It’s time for my monthly round up of helpful writing sites and blog posts. All links will be added to the masterlist (link at top of blog).
Writing
50 Books That Will Make You a Better Writer
A list of 50 of the best writing books, from Stephen King’s On Writing to Stunk and White’s The Element of Style.
Need Some Bling for Your Title? Try PRISM
Five elements to keep in mind when brainstorming an effective title for your novel.
How to Write the Ending of Your Novel
Author Joanna Penn gives tips on writing the ending of your novel so the reader will finish the book wanting to buy your next novel.
How to Write (a Book). A Wee Rant
12 points on how to write. No, this isn’t about the technicalities of writing, or plot, it’s about sitting your butt down and actually putting words on a page. One of my favourite lines, “No wonder we all have writer’s block. We’re not even writing. Plumbers don’t have plumber’s block, do they? NO, THEY GET ON THE FLOOR AND CLEAR OUT THE WINDEX AND EVIDENCE OF MOUSE POOP UNDER THE SINK AND GET TO PLUMBING.”
The Only 12 1/2 Writing Rules You’ll Ever Need
A great motivational poster for writers with some great tips.
Ponder, Polish, Perfect: How to Successfully Revise
Literary Agent Natalie Fischer goes over some ideas to help you ‘re-envision’ your work.
Literary agent Jennifer Laughran (aka literaticat) has put together a very comprhensive post on word counts in kidlit (PBs through YA) including examples of published books.
Picture Book Construction: Know Your Layout
A must read post for picture book writers on picture book layout and having an awareness of page breaks.
16 Manuscript Format Guidelines
Getting ready to send of your manuscript to a publisher and all the guidelines say are, ‘Standard Manuscript Format’ and you’re not sure what that means? This helpful post outlines what standard manuscript formatting entails. A couple of the points are a little outdated, so I would also suggest scrolling down through the comments that correct them. And in particular have a look at the comment by NEB which is quite informative.
Pitching
Hook ‘Em In (in three seconds or less)
Literary agent Natalie Fischer gives some helpful hook tips.
Marketing
The Seven Book Marketing Mistakes That Authors Make
Want your book to sell? Make sure you’re not making these marketing mistakes. A couple of these are more applicable to self-published authors, but some of them are applicable to all authors.
5 Questions to Ask Yourself After Hearing: We Can’t Sell Enough to Justify Publishing It
Some tips on what to do next. I’ve put this under the heading of marketing because in most part the tips relate to making your book more marketable or building your author platform.
Blogging
Geared towards WordPress users, but helpful to other blogging platform users too, this post outlines the golden rule for formatting your blog posts to make them easier for your readers to read (hence keeping their attention).
Blog Law – Is Your Giveaway Legal?
Many writers I know do giveaways/ have competitions on their blogs. But are those giveaways/competitions legal? An attorney and blogger provides information on running blog giveaways in simple/easy to understand terms.
