Sharing Time

By Tracy Astle

I don't know about you, but I much of what I've learned about the craft and the business of writing has come from reading industry blogs. Writing techniques, how to query, who to query, when to query, how to format for submission, varieties of writing and editing styles and approaches, good books to read, authors to search out, genre definitions...The list to be had of writing info available on reputable blogs is downright staggering.

I have several I follow regularly, far too many to overwhelm you with here, so for today I'll narrow it down to three of my absolute favorites.

1) Miss Snark's First Victim (misssnarksfirstvictim.blogspot.com) - A great writing community with with regular critique sessions, idea sharing posts, and monthly "Secret Agent" contests where entries are taken to be critiqued by an agent along with the rest of the people who hang out there. Very valuable feedback is given as well as prizes from the agent, ranging from requests for queries with partials to requests for full manuscripts. It's a great way to learn about what certain agents are looking for. Several contestants have found their agents here and more and more agents have started lurking about, reading work that has been submitted for other crit sessions then contacting Authoress, the anonymous and recently agented host of the site, to find out how to contact authors of things that interest them. I could go on and on about the cool things that happen on this blog, but I'll jsut stop here and say - GO CHECK THIS OUT!!

2) Nathan Beansford's blog (blog.nathanbransford.com) - Up until a recent career change, Nathan was an agent. His blog is probablay the best resource I've found for the 'how to' of writing and submitting. Nathan writes with tons of energy, passion, knowledge and humor. A large community hangs out there with lots of great info and resources. Love Nathan. Love his blog.

3) Kristin Nelson's blog (pubrants.blogspot.com) - This is where I have learned the most about the business of writing, from what happens at the large book fairs, to what the job of an agent is, to how to deal with the financial reports, tax issues, etc. that authors need to be aware of, to the latest stirrings and issues in the publishing world. Great stuff!

So, what are the writing/publishing blogs you can't live without (and don't want us to live without them either)?