Publishing Resources
This page is an ongoing collection of links for Publishing: the life, the business, practical matters and a list of Genre organisations and festivals
Publishing: the life, the business, practical matters
- Margaret Atwood, ‘The Rocky Road To Paper Heaven’
- Harry Bingham, Writers’ And Artists’ Yearbook Guide To Getting Published
- Nathan Bransford, Author a blog from a writer and former agent with news, views, resources for writers, and excellent FAQs
- Therese Eiben and Mary Gannon, ed., The Practical Writer: From Inspiration To Publication
- Betsy Lerner, The Forest For The Trees: An Editor’s Advice For Writers plus her excellent blog
- Nicola Morgan, Write To Be Published and Help! I Need A Publisher blog
- Michael Neff, Why Do Passionate Writers Fail To Publish?
On literary agents and submitting work
- Galleycat, ‘Successful Query Letters For Literary Agents’ (fiction) and ‘Agent Query Letters That Actually Worked For Nonfiction’
- How To Write A Nonfiction Book Proposal (blog post by myself)
- Chris Hamilton-Emery, 101 Ways To Make Poems Sell
- Noah Lukeman, Ask A Literary Agent
- Paul McVeigh’s blog: lots of up-to-date info on short stories and submitting to journals and contests
- Writers’ Workshop, Literary Agents Advice Centre
- Gabriel Zaid, So Many Books: Reading And Publishing In An Age Of Abundance
On editors and editing
- When Does A Writer Need An Editor? (one of my own blog posts)
- Definitions of Editing: Structural Editing; Copyediting; Proofreading (a series of posts from my own blog describing editing from the points of view of both writers and publishing professionals)
- What We Do (useful description of editorial roles from the Editors’ and Proofreaders’ Alliance of Northern Ireland)
- Why Edit? (super examples, with brief analysis, of the difference good editing can make – from the Society for Editors and Proofreaders)
- Diana Athill, Stet: An Editor’s Life
- Alex Clark, ‘The Lost Art Of Editing’
- Amy Einsohn, The Copyeditor’s Handbook
- Karen Judd, Copyediting
- Carol Fisher Saller, The Subversive Copyeditor and blog
- typetester compare type for the screen
On self-publishing and promotion
- Margaret Atwood, Your Online Presence
- Harry Bingham, Tips On How To Commission Your Ebook Cover Design
- The Book Designer ‘practical advice to build better books’ (and lots of great advice at that)
- Buzzfeed’s 19 Book Cover Clichés
- Delilah S. Dawson, Please Shut Up: Why Self-Promotion As An Author Doesn’t Work and Wait, Keep Talking: Author Self-Promo That Actually Works
- Ellen Lupton, ed., Indie Publishing: How To Design And Publish Your Own Book
- David Gaughran, Let’s Get Digital: How To Self-Publish, And Why You Should and Let’s Get Visible: How To Get Noticed And Sell More Books
- Self-publishing Advice from the Alliance of Independent Authors
Genre organisations and festivals
- British Fantasy Society
- British Science Fiction Association
- Capital Crime
- Crime Writers’ Association
- CrimeFest
- Historical Novel Society
- Historical Writers’ Association
- Poetry Foundation
- Poetry School
- Poetry Society
- Romantic Novelists’ Association
- Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America
- Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators
- ThrillWriting
Genre advice and discussion
- Bookreporter (for readers, and useful for an overview of forthcoming popular titles)
- Lee Gutkind, ‘What Is Creative Nonfiction?’
- Mary Karr, The Art of Memoir
- Bruce Holland Rogers, ‘What Is Magical Realism, Really?’
- Teach Yourself series, e.g., Get Started in Writing Historical Fiction by Emma Darwin, Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy by Adam Roberts