Resources
From Category: Business, Marketing, and Technical Resources
How to Write Attention-Grabbing Promo Copy for Books
In this guest post on the book marketing website BookBub, M.J. Rose, founder of the ad agency AuthorBuzz, gives detailed advice about writing your ad copy and targeting it to different audiences.
Ink & Peat Podcast
Ink & Peat is a podcast "for enthusiasts of the written word," hosted by Craig Stewart and Barb Robitaille. They interview authors, editors, publishers, ghostwriters, and others in the self-publishing and indie book world about their writing and marketing strategies.
Inside Publishing: The Book Publicist
This installment of Poets & Writers "The Practical Writer" column discusses the functions of a book publicist and their continued importance in the new social media landscape.
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 Guide to Getting the Most Out of a Writing Conference
Publishing expert Jane Friedman has been speaking at writers' conferences since 2001. In this article from her blog, she gives tips on how to select the best conference for your goals, being a well-prepared speaker, making the most of networking opportunities, and more.
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.
Key Book Publishing Paths
Publishing expert Jane Friedman explains different tracks to book publication in this annually updated chart, which compares the key features of Big Five traditional publishing, small press, indie, hybrid, and self-publishing.
Know Your Rights: Key Provisions in a Publishing Contract
In this 2021 article on Anne R. Allen's publishing advice blog, literary agent and attorney Joseph Perry explains typical terms in a book publishing contract, such as the grant of rights, advances, royalties, and option clause.
Koss Web Design
Poet and illustrator Koss, a winner of our Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest, is also an accomplished graphic designer who creates logos and websites for writers. See examples of her site designs here and here (logo and website). She also redesigned the Ventura County Poetry Project site and managed their social media.
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.
London Proofreaders
London Proofreaders is an online proofreading and copyediting service. They say their unique selling proposition is that they assign two proofreaders to every text, for more thorough error-catching. At 12.50 pounds per 1,000 words, their rates are in line with typical US rates of 1-2 cents per word. London Proofreaders can work with academic papers from undergraduate to Ph.D level, business writing, and literary prose. They also offer novel editing and book proofreading.
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.
Manuscript Wish List
Manuscript Wish List is an online database of agents and editors, with information on what they're currently seeking. The site also has a podcast and blog with craft articles.
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.
New Play Exchange
New Play Exchange is a site for playwrights, lyricists, composers, librettists, devising artists, adapters, and translators to read and share scripts. Find your next collaborator or dramatic work to produce at your arts organization, and network with other creators in your genre. Annual fees are just $12 for early-career members and $18 for professionals.
NY Book Editors
NY Book Editors matches authors with experienced publishing professionals for manuscript critiques, from developmental to line editing. Initial fee is refundable if author is not satisfied with sample critique. Their blog features articles about the basics of writing and publishing.
oTranscribe
oTranscribe is a free web app that makes it easy to transcribe recorded interviews, readings, and lectures. The finished product, with interactive timestamps, can be exported to Google Docs, plain text, or word-processing markdown format.
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.
Peek Inside a Successful Book Proposal
Nieman Storyboard, a publication of Harvard's Nieman Foundation for Journalism, showcases exceptional narrative nonfiction and offers resources for writing and marketing your work. In this article, Kim Cross shares the lengthy proposal that secured a contract for In Light of All Darkness, her book about the Polly Klaas kidnapping. She annotates the key elements that made this pitch more successful than her earlier efforts. Click on the "Story Annotations" header for other craft articles by journalists explaining how they researched and structured a feature story.
Picking the Right Email Platform for Your Indie Newsletter
This December 2022 article at the tech website Inbox Collective compares six of the most popular email service providers (ESPs) for your writer's newsletter: AWeber, Beehiiv, ConvertKit, Ghost, Mailchimp, and Substack. Factors to consider include whether your newsletter is a stand-alone or points readers to a site with additional content; how many emails you can send out for free; the way that you plan to monetize the newsletter, e.g. subscriptions or ads; and how much you want to customize the design.
Pinpoint
Pinpoint is a software tool from Google Journalist Studio that makes your research documents easily searchable. Upload PDFs, audio files, images, emails, and other source materials to create a digital archive that you can keyword-search, transcribe, and share with your collaborators and fact-checkers. This tool would be useful for scholars, journalists, and nonfiction book authors.
PodMatch
PodMatch is a digital marketplace for helping podcasters and interviewees find each other. Hosts and guests can fill out profiles describing their audiences, areas of expertise, and possible topics. Using AI, PodMatch will generate suggested guests for your podcast and vice versa. While the site is not specifically literature-focused, it can be useful for authors to find podcasters with an interest in their book's topic or a similar target audience.
Poetry Bulletin’s Submission Fee Support Circle
Poetry Bulletin is a literary opportunities newsletter curated by poet and essayist Emily Stoddard. Their Submission Fee Support Circle offers funding to help under-represented and under-resourced authors enter contests for book and chapbook manuscripts. Limit of three submissions per poet. If you'd like to donate to support this project, please contact them.
Pride Book Tours
Sasha Zatz's Pride Book Tours connects LGBTQ authors with social media outlets that will feature their new books. Many of these bloggers also write thoughtful reviews of the book on Goodreads. As of 2024, the fee was 105 pounds to be featured on over a dozen Instagram book review sites, which is a fraction of the cost of an advertisement in most trade journals.
Printed Matter
Founded in 1976, NYC-based Printed Matter is the leading nonprofit dedicated to promoting artists' books and zines. Their website includes a state-by-state list of book and zine fairs, news of upcoming exhibitions, and the opportunity to have your book sold in their bookstore and website.
ProofreadingServices.com
Author services at ProofreadingServices.com include manuscript critiques, developmental edits, line edits and proofreading, e-book formatting, and book cover design. Pricing is transparent and affordable. Affiliated with QueryLetter.com.
Pub Rants at Nelson Literary Agency
Pub Rants is a blog where agents from Nelson Literary Agency offer advice on improving your manuscript and query letter, finding and evaluating an agent, and marketing various genres.
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.
Publishers Marketplace
Publishers Marketplace is an industry news website that can help authors connect with agents and editors. Their newsfeed tracks publishing deals, agents, editors, submission calls and more. Full membership is $25/month. If this is out of your price range, there is also a free, shorter daily email newsletter called Publishers Lunch.
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.
Publishing Trends
The website of Publishing Trends offers a weekly roundup of top stories from the publishing world, plus monthly updates on agents' and editors' job changes.
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.
Purple Planet Music
Purple Planet Music is an online collection of background music clips in various styles, written and performed by Chris Martyn and Geoff Harvey. The site is easy to search for the musical mood that you need for your book trailer. There are free and paid tiers, depending on the audio quality you need and how widely you plan to broadcast the music.
Queer-Owned Bookstores to Love and Support
This 2024 list from Electric Literature features queer-owned independent bookstores to consider for your book tours and purchases, from lesbian-owned Bookends in Florence, MA to outposts in Midwestern and Southern conservative states.
QueryLetter.com
The publishing industry professionals at QueryLetter.com will write a query letter, synopsis, and outline to pitch your novel manuscript to agents and publishers. Fees are on a sliding scale based on the length of the book, e.g. $379 for a manuscript of 80-120K words (as of 2020). You can also pay to have them generate a list of agents and publishers to target, but we at Winning Writers recommend doing your own research instead.
QueryTracker
Available in both free and paid premium versions, QueryTracker features a searchable database of 1,500 literary agents and a record-keeping system for organizing your queries.
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.
Royalty Free Music by Bensound
Bensound offers a wide variety of short instrumental music tracks in styles such as acoustic, electronic, pop, jazz, and world music. The clips are free to use as background for YouTube and social media videos, such as book trailers. More extensive broadcast uses require a paid license.
Scribe Guide to Getting on Bestselling Book Lists
Tucker Max is the co-founder of Scribe Media (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.
Send Mail From Desk
An alternative to in-person trips to the post office, Send Mail From Desk allows customers to send documents, letters, and invoices via FedEx Standard Overnight, USPS Priority, Express & First Class Mail, all from your computer dashboard.
Slated
Slated is an online marketplace for film packaging, financing, and distribution. Writers can network with industry professionals and receive feedback on how to make their scripts more marketable.
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.
Social Media Hashtags for Book Authors
Web Design Relief is a site with articles on social media marketing, site design, and building your author platform online. This article from 2017 suggests 55 popular writing-related hashtags that can boost your profile on social media and give you entry into useful conversations and communities. The article includes examples of how to use them effectively.
Stage 32
Stage 32 is a screenwriters' social network and resource site. Basic membership is free. Paid membership tiers include online webinars and intensive classes by entertainment industry professionals, and access to script consultations and pitch sessions.
StartBloggingOnline.com
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.
Stunning Design Examples to Inspire Your Book Advertising
This 2024 article from the e-book bargains site BookBub showcases 25 well-designed advertisements for books in various genres and explains what makes them so effective.
