Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Freeeeeee Stuff!

If you are reading this in your email, please click on the title of the blog. It will take you to my blog and two things will happen: I will know how many people are really reading my blog and you can leave a comment at the end of the post. If you aren’t reading this in your email, please look on the right side at the top and sign up for an email subscription. I’ll do my best to make it worth your while with interesting reviews, interviews, links to other good sites and blogs, and random wackiness. Thanks!

In March I posted about helpful places to visit on the internet. There are so many, I could probably post something like it once a week, but since I only post about once a week, I think I’ll try to restrain myself to doing this only occasionally. But do please read through. There is a treat for you at the end.

There are a lot of companies that want to sell something to writers – classes, books, services, etc. Many of them send me something by email often. I usually whiz through the table of contents or sub-heads checking for anything of interest. Many times there are interesting articles, links to other useful sites, information on opportunities. Here are several you might want to look at and maybe even sign up for the free e-newsletters they offer.

2011 Guide To Literary AgentsCheck out the Guide to Literary Agents blog: http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/. They always list a few new, hungry agents and tell you just what they’re looking for. They also have useful articles and interviews by agents and authors. They had a posting not too long ago called How to Blog with links to three really good articles: http://view.writers-community.com/?j=fec516777163027d&m=fe9b15707463077575&ls=fe611577706304757415&l=ff3a15707665&s=fe961770776c057b70&jb=ffcf14&ju=fe86107272630d7476&et_mid=274760&rid=3028165&r=0#2. It’s worth reading.

Writer's Digest (1-year)Writer’s Digest magazine has a free e-newsletter. They try like crazy to sell you books and magazine subscriptions, but beyond that they have some interesting articles and links. They tell you about contests (mostly their own that you have to pay to enter, but they are well respected), conferences and other events, give you writing prompts, and link to a lot of the articles they publish in the magazine. I get something useful out of it more often than not. http://www.writersdigest.com/GeneralMenu/.

Randy Ingermanson sells software for writers. He has something called the Snowflake method. I have a friend who has used it and thinks it’s pretty good.  I haven’t tried it yet, but I sure like his blog. He often bases his posts on questions from his readers (i.e. other writers) who ask the questions many of us have about writing, but don’t know who to ask. Check it out. http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/blog/

I’ve recently run across a blog called Adventures in Children’s Publishing. http://childrenspublishing.blogspot.com/ It’s written by four writers who write for kids of all ages – from picture books to YA. They have a ton of interesting posts in their archives. There is a reason they have over 1100 followers.

The Countess and the King: A Novel of the Countess of Dorchester and King James IIThe Last HellionIf you like historical fiction or hope to write historical fiction (count me on both those) you will like Two Nerdy History Girls blog written by a couple of very talented authors, Loretta Chase and Susan Holloway Scott. The blog is just flat fun to read. http://twonerdyhistorygirls.blogspot.com/. Check it out.

Kristin Nelson of Nelson Literary Agency in Denver has a blog called Pub Rants. It’s always good to get an agents perspective. http://pubrants.blogspot.com/.

Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space KapowNathan Bransford used to be a red hot agent; then he quit to become a children’s author. He blog is rife with interesting and useful posts. http://blog.nathanbransford.com/. You can scroll through his archives and find almost anything you might need information on.

Here are some specific blog posts I found to be particularly useful:
A good post on creating a pitch: http://amiekaufman.com/?p=454

An excellent post on how to write a good query AND (Bonus!) a free download of an e-book on writing queries: http://elanajohnson.blogspot.com/p/writing-query-letter.html

A post by my very prolific daughter Maggie on the daunting task and the rewards of blogging every day: http://www.maggiesnest.org/2011/04/28/embracing-the-no-good/

There are other blogs I really enjoy listed to the right. If you haven't checked them out, take a look. Just click on them and, by the magic of the internet, there you are.

And now for your promised TREAT. One of my favorite television shows is CBS Sunday Morning. The link below will take you to a fascinating interview with John le Carre about writing. It isn’t just interesting to writers. It’s just interesting. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/01/sunday/main20037717.shtml

Do you have some places you like to visit or good information you receive? Please share!

7 comments:

Michelle Fayard said...

Rosi, the opening paragraph of your post is excellent. It's frustrating that as a blogger grows his or her subscribers list that they receive notification of a new post as unattractive text in the body of an e-mail message instead of being redirected to the attractively layed out site with all of its extra information. :( I'd be curious to learn if any of your other readers have found a solution to this; if so, I hope they'll please share!

As usual, this is a well-written post filled with useful information. A couple of blogs that I consistently find helpful information for writers are Casey McCormick's Literary Rambles (http://caseylmccormick.blogspot.com/) and Cynthia Leitich Smith's Cynsations (http://cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com/). Thanks for asking this question and for including my site as part of your blog roll list.

Michelle
http://michellefayard.blogspot.com/

Rosi said...

Great suggestions, Michelle. I will check them out. Thanks for your comments.

Elizabeth Varadan, Author said...

Good post, Rosi, as usual. I already had bookmarked some of those sites (and am following them), but was happy to discover Randy's blog and Adventures in Children's Publishing. Thanks for the share!

Morgan H Mussell said...

Great information again. Now I just need a few more hours in the day to check them all out!

Amie Kaufman said...

Thanks for the link! What a fantastic collection of information. I'm off to check out everything else!

Rosi said...

Thanks, everyone, for stopping by. There is so much out there and so little time. I'm trying to only post the best stuff.

Meagan Spooner said...

Someone already mentioned Casey McCormick's Literary Rambles--her Agent Spotlight was my number one stop when I was querying! It's definitely the top site I recommend to writers about to start that process.

What a great list of resources! :)