Five Blogs About Writing and The Business

Personally, I’ve never thought of my writer’s life as a lonely one. There are simply too many great people around who are authors or writers. There are writers groups, writers clubs, conferences, and almost always a wannabe writer at any family gathering.

There are also a lot of good people online, who take the time to share their knowledge and experience. Here are five that I refer to .

1. A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing: Thriller author Joe Konrath writes not only about his genre, but about how a struggling author can make money in this economic and business climate.

2. The Book Deal: I frequently refer to Alan Rinzler’s blog for information. He has a lifetime of experience in the business and I consulted with him on The Accidental Activist. He suggested on the phone that when I come to see him, that I have my questions prepared and in a logical order. I prepare fastidiously for meetings at my day job, so I took him on his advice and was ready. At the end of the hour, we had covered a ton of questions and I felt like I had just been to the gym for a particularly vigorous workout. I certainly felt as though I had received my money’s worth

3. The Rejecter: This blog is run by a literary assistant who offers blunt though excellent advice about the process of submissions and pitches, as well as other posts about the industry from an insider. Not for the faint-hearted!

4. Nathan Bransford: is a YA author. He spends a lot of time using his own work and those of his contemporaries in the YA world to focus on the creative process. This is a great blog to help YA writers understand their genre in the publishing world. Nathan is also a Bay Area author.

5. Bookends, LLC: This blog is written by members of the Bookends Literary Agency LLC. I think there is a certain richness in shared blogs, especially when they are in sync with their respective perspectives. They offer a rich array of advice for how to get your book published. I particularly enjoy the guest posts by authors who have survived.

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Alon Shalev is the author of The Accidental Activist (now available on Kindle) and A Gardener’s Tale. He is the Executive Director of the San Francisco Hillel Foundation, a non-profit that provides spiritual and social justice opportunities to Jewish students in the Bay Area. More on Alon Shalev at www.alonshalev.com