Links for Writers

Getting Published/Finding an Agent:

www.writersmarket.com – This site is well worth the subscription fee.  You can buy the book, but the site is updated more often and the search features are great.  You can also save your searches and organize them.  If you don’t already know this site has listings of agents, editors, publishers, magazines, etc.  It also has useful articles and advice.

www.agentquery.com – This has a database of agents.  They have very specific standards and as far as I can tell they are all legitimate agents with sales.  It’s a free database and the search features are great.  A very good place to start to figure out who to submit your work to.

http://www.querytracker.net/ – This is another database of agents.  They have a lot of extra information, like recent sales, and whether they’ve responded based on the information submitted by users.  There is a free version (which is what I have) and a paid version.

Editors and Preditors – This site has agent listings with reviews and information.  They help you know if someone is trying to pull scams or if they went out of business.  A great site.

Networking and Connecting

www.willamettewriters.com -Willamette Writers is a writing organization in the Pacific Northwest of Oregon.  I am a member.  They hold meetings monthly and they host a large writer’s conference every summer.

The Northwest Authors Series – This is a about once a month (I think) where a local writer speaks about writing.  It’s a seminar. I went to February’s and and learned quite a bit.  It is hosted by Christina Katz, another local author and is held at the Wilsonville Public Library in Oregon.

This is actually a hashtag for twitter (#amwriting).  The site tells about what they are doing on twitter as well as a member directory type of list.

Information, Tips, and Tools:

www.writersdigest.com – Writer’s digest is a magazine, but they also publish books about writing.  You can access their store on their site.  They often have some articles up too.  It’s always worth stopping by.

http://writersontherise.wordpress.com – This is a great blog site that is run by Christina Katz.  She has lots of contributors and it really is a wealth of information. ***this link has changed to the following for 2010 posts: http://christinakatz.com/

http://misssnark.blogspot.com – This is a great blog with information for writers and wonderful real world examples.  It is no longer active, but the archives are filled with troves of information.

http://misssnarksfirstvictim.blogspot.com/ – This is an active blog and also contains helpful information.  What is really great is they hold contests of sort where you can submit your work for review, which  provides great feedback.  It’s also very helpful to see what others are doing right or wrong, whatever the case may be.

www.wisemapping.com – This is a web based, free, mind mapping program.  It’s great!  Very easy to use.  You can export as an image.  You can also do “rapid fire” by hitting enter, typing, hitting enter again.  Plus you can access it anywhere you have internet access.

Write Way Pro— This is writing software that assists with outlining and composition.  I’ll be posting a blog about this software on Feb. 13, 2011.

Inspiration Software

This is another mind map program but it costs about $70 and is software that is installed on your PC. They have a free 30 day trial.  The one thing that makes this software unique is that it automatically converts your mind maps into a traditional outline.  You can go back and forth between the views.  If you add to the outline it adds to the mind map and visa versa.  I think it is also compatible with digital tablets, but I’m not positive.

http://www.renlearn.com/store/quiz_home.asp

This is a great database where you can look up the word count of books already in print. It’s always a good idea to see how long current books are running in the genre that you are writing.

http://www.agentquery.com/format_tips.aspx

This site has some great information on word counts, formatting, and submissions. I found it very helpful.

World Building

http://www.web-writer.net/fantasy/

This site deals with the aspects of building a fantasy world

http://www.specificworld.com/resources/world.aspx

This site has useful links regarding world building

Marketing

The Writing Industry

The Publisher’s lunch is a daily newsletter that has information about the publishing world and what’s going on in it.  There is the lunch deluxe which is a paid version and there is the lunch which is the free version.  This link is for the free version.
Often you can get this magazine at your local library.  You can also go to their website and sign up for the PWDaily, which is a daily newsletter about the writing industry.



That’s all for now, don’t worry, I’ll keep adding useful sites.



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