Monday, April 11, 2011

Planning for 2011, I realized I would not be able to get away for conferences this year, so I decided to build my own. Today, I want to share with you some of the resources I’ve found.

Faithwriters.com: As a “free” member, I had taken advantage of some of their services. However, I discovered that the paid membership offers many other services. I joined as a platinum member for one year. I was particularly interested in the free courses they offer. I’m still exploring, but I think the weekly writing challenge will be what I need to get me back to writing new material regularly. The fee is $10 a month or $120 a year, but that is much cheaper than most conference tuition. I’ll share more about Faithwriters later in the year.

Book Proposal Help from Terry Whalin: As I browsed the Blue Ridge Christian Writers Conference blog, I found a video interview between Alton Gansky, conference director, and Terry Whalin. The interview promotes Terry’s conference classes, but what caught my interest was the news of his membership site devoted to teaching people to write a book proposal. You may be familiar with Terry’s book, Book Proposals That Sell. The course-work is based on the book, but Terry offers additional materials on this memberships site, http://www.writeabookproposal.com/. If you are working on a book right now, this would be a great way to get help from an industry pro without leaving your desk. It’s a three-month (twelve-week) course for only $27 a month. Read the FAQ’s on the site here. Also, see the interview on YouTube here.

Publishing Industry Blogs: A new writer can learn a lot just by following blogs offered by publishing professionals. Sign up to receive these blogs regularly. It’s almost like taking classes from conference faculty. You’ll get more out of it if you comment on posts and/or ask questions.

• Rachelle Gardner, Agent
• The Borrowed Book (for fiction writers)
• There Are No Rules (a Writer’s Digest blog)
• Cecil Murphey’s Writer to Writer
• Linda Clare’s Writing Tips

Subscribers, if you have opinions about the sites and blogs I’ve mentioned today, I welcome comments. Also, if you follow a publishing industry blog that’s not listed, please share the URL by posting a comment on this post.

Marketing Lessons from the World of Retail (by T. L. Higley on Christian Author Network blog). This one offers some specifics about Facebook.  Higley has other posts by the same title here and here.

Marketing Principles: Agent Rachelle Gardner features writer and marketing consultant Jim Rubart in a three-part series. Scroll to the bottom of the link to read the first article and work your way back to the top.