For Writers

When I do workshops and other appearances (see here), attendees are often curious about the publishing process. This FAQ gives an overview and resources to help answer those questions.

From that first idea to the final product, writing can be broken down into steps:

• Outlining/drafting 
• Shelving/editing/beta reading 
• Market research
• Submissions
• Team review
• Publication
• Marketing

Let's look at those more closely.

• Outlining/drafting:
• Outline with Notecarding
• The Snowflake Method
• 8 Ways to Outline a Novel
• NaNoWriMo Prep Talk
• How to Start a Novel
• How to Write Picture Books
• The Heroine's Journey (Book)
• The Emotional Craft of Fiction (Book)
  
• Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel (Book)
• Into the Woods, a 5 Act Journey (Book)
• Trudy's Anatomy of Story  (Book)
• TV Writing on Demand: Creating Great Content in the Digital Era (Book)
• Campfire writing software
• Scrivener writing software
• Shelving/editing/beta reading 
• Quick Guide to Beta Reader Etiquette
• What Happens After the First Draft?
• How to Know It's Time to Shelve Your Novel
• How to Revise Your Novel
• Michael J. Sullivan on types of editing
• It Was The Best of Sentences, It Was the Worst of Sentences (Book)
• Edit Out Loud - Hear your work read to help with editing
• Thought Verbs
• Market research
• Find short story markets with The Submissions Grinder
• Michael J. Sullivan talks about Indie v. Traditional publishing
• Submissions
• Manuscript Format
• Formatting Your Picture Book Manuscript
• How to write a Query Letter
• Send your Query to Query Shark for Critique
• 8 Steps to an Agent and 2 Book Deals
• The best time to query an agent
• Short Story Cover Letter
• Team review & Overview of the Process
• 10 Editorial Steps from Agent to Published Book
• Why is Writing a Novel so Time-Consuming?
• How to Write a Series
• Publication
• Self-publish with: IngramSpark
• Self-publish with: CreateSpace
• Checklist for Publishing
• Mythbusting Amazon Algorithms
• Self-publishing Resources
• Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Books in Translation
• Marketing
• The Importance of a Good Book Cover
• Using Videos to Sell More Books
• 5 Ways All Bloggers can Improve SEO
• Sell Books and Get PAID for Author Visits (Book)
• Mastering Book Hooks for Authors (Book)

Ready for more? Here are websites with more great resources:

• Kidlit411 - How-to's and interviews with authors and illustrators of Picture Books, Middle Grade, YA, etc.
• Writers Helping Writers
• KrisWrites - Great indie blog that questions the established "wisdom" of traditional publishing
• Query Shark - No sugar-coating here; critiques queries.
• National Novel Writing Month - Free yearly event
• Writability - Tips and tricks from a YA author