Choosing the Write Mag - Review 1: MSlexia

I bet you thought I was going to begin with Writers' Digest. Well, this one is easier to do for a first review, being lesser known. But before I say anything else, if you're a man, this magazine is not for you, so you might want to stop reading this review and wait until my next post, unless you're that huge a fan of my writing. Here goes:

Name: MSlexia
Place: UK
Age: 10

The name doesn't come from ManuScript Dyslexia. It expands thus: Ms. - Woman and Lexia - words. Their target audience is evidently women but I daresay men who write for women would also enjoy it.

When I got my first copy I thought, okay, this is going to tell me how to become a Harlequin author, or another chick-lit writer. Whoa! It does deal with chick-lit and various genres of romance, but also includes the more serious kinds of feminist fiction and has a lot of useful information for beginners and reviews some heavy stuff as well. It covers most genres - crime, horror, literary, action/adventure, fantasy, drama, thriller, paranormal, sci-fi, mystery and even poetry.

The content is structured attractively. There are several columns worth mentioning: the Ask the Expert column is a very useful feature. You can get help for anything from query letters to grammar issues right here. There are book reviews as well as the regular share of How-to articles and author interviews that all writing magazines carry. Insider Trading usually involves someone actually in the publishing industry, telling you what their publishing house is looking for in a particular genre. Margaret Atwood and Sophie Kinsella write occasionally. And no way can you call Margaret Atwood chick-lit, right? There's a separate section for New Writing - as far as I have seen, the writing is usually a piece that wins a competition, but having read just two of these mags, I can't generalise. A useful directory of publications/institutions that have writing competitions or want articles is also a regular of MSlexia. This is manna if you're in the UK. If not, you might want to explore emigration options :)

Unlike the Writers' Digest, there are no other publications but the publishers have brought out a VERY cool and useful Writers' Diary - one that I need to get my hands on NOW! Thankfully I just celebrated my birthday and can hint to my folks. There's space for scribbling those extra ideas and writing those notes about your villain's moustache, keeping track of where you've submitted what, a directory of contacts, inspiring quotes and recommended books. Here's a shocker: This magazine has THE lowest content of advertising I have seen. I'm sick of seeing "Publish your novel at affordable costs" glaring at me from every page, and believe me, there is nothing more disheartening than that sentence.

Now for money matters. There are four issues in a year and the price is £21.75 for a year if you are in the UK. The rest of the planet has to pay £30. The current exchange rate being $1.5 for every £1, the mag would cost you $45 for four issues. There are far better deals out there! So this magazine loses out where value for money is concerned.

So that's all that I have to say about MSlexia. The good news is that I've read and received a couple more magazines in the past couple of days. The bad news? This review series could go on for a while. Till my next review, happy writing!