Letters to the editor/forum/whatever

[its Leslie]

Just interested, because we can all be our harshest judges.

Is a letter to the editor, or a forum (you know, where letters to magazines go) a valid example of "being published" beyond the obvious (it was published, hence a person is published).

I write a lot of letters to a lot of magazines as a rule. Not surprisingly I have been published in 4 differing magazines.
I personally don't think it fully qualifies as much.

It's free, and I obviously don't get paid. But they are my opinions, some of which are even well recieved.

As it stands though, I am not yet a paid published person (mostly because I have never tried to be).

Just wondering how "letter" writing stands up in your opinions.

 

[karmadog]

I don't think you can claim to be a published writer, but you could claim to be a published 'opinionator'.

Maybe you would make a good columnist. Have you ever offered an opinion piece to the local newspaper? Could be a good way to get started.

 

[its Leslie]

Local paper hehehehe that is truely funny Karmadog.

It's an 8 page waste of paper hehe. And that's 8 pages as in 4 leaves. It ranks right up there with our 2 count em 2 buses. And they call this a "city". Bloody embarassing it is.

 

[PaulX35]

For me, being a published writer means someone else found your writing worth making a book of, or worth publishing as an article, chapter etc. You get your letter to the editor in for having an interesting opinion, not for being a writer worth publishing.

So no, it wouldn't count for me.

Paul

 

[Quasimodem]

Having a letter to the editor of a newspaper 'published' is called "making your opinion known."

Having many letters to the editor of a newspaper 'published' is called "being a yammerhead!"

Having many opinions 'published' in a regular column in a newspaper is "being a Columnist" a.k.a. "a professional yammerhead."

A 'columnist' who writes a regular column with no remuneration is called "an unremitted yammerhead." a.k.a. "a public nuisance."

When you finally get paid to ghost-write a letter to an editor, for someone else to sign and submit, you know you have truly become a prostitute.

 

[its Leslie]

Hate to admit it but I can actually smile and agree with ya Quasi.

 

[karmadog]

I can relate with your opinion of your local paper, Les. Before our paper got a new editor, you should have seen some of the crap they published. They used to have--in the letters to the editor!--truly horrible poems on things like 'the right to life' or 'why you should love God'. Not that I don't think they are valid opinions, but they were apropos of nothing. And my God, the 'poetry'. You couldn't even wrap fish with it or it would spoil.

 

[its Leslie]

Hmmmm.

Well our paper is run by a relgiously intense individual, so the content does tend to get "filtered" as a result a bit to much.

I don't care if a person agrees with me or not of course, opinions are just opinions.

But it does tend to get annoying when the powers that be use it as a podium.

I have never had any desire to write for out paper as a result.
To much selective bias at the editorial level.

 

[Un-registered]

I don't care if a person agrees with me or not of course, opinions are just opinions.

OH dear. I care deeply about such things.

You see my ideas are sensible and just; your opinions are mistaken and need to be corrected; his beliefs are wrong and should be suppressed.

Naturally all right minded people agree with me and the rest of them are just terrorists and should be shot.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

Us Swedes are very shy and modest people, who don't like showing ourselves off. We believe that if you don't have anything important to say, you should shut up.
When I read a "letter to the editor" in a newspaper, I try to read between the lines to see if the writer is a person who really feels strongly about the subject, or if it's just a dimwit who loves to hear his own voice/see his own name in print.
If it's the latter, I never read the whole letter. Waste of time.

 

[its Leslie]

I always include name etc etc, part because, well, they won't print it without one heheh, and part because, well, if you can't stand up and take credit for a view, then it was never worth hearing in the first place.

I tend to hate seeing some views occasionally, but a paper loses respect if it can't print opposing viewpoints.

I will say that much for Maclean's, at least they are not afraid to print what seems like a bad idea to put into print, initially.

Current issue has as the feature

Is the Good book bad history. Oh I can't wait to here the shocked responses to that article.

 

[Quasimodem]

...I try to read ... if it's just a dimwit who loves ...see his own name in print ... I never read the whole letter. Waste of time.

Read it anyway, Svenskaflicka.

Even a 'dimwit' can have one good idea in its life.

Besides, maybe it is just repeating something clever it overheard in an elevator.

 

[Chicklet]

I read letters to the editor all the time. I think they're important, fake or not. usually they wouldn't be in there if there wasn't some point being made.

Chicklet

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I'm a little confused.

What is the big deal with being able to claim that you're "published"?


---dr.M.

 

[Diane Marie]

What is the big deal with being able to claim that you're "published"?

I think dr, it all depends on why a person writes. For some it's very important, others, like yourself, who write only for the fun of writing, it would mean very little.

As far as letters to the editor, no that is not being published. Even writing for a newspaper is not being published as a creative writer.

Someone who writes for a newspaper is a print Journalist, similar to a creative writer but never the same. I met my first husband in a creative writing class, but he was a journalist. He does have talent, but he’s not a creative writer.

 

[its Leslie]

Diane you hit it square on the head, I actually thank you for the way you put it.

My brother is a very good sports editor of a major newspaper. He obviously "writes" a lot. He is regularly in print (he is after all the editor). He has formal education (was top first year student eh).

But he is definitely a journalist.

I think that by definition of published as you put it, neither him nor myself have ever been published.

He gets paid (man he has a nice home), but all that he writes is just print material in newspapers, that doesn't go far beyond the day of circulation.

If I ever get to write a book (even if a lousy one) and it gets published (even if a pathetic sum of copies) I will claim to be published.

Until then I will just enjoy the work out at the word processor, and assume that it is nothing more than that, a work out at the word processor.