Sillybean
Writing and Publishing 101
Agents
- A little-known way of identifying successful agents
- Agent first, then sale? Other way ’round?
- Career planning: before you look for an agent…
- Do you need an agent?
- Everything you wanted to know about literary agents…
- Five Writers Explain How They Got, Kept and Fired Agents
- How to Get Published: a Flow Chart
- On the getting of agents and all associated comments
- Preditors & Editors
- Questions to ask an agent who has offered you representation
- Sales reported in Locus since July 2004 with agent info when known
- The 20 Worst Literary Agencies (with discussion)
- The Association of Authors’ Representatives
- Why fee-charging agents suck (scroll about halfway down)
- Writer Beware
- Writing a simple query letter
- You should never submit unagented to publishing companies (or at least one editor thinks so)
Book Publishing
- A Book Publishing Glossary
- A Publishing Dictionary
- Book Publishing Accounting: Some Basic Concepts
- Debut author lessons
- How Acquisitions Work
- How publishing works from the bookselling side (in five parts; hit “Next” at the top)
- How publishing works from the publishing side
- How to Get Published (a brief overview)
- How to Get Published: a Flow Chart
- How to Write a Query Letter in Five Easy Steps
- Publishing in the Twenty-First Century, part 1
- Publishing in the Twenty-First Century, part 2
- Publishing in the Twenty-First Century, part 3
- Publishing primer, part 1
- Publishing primer, part 2
- Sell-Throughs
- The Devil’s Dictionary of Publishing, corrections
- The Devil’s Dictionary of Publishing, part 1
- The Devil’s Dictionary of Publishing, part 2
- The Rise and Fall of the Mass Market Paperback
- Things the author does not get to control
- Under the Author’s Control For the Most Part/Not Under the Author’s Control For the Most Part
- Who are all these people? one publisher’s outline of the various roles (editorial, marketing, etc.)
- Word count for novels and children’s books
- Word counts and novel length
Copyright
Critique Groups
- Critters
- How To Start A Writing Group
- Online Writing Workshop (formerly the Del Rey workshop)
- Seven essential questions of critiquing
Ebooks
Jargon
Magazines
- Locus
- SFWA Bulletin Non-members may subscribe
Markets
- Black Holes response time tracker
- Duotrope Digest including a submission tracker for registered users
- Quintamid market database
- Ralan
Money and Contracts
- Anatomy of a three-book deal
- Annotated first novel contract (in parts; hit “Next” at the top)
- Bestseller list primer
- Business Realities for the Beginning Writer
- How much money you'll actually see from a six-figure book deal
- Laura Anne Gilman’s Basic [and Updated] Rules for Going Freelance, specific to novelists
- Money
- More on money and the writing life
- Negotiating novel contracts
- P&Ls and how books make (or don’t) money: part the first: the mass market original complete failure
- P&Ls and how books make (or don’t) money: part the second: the hardcover to mass
- Real World Book Deals
- Real World Book Deals — follow-up #1
- Real World Book Deals — follow-up #2
- Royalty calculations explained
- Sell-Throughs
- Simple book revenue breakdown
- Survey of first novel advances in short: get an agent
- The Importance of Reversion Clauses in Publishing Contracts
- Unasked-For Advice to New Writers About Money
- What a royalty statement looks like
News, Rumors, and Daily Reads
- GalleyCat
- John Scalzi
- Making Light
- Publishers Lunch daily email newsletter, plus weekly deal roundup
- PW Daily email newsletter from Publishers Weekly
- The Awl's Publishing School column
- Top Ten Blogs About Writing and Publishing
Organizations
Publishing
Responding to Reviews
Scams and other bad ideas
- Arguments against self-publishing
- How to spot the scammers
- Preditors and Editors A clearing house of information about publishers. Look up publishers here to see if they’re known scammers or not.
- Publish America: Everything you need to know
- Publish America: further reading
- Publish America: the never-ending thread at Absolute Write
- Variants of publishing scams
SF Writing Workshops
- Clarion 6 weeks; June/July; U.S. West
- Clarion South 6 weeks; Jan./Feb.; Australia
- Clarion West 6 weeks; June/July; U.S. Pacific Northwest
- Odyssey 6 weeks; June/July; U.S. Northeast
- Taos Toolbox a “graduate” workshop; 2 weeks; June; US Southwest
- University of Kansas Center for the Study of Science Fiction 2 weeks; June/July; U.S. Midwest
- Viable Paradise 1 week; October; U.S. Martha’s Vineyard
Short Stories
Slush
- Common slush mistakes
- Confessions of a Slush Pile Reader
- How NOT to write a cover letter for novels
- How NOT to write a cover letter for short stories
- Myrtle the Manuscript describes a short story; novel slush piles are even bigger and slower
- Slushkiller and all associated comments
Working with editors
Working with other authors
Writing
- Avoid these clichés
- Billy Wilder's ten tips
- Dos and Don'ts of Setting
- Elmore Leonard: Ten Rules of Writing
- Holly Lisle’s articles
- How to Write a Novel
- Jennifer Crusie: Plot Diagrams
- Jennifer Crusie: Revising Scene
- Jennifer Crusie: Turning Points, part 1
- Jennifer Crusie: Turning Points, part 2
- John Scalzi: 10 Things Teenage Writers Should Know About Writing
- John Scalzi: Ten Writing Tips
- John Scalzi: Utterly Useless Writing Advice
- Learn Writing with Uncle Jim
- Michael Hauge’s six-stage plot structure uses some well-known films to illustrate turning points
- Orson Scott Card’s articles
- SFWA’s articles
- Stephen King: Everything You Need to Know About Writing Successfully in Ten Minutes
- The Guardian collects ten rules of writing from various authors (part 1)
- The Guardian collects ten rules of writing from various authors (part 2)
- The secret menu of writing advice
- The Well-Tempered Plot Device
- Write a Novel online courseware by Crawford Kilian
Writing Life
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