Publishing Information Sites for Beginning Authors




Basic Information Craft of Writing/the Writing Life Business of Writing
Submitting Stories to Magazines Finding an Agent Writing Queries Writing Proposals



Basic Information


William Shunn's Guide to Standard Manuscript Formats for Short Stories and Novels

Commonly Used Publishing Terms Common publishing terms defined.

How the Publishing Process Works by Nathan Bransford

What Authors Do and Do Not Control About Their Books by Cherie Priest

Sussing Out Legitimate Publishers by Rachelle Gardner How to find out if a publisher is reputable

Writer Beware: Avoiding Contest and Awards Scams

How Long Should You Keep Trying to Get Published? by Jane Friedman

Being good can be a shortcut. There is no shortcut to being good by Scott Lynch




Craft of Writing/the Writing Life


Judith Tarr's Workshops and Mentoring an all-purpose mentor and writing coach for fiction.

First Novel Survey Results by Jim Hines A survey on how over 200 published writers made their first novel sale.

The Myth of the Evil Editor by Victoria Strauss

An Open Love Note to Debut Authors About Hurtful Online Reviews by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Dear Gentlebeing...no thank you by Gregory Frost. Dealing with rejection.

Diversity in YA tumblr

Rich in Color and Rich in Color Resources Page

Writing the Other: Bridging Cultural Differences for Successful Fiction Workshop and companion book.

12 Fundamentals Of Writing "The Other" (And The Self) by Daniel José Older.

Writing Advice: The Agony and Ecstasy of Diverse Fiction by Craig Laurance Gidney

Writing With Color a blog dedicated to writing and resources centered on racial and ethnic diversity.

Write in the Margins a directory of sensitivity readers.

Promoting Your Work at Conventions for SF/F Authors Science fiction and fantasy conventions ("cons") are a great place for authors of fantasy and science fiction to promote their work among genre readers. Most cons are "fan" conventions which attendees, including program participants, generally attend primarily to participate in the convention experience. This fan convention culture is unlike higher-profile for-profit media shows where nearly all program participants are there to sell or promote themselves or their work and where attendees are primarily audience members.

Mike R. Underwood: 25 Secrets Of Publishing, Revealed! (Or: Inside The Bookish Shatterdome)

Handy sites: Height Comparison for characters, OneLook Reverse Dictionary (find a word if you know its definition), Tip of My Tongue (find a word from a fragment), Dictionary.com (includes a thesaurus)




Business of Writing Information


Writer Beware: Articles on Self-Publishing: the Need for Balance

Pimp My Novel: Hammered By Thor An explanation of the Thor Power Tools decision and how it's hurt sales for midlist authors.

The Nervous Breakdown: 12 Common Misperceptions About Publishing by J.E. Fishman

Writer Beware: Distributor vs. Wholesaler--Getting Your Book on the Shelf Explains the difference between a distributor and a wholesaler.

Rachelle Gardner: Sell-in, Sell-Through, Earn-Out (and Returns)

Inkpunks: The Dos and Don'ts of Your Online Presence

WorldCat Search on the name of your book to see how many libraries have cataloged it.

How Not to Register Copyright by Victoria Strauss




Submitting Stories to Magazines


William Shunn's Guide to Standard Manuscript Formats for Short Stories

How to Submit a Short Story by Marie Brennan

Market List For Short Fiction: Ralan.com
Always check the magazine or publishers' submission guidelines, and follow them carefully.




Finding an Agent


Read This First: Writer Beware's Thumbs Down Agency List. Also lists abusive practices that are the signs of a disreputable agency.

Researching an Agent's Track Record by Victoria Strauss

Preditors and Editors: How Agents Work.

AgentQuery.com: Submitting to Agents and How to Query an Agent

A Successful Agent Hunt by T.L. Morganfield

Always look for specific submission guidelines for agents and follow them carefully.




Writing Queries


Nathan Bransford: Query Letter Mad Lib the basic query letter formula.

The Swivet: Dissection of a Query Letter

Rachelle Gardner: How to Write a Query Letter

Nathan Bransford: 101 Things in Queries that Catch My Eye

Janet Reid: How to Make Sure Your Query is Instantly Rejected

Query Wars Posts from Jennifer Jackson of the Donald Maass Literary Agency.

Query Shark. Learn from others' mistakes.

How I Got My Agent: The Query Letter by Rebecca F. Kuang




Writing Proposals


What is a Book Proposal? by Bookends, LLC.

The Synopsis by Bookends, LLC. How to write a synopsis.

Nathan Bransford: How to Write a Synopsis

Writing a Synopsis: Part 1 and Writing a Synopsis: Part 2 by Gordon Carroll

Nathan Bransford: Pitch Paragraphs




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