I just started this page in late 2010, added some items in 2011, and will fill it in over time. The outline indicates a few of the categories I plan to cover. The brighter blue items are live links.

Writing

• My best advice to writers (my thoughts, captured by agent Rachelle Gardner on her blog).
• Two essential books for people writing books:
  • Betsy Lerner's The Forest for the Trees: An Editor's Advice to Writers
  • Janet Burroway's Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft
• A place to write: why you need one (coming).
• MFA or not MFA (coming). Short answer: usually.

Reporting

Interviewing

• Video critique: Disturbing victim interview on Today Show
• What Makes Them Tell? Ten Interview Tips
• Mechanics: Ten Interview Tips
• Roles sources can play (and why that matters)

Publishing

Summary

• How to break into publishing. A quick summary I composed to help a friend trying to break into the biz. (It's geared to nonfiction, with a note on how fiction differs.)
• How to get published. Agent Rachelle Gardner's excellent summary, with more details and links.

Editors' advice

• Jonathan Karp: amazing interview in Poets & Writers This should be required reading at every MFA program, to start.

Query letters

These are the best brief how-to guide's I've found:

• Query Letter Mad Lib: Ignore the cute title. This is a great intro post, that lays out what a query should be, with everything to leave in and out. It's agent Nathan Bransford, who has a great reputation on this stuff.
• Examples of a Good Query Letter: Three great examples, with analysis, by agent Nathan Bransford.
• How to Write a Query Letter: A slightly different approach, by agent Rachelle Gardner.

For related links, see the margins of all those posts. The agents who created them have all sorts of great links in their sidebars.

Agent websites with great advice

• Betsy Lerner
• Nathan Bransford
• Rachelle Gardner

If you want to publish with a major book publisher, you need an agent. Those three sites have permanent links with good advice on how to go about finding one. They are a great place to start.

Selling your book: Using the web / social media

• Creating a primary website: My evolution over 10 years
• My experience using Facebook & Twitter, etc. effectively (coming)
• WSJ: How Authors Move Their Own Merchandise (books). The Jan 2011 piece could use a lot more meat—more details and more analysis of what works—but it's a very good start. And I think we're still figuring out what works.
• (More coming)

Resources

• (coming)