Don’t you get excited when you find good stuff for free? Makes you want to tell somebody, doesn’t it?  Well, I found all these things recently, and I want to share them with you.

Handout on social media marketing: Offered by Terry Whalin here.

E-book on blogging from Bob Baker and BookBaby.com: Blogging 101: a guide to promoting your writing in the blogosphere, download here.

Free handout from my article writing workshop: Print Resources for Writers, download here.

Susan Driscoll’s Get Published: Ask a question and get free e-book.

Free digital photos: See Terms page for conditions of use. (Includes required attribution for photographer), Freeditialphotos.net.

Free e-book on self-publishing: “Hidden Hazards” offered by Believer’s Press.

Free handout: “Inner Guts: How an extreme makeover of our hearts enlivens, deepens, and betters our prose” by Mary DeMuth here.

If you know of other free resources for writers, please comment on this post and share the link.

• Many of you are interested in using social networks to promote your writing. Take a look at this great article by Donny Gamble: Use Facebook and Twitter to Drive Crowds to Your Blog.
• Earlier this year, I encouraged you to comment on other blogs to help create interest in your blog. See my article here. Then, check out: Don’t Just Read a Blog, Comment.
• Many of you commented on my article, “Should You Write for Free?” A recent post on Faithwriters blog dealt with the same subject in more detail: Should Christians Write for Free?
• For those of you who are still trying to get published, take a look at Terry Whalin’s Strategy for the Unpublished.
• Getting rejections? Consider this: The Positive Side of Rejection.
• If you want to know more about self-publishing, this article will help you: Key Categories of Self-Publishing.
• And, finally, check out this list of time-saving Keyboard Shortcuts for the Busy Writer.

Comment on this article to suggest topics you’d like to see on Blog4Writers in the future.

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.

I missed the live event, but I listened to the whole recorded session this morning. Sally answered basic questions like, “Why should you get a new guide each year?” She gave hints on how to get started in the Christian market as well as tips on how to lay the marketing groundwork for your nonfiction book. She spent a few minutes on the children’s market. After a brief discussion on agents, Sally dove into questions about self-publishing. She briefly touched on social marketing for fiction and nonfiction writers.

After 25 years of producing the market guide, Sally knows a thing or two about what you need to do to get published. Primarily, she said, good writing will sell. Work to improve your craft, know your audience, and strive to become “the best writer you can be.”

I learned so much, but I don’t want to spoil it for you. It was like being in a conference workshop with Sally Stuart. The teleseminar took place yesterday (January 20, 2010). If you missed it, you can still listen to the whole thing by going to www.asksallystuart.com. Then, fill in your first name and e-mail address and click “Here’s my question, Sally.” You will receive an e-mail with a link to a Web location where you can download the entire teleseminar.

I encourage you to do the download now. It’s free! It takes about an hour to listen to the whole thing. Once you’ve got it on your computer, you can listen to it any time.

Terry is a professional writer/journalist who has also been an acquisitions editor and a literary agent. He has written over 60 books, and his articles have appeared in more than 50 magazines. He has recently joined Intermedia Publishing as Vice President and Publisher.

Jumpstart is a writers’ conference in one volume. Whalin provides a complete overview of how the publishing industry works these days. Because so many beginning writers don’t understand the business from the publisher’s point of view, he gives details on book sales to help writers understand why publishers are hesitant to take a chance on a “newbie.”

New writers, if you want a shortcut to getting your work published, you need to read this book carefully and understand that this man knows what he’s talking about.

Published writers, things have changed in the publishing industry in recent years. Maybe it’s time to take a fresh look at how your work fits into today’s publishing scene. Terry’s book can help you do that.

It will be the best money you’ve spent lately. Get more details and/or buy the book here.

Do you have a great book idea? Are you ready to look for a publisher for a book you’ve already written? Regardless of where you are in your quest for publication, you need the information contained in this book. Plenty of writers have had great book ideas that didn’t come to fruition because the writer didn’t know how to market his or her work to publishers. Terry Whalin tells you exactly how to prepare your proposal and lay the foundation for a successful sale.

Whalin knows what he’s talking about. He has written more than 60 nonfiction books himself, and he’s been an editor, a literary agent, and now a publisher at Intermedia Publishing Group. The book is endorsed by publishing giants like Michael S. Hyatt of Thomas Nelson Publishers, Leonard Goss of Broadman & Holman, Sally E. Stuart (publisher of the Christian Writers’ Market Guide), and literary agent Steve Laube.

You can find information online about how to write a book proposal, but Whalin’s book goes the extra mile, giving you insider secrets that you won’t find anywhere else. For more information on Whalin, visit his site, http://terrywhalin.com/. To buy the book, go to http://www.right-writing.com/ways.html.

I added this book to my Amazon wish list and later bought the book after I read a review of it in Terry Whalin’s blog. In fact, I borrowed the photo from his blog for this review. This is not a book that you would read all curled up in your easy chair with your hot chocolate at hand. This is a reference book that will help you learn how to search the Web in ways you never heard of before. The techniques described are useful to writers whether they write fiction or non-fiction. Shaw covers Internet searches, from simple to advanced. You’ll learn how to judge the quality of your search results and how to handle attribution and copyright issues. There are chapters specifically about searching for people, news, images, audio, and video files. One chapter applies to online research for writers. It’s easier to read and absorb if you read a couple of chapters in a sitting. I plan to keep my copy at my desk alongside my dictionary, my style manuals, and my phone book. I’ve already found it useful in a number of ways.