Sunday Link Salad

I haven’t done one of these in a long time. When I first joined MGC a number of years ago, I kept asking Sarah and Dave why they wanted me. I wasn’t a writer (okay, I may have had one book out). No one would want to read what I had to say. Sarah, being the devious woman that she is and knowing me as well as she does, knew there was one way to convince me. She suggested I do for the blog what I had been doing for myself and for her — I keep on top of what was happening in the publishing world and post links to articles or sites I thought our readers might find interesting. Then, slowly but surely, she conned — er, convinced — me to expand my postings. I still do the occasional link salad posts but a number of the sites I used to follow are no longer around. Or they’ve fallen so deep into the Amazon Derangement Syndrome or Indie Derangement Syndrome that I no longer read them. Others, I read only on occasion. However, the following sites are some of those I check on a daily or weekly basis. Keep in mind, you can also find a lot of information from social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. You just have to do your homework and confirm what the authenticity of those “quotes” or excerpts.

First up is the best of the sites, imo, because it is compiles information from a number of sources, has an active commenter base and we get the added benefit of comments from the site’s owner. That site is The Passive Voice. If I had to name one site that is mandatory for all writers to follow, it would be this one. Bookmark it. Check it at least once a day. Read the comments.

Next up is a twofer. Kris Rusch and her husband, Dean Wesley Smith, run two sites I also feel need to be on your must read list. Kris Writes offers, among other things, the Business Musings posts that should be mandatory reading for every author. They give insight into the traditional publishing world as well as guidance for indie publishing. Dean’s site is important because it offers the “Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing” posts as well as a list of his workshops. Both are well worth your time.

For keeping up with what’s happening in the traditional publishing world, Publishers Weekly is still the go-to site. Yes, much of is it behind a paywall, but there is still a great deal to discover that isn’t. You do have to keep in mind the bias PW has for traditional publishing. But, to see what the “other side” is up to, this is your place to go.

Going hand-in-hand with PW is Association of American Publishers. Again, this is slanted more toward traditional publishing but there is good information to be found there.

Here are a few other sites you might find of interest:

Literary Hub

Digital Book World

The Digital Reader

Teleread

Then there is the site that sends traditional publishing into apoplexy more often than not by sticking pins into their balloons about the earning potential of indie authors and just how popular e-books are with readers. Author Earnings isn’t a daily or even a weekly read. I recommend you sign up for email notifications of when they have new information available. But, when they post a new report, it is always something authors need to sit down and read. Better yet, they have past reports available for viewing. That lets you track the trends and see if they really are trends, as others might say, or not. Bookmark this page and take the time to go through what it offers.

There are many more sites out there that we, as writers, either follow or should be following. I tried to stick with general industry-related sites today. You can find author sites that give you a window into the life of an author. There are other sites that offer writing advice and exercises. The wonderful thing about the internet is the fact there is no lack of resources available. The problem comes in winnowing through those resources to find the best ones.

What are your favorite industry-related sites?