Best Articles This Week for Writers 9/9/11

Happy Friday! The winner of yesterday's surprise Marked giveaway is Victoria Zumbrum. Congrats, Victoria! Please email us the smail address to mail it to.

I also want to offer best wishes to all those who lost friends and loved-ones on 9/11 and in the service of our nation in the years since. Our hearts go out to you on this anniversary weekend.


After the Sale

• How To Build A List Of Readers For Your Next Book Launch [www.publetariat.com]
• Random Acts of Publicity [YA Author Elana Johnson]
• How To Build A List Of Readers For Your Next Book Launch [The Creative Penn]
• Don’t Want to be a “One Book Wonder” [From the Write Angle] Disciplining your author image

Book Reviews

• Dear Bully: 70 Authors Tell Their Stories Is Now Available [Cynsations] So important!
• Book Blog - Fall/Winter Preview [YA Muses] OMG, the gorgeous COVERS.
• Recommended Read: THE NEAR WITCH by Victoria Schwab [The Sharp Angle] Yes. Read this!
• What's your story's DNA? [The Kill Zone] LOVE LOVE LOVE this idea! Yes!
• Book Blog -- OUT OF SHADOWS by Jason Wallace [YA Muses]
• Review- A Need So Beautiful [A Blog about Nothing]
• Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi [The Bookologist] Wow.
• Tighter by Adele Griffin [Bookaholics Oye!!] 5/5, simply superb.
• WITCHLANDERS Review and Kindle Giveaway - Lena Coakley [A Journey of Books] 5 stars!
• Review: Two-Way Street by Lauren Barnholdt [Confessions of a Bookaholic] A quick & funny read!
• Starred ratings and IMAGINARY GIRLS. [Laura Pauling] Subjectivity, ratings, and the beauty of the book by @novaren.
• Friday Book Recommendation--Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ranson Riggs [Sisters in Scribe]
• THE EMERALD TABLET Gets a New Cover! [ROOTS IN MYTH] And it's gorgeous!
• September 2011 YA Releases [Mundie Moms]
• Tantalizing Future YA Releases + The Hunger Games Teaser Trailer! [/- LA FEMME READERS -/]
• Upcoming Releases: September 2011 [The Bookologist]
• New YA Books – In Stores Today, Sept. 6th, 2011 [Novel Novice]

Congrats

• Congratulations Alisa Krasnostien and Twelfth Planet Press! [Ripping Ozzie Reads] for the World Fantasy Award nomination.
• It's a new year for The Contemps! [The Contemps] Happy blogiversary! Amazing blog. Amazing year.
• Robin Mellom's BUSTED to Disney-Hyperion! [Jill Corcoran Books] Huge congrats, @RobinMellom! WOOT!
• Congratulations Cassie! [Mundie Moms] @CassieClare, @GayleForman, @RachelCohn & other Inky Awards Noms!

Contests

• Call For Submissions: Beta Testing Round [Miss Snark's First Victim] Great opportunity!
• Publicity, Schlubmicity [YA Author Elana Johnson] And a shout-out for @MichelleHodkin's fabulous UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER.
• Giveaway: Hades (Halo, #2) by Alexandra Adornetto [/- LA FEMME READERS -/]
• River of Time Blog Tour & Giveaway: Guest Post with Lisa [Mundie Moms] Enter by 9/18.
• Bookanista Review: Flyaway, by Lucy Christopher--AND A SIGNED ARC GIVEAWAY!!!! [Shannon Whitney Messenger] Enter by 9/4.
• BOOKANISTAS: Book Reviews without Plot Spoilers - GUESS & WIN!!! [Writer on the Side]
• 100 Book Reading Challenge: September [Writer Musings] Win GLOW or THE GIRL OF FIRE AND THORNS. Enter by 9/30.

Craft of Writing

• What’s New: Pacing Your Novel Workshop [Writers Digest University]
• Five things the writing experts won't tell you [James Killick's Blog]
• Perfectionism and Productivity [Mystery Writing is Murder] Why they don't get along.
• Murder? [GENREALITY] Journaling your emotions will help you show, not tell.
• On Naming [Magical Words] Excellent tips on finding the perfect names for your characters
• Weather Thesaurus Entry: Moonlight [The Bookshelf Muse] Another brilliant entry by @AngelaAckerman
• What Can Writers Learn from Spam? [Jami Gold, Paranormal Author] LOVE this post!
• Dialogue - It's Not Just Talking [Babbles from Scott Eagan] Great points.
• One Teen Reader's Thoughts About YA Literature [Julie Musil] "We pick up on details and connect them to other parts of the story."
• How To Write Fight Scenes With Alan Baxter [The Creative Penn] Good post and I love his book!
• Cramped Middles [Fantasy Faction]
• Make Your Ending as Big as Possible [The Sharp Angle]
• Should You Outline? [Wordplay: Helping Writers Become Authors]
• The Perils of Writing the Indefinable, Genre-Crossing Novel [Beyond The Margins]
• Guest Author Roni Lauren: Save the (Cat) Pantser! A Solution for Pantsers with Plotter Envy [The Other Side of the Story]
• Did You Miss One? [Paranormal Point of View] Seven delicious posts from @LisaGailGreen that you may have missed. Don't let it happen again.
• The Worst Word in the English Language [San Diego Professional Writer's Group]
• The Key to Writing a Fast First Draft: The Breakout Premise [Lia Keyes: The Scribbler]
• 10 Stages of Story Development [Craft] [Anne R. Allen's Blog]
• When to keep your distance: why you don’t always want the reader in the thick of the action [Nail Your Novel]
• Most Common Mistakes Series: Is Nothin’ Happening in Your Scene? [Wordplay: Helping Writers Become Authors]
• 101 of the Best Fiction Writing Tips, Part IV [Write It Sideways]
• Writing lessons learned from A BAD BOY CAN BE GOOD FOR A GIRL [Julie Musil]
• YA INDIE CARNIVAL: 3 TIPS FOR YA AUTHORS [ROOTS IN MYTH]
• Making Characters Multi-Dimensional [The Character Therapist]
• Middle Grade and Young Adult Craft Intensive – Live Webinar [Writers Digest University]
• Deconstructing “Bait and Switch”: Concept and Voice [storyfix.com] So much good stuff in this post.
• Deconstructing “Bait and Switch”: The Double-Barbed Opening Hook [storyfix.com]

Inspiration

• Words of Wisdom from Judy Blume [Ingrid's Notes]
• Guest Post: Is Fear Holding You Back? [Harry Potter for Writers]
• LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS | Be Thou the Voice [lareviewofbooks.org] Excellent article!
• DON'T BE AFRAID TO WRITE A BAD BOOK [Grab a Pen] LOVE THIS!
• Successful Character Traits of Writers: Part II [GENREALITY]
• How a Perfectionist Learned to Bare her Warts [Katie Ganshert]
• Become a Better Writer by Practicing Gratitude [Write It Sideways] Great post.
• Character Clinic: Layla Bunch [The Character Therapist]
• Daily motivation: #amwriting [Inkygirl.com: Daily Diversions For Writers - by Debbie Ridpath Ohi]
• Internal and External Inspirations [Writer Unboxed]
• Picking the Brain of the Brilliant Blume [Ingrid's Notes]
• What are you afraid to write about? [Time to Write]
• The Power of Deadlines [Cheryl's Musings] A pain? Or a tool to boost focus & productivity?
• A strange instant way to enhance your creativity [Time to Write] Quick, think of a brilliant writer!

Issues, News, and Trends

• Project Gutenberg Founder Michael S. Hart Has Died [GalleyCat]
• The Article Everyone Who Loves Books Should Read [PWxyz]
• Molly Barton Promoted To VP Of Digital Publishing At Penguin [GalleyCat]
• Do You Care About Publishers? [kt literary]
• Different Roads To Publication: Self-publishing [YA Highway]
• Why your best novels or screenplays may face an uphill battle [Time to Write] Interesting post!
• Maya Angelou missed the whole 'carved in stone' part [Jacket Copy] Edited quote set in MLK memorial.
• How To Succeed [A Newbie's Guide to Publishing] According to @JoeKonrath it's mostly luck. What do you think?

Just for Smiles

• The birth of a Twitter trend: #replacebooktitleswithbacon [Jacket Copy]
• New Hunger Games website: What district are you in? [Buffy's write zone]
• How To Play the ‘Authors’ Card Game [GalleyCat]

Self-editing

• 15 Frequently Confused Pairs of Nouns [Daily Writing Tips]
• Guest Post: Architecture or Art? [storyfix.com]
• Another in a series of really picky line editing examples, where-in I supply your possible protests so you don't have to. [edittorrent]
• Brilliance in 140 Characters [GENREALITY]
• Revision - It's the Little Things [Paranormal Point of View] Great tip!

Social Media

• 19 Ways to Get More Readers for Your Author Blog [www.publetariat.com]
• Building a Following: The Four Types of Bloggers [* Roni Loren - Fiction Groupie *]
• The Quickest Way to Kill Your Online Success [Author Marketing Experts, Inc. » BLOG] Important reminder!
• Juggling Social Media and Writing [Mystery Writing is Murder]
• On the Internet There Is No Such Thing as a Brand. There Is Only You [Nathan Bransford, Author]
• Writing on the Ether [Jane Friedman] (Love this new feature!)
• http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/08/amazons-new-author-feature-launches-and-changes-just-a-bit-what-a-book-is-all-about/ [www.niemanlab.org]

To Market

• Scholastic Teams Up with Ruckus Media Group to Launch New Transmedia Imprint [GalleyCat]
• Storytelling in the Digital Age: Embrace the Change [ROOTS IN MYTH]
• Agent Spotlight: Julie Just [Literary Rambles]
• Rookie Mistakes to Avoid When Submitting to Agents [*Lynnette Labelle* @Chatterbox Chitchat]
• A Peek at the Query Inbox [kt literary] Breakdown by genre.
• Shutting the Drawer: What Happens When a Book Doesn’t Sell? [www.publetariat.com]
• Let Your Agent Be the Bad Guy [Rachelle Gardner]
• The case for saying the same thing twice, thrice, frice [edittorrent] Finding a niche for your books.
• Writing a Synopsis [From the Write Angle] Some basic rules & guidelines
• "If You Would Just Read The Whole Story..." Umm, no! [Babbles from Scott Eagan]
• Agent Spotlight: Rubin Pfeffer [Literary Rambles]
• Pitch versus query [Janet Reid, Literary Agent]
• Make Your Submissions Impressive [Babbles from Scott Eagan]
• Limitations of Common Knowledge [BookEnds, LLC — A Literary Agency] Addressing specialized information in your query.
• How to Write a Great Query Letter by Noah Lukeman - Reviewed [The Blood-Red Pencil]
• Twitter Tuesday~Agent Advice [Heather's Odyssey]
• Self-Publishing–The “American Idol” of the Publishing World [Kristen Lamb's Blog]

Other Weekly Round-Ups:

• Jane Friedman of Writer's Digest does a wonderful list of best tweets of the previous week. 
• Alice Pope does a Wednesday Tweet Roundup for the SCBWI Children's Market Blog.
• Northern Colorado Writers do This Week in the Writing World every Friday.
• Jennifer Roland does a Writing Roundup on Fridays.
• Ricki Schultz does an "In the Blogosphere" post on Fridays where she lists posts she's enjoyed during the week.
• Elizabeth Craig posts a weekly list of all her helpful Twitter posts.
• And don't forget to check  Nathan Bransford's blog later this morning for his weekly recap of publishing news and information.
• Saturday Link Party [Forever Young] Jessica rounds up fun and interesting links.
• Stina Linddenblatt does a Cool Links Friday. This week, she caught a lot I wish we had on ours. I know what I'm doing for the next few minutes!
• DuoLit does a weekly list of links with some emphasis on self-publishing and marketing.
• YA Highway's Friday Road Trip hits the high points of the publishing industry, writing craft, submissions process, and other fun stuff.
• Cynthia Leitich Smith at Cynsations does a Cynsational author and book news review.

Did we miss anything? Anyone? Please leave a comment!

Happy reading and joyous writing,

Martina, Marissa and Clara