book distributor donated their services, and the trade publications donated ads to spread the word. The support has been incredible!" Read More... Reminisce Magazine: Market Spotlight A publication of Reader's Digest, Reminisce Magazine is a "reader-written" publication of nonfiction recollections of the past. (Astronomy: Market Spotlight.) The editors say, "Reminisce celebrates the past with true stories and vintage photographs. We prefer a first-person, I-remember-when angle and rarely accept features written in third-person. We want the stories we feature to be exclusive to Reminisce, so please don't send your article to multiple magazines at once." Read More... Send Your Work to 2nd Draft Critique Services! No matter your style or genre, Writer's Digest Shop offers a high-level view of your writing. After an evaluation of your submission, one of the professional 2nd Draft critiquers will provide feedback and advice. You'll not only learn what's working in your writing, but what's not, and—most important—how to fix it. Gain a critique of your manuscript, query letter, synopsis, and more! Click here to learn more >> What They Don't Teach You in MFA Programs I was never a fan of academic creative writing courses. The ones I took in college and graduate school were, shall we say, less than desirable (more on that in a moment), and the classes were run by professors, some of whom were published writers, who loved to talk about what made great writing but couldn't (or wouldn't) explain what made a great story. Story, more often than not, was secondary. (Do writers need to go to college?) I've been teaching creative writing at Harvard's Extension School and their Summer Writing Program, on and off, for the past two decades, to mainly graduate students, and I'm always struck by just how little many of these great, promising writers know about story. Whether you're writing romance, young adult fiction, or the great American novel, it all begins with story. You have to know story structure, how it works and how to work it, before you write a single line. And this is how you do it. Read More... Robert Lee Brewer Robert Lee Brewer is a senior editor for Writer's Digest and former editor of the Writer's Market book series. He is also the author of Smash Poetry Journal and Solving the World's Problems. Find him on Twitter at @RobertLeeBrewer  Privacy Policy Writer's Digest an Active Interest Media company 5720 Flatiron Parkway, Boulder, Colorado 80301

How to Get YOUR Memoir Published Writing and selling a commercially viable memoir in today's marketplace can often seem difficult. But even more daunting is knowing how to get a competitive edge so that agents and editors will take your project seriously and be willing to take a chance on you even if you don't happen to be famous.    Regina Brooks is the author of You Should Really Write a Book: How to Write Sell and Market Your Memoir and will explain what sells and why and how you can get YOUR memoir published.    Learn to think like a publishing professional, become familiar with the different types of memoirs, the effective strategies for securing an agent as well as how best to get your book published traditionally or non traditionally.   How to determine where your books will fit in the marketplace How to vary your format or develop a narrative that is creative and exciting such as a graphic novel, illustrated storytelling, diary inclusion, and even poetry How to represent real people in your novel while avoiding litigation How to determine if you should self-publish, or go the traditional publishing route How to submit your work to agents and publishers And much more! Writers who want to share their thoughts and feelings about life through story Essayists who want to elevate their storytelling techniques Bloggers who want to expand their reach into literary magazines and anthologies This session is appropriate for writers of all levels   September 24, 1:00 PM EDT LEARN MORE   Instructor: Regina Brooks   Regina Brooks is the founder and president of Serendipity Literary Agency LLC, based in Brooklyn, New York. Her agency has represented and established a diverse base of award-winning clients in adult and young adult fiction, nonfiction, and children's literature. Her authors have appeared in USA TODAY, NY TIMES and the Washington Post as well as on Oprah, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, FOX, MSBNC, TV ONE, BET, and a host of others. She has held senior editorial positions at John Wiley and Sons and McGraw-Hill companies..      Privacy Policy Writer's Digest an Active Interest Media company 5720 Flatiron Parkway, Boulder, Colorado 80301

Middle-grade author Fleur Bradley shares how she finds joy in the writing process and we reveal the cover of our September/October issue.   Fleur Bradley: Finding Joy in the Writing Process   Fleur Bradley is passionate about two things: mysteries and getting kids to read. When she’s not active in her local SCBWI chapter, she’s doing school visits and is speaking at librarian and educator conferences on reaching reluctant readers. Originally from the Netherlands, Fleur now lives in Colorado Springs with her husband and two daughters, and entirely too many cats.   Elevator pitch for the Midnight at the Barclay Hotel: The Westing Game meets Clue when five murder suspects are invited to the haunted Barclay Hotel, and it's up to the tag-along kids JJ, Penny, and Emma (along with a ghost or two) to figure out who committed the crime.   What prompted you to write this book?   I absolutely love mysteries, and I wanted to write a traditional, Agatha Christie style mystery for kids: with the colorful, mysterious characters, a murder, and an isolated (and haunted) location. After a visit to the Stanley Hotel (from the movie The Shining), I knew I had the right ingredients for a compelling story.   Read the full article...     What's New   WD's Best Job and Market Websites 2020   Here are the top job and market websites as identified in the 22nd Annual 101 Best Websites from the May/June 2020 issue of Writer's Digest. Read More...   September/October Writer's Digest Cover Reveal   Get a sneak peek of the September/October 2020 issue of Writer's Digest, featuring an interview with Beverly Jenkins and many other surprises. Read More...   Clothing Your Character   Writer's Digest Weekly Writing Prompt   Since most of us have been wearing nothing but pajamas for the past six months, this week's writing prompt will give us an excuse to dress up. Read More...   Agent One-on-One: How to Craft Query Letters & Other Submission Materials When your submission materials – a query letter, synopsis, manuscript, or book proposal – arrive in an agent's inbox, they land among hundreds of others. Get help from an agent writing a dynamite query letter, tackling a one-page synopsis (for fiction), or writing a book proposal (for nonfiction).   Click Here to Learn More     Twitter Screenwriting Tips: Theme and Loglines   A Script Magazine Feature   Script dug through Twitter and found some great screenwriting tips from Scott Myers of Go Into the Story. Get insights on the power of theme and the importance of a compelling logline. Read More...   Copyediting Certification Course   Writer's Digest University   If you're looking for ways to improve your skills and earn extra income while you're at home, this workshop provides practical training to help you develop marketable editing skills. Hurry, this course starts Thursday, September 3. Learn More...   Amy Jones   Amy Jones is the editor-in-chief of Writer’s Digest and the former managing content director for WD Books. Prior to joining the WD team, Amy was the managing editor for North Light Books and IMPACT Books. Find her on Twitter at @AmyMJones_5          Privacy Policy Writer's Digest an Active Interest Media company 5720 Flatiron Parkway, Boulder, Colorado 80301 Active Interest Media, 5720 Flatiron Parkway, Boulder, Colorado 80301, USA . 7 Ways to Make a Good Story Great Whenever I think of the word gatekeeper, a little film clip from The Wizard of Oz starts up in my head, where the fearsome palace guard denies Dorothy and friends access to the Wizard. "The Wizard says, 'Go away!'" If aspiring authors are Dorothy, agents and editors are that guy. They seem bigger than you. They give stern lectures. Except remember what happens? Dorothy's sob story melts the mustachioed, bearskin-hatted guard's heart, and he winds up letting them in. Thus the great secret is revealed: You don't have to do anything but tell a fabulous story to make them love you. (7 rules of picking names for fictional characters.) There are subtle differences between fiction that's passable and fiction that pops—fiction that shows that you know what you're doing. Consider agents and editors your über-readers. If you win them over, a larger audience won't be far behind. Here are seven ways successful authors make their stories crackle with authority and get the gatekeepers on their side. These techniques will work on any kind of fiction: literary, romance, mystery, sci-fi, you name it. What's more, you can implement them no matter where you are in your writing process, from first draft to final polish. Read the full article... Say goodbye to frustrating writing tools and hello to NovelPad—the immersive app designed to make writing easier! Write without distraction and effortlessly rearrange story beats by dragging and dropping scene cards, and simplify your workflow with automated Character, Location, and Plot tracking. Stay motivated with reminders, goals, and detailed analytics. While your writing tool can’t write your novel for you, it shouldn't work against you. Try NovelPad completely for free with no credit card required at NovelPad.com What Is Your Favorite Writer's Digest Memory? Was it an inspiring challenge on the website? Or an educational article in the magazine? Perhaps, you met your agent or writing group at one of our live events. Or an online course, webinar, or boot camp helped you reach a new level with your writing and publishing goals.  There are no right or wrong answers, because these are your favorite memories. Share your answers with us in the comments for a chance to be published in the November/December issue of Writer's Digest. Read More... This Week in Writing 8/31—William Saroyan born 1908 9/1—Edgar Rice Burroughs born 1875 9/2—J.R.R. Tolkien died 1973 (11 Tolkien quotes for writers) 9/3—e.e. cummings died 1962 9/3—Malcolm Gladwell born 1963 9/4—Richard Wright born 1908 9/5—On the Road published 1957 (Are writers born or made?) Robert Lee Brewer Robert Lee Brewer is a senior editor for Writer's Digest and former editor of the Writer's Market book series. He is also the author of Smash Poetry Journal and Solving the World's Problems. Find him on Twitter at @RobertLeeBrewer  Privacy Policy Writer's Digest an Active Interest Media company 5720 Flatiron Parkway, Boulder, Colorado 80301