Tips & Resources
Tips
- Book Descriptions that "Click"
- Get Reader Reviews Now to Drive Sales Later
- Using Book Promotion Newsletters to Increase Sales
Recommended Books
- The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
- The Art of Fiction by John Gardner
- Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande
- Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
- MFA in a Box by John Rember
- On Writing by Stephen King
- One Writer's Beginnings by Eudora Welty
- Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg
- The Writing Life by Annie Dillard
Organizations for Authors
- Academy of American Poets
- Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi)
- American Crime Writers League
- Horror Writers Association
- Independent Book Publishers Association
- International Association of Crime Writers
- International Women’s Writing Guild
- Mystery Writers of America
- National Association of Memoir Writers
- Novelists, Inc.
- Romance Writers of America
- Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America
- Sisters in Crime
- Society of American Travel Writers
- Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, SCBWI
Additional Resources
- The Author Helper: Designed to help independent authors with analytics, marketing, and much more. Built by authors for authors.
- BookFunnel - Service that fulfills digital sales to readers, ARCs, reader magnets and more.
- BookWormYogi - Copyediting and proofreading services
- Draft2Digital - Self-publishing services. Acquiring Smashwords in 2022.
- eBookFairs - A virtual book fair service for authors. Use discount code FRIENDS20PCT to get 20% off their services.
- Jane Friedman - One of the most astute, insightful voices on the Internet when it comes to reporting on the book publishing industry and educating authors.
- Jessica Bell Design - Book cover and marketing materials design
- Kindlepreneur - Dave is a great resource for authors on self-publishing and marketing.
- Matthew J. Holmes, The Morning ACOS - Get the latest Amazon Ads tips, tactics, strategies and insights in less than 3 minutes a day.
- NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month (November) began in 1999. The goal: write 50,000 words of a novel in thirty days.
- New Pages - Provides online news, information, and guides to literary magazines, independent and university publishers, creative writing programs, writing conferences, and more.
- Poetry Foundation - An independent literary organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. Publisher of Poetry magazine.
- Poets & Writers Classifieds - Classified for writing contests, conferences, workshops, editing services, calls for submission, and more.
- Publisher’s Weekly - Provides feature articles and news on all aspects of the book business, bestsellers lists, industry statistics, and prepublication book reviews.
- Reedsy - A network of editors, designers, marketers, and ghostwriters for authors and publishers.
- Smashswords - Describes itself as "the world's largest distributor of indie ebooks." Being acquired by Draft2Digital in 2022.
- The Writer- Instructs, informs, and inspires writers, providing practical coverage of the craft of writing and of the publishing industry.
- Writer's Relief - Helps writers make well-targeted, professional submissions to literary agents and editors.
- Writers Weekly - Mainly about the freelance writing industry.
- WOW! Women On Writing - Designed to support women's creativity, energy, blood, sweat and tears, throughout all stages of the writing process.
- Writer’s Write - A comprehensive writing resource for creative writers, business writers, and bloggers.
Recommended Books