Newbie-Writers.com - Nurturing New Writers
Newbie home
Learn the craft
Jobs for writers
Need a prompt?
Book Store
Resource centre
Not a Newbie?
Writing-World.com
Subscribe write now!
Swap site links
Contact the Editor

Winner Writer's Digest 101 Best Writing Sites 2008

Books | Courses | Newsletters | Software | Websites | Forum | Subscribe  
Every product that is listed here is one I have personally used or reviewed and found to be very useful to Newbie writers. So, if you're looking for something to inspire you, to help with your creativity, to help you break into a new genre or merely to improve your writing, check this page out first!

Remember, for more books on writing, visit our new Newbie Writer's Bookstore. Click on the menu link opposite. And if you still can't find what you're looking for, then use the search box opposite to search Amazon or click on the link below to go straight to the home of many great Writing Books - Writer's Digest. I am currently reviewing several of their books and I will keep you posted.

Writers Digest Books

Books


This book is dynamite! Patricia Fry has been freelancing for 35 years and was a self-publishing pioneer. She published her first book back in the late seventies and what she doesn't know about the publishing and self-publishing industry isn't worth knowing. If you are considering writing a book, be it fiction or nonfiction, read this before you even fire up your word-processor as she will save you a lot of time, heartache and money.

Unlike many similar books on how to self-publish, Fry's book does not ignore the standard publishing houses but she shows you from her experience, how to set about choosing and targeting a publisher. For every section in her book from writing a query letter, writing a book proposal, choosing fiction titles and developing a marketing plan for a publisher, she gives concrete examples of not only what to do, but more importantly what not to do. And the accompanying workbook means that instead of just sitting there, nodding your head and thinking "hmm, this is good stuff" you have to actually act upon her words and find yourself, at the end of the book, with a completed plan for writing your book, getting it published and how to market it.

In short, if you are serious about wanting to write a book and get it published, read this book; it tells you all you need to know.

If you want to know more, pop along to Patricia's website and check out further reviews and the table of contents. http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html


12 Books in total - (not all displayed)


The Funds for Writers E-Book Master Combo Package by C. Hope Clark
Make 2008 your writing year with this bumper set of - Twelve fantastic and useful writing books including: Get Paid to Write Book Reviews (newest release), Laughing Markets, Just Hit Send, Grants for the Serious Writer: 5th Edition, The No Fee Contest Book, Short & Sweet: Markets for Fillers, Funds for the Fiction Writer, Funds for the Essayist, 'Tis the Season, Markets for the Young Writer, Publishers for Poets, The Shy Writer for only $59.00.

Click here to view more details about each book and to purchase.


How to write and publish your own e-book in as little as 7 days By Jim Edwards and Joe Vitale
This is the book I used to write the Newbie-Writer's Resource book. I highly recommend it.

Click here for more information about this book and to purchase a copy.



Back to top

Courses

As you'll know if you've read The Newbie Writer's Resource Book, there are free writing courses and courses where you need to pay a fee. I can personally recommend the Writer's Bureau Comprehensive Writing Course, as I am a student with them. I also recommend Rob Parnell's Easy Way to Write Romance Fiction course (see below). Although this is a fee paying course, it provides excellent value for money and is extremely useful and good fun too!

In addition to these courses I also make use of the many free courses available on the net and I would advise you, fellow newbie, to take as many of these courses as you can, free or fee paying, to improve your craft and increase your chances of getting published.

Also, remember that if there are no courses currently being offered in the subject you want to learn; you can learn just as well from books.

Quick Cash Writing Course by bestelling author Nick Daws
Get PUBLISHED today! - New course reveals quick ways to get published in just a few minutes each day.

Write Any Book in 28 Days... OR LESS!
New course reveals FRESH secrets. How would you feel if in exactly 28 days time, you were holding the finished version of your own book? A new course from best-selling author Nick Daws shows you how to do it in UNDER 28 days, working less than 1 HOUR a day.


(Rob's courses are excellent value for money - I can personally recommend them)
Easy Way to Write Romance Course - by Rob Parnell
Romance outsells all other fiction by a factor of 5 to 1, but it's also one of the most difficult genres to break into. Why? Because the competition is enormous.

The good news for you and me is that 90% of all Romance manuscripts are reportedly terrible. This is because most new Romance writers just don't understand the needs of publishers (magazine and book), agents and indeed, the reading public.

It's for this reason Rob Parnell has devised a refreshing new look into the genre.

This comprehensive course costs just $47.


www.writersbureau.com
Details of all their distance-learning writing courses, including the one I can personally recommend: The Comprehensive Writing Course, which covers all genres.

www.bbc.co.uk/dna/getwriting/minicourse
A massive site from the BBC, providing free mini-courses at beginner, intermediate and advanced levels across all genres. These courses were written by creative language tutors at British universities.

easywaytowrite.com
Free mini classes on writing fiction.

writingbliss.com
A selection of free e-mail and fee based courses that run all year round.

www.mridukhullar.com/forwriters/
Excellent site, run by a very successful freelancer which contains articles on most areas of freelancing. Subscribe to free newsletter and receive free e-book “Markets for the Freelance Writer”. Mridu also offers a 12 part free e-course “Query letters that sell.”

http://www.suite101.com/readingandwriting/
Lots of free courses on every aspect of creative writing and in most genres.

www.woodenhorsepub.com/page23.html
A fee based 8 lesson course with 7 assignments on Breaking Into Major Magazines.

www.memorybooks.ca
Living Legends: Writing Your Life, One Story at a Time - a six-week e-course for beginning life story writers, running every two months. Carol M. Upton, a Personal Historian, Author and Sunshine Coast School of Writing affiliate, can help you breathe life into your family stories. Visit www.memorybooks.ca and contact Carol for details.

awaionline.com/index.php
Home page of the American Writers and Artists Institute who run the Accelerated Program for six-figure copywriting. I am a student of this course also and it is very, very good.

If you can't find the course, you're looking for, then why not search for it here:


Back to top

Newsletters

Funds for Writers (free newsletter)

Total Funds for Writers
A fortnightly newsletter containing over 90 calls for submissions each issue, along with articles to improve your writing craft. Only $12.00 a year. An excellent investment if you are looking to make money from your writing.

Freelance Market News
A very useful publication by the Writers Bureau with up-to-date market information - new magazines, editorial changes, submissions being actively seeked, contest details and tips on improving your craft. Subscription is £11 for 6 issues or £29 for 11 issues, comes with free membership of the Association of Freelance Writers and a useful ID card that states as much.


Back to top

Software

Whitesmoke all-in-one solution Whitesmoke Writing Software
Market leader in specialist writing software and for good reasons.
  • Works with all applications
  • Has a special creative writing version
  • Is easy to use
  • Makes writing grammatically correct sentences that flow and grip a cinch.
  • Has had several great reviews.
If you know your grammar needs work, but you'd rather concentrate on your story than hit the textbooks, then for the sake of your readers and your editor, at least get this software!

For a demonstration of this amazing software, click here See Demo


Write-Sparks-lite writing prompt software
This free version doesn't expire. It contains over a month's worth of sparks. Download this version to see for yourself how it works. Evaluate the free version before buying the full version. You'll also receive articles and more sparks by e-mail.

WriteSparks!™ is every writer's newest best friend! If you need some creative sparks to start or end your day, WriteSparks!™ is the perfect software for the writer in you!

WriteSparks!™ is a writer's software you can run from your computer whenever you need to...

  • jumpstart your writing
  • break out of a block
  • get rid of boredom
  • write away your frustrations
  • write for the sheer joy of writing
Click here to download your copy of this FREE software.



Click here to download your FREE trial version.
Free Trial version of PDF-Creator
PDF files are the most popular file format in the world. But can YOU create them?
The answer is NO. And you're MISSING OUT of countless opportunities because of this limitation.
It doesn't matter whether you're a writer or a business professional, whether you're sending documents to Malaysia or to a Macintosh, your computer NEEDS to create PDF files... at the click of a button.

And with PDF-Creator... IT CAN!

PDF-Creator allows you to create your own professional-looking PDF files from ANY document. Simply open your file, such as a Word document, and click File > Print. Select the PDF-Creator printer and you're done. It'll create your PDF for you!

Here are some of the amazing features of the simple PDF-Creator:

  • Simple PDF file creation: Just click File & Print and you're done!
  • Full Windows support: Works with Win 98, NT, 2000 and XP
  • PDF anything: Create PDFs from ANY program that prints
  • Copy protection: Stop people printing or copying your PDF files
  • Password protection: Add passwords to any of your PDF files, easily!
*BEST OF ALL* PDF-Creator is available as a 100% working FREE TRIAL!



Back to top

Websites

Here are the best sites (other than this one!) for Newbie-Writers. Visit them, sign up to their newsletters, download the free e-books, read and learn!

Don't forget to sign up with Paypal - a must if you are going to work for international magazines.

www.tabmarks.com A free Homepage which allows you to store collections of all your favourite website links in a personal organiser format, access them from any computer and share them with friends and colleagues. Keep a collection for your kids favourites sites, one for your writing research sites and another for all your everyday websites such as banking, news and info sites.

www.writing-world.com Edited by me! (Dawn Copeman), it has 78 articles on Getting Started alone, as well as genre specific articles. It is a huge, comprehensive site.

EasyWaytoWrite.com Fantastic newsletter, subscribe & receive a free e-book. The Easy Way to Write Stories That Sell! ($21 value) The site also offers free mini classes on writing fiction.

www.Wellfedwriter.com - Fantastic site full of everything you need to know to become a freelance commercial writer. (A very lucrative writing field)

writelink.co.uk/index.php Brilliant British writing site run by Sue Kendrick – membership is at two levels – readers who can read most of the site content and writers who can access the whole site – including the market listings and can post work on the site too. If you become a writer member you get loads of useful freebies from Sue including: Writelink Paying Markets, The Freelance Writers’ Business Pack and Write and Seek – a guide to researching on the internet.

Writer2Writer - fantastic site, free courses, free contests, free information and free ebooks.

www.oncewritten.com – useful site for writing fiction complete with writing prompts.

www.writersdigest.com/ Online version of America’s best writing magazine – it is well worth subscribing to the paper version too.

www.mridukhullar.com/forwriters/ Excellent site run by a very successful freelancer which contains articles on most areas of freelancing. Subscribe to free newsletter and receive free e-book “Markets for the Freelance Writer”. Mridu also offers a 12 part free e-course “Query letters that sell”

www.writersweekly.com/ This newsletter contains excellent articles, weekly job listings and calls for submissions and news from the publishing world. When you sign up you receive a free e-book on how to be a freelance writer with details of 103 paying markets.

www.bbc.co.uk/dna/getwriting A massive site from the BBC providing free mini-courses at beginner, intermediate and advanced levels across all genres. These courses have been written by creative language tutors at British universities. They are excellent. The site also lists some competitions and news from the world of writing. It is well worth a visit.

fundsforwriters.com Site that lists grants and funds for writers, but also publishes 3 useful newsletters with job listings and articles - Two of which are free. Newbies should try FFW Small Markets. If you are serious about making money writing, consider signing up for the Total Funds for Writer newsletter instead – at $12.00 per annum it offers you over 90 paying markets per fortnight, plus writing tips, tips on finding agents, publishers or more.

www.filbertpublishing.com Beth-Ann Erickson’s site, offers a good newsletter and an excellent free e-book Power Queries.

www.absolutemarkets.com This is Jenna Glatzer’s site. Sign up for free newsletter, which contains some market listings as well as useful articles, and get “Writers’ Online Guidelines e-book”.

www.writingfordollars.com free newsletter plus free e-book, “83 ways to make money from writing”

www.ukauthors.com This site has loads of useful resources for writers including several forums. It also runs regular competitions.

www.ukapress.com - the publishing arm of ukauthors. This is a small press which pays royalties to its authors.

www.writersbureau.com/fmn - Freelance Market News provides up-to-date market information, editorial changes, magazines seeking submissions, contests and tips on improving your skills. £11 for 6 issues or £29 for 11 issues.

www.writersnews.co.uk Useful site for Writers News magazine - excellent forum.

www.writersmarket.com It costs just under $30 a year for a subscription to the online writers market for American magazines, but it is a worthwhile investment if you are considering submitting to the American market. It comes with query and submission tracking software too.

www.writersbreak.com This is another excellent site with useful articles across many genres. Free newsletter.

www.woodenhorsepub.com/spreportssales.html These special reports from Meg Weaver are based on over thirty years’ experience as a freelance writer. It costs around $6.00 to download each report. I’ve downloaded three and found them to be very instructive.

www.freelancewriting.com/index.html Another useful site, this one has a jobs listing page too.

www.worldwidefreelance.com/ Fantastic site with free newsletter with useful articles and calls for submissions and market details and free access to their markets database. ttp://www.worldwidefreelance.com/eu/ Same as above but for European markets.

www.writergazette.com/ Free weekly newsletter with job listings, competitions etc.

www.writethismoment.com A jobs listing site you need to pay to use but it is excellent value.

www.jbwb.co.uk/index.html A British site which lists market details for several genres, competitions, mini-courses and distance learning.

www.organizedwriter.com/resources.htm Site ran by Julie Hood, author of "The Organized Writer" – has details of useful websites for research, information and calls for submissions.

www.poynter.org/dg.lts/id.13061/content.content_view.htm An excellent site full of though provoking articles to teach you how to write tighter prose and more compelling hooks and ledes

www.enterprisingwriter.com/articles.htm Tips on how to become a full-time writer

www.bookends.co.uk Find out what’s happening in the British bookworld – read extracts from new books, reviews, interviews with authors etc. Writers need to read too remember.

www.steampunk.com/sfch/writing/ckilian/ A complete guide to writing a novel.


Back to top

© Newbie-Writers.com 2008