Tools for Writers

Writer’s Resources

One of the first things the members of my writer’s group, Carpe Libris, did when I joined was make sure I had the right tools for selling my writing.  I needed to know where to send things to, instead of trying the buckshot approach, and I had to know what was proper procedure and what was unethical business practices by editors and agents.  Here are some great online resources, skewed for SF writers, but many are useful for other genres as well.

Ralan’s Webstravaganza– This is by far the best and most comprehensive market list for SF writers.  It lists short story markets by pay grade, has listings for publishers, contests and anthologies.  There are also links for writer’s resources.

Writer’s Market (requires subscription)- you receive access to their database with the deluxe edition of Writer’s Market for a year. You can save your searches, and the advanced search focuses on subject, type of publication and so forth.

Individual market websites study the writer’s guidelines on your target market’s website to see exactly what they are looking for and what format they would like to use.  Some ones I’ve been studying lately- DAW books, Pyr, Daily Science Fiction and Baen.

Preditors and Editors– Free listings of agents, publishers, conventions and more!  Has a warnings page to steer writers away from scam artists.

Agent Query– free database of agents

Submitting to the black hole– run by Critters writers workshops, it shows the average response times to writer’s submissions.

 Writer Beware- run by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), it points out scams, shifty behavior and things to avoid in your writing business.

Fantasy names – great for coming up with unusual names.  I also use the Fantasy name generator, which creates new names.

Odyssey Podcasts- listen to free recordings of author lectures at the Odyssey writer’s workshops.

After posting this, my writer friend suggested I add Duotrope.  This is a market listing place I had not utilized before. I took it for a spin and it looks useful, at least as useful for genre short fiction writers as Writer’s Digest.