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
• 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
• 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
• 10 Editorial Steps from Agent to Published Book
• Publication
• Self-publish with: IngramSpark
• Self-publish with: CreateSpace
• Checklist for Publishing
• Mythbusting Amazon Algorithms
• Self-publishing Resources
• Marketing
• Using Videos to Sell More Books
• 5 Ways All Bloggers can Improve SEO

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

• Kidlit411 - How-to's and inteviews with authors and illustrators of Picture Books, Middle Grade, YA, etc.
• Writers Helping Writers - Thorough advice on a little bit of
• 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