These are resources that I’ve shared with my Inside Scoop newsletter readers over the course of my publishing process. Enjoy!
February 2010
Blog Posts:
- ProBlogger – 29 Ways to keep me coming back to your blog again and again
- Tim Ferriss – Feeling Stuck? Ready This.
- The Urban Muse – Launching a Virtual Book Tour
- Tribal Writer: How to Be a Creative Bad-ass. A 12-point plan.
- CopyBlogger – The 6 Essential Steps to Writing a Killer Press Release
- UnMarketing – The Awesomeness of Being a 2.0 Author
Books
- Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences
- Slideology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations (both gorgeous books by Nancy Duarte)
January 2010
Blog Posts:
- Copyblogger – The Best of Copyblogger 2010
- Scott Berkun – How to Write 1000 Words
- Creative Guide to Life – Are You Hoarding Your Creativity?
- Tribal Writer – How to develop a creative practice (and why it actually does make you more creative)
- Skool of Life – 24 Bloggers who will Entertain, Inform, and Inspire the world in 2011 (I’m honored to be on this list!)
Articles:
- Harvard Business Review – The best way to use the Last 5 minutes of your day
- Inc. Magazine – The Art and Business of Motivational Speaking
- New York Times Magazine – A Physicist Solves the City
Books (connect with me on GoodReads):
- Infinite Possibilities: The Art of Living your Dreams
- Stumbling on Happiness
- The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business (without mortgaging your life)
Blogs:
- Breaking Murphy’s Law (on public speaking)
- Write to Done – Finalists for the best blogs for writers of 2010
Other:
- Blogger LinkUp – like HARO (Help a Reporter Out) but for bloggers – find and request guest posts (thanks ChaChanna for the heads up!)
November 2010
Blog Posts:
- Conversation Agent – How to Source and Credit Content (great little Calvin and Hobbs comic at the top!)
- Confident Writing – 10 Things it Might Be That Don’t Mean You’re Afraid
- Write to Done – How to Slash Your Writing Time in Half
- CopyBlogger – How to Put Yourself into an Effortless Writing Zone
- CopyBlogger – Tim Gunn’s 5 Tips for More Stylish Content
- TribalWriter – How a Writer or Other Creative Can Develop Multiple Sources of Revenue (Part Two)
Videos:
- Sam Davidson’s book trailer for 50 Things Your Life Doesn’t Need
Books (connect with me on GoodReads):
October 2010
Blog Posts:
- CopyBlogger – 50 Can’t Fail Techniques for Finding Great Blog Topics
- White Hot Truth – 17 Lessons Learned from Five Years of On-Line Hustling
- Write to Done – The Fail Safe Guide to Overcoming Procrastination
- Jonathan Fields – The Moment You Speak to the World, You Speak to No One
- CopyBlogger – 7 Ways the iPad Can Bring Back Your Writing Mojo
- Jonathan Fields – A Modest Proposal for Publishers and Authors
- Write to Done – 7 Mindfulness Tips to Energize Your Writing
- Tribal Writer – Why You Should Blog to Build Your Writing Career Even if You Think You Don’t Need To
- Tribal Writer – How Fiction Writers (and other creatives) Can Develop Into Badass Bloggers
- Michael Larsen’s Blog – 10 Ways to Find the Agent You Need
Books:
- Confessions of a Public Speaker – Scott Berkun
My review from GoodReads: Awesome book. Even if you’re not thinking of becoming a professional speaker, Berkun’s inside look at everything from the fear of being in front of a room (an evolutionary reaction to being on an open plane, unprotected, with dozens of creatures starting at you) to what it’s like making TV appearances is funny, insightful, and incredibly interesting. Loved this book! - The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Success as a Public Speaker
September 2010
Websites:
- OhLife – “The Easiest Way to Write Your Life Story” (emails you every day with a prompt that says, “how did your day go?”)
- WriteOrDie.com – “Putting the ‘Prod’ in Productivity” – hilarious!
Blog Posts:
- Scott Berkun – How to Write a Book – The Short, Honest Truth
- 10,000 Ideas and Resources for Writers
- BookTour.com – 10-part Book Promotion Series
- Scott Berkun – Why You Fail at Writing
- Holiday Matinee – A Blog for Creative Inspiration (I loved this letter)
- Tim Ferris’s Blog – How Authors Really Make Money: The Rebirth of Seth Godin and the Death of Traditional Publishing
- Erica Lee XO – The Unhappily Uninspired Writer’s Guide to Kick-Starting Creativity and Gaining Back Creative Confidence
- Jonathan Fields – What is Your Creative Modus Operandi?
- Tribal Writer – You: Beautiful Rebel. You: Spitting Truth to Power
- Tribal Writer – 7 Ways to Navigate the Middle of Your Novel (and Maybe Your Life)
- Michael Larsen’s Blog – 13 Wonderful Truths about Publishing
- Write in Berlin – Prod-Activity
- Michael Larsen’s Blog – P: The Most Important Letter in Publishing
Articles:
Books:
Blogs:
August 2010
Blog Posts:
- Authors Can Be Stupid: I Just Want To Write | www.publetariat.com
- Jonathan Fields – 50 Quotes to Inspire Creativity, Innovation and Action
- CopyBlogger – How to Develop an Endless Source of Ideas that Sell
- Michael Larsen’s Blog – Courting Lady Luck
- Untemplater – Are you a Go-Getter or a Go-Giver?
- Write to Done – A Secret Black-Belt Technique for Writing Knock-out Posts
- The Personal MBA – Book Summary of Getting Things Done (a classic must-read on productivity)
- Michael Larsen’s Blog – Writing Wisdom (lots of great gems in here)
- Illuminated Mind – Don’t Read This if You Want to Be a Better Blogger
- Just B Blog – A Savvy Girl’s Guide to Criticism
- Book Marketing – It Got Her Book Lots of Attention, But Was it Ethical?
- CopyBlogger – The Three Step Guide to Getting More Traffic by Writing Less
- CopyBlogger – 101 Ways to Make More Sales Online
- Write to Done – 50 Ways to Woo the Web World
- Michael Larsen’s Blog – 6 Tips for Succeeding as a Contentrepreneur
- Jonathan Fields – The Writing Marathon, Or How to Get New Ideas When You’ve Reached the End of Your Thinking
- Write in Berlin – Writer’s Rejection Recovery Program
Articles:
- Anything in Publetariat’s “Write” or “Publish” best-of lists – AMAZING stuff; hard to pick just one!
- So you want to be a published author? – Nitty Gritty Facts about the publishing world
Blogs:
- Publishing Perspectives (h/t Elisa Doucette)
Websites:
- Publetariat
- 750Words.com – Online journaling system – modeled after morning pages (from The Artist’s Wayby Julia Cameron)
- The Artist’s Way – Resources from the book by Cameron (mentioned above)
- BookTour.com – Recently revamped!
- GuestBlogging.com
July 2010
Blog Posts:
- Write to Done – 201 Ways to Arouse Your Creativity
- Michael Larsen’s Blog – The 10 Most Important Parts of a Proposal
- Seth Godin – Hope and the Magic Lottery
- Good Writing Tips – Chris Guilleabeau
- CopyBlogger – 5 Reasons Trying to Be Successful Will Keep You Poor
- CopyBlogger – 4 Steps to Finding Your Ideal Writing Voice
- Writer Unboxed – Best Advice: Have More Fun (Stop Worrying and Obeying)
- Tribal Writer: The “How to Write a Creative Manifesto” Manifesto
- CopyBlogger – 20 Warning Signs that Your Content Sucks
- The 99 Percent – The Cure for Creative Blocks? Leave Your Desk
- CopyBlogger – Improve Your Writing Overnight with the Rule of 24 – Guaranteed
- The Art of Non-Conformity – The Journey to Ithaca (great parable-like poem)
Articles:
Audio:
June 2010
Links:
- Interesting statistics on the book publishing industry
- Alice on iPad – is this the future of books? (Tribal Author)
- Publish or Perish: Can the iPad topple the Kindle and save the book business? (New Yorker)
Blog Posts:
- How to Get a Book Deal – The Accidentally Epic Series(GREAT set of interviews with well known bloggers who got book deals)
- U.S. Concept of Time and Why It’s Preventing You from Finding Your Passions (The Middle Finger Project)
- Inspiration for Writers (Associated Content)
- Silence the Voice that Wants to Shut You Down (Susan Biali)
- The Building Blocks for a Writing Career (Michael Larsen)
- The S Theory of Compelling Storytelling (Michael Larsen)
- 8 Paradoxes of Technology (Michael Larsen)
- End Rejections & Obstacles Immediately (Michael Larsen)
- 10 Tips for Getting Inspired to Write (Copyblogger)
- 10 Ways to Break Through Writer’s Block Part 1 (Tribal Writer) & Part 2
- 26 Ways to Win at Self-Publishing
March 2010 – Part 2
Books:
- The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream (Paulo Coehlo) – LOVED this book! A classic, definitely worth the read
- Tribes: We Need You To Lead Us (Seth Godin)
- Do More Great Work: Stop the Busywork. Start the Work that Matters (Michael Bungay Stanier)
Links/Blog Posts:
- Tribal Author (Book marketing with social media, by Jonathan Fields- author of Career Renegade)
- On Synchronicity and the Building of Empires (Chris Guillebeau)
- How to Get a Book Deal. An Evolutionary, Biblical Approach(KellyDiels)
- A Modern Day Parable (Sam Davidson)
SXSW Must-See Videos:
- Gary Vaynerchuk (LOVED this – a conference highlight)
- Ze Frank (on the creative lifestyle)
March 2010 – Part 1
San Francisco Writer’s Conference:
- For lots of great mini-tips tweeted during the conference, check-out the SFWC Tweets page
- Ted Weinstein (Literary Agent) – http://twliterary.com/audio.html (listen or visit his website to download some GREAT handouts)
Books:
- The War of Art (Steven Pressfield)
- How to Write a Book Proposal (Michael Larsen)
- Book Proposals that Sell (W. Terry Whalin)
- How to Get a Literary Agent (Michael Larsen)
- The First Five Pages (A Writer’s Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile)
