Writerland » Link Love

Link Love

Meghan Ward — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 06:02:56 +0000

Since I’ve been Twittering a lot of links lately, I figured I would share them with you here. You can also follow me @meghancward or like my Facebook Page to receive these links throughout the week.

Here is a great post by Brian Meeks about Fake Hashtaggery.

Keren Taylor, founder of WriteGirl, tells the LA Times how she made it.

Here are several Regreturature links. The first is me making a fool of myself. The second is photos from Regreturature, including of @IsaacFitzgerald, managing editor of The Rumpus, playing a drag queen in my screenplay. (Heather Donahue, the star of Blair Witch Project, plays the hooker who gets punched out.) The third is a review of Regreturature by Litseen, which includes summaries and videos of all the readings.

If you’re like me, and you write chapters of your WIP by stuffing Girl Scout cookies down your yaptrap every sentence or so, take a look at this.

In case you missed these, here are Part I and Part II of a convo between self-publishing mavens Barry Eisler and JA Konkath.

I’ve never tried Wee World and I am loathe to join any more social networks, but here is an article on 5 Ways YA Authors Can Use Wee World.

In case you missed this post back in April (like I did), Nathan Bransford explains how to write a good blog comment, a skill that is invaluable for anyone with a blog.

Congrats to fab blogger Kristen Lippert-Martin on the arrival of Augustus James Martin!

I tweeted this article titled Tweets, texts, and posts: New Sources for Memoir Writers before reading it. I generally love Alan Rinzler’s blog, but the concept of mining your tweets and texts for memoir material really diminishes the amount of work that goes into writing a memoir. And I sure as heck don’t want to read a memoir constructed of links texts and tweets. Blog posts are a different story. What do you think?

Video of a lecture by Margaret Atwood titled An author’s view of the publishing pie. You gotta love Margaret Atwood, for her dedication to Twitter as well as her books.

In this economy, should you avoid spending thousands of dollars on an MFA?

Also from GalleyCat, How to cope with writing life anxiety.

Happy weekend, everyone! See you Tuesday.

Link Love

Meghan Ward — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 06:10:15 +0000

Has it really been more than a week since I last blogged? What is becoming of me? Well, for one, it’s fall. And fall means holidays and birthdays galore. All of our friends’ kids were born in the fall/early winter, which means nearly every weekend for the next two months I will be eating pizza and cupcakes while my children jump themselves silly in Disney Princess bounce houses. This weekend we have three birthday parties. Last weekend we did about twenty-five Halloween activities. Next weekend we have another birthday party, and the weekend after that, another. Then Thanksgiving and on and on until January when I—along with everyone else—will make New Year’s Resolutions to eat less, exercise more, spend less money, and blog more. Meanwhile, I’ve been gathering these links over the past few weeks, and they’re all worth checking out:

First up, a working mother’s guide to writing a novel. I love this article. My favorite line is “You write because when you’re not writing, you’re even more cranky than when you are writing.” My first thought when I read this was, “But her kids are in school. They’re not 1 and 2.” But all her points are valid because, whether we like to admit it or not, we DO have time to write. Kids or no kids. One kid or three. We just have to make a lot of sacrifices.

Which brings me to another great article about finding time to write and motherhood and every artist’s pursuit of happiness. Thanks to Kasia for sending me this one by Anne Lamott.

And now a plug for my colleague Matthew Zapruder, whose poem “Pocket” I posted a while back. Check this review out in the New York Times: “Matthew Zapruder has a razor eye for the remnants and revenants of modern culture. There are poems in “Come On All You Ghosts” that conjure Frankenstein’s monster, White Castle’s square burgers and the Hadron Collider. He also has a sense of humor. “You Have Astounding Cosmic News” is set at Dazed Lute Press, which owns a soul-shaped water cooler. Then there are the moments that feel like small miracles, as in “Poem for John McCain.”

Now if you’re a San Francisco Giants fan, or even if you’re not, this video is pretty damn funny. I have to add that I had NO interest in the Giants until they were playing Game One of the World Series right down the street from my office. It was impossible not to catch the fever at that point and I managed to watch bits of games 2, 3, and 4, and all of Game 5. AND I went to the parade. Not because I wanted to go to the parade. I was heading to work thinking, “I’ll be passing by the parade route an hour before the parade, maybe I’ll stop and take a peek.” Hahaha. Turned out my train stop was shut down for crowd control and I got dumped off at the next stop, in the middle of one MILLION people. I’m not exaggerating. That was the estimate of the number of people along the parade route. I was swept up to about the fourth row off Market street, but it was still very difficult to see much, especially with everyone in front of me holding their cameras up to take pictures. I did see Barry Bonds and Gavin Newson and most of the players, including Brian Wilson. But I didn’t have my camera, just my phone, which died just before the players passed by. And I’m pretty sure I got second-hand stoned. Good times. Good times.

And in case you haven’t had enough of Giants fever, some sketches by one of my favorite authors, Dave Eggers.

A random side note, for those of you using Scrivener (and if you’re not, you should check it out), version 2.0 is out. If you have version 1.0, it’s $25 for the upgrade. I bought mine but haven’t had time to play around with it yet. I’ve heard there are quite a few improvements.

Oh, and in case you haven’t heard the bomb drop yet, Agent Nathan Bransford announced today that it was his LAST DAY AS A LITERARY AGENT. Did you hear that?? The number one agent blogger in the hemisphere is NO LONGER an agent blogger. He is leaving Curtis Brown and all of publishing to work as a social media strategist at CNET. Why is this both shocking and not surprising at all? It’s shocking, of course, because we blogger writers look up to Nathan as the guru of publishing and now he’s not even going to be working in publishing. That would be like if Julia Child decided to quit cooking and become an accountant instead. On the other hand, it’s not surprising at all because the publishing industry is in the dumps and smart, motivated people like Nathan are bound to jump ship. Also, Nathan puts a LOT of time into his blog. So much time that I’ve often wondered, “What is his motivation? To get more and better clients because every writer on Earth queries him? To sell his own book, Jacob Wonderbar?” But, of course, Nathan’s blog was popular before he wrote Jacob Wonderbar, and I’m sure he knows as well as we do that people who read a blog about publishing aren’t necessarily going to buy a YA novel about three kids who trade a corndog for a spaceship. But it all seemed like it had to be leading somewhere, all the energy put into building up this online community. And I asked myself when he was going to start consulting à la Gary Vaynerchuck, helping other businesses and individuals build their online presences. And then KAPOW! he announces he’s going to CNET to do just that. Well, Good on ya, Nate. I’m sure you’ll make more money over there than at Curtis Brown, and I’m looking forward to the next incarnation of your blog.

Happy weekend to all, and to all a good night.

Link Love

Meghan Ward — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 07:20:55 +0000

There’s been a lot of talk about slow blogging lately, including a great post from Anne Allen on why quality if more important than quantity, another from Sierra on why she’s switching from five days a week to three days a week, and yet another by Roni, who’s also switching from five days a week to three. It turns out that—guess what—people have LIVES outside of blogging! I find that there are weeks I can blog every day, and there are other weeks I have trouble getting one post out. So to be more consistent, I’m going to post once a week (on Monday or Tuesday; I haven’t decided which yet) with intermittent Friday Link Loves and the occasional additional post when something inspires me. This will free up more time for a) Writing b) Reading other blogs, and c) Sleeping. I also find that my favorite blogs are the ones that post less often because their posts tend to be more original and more in depth than those that post every day. I mean, really, who can write about writing every day and not get repetitive? I don’t need to read fifty posts about how to write a query letter. And none of us should feel guilty for having lives outside of blogging. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t have anything to blog about!

Now it’s time for links!

First up, Laura Fraser explores the politics of Chick Lit and Dude Lit at The Daily Beast. This is a FANTASTIC post. Read it!

Agent Nathan Bransford warns of the “pernicious momentum of first ideas”.

Agent Rachelle Gardener gives tips on author headshots (Remember Monday I said I thought every writer/blogger needed one?)

Both Jodie Renner and Simon L. Carter wrote excellent posts on how to format dialogue and write dialogue tags.

Jessica at Book Ends asks what makes a classic?

Jenn posits that playing World of Warcraft will make you a better networker (don’t tell my husband that!)

Michael Hyatt offers four surprising conclusions about author websites (be sure to have your own website graded on WebsiteGrader.com).

Writer’s Digest’s digital Big 10 Issue is out. I have yet to read a magazine on my iPad, but I’m going to download this one.

Chilean artists released a bomb of poems on Berlin Tuesday, so I’m going to bomb you with a poem, too. Written by my friend Matthew Zapruder, I give you Pocket.

Have a great Labor Day weekend!

Link Love

Meghan Ward — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 16:00:46 +0000

Finally, links!

As you’ve probably heard by now, according to Jeff Bezos, e-book sales have surpassed hardcover book sales at Amazon (but I’m curious to know how e-book sales compare to paperback sales).

And from The Nation, the trouble with Amazon.

From my friend Connie Hale over at Sin and Syntax (have you bought her book by the same name yet?), an A to Z on e-books.

On NPR, writers reveal why they write.

In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past few weeks like I have, you may not have heard about 16-year-old pop sensation Justin Bieber’s memoir deal.

Great posts, as usual, from Alan Rinzler: one on the author background check and how important it is to present yourself professionally online (does that mean I shouldn’t be posting vidoes of myself doing backflips?) and one on how to boost your book sales with niche marketing.

If you live in the Bay Area, you’ll love Ian Tuttle’s flash fiction restaurant reviews at Stretchy Head (I love that name).

And from Sierra Godfrey, four tools for going paperless. (And while you’re over there, don’t forget to enter her fabulous character contest for a chance at winning an Amazon gift card!

And here’s a hilarious clip sent to me by my friend Ani from the documentary about SF sci-fi writer Harlan Ellison Dreams With Sharp Teeth on why writers shouldn’t work for free:

Link Love

Meghan Ward — Sat, 08 May 2010 23:37:37 +0000

It’s been two weeks already since I posted links! Here we go:

Agent Nathan Bransford has a post on creating a Series Bible. A Series Bible is to a book (or series of books) what a script supervisor is to a movie—the person who makes sure a character’s hair looks the same in each scene and that they’re wearing the correct blouse, etc. to give the illusion of continuity.

And via Nathan, a post from the Gatekeeper on whom to thank in your acknowledgments.

Agent Rachelle Gardner asks what do you give up in order to write? And she has another great post about what goes into a publishing contract.

As usual, editor Alan Rinzler has a great post on eavedropping on conversations to help you write authentic dialogue, a practice I highly recommend. And another on building courage as a writer. His advice? Go skydiving!

Intern gives her thoughts on book trailers for unpublished books, which I found intriguing since I was considering making one myself.

Samuel Park writes about the future of books and why he thinks they’re around to stay. And he has another great post about the power of coincidence, or, how much luck plays a role in your getting published. I love Samuel’s blog. If you haven’t yet subscribed to it, go do it right now!

Roni at Fiction Groupie has a post on e-publishing and whether you should go that route.

Jane Friedman at No Rules talks about managing multiple identities online.

Last but not least, from Literary Agency Upstart Crow, can you boil your book down to 25 words or less? These people did.

Happy Mother’s Day to all you writing moms out there! I hope they serve you breakfast in bed!

Contest Winner and Link Love

Meghan Ward — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 07:30:11 +0000

The winner of this month’s Writerland contest is …

KRISTAN!

Kristan, e-mail me your address and to whom you’d like the book addressed (Kristan, Kristan the Magnificent, etc.) to meghan (at) meghanward (dot) com. Then, whenever you’re ready, send me 20 pages of your manuscript or a short story, and I will critique it and send it back to you within a week.

And now for a few links. My list is going to be short for the next few weeks because I have DEADLINES.

Alan Rinzler has a great post on shelf wars at bookstores, including an interview with agent and former owner of Cody’s bookstore, Andy Ross.

Chris at Upstart Crow reminds writers to have patience, which I blogged about not long ago, but I think some of us need more patience than others!

Via Shelly at Market My Words, a post from Bubble Cow on how to find and keep your readers.

According to Kristin at Pub Rants, there’s a rumor that several of the six big publishers are coming out with new boiler plate contracts soon.

Anne over at Piedmont Writer discusses the drawbacks of having too many followers.

Sierra has a fabulous story about the word fortitude.

You can save the earth by changing your font.

And last but never least, from Galley Cat, how to make an iPad cover out of an old book, the Library of Congress is going to store ALL tweets, and a cat who loves his iPad:

Happy Weekend!

Link Love

Meghan Ward — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 06:51:40 +0000

Simon at Constant Revision has three great posts about Twitter and how to use it. I’ve been tweeting very little lately and these posts made me want to get back into the groove.

Last week, Publisher’s Weekly announced that Vook is releasing 19 titles for the iPad. I’m very happy about this because my husband owes me an iPad and because as I said back in November when I bought my first (and only) Vook, I want an e-reader device with video. Steve Jobs heard my prayers and answered them.

And while we’re on the topic of ebooks, Galley Cat reports that author John Scalzi defended Randy Cohen after Cohen wrote a controversial column in the New York Times stating that it’s okay to pirate an e-book once you’ve already purchased the hardcover. Scalzi says once you’ve bought one copy of the book, you’ve fulfilled your contract with the author. I wish I’d known this the last time I purchased multiple hardcovers of an author’s book. I could have just bought one and stolen the others. Damn.

For those of you who are disappointed that you’ll never get to be on the Oprah Winfrey Show, there’s hope. Also via Galley Cat, there’s rumored to be a book club show on Oprah’s OWN cable channel: the Oprah Winfrey Network.

I wrote last night about elevator pitches and Nathan Bransford’s vlog, but I forgot to include these great tips on crafting your pitch by Alan Rinzler.

The Millions has a great essay on what it’s like to cease to exist (on the Internet).

Eric at Pimp My Novel gives his two cents about self-publishing, and a guest blogger for Intern, Lindsey Carmichael, writes a fantastic post about how to make your book jump off the shelves of bookstores. READ this post. It’s fabulously informative.

Don’t forget to enter the latest Writerland contest to win a copy of the hot-off-the-presses Secret Miracle: The Novelist’s Handbook and a critique of 20 pages of your work. I’m dying to know where y’all are from and what kind of ice cream you like!

And now, just for fun: If you’re a fan of Death Cab for Cutie, as am moi, and you’ve always wondered where they got their name, here’s a video sent to me from RJ Squirrel by The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band (duh), who performed this song for the Beatles’ “Magical Mystery Tour” movie.

Link Love

Meghan Ward — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 12:48:37 +0000

It’s been three weeks since I’ve posted links, so I have quite a few:

My favorite link this week is an incredibly inspiring post that all aspiring writers must read.

From Nathan Bransford, 10 questions to ask yourself if you’re considering self-publishing as more and more authors turn to web and POD publishing.

Also from Nathan Bransford, all about co-op, “a catchall term for, among other things, that magical (not really) process by which books non-magically appear at the front of the store.” And more about co-op over at Pimp My Novel.

Also from Pimp My Novel, a list of abbreviations of publishing terms that you should know.

GalleyCat reports the latest in e-book news on the eve of the arrival of the iPad. And Borders repays its loan on time. In other words, the bookstore giant will remain in business for the time being.

According to YA literary agency Upstart Crow, queries by writers with MFAs are taking more seriously than queries by those without.

Agent Jenny Bent has a great post on confidence and how writers can maintain it despite all the rejection.

For insights into the teen reader mind, check out Market My Words’ Teen Panel Part I and Part II. (Hint: They judge books by their covers!)

And if you’re looking to combine a publishing and platform building workshop with some yoga, massage, and Balinese dancing IN BALI check out The Creative Penn for details.

Two great posts from Alan Rinzler. One about Kristen Tracy, a YA writer with book deals for two series and how she did it, and another on how you can turn your academic paper into a book deal.

Via 80,000 Words, T-shirts for writers like this one: “Never Wrong a Writer. They Get Their Revenge in Print.”

And Sierra Godfrey has two great posts, one that questions whether we should use expletives in our writing and another on how to give feedback when you hate the person’s writing.

How about you, what was your favorite link this week?

Blog Awards

Meghan Ward — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 17:00:44 +0000

When I received my first blog award from Sierra, I wasn’t sure what to make of it. The Blogo-Rama-Dingdong Award? Should I be excited about that? Fortunately, Sierra didn’t require me to pass it on to other bloggers or to post it on my own blog. Then two weeks ago, I received a second blog award, the Sunshine Award, from JP, so I decided to post both awards in my sidebar and pass the Sunshine Award along. JP says it’s supposed to go to twelve other bloggers. So here goes. In no particular order, here are twelve of the dozens of blogs on my Blogroll. Check them out!

For Bay Area Literary News, Frances at Ghost Word
For hilarious vlogs, Kiersten at Kiersten Writes
For overall great humor, Kristen at A Rocket in My Pocket
For general awesomeness, Kristan Hoffman
For fabulous advice from an editor, Alan Rinzler
For the How I Got My Agent and 7 Things I’ve Learned So Far series, the Guide to Literary Agents.
For more general awesomeness, Sierra Godfrey
For fabulous photos combined with insights on the writing process, Christine Lee Zilka at 80,000 Words
For book marketing advice, Shelli at Market My Words
For more great insights on the writing process, Elizabeth at Fog City Writer
For an overall great writing blog, Debra at Write on Target
For all the best publishing news, Media Bistro’s Galley Cat

Of course, there are a gazillion other deserving blogs, and I will link to all of them some day! If you received this award from me, congrats! If you feel like posting it in your sidebar and passing it on, go for it! If you don’t, that’s fine, too.

Link Love

Meghan Ward — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:00:20 +0000

Agent Kirsty McLaughlan, guest blogging for Strictly Writing, gives seven tips for getting an agent.

From the Guardian via Elizabeth at Fog City Writer, is crowfunding the way of the future?

Also from the Guardian, is your reading suffering from multimedia overload?

Agent Rachelle Gardner warns writers to think hard before self-publishing while editor Alan Rinzler gives four reasons self-published books get picked up by traditional publishers.

From Galley Cat, the National Book Critic Circle Award Winners, which were handed out last night.

Also from Galley Cat, Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood is writing the score for the movie adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood.

And a glimpse at Apple’s iBooks store.

Guide to Literary Agents guest blogger Peta Jinnath Andersen has a post on what to do once you’ve set up your writers’ blog.

Intern puts out a call for guest bloggers. This is your chance to MOCK Intern while garnering tons of new followers. Get on it!

And before I disappear for the weekend, what were your favorite links these past couple of weeks? Any one in particular?