Helpful Websites for Writers

Helpful Writing and Publishing Links

I am a huge fan of Piers Anthony. I've been reading his books for more than half my life. He has a website where he does research on publishing companies to help new or established authors in their endeavors to get published. I found his research to be very helpful and honest. He is also a very nice man in that he gave me permission to add this link to his website. He updates it every two months. Check it out! ~Lynn~

Piers Anthony's Research - http://www.hipiers.com/publishing.html

My first piece of advice...BE PERSISTANT. This is an extremely tough venue to get into. It's hard to get publisher's attention. Especially if you do not have an agent. It's just as tough to get an agent's attention as well. Don't give up. Toughen up your skin. I've received hundreds of rejection letters from agents. The good news is, I have had attention as well. I've been fortunate enough to receive help and advice from several agents. If you get one or two agents willing to look at more of what you write, consider yourself extremely lucky.


Market, market, market!

Develop a network of other authors and friends. Join writers groups. The more people who know who you are the better.

As your release date creeps closer, send out emails to everyone you know. Word of mouth is a very strong tool. Have your friends help you spread the word.

Develop sell sheets for bookstores. Print flyers and business cards for your project and deliver them to Libraries and Bookstores for them to drop in shopping bags at the checkout.

Make your press release "to die for".

Research on how to develop all of the above. There are a lot of great resources available through the web.

I have been fortunate enough to not have had major issues with writer's block. Occasionally, however, I do need a jump start or I've run out of ideas. I have found that if I get out of the house, I can find inspiration. I sometimes walk through department stores and watch people. I can pick up on personality traits, slang, or bits of conversation that may spark something in me. I keep my handy dandy little notebook with me to jot these down. Then when I get back to writing, I have things to help spur me along.

In trying to get the sequel started for Afterthoughts, I've hit a wall on a couple of things so I started a little research. I found a couple of articles that I found to be helpful so I decided to share them with you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writer's_block (I know this is a Wikipedia article but it has a lot of great information and other links.)

http://www.transaction.net/web/tutor/text/dissolve.html

With all that I've had going on the last couple of weeks, I have been having trouble finding time to write. I am working on the sequel to Afterthoughts as well as starting on a couple of new ideas. I thought I would throw out a couple of ideas on ways to make time.

I carry around a small notebook in my purse. If you don't carry a purse, find a notebook small enough to keep in your pocket or invested in a small hand held device. I use these to jot down ideas and work on different chapters. It's amazing sometimes how much you can get done in a couple of minutes if you have the resources available to take advantage of it.
I did run across a couple of articles that I found to be very helpful and have listed them below. They both offer really great suggestions in "making time".
Time and the Writer by Moira Allen - http://www.writing-world.com/basics/time.shtml
Finding Time To Write When You Have No Time To Write! by Karen Fenech -
http://www.absolutewrite.com/novels/finding_time_to_write.htm