Petition To Writer's Digest Mag.

I've gotten several praising reviews on my letter "Invalid Item"  except for one anonymous reviewer. Don't ya just love those anonymous reviews?

This is what they wrote ...

"I think to vaguely threaten Writer's Digest with a boycott is kind of unprofessional behavior for writers (i. e., when you suggested, "Imagine if we all cancelled our subscriptions"), just because Writing.com did not make it to an entirely subjective list. I'm also wondering how you know you have the authority to speak for all the people here who might be subscribed to this magazine? (You did say "we all." How do you know everyone feels the same way, or would take the same action? :/ )

For as much as I love Writing.com (I've been here about three years and am a premium member, and can hardly afford it, but keep subscribed), I think the primary reason it did not make the list is because even though you can say it DOES offer the chance to help writers improve their skills, that's not the main focus of the site. What this site boils down to, basically, is an amateur writers' community. The primary focus is on posting stories, reading stories, and interacting with other people. Most of us are not professionals, and even though I rely on this site for most of my feedback, I would certainly not rely on it for professional feedback or qualified opinions. Just about every single story or article I see here by even the moderators or the more "professional," published writers among us contains very basic errors in spelling and such that would not even be allowed on a website like Writer's Digest's site. Even in most contests you will find a rule akin to "Spelling and grammar are important, but aren't everything." You must admit that professional sites with professional contests would never be so lax in their standards. And the biggest tip-off of all is that basically, here anyone can post any kind of writing they want, no matter how trashy it is--it's entirely up to the writer. I'm betting most sites that made the list, if they allow the posting of amateur writing, at least follow some sort of standards for grammar, spelling, content, length, etc. Here on Writing.com, you can post the most unprofessional writing possible, and if you pay a fee you can post even more of it. I'm not against this (I'm premium, remember, and rather GLAD you can post whatever you want here), but it's not something you find on professional writing sites.

I'm not disparaging Writing.com by any means, but I've simply never considered it a professional writing site. Writer's Digest, for example, claimed to select sites that include such things as "research tools" and "important media news." The most one can find that could count as "research tools" here are articles posted by other members (many of them nonprofessionals, including myself), and the only "media news" I can ever see posted by staff regards the site itself. Writing.com is geared more toward writers who want to share and work on the basics of writing in a community of similar individuals, rather than toward professionals. Like I said, some of the errors I find in items here by even the most established members on this site, even published authors, make me wonder about the professionalism on this site. Such errors would not fly in the big market.

That's my own opinion of why Writing.com would not make the list; I have no way of knowing. I have no criticisms for your letter itself aside from your comment about people unsubscribing just because of the disappointing results of the list. To speak for other members who may not feel the same way as you, and to threaten such action just because of a list, just doesn't seem very professional. If you are truly interested in the craft of writing, why unsubscribe from a good writing magazine all over a subjective list? (Who will even remember the list a year from now, and how many of us follow any list 100%?) You would be missing out on future articles that could further help you improve yourself, just because Writing.com didn't make the cut. It seems kind of self-defeating.

This is all only my opinion though. I'm certain many others enjoyed this letter."





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