We've done your homework for you: here are some of the best, most useful websites out there for writers.
When it comes to helping writers find a literary agent, chatting with other like-minded authors, or researching industry leads and alternative publishing paths,
these are some of the first-class writing and publishing websites.
Agent Research & Evaluation
AR&E tracks literary agent information, including sales made to publishers and deal dollar amounts. They've been around for a long time, and they've
amassed a formidable database of information, which they sell as rather expensive standard or customized "fingerprints"—detailed agent profiles that carry back years and years.
We like their online Talking Agents newsletter, a gossip rag written with an industry insider's perspective, and it's free, so why not?
We also think their free agent verification tool is okay for confirming if an agent is legit or not, so long as you realize that agency addresses, agent affiliation, and contact information are woefully out-of-date.
The Association of Authors’ Representatives
The AAR was formed in 1991 through the merger of the Society of Authors'
Representatives (founded in 1928) and the Independent Literary Agents
Association (founded in 1977). To qualify for membership in the AAR, an agent
must meet professional standards specified in AAR's bylaws and
agree to subscribe to its Canon of Ethics. However, AAR cannot regulate the
commissions, fees, services, or other competitive business practices of its
members.
Their website and searchable member database is relatively new. Non-members can
login with a guest username and password and enter the site through
Find an Agent. Based on our current intelligence, it seems like AAR has stepped up to the
plate and made an effort to keep their database regularly maintained and accurate. And
although we consider every agent in our AQ database legitimate, not every agent
in our AQ database is a member of AAR. In our opinion, AAR membership is not a
black & white litmus test for good versus bad. It simply offers one source
for verifying potential credibility.
Preditors and Editors
P & E’s website keeps an ongoing list of literary agents, reputable and
non-reputable, for all writers to browse and compare notes. And although this
website doesn’t maintain current addresses of agents or always list the most
accurate information regarding which agent is affiliated with which agency
(literary agents are peripatetic; they change agencies, start their own
agencies, then close shop and move to bigger agencies more times in a year than
J-Lo gets married), it does serve as a great source for ferreting out the
scammers.
Bottom line: if you’re interested in an agent who you don’t find in our AQ
database, we recommend that you cross-reference the agent’s name with
Preditors and Editors’ list. If you find the agent’s name on P & E
with a “Not Recommended” rating, then you’ll immediately know why she’s not in
our AQ database. Read our Beware of Scammers page, and stay away from Ms.
Questionable Agent—far, far away.
Publishers Marketplace
Publishers Marketplace offers a wealth of information for a month-to-month
subscription fee of $20. This subscription includes search privileges to view their "recent sales" database. PM also offers Publishers Lunch,
a free daily e-zine that recaps the book
sales made to the major & indie publishers.
For example, Publishers Lunch tells you that Mr. Agents sold the book Lovely
Secrets by Sho-shana Friedricks, about a twenty-something girl with
leukemia who refuses to tell her fiancé she’s dying, to Ms. Editor at Simon
& Schuster. Keep in mind, however, that Publishers Lunch only
reports the news that agents and editors feed them, and not every agent on the
planet feels compelled to report their sales to Publishers Lunch. And by
the way, you won’t find the recent sales of Publishers Lunch reposted in
our agents’ profiles. Our AQ database only lists a "snapshot" of an agent's past sales history, and only books that have actually
made it to press and can be reviewed on Amazon.
Writer Beware
Similar to Predators & Editors, Writer Beware’s goal is to provide writers
with current information about known scammers in the literary agent world. They
often put out an A.P.B regarding specific names and organizations to avoid at
all cost. They also thoroughly outline how to
tell a reputable literary agent
from a questionable one, and educate writers about the detrimental scamming
practices of fee-charging “rogue” agents who prey on the vulnerable, desperate
sensibilities of wannabe authors. You can also email Writer Beware to ask specifically
about an agent or publisher, and they'll check the agent or publisher against their extensive database.
If Writer Beware shouts, "Stay away!" we recommend that you sprint in the other direction of that questionable agent or publisher.
| WRITING LINKS & RESOURCES |
Australian Writer's Marketplace
The Australian Writer’s Marketplace is the premier resource for Australian and New Zealand writers. Published authors call it their “industry bible”.
Furthermore, Australian or New zealand writers searching for a literary agent might want to try closer to home via the
Australian Literary Agents' Association.
Author Network
This is a great website for writers interested in exploring agents, competitions, festivals, and other
literary opportunities in England and Europe. They have a healthy list of links to UK small presses and university presses, UK
literary agents, and UK professional organizations and associations. They also offer monthly writing columns, interviews
with established authors, and even individualized websites for writers seeking to promote their current article or book.
Critique Circle
If nothing else, it's nifty that this site is an import from Iceland. Register as a free CC member and you've suddenly
got a whole network of new literary friends, waiting to critique your query or manuscript in their forums and story queues.
For a premium membership of $24 a year, you can create your own private message forums and critique queues. You also gain full access to their
ToolChest, offering snazzy web tools like "Submission Tracker," helping you track all
your submissions to magazines, agents, and publishers, and "Name Generator," creating random English names from the U.S. Census Bureau data. Cool, huh?
They even have a "Paragraph-a-Day" tool—for all you master procrastinators.
ForWriters.com
ForWriters.com offers the best list around of writers' groups, whether its a physical meeting at your local library or a virtual community on the web. Forwriters.com also offers a slew of other links, including specifics links for genre writers of
mystery, romance, science fiction, fantasy, and horror. We also like this site's healthy dose of paying and non-paying writing markets, including print, online, and electronic--a definite MUST CHECK OUT if you write
dark fantasy & science fiction (especially vampire yarns). Their tidy blurbs about each link helps you digest each morsel of information without having to sit down for the whole meal.
Poets & Writers Magazine
Poets & Writers offers informative articles, publishing news, special
features, and important deadlines for literary contests, conferences,
residencies, awards, and grants. It’s the best online and in-print guidance
magazine for aspiring writers—and they’re not paying us to say that. A
subscription to this magazine will keep you informed and in-the-loop, and we
also recommend checking out their Links to
Other Resources. It’s a treasure trove of links related to writing
contests, indie presses, grants, residencies, writing organizations, and more.
There's so much information, it’s overwhelming, so don’t lose your
focus.
Writer's Digest
Writer's Digest offers both a website and monthly print magazine that provides topical "digestible" information of interest to mainstream writers. Their articles are generally
geared towards the beginning to intermediate level writer, and often focus on the mechanics of good writing and selling one's self as a writer. If you're new to all of this, reading Writer's Digest is
a great way to slowly immerse yourself into the world of publishing and its complex facets. Writer's Digest also sponsors their annual
101 Best Web Sites for Writers. And you know it, baby, AQ made the 2007 short list. Third year in a row!
Writerspace
Writerspace is the home for over 550 authors, primarily romance and mystery, of the best fiction on the market today.
Writerspace communities are familiar places for readers to gather, talk to each other, learn about releases and communicate with authors.
They offer links to established author's individual websites as well as bulletin boards designed to hook writers up with their favorite contemporary commercial authors.
It's a great site for aspiring romance and mystery writers to communicate with each other as well as learn from the pros.
Writing World
This site offers solid nuts-and-bots advice to all writers of all genres. Fresh articles and columns are posted weekly, and there's simply a mind-boggling amount of
how-to advice for the beginning writer, including A Step-by-Step Guide to Launching Your Writing Career and How to Write a Successful Query Letter as well as How to Find Markets for your writing,
and Aspects of the Writing Life (like rejection and writer's block). And that's just for the newbies. And perhaps most helpful to
emerging writers is their Rights & Contracts page, packed with information regarding copyrights, contracts & payment issues, and piracy, plagiarism and scams. And their searchable Contest Database is unlike anything else on the web.
This is an invaluable site with invaluable information—all in one convenient place.
| GENRE SPECIFIC RESOURCES & FORUMS |
All Romance Writers.com
All Romance Writers is a web site where readers and writers of romance can come
together to discuss books, authors, and book characters and plots.
ChickLitWriters.com
The Chick Lit Writers group is a place where chick lit writers can mingle with other authors who understand you, your voice, and this
unique sub-genre that doesn’t play by the traditional romance rules. Network and share leads with a global, online community of writers
who share the same interest--writing and publishing chick lit.
Historical Novel Society
The Historical Novel Society was founded in 1997 to promote all aspects of historical fiction. They offer membership, news of forthcoming
releases, the quarterly Historical Novels Review Magazine and semi-annual Solander Magazine, and a community of authors, readers, agents and publishers.
Locus Online
Locus Online and Locus Magazine offers a consolidated resource for science fiction, fantasy and horror writers, including
news, reviews, interviews with established authors and links to sf/f/h web and e-zines, message boards and forums, blogs, and contests.
Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind
A website run by esteemed blogger Sarah Weinman that focuses mainly on publishing news related to the crime genre, but she also adds in a few random snide sidebars that always make us snort.
| CHILDREN'S AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR RESOURCES & FORUMS |
Anastasia Suen, Children's Book Author, Consultant, Teacher
Ms. Suen, an author herself of over 100 books—board books, picture books, easy readers, and chapter books (including a book for adults about how to write children's books)—offers her expert knowledge through her website and her three informative blogs: Create/Relate, IPBNews, and Picture Book of the Day.
If you want to write children's picture books, her website is a groundzero learning launchpad.
Book Divas
Book Divas is an online book club for YA and college readers. Its membership includes some hip, savvy, young posters who know how to use the internet to stay connected, research agents and the book industry, and level the playing field in the grown-up world of publishing.
The Children's Book Council
The Children's Book Council, Inc. is the nonprofit trade association of publishers and packagers of trade books and related materials for children and young adults.
Although it only offers membership to publishers and not individuals, it does offer an extensive online list of published children's authors and illustrators.
Jackflap.com
JacketFlap has become the world's largest and most comprehensive resource for
information on the children's book industry. Writers, illustrators, librarians,
agents, editors, publicists, and publishers visit JacketFlap every day.
The Purple Crayon
A website run by children's book editor, Harold Underdown, and dedicated to children's writing, illustrating and book publishing.
Verla Kay's Website for Children's Writers & Illustrators
Verla Kay, a published children's book author, provides a helpful, supportive website for aspiring children's book writers and illustrators. Her site offers useful links galore and her forum
is populated by curious writers who are research addicts when it comes to sniffing out the newest publishing leads.
Verla Kay's site also offers live chats once a week, allowing writers and illustrators the opportunity to meet virtually and network about the biz.
Write 4 Kids.com Message Boards
We love this forum because it's frequented by authors-in-the-know who dispense the low-down on children's books publishers,
the submission process, and the writing process. There's even a forum just for illustrators, and we love the idiosyncratic discussions that crop up like the pros and cons of having talking animals or insects in one's book.
If you're a wanna-be children's book author, and you haven't visited this site,
then you're not doing enough homework.
| INDUSTRY BLOGS & READING PLEASURE |
Bookslut
Yeah, we admit, the provocative title certainly sold us from the get-go. But the professional site design, "hot-author" interviews with Chuck Palahniuk, Jennifer Weiner, and Arthur Philips (truly hot), hip, urban book reviews written with wry detachment, and reoccurring columns
like MagazineWhore, Cookslut, and Scarlet Woman of Self-Help all make us return for fix after fix.
The sassy, edgy attitude of Jessa Crispin's blog alone is enough reason to become an addict. In short, Bookslut spices up our day, and makes us feel excited to read about contemporary books, even if we don't have
time to actually read them. We feel like emo-pseudo-intellectuals when we visit this site, like we're welcomed into the world of an out-crowd too busy amusing themselves
with their fun quipping content to notice that they're really on the "in".
Miss Snark, the Literary Agent
Update: Miss Snark has retired from blogging, but not from agenting.
A literary agent's blog in which "Miss Snark vents her wrath on the hapless world of writers and crushes them to sand beneath her T.Rexual heels of stiletto snark."
If you're a newbie, sucking up every detail about the publishing biz, this blog is the place to start. Miss Snark may have quit blogging in order to elope with George Clooney, but her informative blog and snarky legacy lives on. We like how she belittles the world, and writers in general. Why? The same reason we like Halle Barry's Catwoman. Whips, black leather, and a naughty attitude.
Meow! Read Miss Snark's diatribes against foolish amateur writers who fail miserably in capturing her attention with their drivel-filled queries and laugh with consolation, knowing you're not one of those poor sniveling nit-wits—or are you?
Smart Bitches Who Love Trashy Books
Damn, these smart bitches are delicious. They know their romance. They know their audience. And they know how to stir up a good 'ol fashion internet catfight. Meow!
If challenged to a verbal duel of sassy quipage and searing banter, Smart Bitches and their their bad-ass, bad-girl attitude may just flog the AQ Crew. How was your lamb, Mr. Bond?... Skewered.
Romancing The Blog
The columnists of this blog are readers, reviewers, aspiring authors, agents, and bestsellers. Some posts are thoughtful, some humorous, some a bit "ranty," and some are insightful. But they all have their own voices and they all share love of romance.
Slushpile.net
In short: these guys crack us up, that's why we think it's a site worth visiting. Unlike most messy blogs, Slushpile's web design is sleek and alluring, and their quirky editorial voice keeps us reading past our bedtimes.
The content is random, fun, and free, and it ranges from newly released book reviews to satirical commentary on freak news. And their rants about the publishing world provide cathartic pleasure reading for all aspiring writers. Plus their tounge-in-cheek photos make us giggle at work, which is more than we can say about our day-job bosses.
| WRITING & PUBLISHING FORUMS |
Absolute Write
AbsoluteWrite has a huge, loyal fan base that is dominated by newbie writers and established authors who critique, gossip, and educate each other about the realities and pitfalls of the publishing industry. Their Beware and Background Check forum is moderated by
several watchdogs who tirelessly work to educate newbie writers who fall prey to the most common of the agency and publishing scams. If you can get past the newbie scam paranoia that is prevalent on this board, you'll glean some valuable tips and writing opportunities from the more regular posters.
Forward Motion for Writers
Founded by novelist Holly Lisle, Forward Motion is community of often insanely dedicated writers who challenge each other to write better, to reach higher, to never give up on our dreams. One of this community's motto is: Write here--write now.
They also offer free e-books and bi-monthly e-zine. Most of the good stuff is in the protected forums, so you'll have to login to gain access.
Romance Divas
A super-cool supportive site with a current membership of several hundred romance writers. The discussions are always informative, fun, and insightful.
There's a loyal team of "diva" forum moderators with names like "Foxy Diva Gina" and "sassystyle" and the site's founders Dive Jax (Diva Web Goddess) and Diva Kristen (Admin Diva Goddess) display their baby pictures as identification. It's hard not to be charmed
(if not a bit seduced) by this site, even if you don't write romance.
WritingForums.com
A new up-'n-coming forum with a nice clean layout, some interesting posting topics, and over 300 members (with an active members list you can peruse).
Their Writer's Resource and Tips & Advice boards are most useful to aspiring writers while their Research board is a good source of reading entertainment.
Writers.Net
Writers.net offers a slew of information about writers, editors, agents, and
publishing. However, most of the contact information is out-dated, erroneous,
or just plain messy and incoherent. But they offer a few, free message forums that are useful, like
the Literary Agents Forum—most helpful to writers searching for a literary agent. You
can post your query letter for a free critique, as well as ask any other specific
questions about an agent or the submission process. However, we recommend that
you post using an alias, rather than your real name. And always avoid giving
out personal information. This is the web, my friends, and attention-seeking
crazies (also known as “trolls” within the WN community) have been known to
frequent the forum, just to stir up trouble. (But that's when the boards get fun!)
|
