Resources
From Category: Business, Marketing, and Technical Resources
A Basic Guide to Getting Permissions & Sample Permissions Letter
Publishing expert Jane Friedman explains the legal requirements for quoting or excerpting copyrighted material in your own published work. Topics include fair use and how to request reprint permissions.
A Literary Agent’s Guide to Publishing Terms Authors Should Know
Literary agent Mark Gottlieb currently works at Publishers Marketplace's #1-ranked literary agency, Trident Media Group. In this article from The Write Life, he explains seven essential publishing-industry and contract terms.
Agent Advice: The Complete Series at Poets & Writers
This page on the website of Poets & Writers Magazine, a leading source of writers' resources, collects their Agent Advice columns since 2010. Read top literary agents' responses to readers' questions.
Andrea Hurst & Associates Literary Management
This literary agency generously shares a wealth of industry information with the public. Literary agent Andrea Hurst's website features weekly interviews with publishing industry professionals, advice on book marketing, and manuscript consultations.
BetaBooks
BetaBooks is an app for sharing your manuscript with beta readers and keeping track of their feedback. It takes over the task of document conversion when recipients are using different software and e-readers. Writers can also track incoming comments by manuscript version, chapter, character, or person giving feedback.
BiblioCrunch
BiblioCrunch is an online marketplace that matches freelancers with projects in book design, editing, proofreading, and illustration. The basic service, which is free, allows users to post projects and receive proposals. Paid membership adds direct access to the directory of freelancers and the ability to message them directly.
BlueToad
BlueToad helps you publish your content on the web, tablets and mobile devices at a resonable price. A “Hands Free Package” is available if you need maximum support.
Blurb “Dream Team” Collaborators
Self-publishing service Blurb maintains this curated list of vendors of editing, design, ghostwriting, book coaching, and e-book conversion services. The list is free to browse on their website, whether or not you use Blurb's other services.
Book Editing Associates
Serving writers, literary agents, and publishers. Mainstream, genre, trade, and academic publishing specialists. Copyediting, developmental editing, proofreading, critiques, book proposals, query letters, book promotions, and creative writing instruction. Network coordinator Lynda Lotman takes extra care to screen her staff (read how at http://www.book- editing.com/FAQ.html).
Book Marketing and Book Promotion
Book marketing and selling advice from John Kremer, author of '1001 Ways to Market Your Books.' Informative website includes contact information for book buyers, publicity outlets and more.
Book Marketing Buzz Blog
Experienced editor and publicist Brian Feinblum shares tips about turning media exposure into sales, creating your author brand, using multimedia tools to market your book, and much more. See his Book PR & Marketing Toolkit page for a list of links to his top articles and favorite resources.
Book Trailer Design Advice from Zara West
In this blog post, romantic suspense author Zara West (Beneath the Skin) describes the basic elements of a successful book trailer and how to create them using public-domain music and images.
BookBub’s Ultimate Guide to Book Marketing
Self-publishing service BookBub has compiled this list of articles from their BookBub Partners blog, covering every aspect of the marketing campaign for your self-published or small press book. Topics include book and cover design, pricing, advertising, creating an online platform, author success stories, and how to track the results of your marketing efforts.
BookFunnel
BookFunnel is a reasonably priced subscription service for authors. It handles the technical aspects of distributing e-book review copies in multiple e-reader formats.
Canva
Canva is an online resource site for easy-to-use graphic design templates for book covers, newsletters, periodicals, and promotional materials. Some templates are free. Use their print service to create custom stationery, business cards, and flyers.
Capital Community College Guide to Grammar and Writing
This comprehensive, searchable grammar guide from Capital Community College in Hartford includes lessons on word usage, sentence structure, rhetoric, and writing a research paper. There's even a PowerPoint presentation on “Solecisms of President George W. Bush”.
Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s How to Do It Frugally
Carolyn Howard-Johnson's “How to Do It Frugally” website is the portal for her award-winning series of books on marketing, editing, and book proposals. Her guides for indie authors have received honors from USA Book News, the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, the Global Ebook Awards, and others. The Frugal Book Promoter and How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically feature strategies for free or low-cost book publicity. The Frugal Editor and Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers will ensure that your self-published book or manuscript submission looks professional. The Great First Impression Book Proposal: Everything You Need To Know To Sell Your Book in 30 Minutes or Less covers pitching your manuscript to editors and agents.
Damonza Book Design
The design team at Damonza offers a variety of packages for book cover design, print and e-book formatting, and book trailer videos. They have experience in both fiction and commercial nonfiction. Check out their 800+ samples on their website.
Design Tools for Non-Designers
Product Hunt is a site where tech experts share daily recommendations about their favorite new apps, websites, and software. This list, curated by Garrett Jestice of Lucidpress, recommends numerous sources for stock photos, graphics, design tutorials and more. Useful for writers creating book trailers, online ads, blogs, or book covers.
Do Daily Deal Services Work?
In this 2017 article at Writer Unboxed, Laura Heffernan, self-published author of the romantic comedy novels America's Next Reality Star and Sweet Reality, compares sales figures and Amazon rankings from 19 “daily deal” sites where she advertised her 99-cent e-book sale.
Draftable
Draftable software lets you compare two versions of MS Word, PDF, Excel, or PowerPoint documents, so you can easily see the edits and changes you made. See a free demo by uploading sample text to their website.
Editcetera
Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Editcetera has been matching editorial freelancers with projects since 1971. Their clients include book and magazine publishers, businesses and nonprofits, and independent authors and scholars. Services include proofreaders, copyeditors, developmental editors, business writers, technical writers, and ghostwriters. They also offer training programs for editors and writers.
Editing Versus Proofreading Explained
The website of The Expert Editor, an Australian vendor of editorial services for books and dissertations, offers this handy overview of the differences between proofreading and copyediting, and how to choose the level of editing that's right for you.
Editorial Freelancers Association
National nonprofit professional association of self-employed workers in the publishing and communications industries. The EFA works to improve conditions for freelancers and match them up with clients. Employers can post jobs for free.
Ether: “Earn money selling what you say”
Ever wanted to start an advice hotline? Sign up for a free phone number, set your rates, and callers who prepay can take advantage of your expertise. Ether bills their credit cards and takes a 15% commission on sales. Ideal for manuscript consultations and other editorial services.
ExpertAccess
ExpertAccess is a membership group offering discounted rates for freelance writers to purchase access to LexisNexis, a premium subscription database of U.S. case law, statutes, and news articles. Writers also receive training in how to use LexisNexis. ExpertAccess is a project of the Contently Foundation, which nurtures investigative journalism.
Freelance - Writers Helping Writers
This quarterly print and online journal based in New Zealand covers all aspects of the freelance writer's craft, from proofreading and marketing to structuring your memoir.
GLA Blog “Dear Lucky Agent” Contests
Writer's Digest columnist Chuck Sambuchino hosts this recurring free contest at his Guide to Literary Agents (GLA) blog. Each contest is focused on a different genre, e.g. contemporary middle-grade fiction. Entrants should submit the first 150-200 words of their manuscript via email. No entry fee, but to be eligible for consideration, you must mention the contest twice through any social media. Contest is judged by literary agents who are seeking new authors to represent. Winners receive critique and subscription to WritersMarket.com.
GoStartABlog
GoStartABlog walks you through the steps of choosing a blog topic, name, design, and hosting service. Written instructions are paired with short videos. They recommend WordPress, so there is also an article on how to set up your blog on that platform.
How To Do It Frugally
Website of Carolyn Howard-Johnson, award-winning author of 'The Frugal Book Promoter' and 'The Frugal Editor', contains a wealth of advice for writers and publishers on how to generate publicity for their titles on a limited budget.
Jane Friedman’s “MBA for Writers” Lectures
Digital publishing expert and former Writers' Digest executive Jane Friedman's blog contains a wealth of resources for professional writers. Her 6-part “MBA for Writers” online lecture series covers the principles for success in today's rapidly changing industry. You can purchase access to the whole series or individual sessions.
Jane Friedman’s Self-Publishing Tutorial
This 2017 blog post from publishing expert Jane Friedman walks you through the steps of self-publishing a book. Video tutorial included.
Libby App
Libby is an app for smartphones and tablets, which lets you search and borrow e-books and audio books from any participating library where you have a membership card. You can also send the borrowed e-books to your Kindle.
List of Free Online Courses for Authors: The Digital Reader
The Digital Reader is a news and tech blog about publishing, indie authors, e-books, and e-readers. This 2018 post compiles links to reputable free online courses where authors can learn about writing, design, marketing, and public speaking.
Literary Agent Links at Ardor Magazine
The online literary magazine Ardor maintains this annually updated list of over 100 literary agents and their preferred genres, with links to their websites.
MagCloud
Self-publish your own magazine through MagCloud. Simply upload a PDF of your issue and MagCloud will handle printing, mailing, and subscription management. Small press runs are no problem here. Participation is limited while the site is still in beta-testing.
Narrative Magazine’s Directory of Literary Agents
Narrative Magazine, a well-regarded online journal of creative writing, maintains this directory with links to established agents in many genres. The site also includes advice about pitching your book.
NetManners
Essential points of online etiquette, from marketing and technology expert Judith Kallos. If you want to be taken seriously as a professional writer, courteous, typo-free contest submissions, query letters and weblog entries can make all the difference.
NoiseTrade Books
NoiseTrade Books helps authors and publishers build their email lists by giving away content in exchange for email addresses and postal codes. Thousands of book lovers visit NoiseTrade Books every day to discover great new books. Authors get email addresses and postal codes for each person who downloads their content. NoiseTrade periodically hosts contests to select the books to feature as Primary Selections in their email newsletter and homepage. Winners are chosen in three categories: fiction, nonfiction, and graphic novel/poetry. See website for deadlines and rules.
PDF Online
Convert your word-processed documents into PDF or HTML format with this free online service. Works for both Windows and Mac documents. Writers can use this service to create e-books or HTML newsletters featuring their work.
Penmob
Penmob aims to create a virtual writing workshop experience by acting as a clearinghouse to match freelance editors with writers of short prose and poetry. Writers post their work on the site to solicit feedback, and editors choose the projects that interest them, charging standard industry rates of 3-6 cents per word. Penmob takes a 20% matchmaking cut.
PublishDrive Free E-book Converter
PublishDrive's free converter tool will change your MS Word documents into ePub or Kindle mobi files (two of the most popular e-book formats). Note that conversion of complicated publications is not guaranteed (magazines, textbooks, books with many pictures or too long and wide tables). Files must use Latin characters only, no foreign-language alphabets.
Publishing Resources Links at BookBub
Diana Urban, industry marketing manager at the self-publishing company BookBub, compiled this list of 48+ reputable vendors for every stage of book creation and marketing. Categories include developmental and copy editing, graphic design, distribution for self-published books, marketing, publishing industry news, authors' associations, and website building tools. Links are current as of 2019.
Purdue University Online Writing Lab
This resource portal from Purdue University in Indiana features basic exercises to learn grammar, punctuation, spelling, APA and MLA citation styles, and composing resumes and business letters.
R.R. Bowker, the US ISBN Agency
R.R. Bowker is the authorized ISBN Agency in the United States, responsible for assigning ISBNs as well as providing information and advice on the uses of the ISBN system to publishers and the publishing industry in general. (An ISBN, or International Standard Book Number, is a 10-digit number that uniquely identifies books and book-like products published internationally.) Their website includes instructions for publishers or self-published authors to obtain an ISBN for their titles.
Scribe Guide to Getting on Bestselling Book Lists
Tucker Max is the co-founder of Scribe Writing (formerly Book in a Box), a writing coach and ghostwriting service for business professionals. In this article from their website, he explains the metrics behind newspapers' and online retailers' bestseller lists, and the reasons why getting on the list is not a cost-effective goal for most authors.
Scribendi
Scribendi provides a wide variety of proofreading and copyediting services for literary manuscripts, personal and business documents, and academic writing. Pricing is per word. They can also help write a query letter, synopsis, and outline for authors of fiction and nonfiction books who are shopping their manuscripts to agents. Specialty services include religious editing and proofreading for hymns, sermons, inspirational blog posts, and academic theological works.
Self-Publishing Apps for Mac
This review posted in November 2012 on the tech site GigaOM evaluates three apps for Mac computers that writers can use to create e-books: Apple's Pages, Adobe Indesign, and Scrivener.
Smashwords
This website helps authors, agents, and publishers convert their books into a variety of popular e-book formats and sell them on the Smashwords site. Membership is free; Smashwords takes a percentage of net sales proceeds.
Start Blogging Online
Blogger and social media expert Mike Wallagher created this site to give writers a simple step-by-step introduction to creating their web presence. Topics include choosing a blogging platform, the pros and cons of free versus paid hosting, promoting your blog on Twitter, search engine optimization and digital marketing.
