8 Best Articles This Week for Writers 10/21/11

After the Sale

• How do readers connect with a book (by a new author)? [Ripping Ozzie Reads] Hint: it's not book trailers.

Book Reviews

• Bookanista Buzz - Ditched by Robin Mellom! [Market My Words] Great review!
• New Voice: Matt Blackstone on A Scary Scene in a Scary Movie [Cynsations]
• Book Review: On The Fringe by Courtney King Walker [Mundie Moms] OOH! I need to go get this one.
• GIRL OF FIRE AND THORNS by Rae Carson, A Bookanista Review [YA Muses] Captivating!
• Book Review & Giveaway: The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater [Mundie Moms] 4.5 stars
• Book Review: Past Perfect by Leila Sales [Candace's Book Blog] Seriously amazing.
• Book Review: Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick [/- LA FEMME READERS -/] Another awe-inspring journey by the creator of Hugo Cabret.
• Book Review: Audition by Stasia Ward Kehoe [Novel Novice] Spectacular.
• This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel: Steph’s review [Novel Novice] A perfect Halloween read.
• Book Review: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland … [Novel Novice] Quirky & unique.

Congrats!

• Every Poster Has a Story: The Scoop on the First-Ever Golden Kite Awards Poster [The Official SCBWI Blog] Fun read, and a job well-done.

Contests

• Book Tour: Bridger by Megan Curd Excerpt and Giveaway! [Candace's Book Blog] Enter by 10/30.
• Haunted Halloween: YA #Giveaways #2 [Confessions of a Bookaholic] Three wonderful prize packs. Enter by 11/3.
• Giant Giveaway! [kt literary] @DaphneUn & other agents are giving away boxes of books!
• GIVEAWAY! Nightshade Chronicles by Hilary Wagner! [Seanchai] Enter by 10/23.
• Haunted Halloween with Victoria Schwab and a giveaway! [Confessions of a Bookaholic]

Craft of Writing

• Five ways to banish drama from your scenes [James Killick's Blog]
• Why I? [Adventures in Agentland] Do YA's work best in 1st person?
• Editor’s Notes: Show versus Tell [GENREALITY] Fantastic post.
• 6 Ways to Reconnect with Your Work-In-Progress [Write It Sideways]
• We Don't Need To Know It All Now! [Babbles from Scott Eagan] Infodumps = rejection.
• Nanowrimo: Elements of Act One [Alexandra Sokoloff] Get those index cards ready!
• Perfecting Your YA Voice (Part 2) [Ingrid's Notes] How a YA voice is different from an adult voice. Excellent.
• Story Threads and Resonance [Let The Words Flow] Fantastic post.
• 5 Tips For Not Screwing Up Your Character's Name by Suzanne Johnson [* Roni Loren - Fiction Groupie *]
• The Story Bible: What It Is and Why You Need One [Jane Friedman] by Rochelle Melander
• Better Writing through (Cheap) Technology [Writer Unboxed]
• See How Easily You Can Write A Novel Using The Snowflake Method [BubbleCow]
• 8 Plotting Pointers [*Lynnette Labelle* @Chatterbox Chitchat] Love this!
• The political possibilities of SF | Books | guardian.co.uk [www.guardian.co.uk] Excellent post.
• YA Cafe: Villains and Antagonists [Iggi & Gabi] How to make them the most effective.
• Perfecting Your YA Voice (Part 1) [Ingrid's Notes] Bookmark this.
• Character Trait Entry: Witty [The Bookshelf Muse]
• 5 Fun and Easy Ways to Lengthen Word Count [Wordplay: Helping Writers Become Authors]
• The Science of Story: All the Way Back to Aristotle [thescienceofstory.blogspot.com] Flaw, realization of flaw, and reversal of expectation.
• Do You Feel It? Plotting With Emotional Layers [The Other Side of the Story] Fantastic.
• NaNoWriMo starts right here, right now « Nail Your Novel [nailyournovel.wordpress.com]
• Karen Baney » Dialogue: Common Mistakes Part 1 [www.karenbaney.com] Overuse of Character Names.
• Scoring the novel as it unfolds – the undercover soundtrack « My Memories of a Future Life [mymemoriesofafuturelife.com] Q2 Music and more.
• Character Reaction—Make Your Characters Respond [The Editor's Blog]
• NaNoWriMo #21: Still Struggling with Your ‘Concept’? [storyfix.com] A short cut to premise.

Critiquing

• The Critique Mindset [The Bluestocking Blog] Which stage are you in? Great post

Inspiration

• My best tips for writing quickly (and well) [Time to Write] NaNo-ing? These tips will help.
• Should You Write When You’re Tired? | Fear of Writing [fearofwriting.com] Another symptom of writer's block.
• 20 Strategies to Defeat the Urge to Do Useless Tasks [zenhabits.net] Great post for writers.
• Bringing the Passion [Supernatural Underground] when you just don't feel it.
• I'm Ready For NaNoWriMo. Are YOU? [WOW! Women On Writing Blog] We are! Anyone else? Great tips!
• Writing Through Doubt [Writer Unboxed]
• When Is ‘Good Enough’ Really Good Enough? [Writer Musings]

Issues, News, and Trends

• Kidlit News Quickie Round-up [Inkygirl: An Illustrated Guide For Writers] Three pieces of news you'll want to know.
• This Week in Clusterfuck, brought to you by the National Book Foundation [libba-bray.livejournal.com] Yes! F'ing LOVE this post by @LibbaBray.
• Sometimes Good Writing Isn't Enough [Babbles from Scott Eagan] Editors can no longer simply like a piece of writing.
• Putting the A in YA [Glass Cases] Why "New Adult" isn't marketable. Excellent analysis.
• Winter Conference Registration Opens Monday! [The Official SCBWI Conference Blog] Who's going to SCBWI?
• Get a book, make a donation [Janet Reid, Literary Agent] Donate to your charity of choice, then get a FREE book from Concord Free Press!
• What The Agents Are Chirping About~ Mid-Month Tweets [Falling Leaflets] Awesome insights!

Just for Smiles

• Comic: Bibliophile Bus Stop [Inkygirl: An Illustrated Guide For Writers] Love this!
• A Giant Giveaway Gets Even Bigger! [kt literary] Great thing to do! Spread the word.
• The Game of Write [Kate Hart] A board game just for writers! Great.
• Pre-Writing Preparation [authorculture.blogspot.com] Funny! You'd rather be writing but first you have to...
• The Novel Relationship [YA Muses] Hilarious, & sooooo true!

Self-editing

• 7 Classes of Phrases [Daily Writing Tips] Participial, appositive, gerund: do you use your phrases correctly?
• 50 Redundant Phrases to Avoid [Daily Writing Tips] An unexpected surprise!(LOL)
• And Pretty Words All in a Row: Tightening Your Narrative Focus [The Other Side of the Story]
• Story Sensei: Deep Point of View [storysensei.blogspot.com] Good post
• NaNoWriMo #20: To Edit or Not to Edit… [storyfix.com] When not to follow NaNo's Do Not Edit advice.

Social Media

• Do Writers Need to Think About SEO? [Rachelle Gardner] by Erin MacPherson
• Blogging Etiquette (That Matters) 101 [christina lee]
• Why You Must Suck It Up & Create Your Facebook Business Page Today [Author Marketing Experts, Inc. » BLOG]
• Marketing Your Unborn Book [kimberlysabatini.blogspot.com] Brilliant points about the honest, painless way you market every day.
• Who in the YA/Kid Blogosphere is on Google+? [plus.google.com] Great list by @KateMessner.
• Haunted Halloween: Twitter Party Coming Soon! [Confessions of a Bookaholic] Sounds fun!
• Best of the Web Book Marketing Tips for the Week of October 10, 2011 [Author Marketing Experts, Inc. » BLOG]
• Numbers Are Our Friend–Writers and the Wild World of Metrics [Kristen Lamb's Blog]

To Market

• Agent Spotlight: Roseanne Wells of Marianne Strong [Literary Rambles] Another great profile.
• Want to Make Money Writing? Build Relationships With Editors [Quips and Tips for Successful Writers]
• WITCHLANDERS Query Dissected [lenacoakley.com] Great analysis of the letter that got her represention.
• Agent Spotlight: Jessica Sinsheimer [Literary Rambles] Specialities include YA & MG.
• How Do I Find An Agent? [BubbleCow] Step-by-step.
• Here’s the Pitch—It’s a Hit! Crafting Your Novel's Pitch Line [The Other Side of the Story]

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 Roundupfor the SCBWI Children's Market Blog.
• Northern Colorado Writers do This Week in the Writing Worldevery 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 bloglater 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!
• DuoLitdoes 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 Cynsationsdoes a Cynsational author and book news review.

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

Happy reading and joyous writing,

Martina, Clara, and Marissa