I can’t take the credit
for compiling this list of the Most
Helpful Websites for Authors. It forms part of a post on the Global English Editing blog, which was
sent to me this last week.
But having read
through even a small number of the 120 recommended websites, it should be bookmarked
on every writer’s computer. The resources listed here are fascinating, and
useful, although they could be a gift to the procrastinators among us!
The sites are listed
in categories, to make searching easier, and I’ve picked out just one
honourable mention in each.
Helpful Tips on Writing
The first is on the Writers
Unboxed site, in this case to a blog written by our own Susan Spann, about
the nitty gritty of making sure your contract has a reversion clause that means
you can actually get your rights back if and when the book goes out of print.
This blog on Author
Media is about the seven ways author websites can irritate readers, and
what to do about it. Read and inwardly digest. The Author Media site
concentrates on online publishing and marketing, and has a library of WordPress
plug-ins to help boost your site’s performance.
Be A Successful Freelance Writer
Cathy’s
Comps And Calls blog is about opportunities for freelance writers,
including competitions, calls for submissions with deadlines, and calls for
submissions with no known deadlines. She publishes a list at the start of every
month.
Publishing Your Work
Helping
Writers Become Authors is a blog that specialises in teaching writers how
to structure their stories to make them more saleable. This is a link to a
piece about 15 places to find your next beta reader.
Blogging
Jon Morrow’s Boost Blog Traffic blog is aimed
to help bloggers get their voice heard in an over-saturated marketplace. This
particular link goes to a blog about creative places for opt-in forms that will
supercharge your sign-ups.
Grammar Tips
Daily Grammar has 488 lessons, as well
as grammar tips and exercises.
Writing Groups
The 1st
10 pages site offers writers the chance to anonymously post the first ten
pages of their work to receive ‘honest critique from established literary
voices. This link goes to a bonus blog analysing the first ten pages of the
movie PAN and asking why it didn’t live up to its premise.
Authors To Follow
Doesn’t seem fair to
single out any one of the great writers listed, including JK Rowling, Nicholas
Sparks and Stephen King, but they are all worth inspecting.
Writers As Business Owners
Joanna Penn’s The Creative Penn website is one I’m
familiar with. Joanna is a wonderful resource for established or newbie authors
hoping for advice on all things connected to the business of writing.
Literary Agents
There are no
individual agents listed or recommended, although there are links to
associations or sites where you can log your queries or find out how long you
might be expected to wait for a response. I found this Pub
Rants blog very interesting on The #1 Reason We Only Requested 216 Sample
Materials in 2015.
Writing Associations
Of the associations
listed, I’m in International Thriller
Writers so can recommend them. And it’s free to join!
Protect Yourself
This sounds like the
kind of heading Charlie Fox would be very interested in, but there is no advice
about how to wrestle a potential publisher to the ground and put a lock on them
here. Of those listed, I’d mention the Society
of Authors, who provide invaluable contract advice for authors.
Jobs And Marketplaces
I can’t give any
particular recommendations in this section, as I haven’t used any of the
resources mentioned, but it’s a list of places to find freelance or writing
work, so worth checking out if you are in the freelance game.
Fun For Writers
Of these, I have
always loved The Bulwer-Lytton contest
for the worst opening lines, named in honour of that wordsmith extraordinaire,
Edward Bulwer-Lytton:
“It was a dark and stormy night; the
rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by
a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our
scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty
flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.” — Edward George Bulwer-Lytton,
Paul Clifford (1830)
Do you have any useful
websites you’ve discovered on your literary travels? Ones you keep returning
to? For myself, I’d add this Random
Name Generator website. Always useful if you want to pick a name for a
character who’s going to do something nasty.
This week’s Word of
the Week is undine, or ondine, which means a category of
elemental beings associated with water, which includes limnads, mermaids, naiades, nymphs, and nereides. They are usually portrayed as female and although they
resemble humans they lack a soul, so to achieve immortality they must acquire
one by marrying a human. Of course if the man is unfaithful to the undine, he’ll die.
