1. Miss Snark’s blog Excellent, excellent website to study! Learn about the publishing industry from a real agent–how to get an agent, how to lose any chance of getting an agent, publishing etiquette, biggest mistakes, how to write a query letter and why it is so important, how to write hooks, synopsis’ and other inside industry techniques.Miss Snark no longer offers online, anonymous critiques, but past critiques are available in the archives and they are a gold-mine. You can read other people’s mistakes, and other people’s genius and learn from them.Miss Snark spent an enormous amount of time on this project. My hat is off to her!

 

2. Other agent blogs: Agent Kristin Nelson has a great blog. She sometimes posts cover letters that she likes, offers info on standard contracts and just has great all-around information about the publishing world.

   Janet Reid has one of my favorite blogs–with writer tips, query letter critiques, general ranting and raving, a lot of love for authors and books.

   Brillig Blog Joshua Bilmes doesn’t always talk agenting, but he does talk books and the industry. There’s gems to be found in these pages.

 

3. Hey there’s a dead guy – a blog that includes two or three writers, an editor, a publisher and an odd character or two. Each person does an article once a week. Lots of learning opportunities here. The blog authors are very good about answering questions in the comment trail.Here’s a particularly good post for all writers from the site.

 
 

4. Science Fiction Writers Association Scam Check Good site to check for info on agent backgrounds.
   • Related scam check blog Just a lot of common sense posts and commentary on things going on in the publishing world.

 

5. Fantasy and Paranomal author Holly Lisle: Archives have excellent writing tips and useful info from this published author.

 

6. Thriller and mystery author J.A. Konrath: writer tips; marketing your book tips, very informative author blog. Here’s a link to a download that is basically an e-book of his publishing experiences, tips, advice, etc: Konrath Ebook

 

7. Fantasy author Jim C. Hines has a lot of writer advice, writer angst, news of the industry and every Monday he does a great LOL cover–where he inserts a new title of choice on various covers.

 

8. www.Ralan.com great website that lists most of the short story speculative fiction markets

 

9. Writing tips–bad writing, bad habits, do’s and don’ts

 

10. Kirsch’s Guide to the Book Contract by Jonathan Kirsch.This should be required reading for any author. Even if you have an agent, this book will really help you understand how contracts work, how much you can expect to be paid and how “rights” work. A must read.

 

Anyone that knows me or that reads my blog now and then may figure out that I don’t make my living from writing. That doesn’t mean I’m not interested in money matters or how much writers make or even money management; in fact quite the opposite. There’s a reason I link to www.BearMountainBull.com, my husband’s investment blog (and where I contribute).

When I started writing, hanging out at the occasional conference and talking to other writers, I noticed pretty quickly that very few writers had a business plan. Money management? Taxes? Not high on the conversation list.

Today I ran across a couple of posts that discuss money and what writers get paid. One such article is on Jim Hines blog–he’s a successful writer–three books published with a major publisher, many published short stories, and more books on the way–but Jim Hines doesn’t make his living writing. Another is John Scalzi–an even more successful writer, at least by writing income standards. And do note that he makes money writing fiction and non-fiction. He’s been freelancing for a lot of years. He has a plan; he’s a professional.

Hines’ article is very interesting because you’ll learn what a lot of authors may make when they have three books out. John Scalzi’s article covers not only basic finance, but has some info that is specific to writers. It should be required reading–and not just for writers.

Here’s a small sample of Scalzi at the top of one rant:

But you want that 42-inch 1080p TV! I understand; I want it too. What you do is save for it. When you save for something, it’s like you’re making a payment on it, except that you don’t have an evil credit card company charging you 19% for the privilege. I realize it’s condescending to put it that way, but, look: If people actually knew this, they wouldn’t have thousands in credit card debt, now, would they? And yes, it’s true that while you’re saving for that HDTV (or whatever), you don’t have it, and we as a nation are no longer used to the idea of not having what we want now now now now now. Well, get used to it, you insolvent jackass. Otherwise some bank owns your ass well into the next life. Really, that’s all I have to say about that.

I posted last year about writers/authors and how little they make (okay, the very successful ones make quite a bit, but most writers have a day job for real income.)   Several published authors are doing the favor again of putting out information on the topic.  Jim Hines started the thread, and he linked to others that are offering info on the subject of how much writers make:

Jim Hines’ Post on Money and Writing

Keep in mind that Jim Hines is a fairly successful writer (4 books out) and you’ll want to see his original post where he talks about some of the previous years.  You’ll also note if you follow some of the other links that some authors spend more of their earnings on websites, cons or other promotion.   It also seems that the more successful an author is, the less promo they have to do themselves.  There appears to be a snowball effect that helps them keep growing with less input from the author.  I found Jennifer Estep’s post interesting–and the comment’s trail has a comment from another author concerning his earnings.  Paul S. Kemp’s original post on the subject last year is also worth reading.

I suppose in fairness, since I had two short stories come out this year, I could post about my “earnings” but until I start making more than 150 dollars a year on my writing, I’m guessing that info doesn’t need to be broken down too much…