Category: Useful Links

Looking for more sources on where to find agents? Check the Writers Guild lists (and here for the East Coast version.)

If you freelance full time, then you're a small businessperson (no matter how tall you are.) You might find some good stuff at Small Biz Resource (via Sree.)

How to prepare an annotated bibliography. Party!

"On Writing for Comics," a tutorial to help ease the transition from the pure prose of science fiction to the largely visual world of comics.

What's slowing down your computer? Find out (via Lifehacker.)

How do you find the right agent? The bloggers behind At Last! Writer Beware Blogs! recommend that first, you find who NOT to trust--and also provide a few useful links on finding the right agent for you. (Don't forget mb's own Pitching an Agent, while you're at it.)

A few resourceful links for you on the Thursday of this gloriously short week:

Are you writing about the 5-year anniversary of the events of September 11, 2001? Find plenty of sources on airport security, Muslims, Islam, terrorism and other related topics here at the Journalist's Toolbox.

Yah! Will Google never cease! Via Lifehacker: "Google's new News Archive Search tool allows users to search newspaper articles from the last 200 years. News Archive search results come in both free and for-a-fee versions, but if you're looking to keep things on the free side, the advanced search options allow you to specify that results remain free. You can sort through search results by date and publication, or, if you choose to 'Show Timeline,' the results are given in an as-they-happened thread (which is a really cool way to watch a story develop)."

101 Resources for Self Published Writers, at the Self Publishing Blog.

All text in Word is formatted using styles, whether you chose the style or not. So you might as well make the most of them.

Making Money with Your Blog from A to Z. I can't speak for all the resources but I have made the occasional odd buck (and not much more than that) from Amazon Associates.

References, tools, clicky-type things...

I am not totally clear on how up to date or accurate this site is but it's entertaining regardless of the contact info and mastheads are incorrect: Everyone Who's Anyone: A Writer's Guide to The All-Pervasive Propaganda Network

Kit Whitfield's The Lexicon: A phrasebook of terms for issues that occur repeatedly in fiction (with many British-isms.)

Not sure where to pitch your short story? The Top 10 Literary Magazines, according to About: these "have been included in prize anthologies such as "Best American Short Fiction," "Pushcart," and "O. Henry," and have a large circulation, as far as literary magazines go."

Back to school? Some tips on cheap textbooks from Lifehacker.

Via Sree, "here's a new business, thanks to the terror alerts. Order travel-size toiletries online and have them delivered to your hotel. They start taking orders Sept. 5 and are offering $15 off the first 70,000 orders."

The Renegade Writer recommends the hottest accessory of the season...the postage scale. Whee!

Ten Things That Pull Extra Duty: Freeware recommendations over at Paperback Writer.

Writing about hurricanes, Ernesto or others? Track them here and find some other weather resources here at the Journalist's Toolbox.

I got alerted to Bookhitch via a promotional email so this is just an FYI, not an endorsement, of a site that aids book marketing (but does not handle your books). If you've used it and have thoughts on it, let me know what your experience was like.

Don't let your info get stolen as you work in a Hotspot! Make sure it's legit (via Lifehacker).

Paperback Writer shares a few of its favorite tools and links, updated also based on reader feedback.

A hodgepodge of links for ye, some useful, some, well, are undeniably links.

Susan Kirkland pointed me to the Resources for Writers site at George Mason University. Some of the stuff is for GMU students only but there are a few references on there that might be useful.

The home of the American Dialect Society: URL: find the hot words and phrases in the ever-changing English language, and the reference section lists resources for fiction writers working on regional dialogue.

A few few tips from Sree:

A useful list of media-beat reporters and producers from Animal New York.

Have you ever been in a situation where you wished your cell phone would ring? Maybe you wanted to look extra important or popular on that hot date. Or maybe you just needed an excuse to escape from an unpleasant meeting. The Popularity Dialer!

And a few from Lifehacker:

"Web site Scrape Torrent is a bittorrent search aggregator that scours the most popular torrent sites to find you the best download available." Like they say, for your favorite legal downloads.

And, Lifehacker readers' best ideas for keeping their search engine histories private. Because we all love keeping our jobs. Some of us do anyway.

Finally, this reminder was brought to you courtesy of the folks at Writer's Market: "Now would probably be a good time to mention that the new 2007 editions of Writer's Market are now available wherever books are sold.

Unfortunately, we're not all as famously genetically and literally blessed as Marisha Pessl. However, you can at least fake it with a great author photo (right, Jonathan Franzen?) Here are some tips on how to tantalize your readers with a sexy picture--before you let them down in person at your reading.

More thoughts on how much attractiveness matters (or not) in publishing here at Writers Digest from Galleycat's own Ron Hogan.

Lisa Manyon, who wrote about her virtual violation at a writers' conference wrote me with a little more advice for writers who feel they've been e-ripped off:

If others fear they have fallen prey to a cyber crime, such crimes can be reported to the official site of The Internet Crime Complaint Center (a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center). A site recommended by the FBI is Looks Too Good to Be True. Complaints may also be filed at www.ftc.gov . A wealth of information on how to protect yourself online can be accessed here.

"Mastheads.org is a collaborative directory of 200+ magazine mastheads
built for professional writers, editors, illustrators, photographers, designers, researchers, and media mavens. We list the full staff as they are listed in the magazine, with mailing addresses, phone, fax, and e-mail formats." However, you might not want to use it as your absolute Bible, as it's not constantly updated--continue to talk with your fellow freelancers and check other references like Masthead Online and the Revolving Door. But it's a useful resource nonetheless.