Reviewed by Deborah Sutton
October 2008

All Rights Reserved

Do you really want to know how it's done? From the horse's mouth, so to speak? With no fluff, no padding, and not a wasted word in sight?

Writing for Profit: Break into Magazines, written by Cheryl Wright, is solid, no-nonsense advice that anyone wishing to write non-fiction articles for magazines needs to hear and take to heart.

But it's more than that.

It's also an interactive workshop in which you will learn, step by step, how to find your own particular areas of interest and expertise, how to get more ideas than you can write up in a lifetime, how to find the markets, pitch to the editors, write the query letters and keep track of submissions.

Not satisfied with that, Writing for Profit will also guide you through the process of using photographs to increase your chances of acceptance and even simplify the post-publication task of submitting invoices and getting paid.

There are tasks throughout for the reader to complete, (along with examples and samples that worked), that are both practical and useful. There is nothing in this book that will either waste your time or provide 'busy work' to no end. And it's all delivered in a positive, friendly tone, with an enthusiasm that's infectious. It really makes you want to get down and draw up some outlines, find some markets, and get submitting those articles.

Along the way a few myths are shattered, a few home truths spelled out and more than one eye-opening fact is exposed.

It's not a 'how to write' book.

As stated at the beginning of the book, there is the assumption that you already know how to write articles and now want to progress to actively seeking publication of your work. So you won't be told how to write an article, how to conduct your research (although some good information is given regarding sources) or how to format your finished piece. What you get is a full explanation of the submitting process from initial brainstorming to final invoice.

I've been writing and submitting to magazines for years, but I learned one or two things from Writing for Profit: Break into Magazines, and had a couple of fixed assumptions challenged which made me rethink some long held notions. I also learned some new ways of doings things and some new places to get ideas.

It just goes to prove that you never stop learning.