Writer Resources
Writer’s Help:
Writer Beware Site – A treasure trove of helpful lists of scams to avoid, legal help and more.
Writer Beware Blog – The definitive site on protecting yourself as a writer.
Query Shark – One of the best places to learn how to write query letters and make yours better.
Write It Sideways – This blog provides tons of helpful tips! From motivation to interviews! Highly recommended.
Writing World– A very helpful site to any budding writer. Includes articles on just about anything writing related.
For Writers – A great forum and reference site!
Fiction Writers – A good place for information on all things writing.
Writers Write – A resource for writers, books, and stuff on publishing.
Emerging Writers – A site for beginning or breakout writers.
Enhance My Writing – A useful and helpful site for those wanting to work on their writing skills or anything writing related.
Writer’s Quest – A site that gives out tons of information for writers. Very nice.
Fiction Addiction– A website that has tons of useful articles.
Creativity Portal– A site with lots of useful stuff that has to do with creativity and inspiration.
Writer’s Digest– This is an awesome amazing site that offers tons of advice, workshops, books, etc. It also has an awesome, super helpful magazine.
Poets and Writers– Another awesome resource for writers that has another great magazine.
Publisher’s Weekly– Once again, this has an awesome magazine and its a great resource for writers. Especially helpful for anything publishing related.
LitLift– According to the website, “LitLift is a free online novel writing application built to help you research, store, organize, write, share, and get feedback on your writing.”
Writer’s Organizations
SFWA – The official site to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Organization.
NaNoWriMo – The official site of the NaNoWriMo (young person’s edition). NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. It is held in the month of November.
Poets – The official site of the American Poet’s Academy. “The Academy is a nonprofit organization with a mission to support American poets at all stages of their careers and to foster the appreciation of contemporary poetry.” – From the website’s FAQ.
ASJA – The site of the American Society of Journalists and Authors.
Authors Guild – “The Authors Guild has been the published writer’s advocate for effective copyright, fair contracts, and free expression since 1912.” – From the website.
Novelist’s Inc. – For all those novelists out there.
NASW – National Association of Science Writers. For those interested in science and writing fiction about science (aka Science Fiction).
Publishing
Writer’s Market – a very helpful place for writers.
Lulu – A site for self publishing. And not only for books!
Smashwords– I’ve heard alot about this site. Apparently you can format your books to documents and do other stuff on here.
Publisher’s Marketplace – Lots of stuff to do with publishers and publishing.
Createspace – It’s like Lulu but…it’s not Lulu.
Agent Query – A great place to find agents for your books.
Strange Chemistry– A publishing company that publishes YA science fiction and fantasy.
AARonline– (Association of Authors’ Representatives.)
Journalism Sites/Resources
Center for Investigative Reporting– A nonprofit organization dedicated to investigative reporting and helping to make a change.
Investigative Reporters and Editors– Another great site/organization for investigative reporting.
The conversation– According to the website, “The Conversation is a collaboration between editors and academics to provide informed news analysis and commentary that’s free to read and republish.”
Online Journalism School– A resource for learning online journalism.
Society of Professional Journalists– The organization for professional journalists, with membership benefits, free resources, and news.
Journalist’s Resource– A place where you can research what’s going on in the news.
Society for News Design– According to its’ website, the society is “is an international organization for news media professionals and visual communicators who create print, web, mobile publications and products. Our members art direct, design, edit, report, illustrate, make photos and video, visualize data and write code.”
Contently– From what I can gather, its mostly for journalists to share their articles and its kinda like maybe a professional “social media” platform for journalists.
Medium– A platform for journalists and bloggers to share writing and reader other stories, features, and articles.
Writing Websites
Writer’s Communities Website Comparison List
Wattpad – Another online writing website.
Booksie – Once again… I’ve never been on it.
Writer’s Cafe – A good one. I’ve heard this one is recommended by several professionals.
Mibba – A fellow member on Inkpop recommends this site more for beginners because of “all the fanfiction”.
Scribophile – It says it’s a serious site for writers. But then, I couldn’t tell you.
Fifteen Minutes of Fiction – This site only requires you to write for fifteen minutes a day. And once you’ve completed your time you can publish them to the site.
Scribd – I’m not sure if this belongs in this category or not, but anyways, you can share documents here with your friends and stuff.
Fan Fiction – The site where you can post fan fiction.
Fiction Press – Fanfiction’s sister site where you can post original fiction.
Protagonize– I’ve heard good things about this site.
ReviewFuse– I heard its good for reviews, although I think the forums are a little dead.
Story Bird– According to the website, “Storybirds are short, art-inspired stories you can make and share on any device.”
Inked Voices– This site is still in its beta form, but its a site for critique groups for writers. It sounds really awesome. (Unfortunately, once its up and running there will be a fee to pay for its services but it isn’t much if you’d like to pay $10 a month).
Camp Nanowrimo– Like Nanowrimo, but the Camp version happens in the summer, usually in June or August, where you spend a month trying to write 50,000 words!
*As of March 1st 2012, Inkpop no longer exists.
*As of 2015, Authonomy and Valorpen no longer exists.
Writing Platforms
Scrivener– This is an AWESOME software developed for writers. Its amazing. I haven’t downloaded the free trial for Windows yet, but from what I’ve seen and heard, this is the best writing software out there. (You can buy the full version for $40 or download the trial versions for Mac or Windows).
yWriter5– This has been recommended for those with Windows. Its like Scrivener but not as awesome. But still cool. Its for free.
PageFour– Once again its free but not as cool as the other two writing software (in my opinion).
Focus Writer- This free download helps enable you to write distraction free.
Ommwriter– Another application to help you write distraction free.
Pacemaker– This creates a calendar or chart for any word count goal you put in.
Trello– A great tool for getting to-do lists done.
Books/Literature
Historical Novels – This is a great site that’s updated regularly for people who like historical fiction and related mysteries. Some of the books I have trouble finding but most of them I don’t. The books are arranged by Era or time period and place. It also has book reviews.
Goodreads – This site is very good for sharing books and finding out about them. You can keep track of what you’ve read, what you like, form a book club, answer trivia, and tons of other things.
Any New Books? – A site where you can receive weekly updates on new books. It’s free and easy to sign up. Just enter your email and select your genres.
NetGallery– A book site where if you’re a reviewer, blogger, librarian, journalist, bookseller, educator, or someone in the media, you can sign up for free and request books before they are published.
Audible– A site ran by Amazon where you can download audiobooks but you have to pay to use it’s services.
Book Outlet– This site offers books for insanely low prices. So if you want to do some reading and are low on cash, or can’t make it to the store, check out this site!
Wink Books– Wasn’t sure where to put this, but its a site that features books that wouldn’t do so well digitally.
Swoonreads– A site for either reading new YA romance books or for submitting your own YA romance manuscript.
Oyster– Its like Netflix for books. You can now read online, an android, and an iphone/ipad.
Book Riot– A great place for different kinds of book blogs and other book related awesome-ness.
Project Gutenberg– This website features thousands of free classic literature and random, obscure pieces you probably won’t find anywhere else. You can download the ebooks onto any reading device or read them online.
Online Literature– An online database of a bunch of different literature.
Overdrive– Access to your public library’s ebooks for free.
Short Stories– A website of short stories where you can read and submit short stories of all kinds.
American Literature– A website that functions as an online digital library for short stories, books, poetry, essays, and other literature.
(All 6 books) Writer’s Thesaurus series
The Writer’s Digest Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy– By Orson Scott Card, Terry Brooks.
The Idiot’s Guide to Query Letters and and Book Proposals– By Jesica Faust, Marilyn Allen, and Coleen O’Shea.
Bird by Bird– By Anne Lamott.
The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook– By Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht.
The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures– By John and Caitlin Matthews
A Writer’s Guide to Fiction– By Elizabeth Lyon
The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction by Philip Athans
The Idiot’s Guide to Writing a Novel by Tom Monteleone
The Everything Guide to Writing a Novel by Joyce and Jim Lavene
Sareh Lovasen 