Best Websites for Writers

CT IWWG member Adele Annesi writes a wonderful monthly column for the CT Authors and Publishers Association. This one features best websites for writers. --PB

Connections
By Adele Annesi

Because there are ever more Web sites for writers, editors, authors and poets of every ilk, we have ramped up our listing of the latest and greatest Web sites.

Feature:

Housatonic Valley Cultural Alliance for the Arts (HVCA)

http://hvculturalarts.org

This comparatively new organization (2004) is an up and comer. The HVCA promotes artists, historical resources and cultural organizations serving Bethel, Bridgewater, Brookfield, Danbury, New Fairfield, New Milford, Newtown, Redding, Ridgefield and Sherman. The HVCA seeks to serve, support and strengthen the arts, historical and cultural organizations and individuals through collaboration and coordination to further economic development in the ten-town Housatonic Valley.

BookEnds

http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com

This site offers one of the best free blogs on agents going. It's sponsored by BookEnds, which started in 1999 as a book packaging company and now operates primarily as a literary agency focusing on fiction and nonfiction books for adult audiences.

Daily Writing Tips

www.dailywritingtips.com

True to its name, this is one of the best and most comprehensive sites of its kind. It offers lots of free help to improve your writing skills with daily tips, grammar, spelling, misused words, business writing and more. Daily Writing Tips offers simple yet effective tips to improve your writing.

Duotrope

www.duotrope.com

With a site like this, who needs expensive, hardcopy reference books? Almost, anyway. Duotrope offers a free, searchable database of more than 2,200 current markets for short fiction, poetry and novels/collections. The site also offers a ton of free services to writers and editors, including a free online submissions tracker for registered users. The site usually is updated several times daily, and all the listings are checked at least twice a month.

Manuscript Editing — Fiction and Nonfiction Book Editor

www.manuscriptediting.com

This site offers a paid service for manuscript editing of fiction and nonfiction. What's great about it is its free resources for writers, including for and about Christian writers, legal research, publishers, historical fiction, horror, literary agents, awards, marketing and publicity, mystery writing, paying markets (fiction and nonfiction) of publishers, query letters, copy editors, romance and science fiction. It also has free links for articles, advice, message boards, workshops, software, writers groups, conferences, contests and workshops.

Newpages

www.newpages.com

This is a phenomenal free resource for locating alternative publications by independent publishers. It includes links to the publishers of alternative and literary magazines, including news, information and guides to independent bookstores, independent publishers, literary magazines, alternative periodicals, independent record labels, alternative newsweeklies and more. Utne Magazine called it "the best overall Internet portal to the alternative press."

Pub Rants

http://pubrants.blogspot.com

This wonderful, user friendly site is just what it says it is — a very nice literary agent indulging in polite rants about queries, writers and the publishing industry.

Query Tracker

www.querytracker.net

This site is free one-stop shopping for your literary agent and query needs. It enables you to track query letters to and share data about literary agents. The site is a pioneer in "social data gathering," enabling users to contribute data about their query and agent experiences.

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SWFA) Beware

www.sfwa.org

Writer Beware is the public face of the SWFA's committee on writing scams. It's a great place (like Predators and Editors) to avoid the pitfalls of bad representation. The SFWA gives attention to issues that affect both professional authors and aspiring writers.

Adele M. Annesi is a freelance writer and an editor with a high-tech analysis firm in Stamford, Conn.