The Internet is an amazing source of information for the aspiring author. Here are some of the websites, blogs, and articles that have helped us the most:

(Note: If you’re new to the blogging world, you’ll save yourself a lot of headaches if you read this simple how-to first.)

Jump to:
Blogs & General Resources
Finding an Agent & Queries
The Craft of Writing
Genre-Specific Links
Fun Stuff

Blogs and General Resources:

Nathan Bransford - This agent’s “The Essentials” list (on the right side of his site) should be required reading for all authors!

Pub Rants - Agent Kristin Nelson focuses on fiction, but a lot of good information applies to all genres. Check out her many Agent 101 blog posts, which give you the nitty gritty on contracts, the publishing industry, royalty statements, and more!

CBA-ramblings - Agent Rachelle Gardner offers valuable information for anyone interested in the Christian Book Association…and more that applies to everyone!

Associate of Author Representatives

Finding an Agent:

QueryTracker.net - a free database of Literary Agents & Publishers, as well as a helpful blog.

AbsoluteWrite.com - The Absolute Write Water Cooler is one of the largest and busiest forums for writers of all genres.

Agents Who Blog - There are too many to list here, but there’s a pretty huge list here if you scroll down the left side of the page to “More Links.” Many agent blogs link to other agent blogs in their sidebars.

Writer Beware - Never sign with an agent or publisher without first checking to make sure they aren’t on Victoria Struss’s lists of preditor agents and/or publishers.

Queries & Pitches:

Top 10 Query Mistakes - by agent Rachelle Gardner

Agent Kristin Nelson did an online Pitch Workshop. You can find the links way down the menu on the right side of her blog, or you can visit them in sequence:
Intro
Part 1 (YA fiction)
Part 2 (YA fiction)
Part 3 (YA fiction)
Part 4 (literary fiction)
Part 5 (literary fiction)
Part 6 (horror)
Part 7 (romance)
Part 8 (romance)
Part 9 (romance)
Part 10 (romantic suspense)
Part 11 (fantasy)

Writing a Query with Voice - posted on the QueryTracker blog

The Craft of Writing

Prologues:
Why Prologues Often Don’t Work - by agent Kristin Nelson

Character Building:

Sympathy Without Saintliness - Making your characters sympathetic so people will love them

The Details of Craft

editrorrent - Two grammar nerd editors blog on the craft of writing. Expect the really deep stuff here!

Misc

Word Count Guidelines (for NY) - a post on agent Colleen Lindsay’s blog

Genre-Specific Links

Romance:

Romance Writers of America

Romance Divas - a large, interactive group of romance writers. Free to join.

Sci-Fi/Fantasy:

Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America

Critters

Mystery:

Mystery Writers of America

YA MG: (Young Adult and Middle-Grade fiction)

Kt Literary’s blog - An agent specializing in YA and MG

Children’s Literature:

Alice’s Children’s Writers and Illustrator’s Market blog

Fun Stuff

Miss Snark’s First Victim - a community-centered blog with monthly contests, critique-opportunities, chances to get agent feedback on your writing, and more!

Agent Janet Reid’s Query Shark - How To Write Query Letters…or really, how to revise query letters so they actually work (featuring real willingly-sacrificed queries!)

. . .

Note: The easiest way to follow blogs is to “subscribe” to their RSS feed through an RSS feed “Reader.”

An RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed is the next generation method of email subscriptions as well as the best way to follow blogs. It allows you to “follow” many blogs’ content without having to visit each blog every day to see if/when new content is added.

With RSS, a blog’s content is automatically copied to a specially-designed page called a feed. You then give your “feed reader” that URL. Then, whenever new content is posted on that blog, your feed reader automatically retrieves a copy of the post for you to read. It’s like a newspaper, where every column is a blog you’ve subscribed to. The best part of it is that you are in complete control of your subscriptions and your email address.

The simplest feed reader to start out with is Google’s. Then, when you’ve found a blog you want to follow, you simply find their RSS link (which usually has the little orange symbol next to it). Clicking on that will give you a bunch of reader options, one of which is always Google’s. It’s quite simple and is the only way to follow more than a few and stay sane. (Or you can do what our webmistress does and keep up with 60+ blogs in less than an hour a day.)