If you're a freelancer who wants to spend more time writing and less time figuring out where you're going to place your writing, this ebook is for you. Erika has done a lot of the research for you, so you can quickly go through it and locate appropriate venues. Though not exhaustive, there's a lot here, and she includes links to the site so you can get more detailed info. Overall a very handy companion.

I found helpful information here, especially about payment rates in the literary journal market. Quite useful.

The weblinks, too, are a great help.

I always got the feeling, searching market books, that
essay writing was considered an afterthought, next to
feature articles, poetry, stories, and so forth. Even
good literary and little press guides like The CLMP
Directory of Literary Magazines and Presses make it
difficult to search for essay markets.

So, it's a pleasure to come across this neat e-book
by Erika Dreifus. Three things stand out when going through
this volume. One is that a variety of publications will
publish a variety of essays. Yes, the standards like
Missouri Review and Massachusetts Review are there but
so are Down East and Family Tree Magazine. Secondly, the
pay rates are higher than expected in some publications.
It's not unusual to find a magazine paying up to $100
for an essay.

And third, one of the best features of this directory is that the summaries are linked, for the most part, directly to the writer guidelines. This is an underrated act of
benevolence on the part of the writer. How many times
does one go to an online magazine only to search half an
hour for the guidelines?

Reading the summaries alone provokes ideas about things
to write about!

This type of effort exemplifies all the benefits of
epublishing: Find what the mainstream publishers can't
do and do it. And I have yet to find a directory solely
about essay writing, except this volume.

Most market guides are either too generalized (e.g., "Writer's Market") or too specialized (e.g., "Poet's Market") to be of great use to essay writers. That's what makes "The Practicing Writer's Directory of Paying Essay Markets" so unique: it's not crammed with unnecessary information, and it's the only book I've ever encountered (and maybe the only book in existence) expressly about essay markets.

This straightforward, fluff-free (and recently expanded) book describes sixty paying essay markets, complete with contact information, URLs, and pay rates.
The publications themselves vary greatly. Some are regional, while others are international. Some are well-established, while other are relatively new. Most notable is the range they cover: topics include travel, science, parenting, family, religion, writing, sports, literature, culture, arts, wildlife, disability, and the outdoors.

"The Practicing Writer's Directory of Paying Essay Markets" is focused and informative. It didn't distract me with needless extras, its font is comfortably large, and its generous margins are the perfect size for note-jotting. Most importantly, it inspired me to finally finish and submit several essays I'd given up on an left in limbo on my hard drive.

I'd highly recommend it to any person who's serious about finding a (paying) home for his/her essays.

Writers seeking a home for their work soon discover that locating reputable paying markets can consume more time than the writing itself. Those of us who write essays seem to encounter special challenges that exceed those of the typical freelance writer: finding the right ears for pieces told in our own voice.
In the preface to her new Directory, Erika says, "I encourage writers to 'think outside the box' when trying to place their work." What follows is a Directory of 50 thoroughly researched paying markets including commercial, niche, and literary publications. The Directory provides postal and web addresses, a brief description of what each publication is looking for, and the pay range.
Keeping in mind Erika's "outside the box" advice, I approached her Directory with my own list of essays and snippets of ideas. It wasn't long before I had filled the margins of the Directory with penciled notes: prospective homes for my orphans. With this excellent resource, my market search has become a whole lot easier and my writing time has increased. Thank you, Erika, for this excellent Directory!