I hope this will develop into a good resource for writers to help with writing, publishing and marketing your works. It’s just beginning so if you have anything you want to submit for publication just contact me and I’ll have a look at it.
Ergonomics while writing
Glenda Larke gives some really important information about making certain you look after your body. You’ve only one body and you’ll spend a lot of time in front of the computer, look after yourself. RSI: Important advice for beginning writers…
Publishing Info
This fabulous article gives so many details on how to get the most of writing conferences. Yes, I know the headline sounds wrong but the advice is sound 9 Ways To Ruin A Writing Conference.
How Long Will It Take to get published?
Rethinking author contracts for the digital world. Make certain your contract fits the digital world.
E-queries: How To Submit Online To Agents and Editors. This blog has a number of ads at the top so don’t be put off just scroll down to the text.
This is a good article from Rachel Abbot about how she self-published her book. She spent about three months doing the marketing for it.
Six Rules for Formatting Manuscripts. This is a good guide.
Getting the length of your manuscript correct can make the difference between the agent reading it or not. Too long or too short and you’re out. Try this for more details.
Do we really need an agent? Not sure but this article looks at survey data about how authors feel about agents.
Getting sales is sometimes a challenge and as you need to start marketing your book a couple of months before the release date having a pre-order function is an awesome idea. Kindle pre-order.
This is a good article on How publishing works: a book designer’s perspective. I do recommend a read, it doesn’t tell you what to look for in a cover or how to design one if you’re designing your own, but it’s still a good read. There’s some valuable links in the last paragraph to learn more.
Self Publishing
If self publishing there are many little things you need to worry about that the traditional publisher would probably know about. These include but are not limited to:
ISBN
Getting your book into libraries
Fonts: Gary McLaren @GaryJMcLaren 300+ Fool-Proof Fonts to Use for Your Book Cover… an epic list of best fonts by genre ow.ly/FoNjk via @Creativindie
Typesetting: Here is some advice on typesetting.
Things have changed a lot since I first denigrated self-publishing or vanity press, it’s now a much more viable method of selling your books and making money. You can go the ebook only, or the in-print book only or do a mixture. Here is a good article about Self-Publishing.
Came across this really useful article about the cost of self-publishing. Self-Publishing a Debut Literary Novel: The Actions, The Costs, The Results
Writing
8 Techniques To Up The Drama Factor In Your Short Stories
Protagonist & Climax via Plot Whisperer
Cut Your Words: 5 Articles on Concise Writing
Translators please contact the author you’re translating. It can help with the complexity of the book. For an illustration please see this.
How I Went From Writing 2,000 Words a Day to 10,000 Words a Day I was fascinated by this article. I know when I’m on a roll I can do 1,600 words an hour and I think that getting organised and plotting your scene on a piece of paper first might help make that possible more often.
Getting the most out of Twitter. You can get ideas for names of characters or just get more details.
How to Revise a Novel by Holly Lisle. This is just a jumping off page as there are lots of FAQs here about writing.
Here’s another great resource. I follow Debbie Ridpath Ohi on Twitter and she’s a great source of information as well as doing some lovely cartoons. This one is for Twitter Chats for Writers. You need to check out many more of her pages, she’s taught me so much about using Twitter effectively.
This is a blog written by a number of mums who write from home.
Do You Own Your Characters or Do Your Characters Own You?
Cutting Characters You Love. This would be very hard but some writers say it’s a necessary part of writing.
The writer’s toolkit: A voice journal for character development How to help you with your character.
From my favourite author blog, Inkyelbows, I’ve mentioned her elsewhere as she’s so wonderful. Taskpaper: minimalist note-taking PLUS other favorite organization/writing apps
This little gem comes from Shhh, I’m Writing a Romance. The specific article is Crit Friday Open – The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face . . . or Love at First Sight?. Love this website, it’s a group of historical romance authors who virtually get together to discuss each other’s work and improve it.
Cut Your Words: 5 Articles on Concise Writing
James Patterson on writing an un-put-downable book. Be aware what works for him may not work for you, everyone is different.
If you can bear the tone of this article and how it criticises a very young author then it’s actually has some good advice. Lessons from the terrible writing of Eragon.
Publicity
When being interviewed, be sure to get it right or you’ll lose your readers.
Every new book needs some sort of publicity and book tours are often recommended as fans like to meet their authors. Here’s one with a difference. Book tour? More like a safari
Be mindful of social media and be aware of how it works. This lady thought her image would be posted in a shop window but instead it was posted on the company’s Facebook page and then went viral. The company didn’t specify Facebook and she wasn’t aware of how it works.
Here’s another story but different. This time the photographer was contacted via Twitter to request the use of his image by a brand but it was wording very cautiously. The photographer gave permission for social media use so long as it was copyrighted to them but it turned out the company wanted to use it for free on network television. Permission was rescinded.
Misc
Excerpts from a novel Novelsmithing by David Sheppard.
Agent Advice: Kate Epstein of The Epstein Literary Agency. An interview with Kate Epstein.
BLOGS & WEBSITES FOR WRITERS: Author Groups By Maria Ferrer. It’s a resource like this page but I suspect it’s been longer in the making.
15 Lessons From the Masters. An interesting set of quotes from top authors including Ernest Hemingway. Lots of useful stuff to learn.
I’ve been putting off listing this one. It looks fabulous until you think how hard it is to keep writing. The premise is that once you stop typing the programme deletes anything you’ve written already. It could be a great way to make you write faster. Write or Die Online
This one has lots of ads at the top of the page. How Much Money Can I Make Writing Poems, Short Stories, And Books?
Technology for writers in the form of a blog. Specnology, Science and Technology for Speculative Fiction Writers. If you’re using an idea from this blog talk to the person who put it there, it’s good karma.
Information on choosing a literary agent.
Hitting the bestseller list isn’t the be-all-and-end-all of making money by writing. This article shows how all you need is a backlist and you can leverage that to make a decent income. How You Can Make $50,000 A Year Without Ever Hitting Bestseller List
Submission Guidelines
Tu Books (Impression of Lee and Low)
How To Submit Your Creative Writing Online