Links of Interest

Online places we Fictorians find fabulous. We think you might, too.

 

Blogs

Call My Agent!

  • A blog written by a literary agent working in Sydney, Australia hoping to shed light on the sometimes shadow-shrouded world of publishing in order to help writers work out how the hell they get published

Evil Editor

  • Great site to get comments on openings, queries and synopsis
  • Check the FAQ before submission – Evil Editor reserves the right to humiliate all submissions

Magical Words

  • A blog focusing on writing tips and publishing advise run by multiple established and bestselling authors
  • They also have a printed collection of the top posts available for sale

Pubrants – The Nelson Literary Agency Blog

  • Take time to look at past postings; lots of useful advice coming from a top agent

Slushpile Hell

  • One grumpy literary agent, a sea of query fails, and other publishing nonsense.

Writer Unboxed

  • A multi-contributor blog that includes bestselling authors and industry leaders

 

Generators

Ever Changing Book of Names

  • A fabulous shareware random name generator

NineFrenchboys.net

  • A site that lists random generators for people, places, things, and stories

Seventh Sanctum

  • A site of generators to randomly produce concepts, characters, and descriptions for stories, role-playing games, and art

 

Online Communities

Absolute Write

  • An online resource for freelance writers of all sorts that has a large and active online community of writers and publishing professionals
  • Check out the Forum – the Absolute Write Water Cooler

Backspace

  • An online writers organization dedicated to writers helping writers
  • Includes a forum; an online guest speaker program with agents, acquisitions editors, and best-selling authors; advice and how-to articles from publishing experts; conferences and events

 

Professional Societies

Mystery Writers of America (MWA)

  • The premier organization for mystery and crime writers, professionals allied to the crime writing field, aspiring crime writers, and folks who just love to read crime fiction

Romance Writers of America (RWA)

  • Professional society dedicated to advancing the professional interests of career-focused romance writers through networking and advocacy.

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA)

  • Professional society for authors of science fiction, fantasy, and related genres
  • Tons of great info on being a professional genre writer

 

Workshops, Conferences, Conventions, and Seminars

Dragon*Con

  • The largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the universe

Shaw Guides Writers Conferences & Workshops

  • A Guide to Writers Conferences & Workshops

Superstar Writing Seminars

  • Practical, no-nonsense courses on business topics for the professional writer, taught by a group of prolific bestselling authors. These three days will teach you how to be a writer, not just how to write
  • We Fictorians cannot recommend this unique seminar highly enough-it’s how we all met, and the authors could not be nicer or more giving of their knowledge and experience. It’s a must for anyone planning to make a career in fiction in any genre

World Fantasy Convention

  • An annual gathering (almost a reunion) of professionals, collectors, and others interested in the field of Light and Dark Fantasy art and literature
  • The number of Attending memberships is limited (to 850) and usually sell out in advance of the start of the convention

World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon)

  • An annual international Science Fiction and Fantasy convention
  • Convention membership is also membership to the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS), which allows voting on that year’s Hugo Awards
  • On years where Worldcon is held outside North America, WSFS also holds the North American Science Fiction Convention (NASFiC)

 

Writing Resources

Adventures in SciFi Publishing

  • Brings you authors of science fiction and fantasy
  • Includes a podcast, blog, book lists, interviews, and videos

BookMarket.com

  • A site maintained by Open Horizons providing information on writing, publishing, and marketing your books, ebooks, or other information products

Clothing Dictionary

  • A dictionary of women’s clothing and lingerie clothing terms and phrases complete with definitions and links to examples

David Farland

  • Sign up for his Daily Kick in the Pants and receive short writing lessons on a daily basis via e-mail

Duotrope

  • An award-winning, free writers’ resource listing over 3625 current Fiction and Poetry publications

Farland’s Authors Advisory Conference Calls

  • A free conference call series featuring published authors and publishing professionals brought to you by the David Farland’s Writers Groups
  • Attend the calls and/or subscribe to the podcast

Hatrack

  • The official site of Orson Scott Card
  • Includes great writing resources and a forum

Grammar Girl

  • Quick and dirty tips for writing better
  • A great resource for those trickier aspects of grammar

JacketFlap

  • A site that connects you to the work of more than 200,000 authors, illustrators, publishers and other creators of books for Children and Young Adults
  • Freelance editor and Fictorian
  • “. . .I’ve had some fifty novels edited at various firms like Bantam, Random House, Tor/St. Martins and Scholastic, but I don’t recall ever having an editor who did such an in-depth and exhaustive job on editing.” — David Farland, New York Times Best-Selling author of The Runelords, The Courtship of Princess Leia and dozens of others

Preditors & Editors

  • A guide to publishers and publishing services for serious writers

Publishers Marketplace

  • A dedicated marketplace for publishing professionals to find critical information and unique databases
  • Home of Publisher’s Lunch – a free, daily e-mail filled with publishing news

Research Resources

  • A Subject Tracerâ„¢ Information Blog developed for monitoring research resources and sites on the Internet

Writer Beware ®

  • A publishing industry watchdog group sponsored by SFWA and MWA that is dedicated to warning writers about schemes, scams and pitfalls
  • Includes the Writer Beware Blog for up-to-date info on things to watch out for

Writing Excuses

  • A weekly, fifteen minute podcast on the writing craft that will probably be the best, and possibly the most entertaining, fifteen minutes you’ll spend all week

 

Got something equally fabulous to add to the list? Let us know. Send the link to admin@fictorians.com and we’ll check it out.