Top Websites for Writers: 8 Great Publishing & Marketing Resources on the Web
For the last two decades, we’ve scoured the web for sites to include in our annual roundup of the 101 Best Websites for Writers, a comprehensive collection of online resources for writers which you can find in full in the May/June 2018 issue of Writer's Digest.
Year after year, we review dozens of reader nominations, revisit sites from past lists, consider staff favorites and search the far-flung corners of the web for new additions—aiming for a varied compilation that will prove an asset to any writer, of any genre, at any experience level.
This selection represents this year's publishing and marketing resources for writers. These websites are particularly helpful for authors looking to self publish or to build their audiences and platforms.
1. ALLi SELF-PUBLISHING ADVICE CENTER
Get to the heart of all things self-publishing at the Alliance of Independent Authors’ Self-Publishing Advice Center—with tips on promotion, rights and contracts, productivity, design
and more.
2. CREATE IF WRITING
Create If Writing demystifies the promotional and marketing aspects of the writing business. You’ll find breakdowns of Amazon’s book publishing rules, Facebook algorithms and other vital knowledge to help you grow your platform and establish a more effective web presence.
3. THE CREATIVE PENN
Find insight on self-publishing, marketing, writing and more from bestselling indie author Joanna Penn. In addition to frequent blog posts, Penn shares wisdom through a weekly podcast that’s still going strong at more than 350 episodes.
4. JANE FRIEDMAN
Speaker and former WD publisher Jane Friedman dishes on everything from publishing trends to query letters to writing advice on her blog—and via the essential industry trends newsletter “The Hot Sheet,” co-founded with consultant Porter Anderson.
Online Course: How to Craft a Book that Will Sell (and Launch Your Writing Career)
5. PUBLETARIAT
This site curates articles from around the web on book marketing, promotion, self- and traditional publishing and all the necessary know-how to make your book a powerhouse.
6. PUBLISHING … AND OTHER FORMS OF INSANITY
Author Erica Verrillo curates calls for submissions, places to earn reviews, lists of publishers accepting unagented manuscripts and more. Pick an agent to query or a market to submit to from her extensive, perpetually updated lists.
An Insider's Guide to Publishing studies historic novelists in specific professional contexts--how they dealt with their editors, agents, and critics, with rejection, with success, with blockage, with craft. It then proposes solutions to the practical difficulties of manuscript submission, publication, and marketing faced by the average aspiring writer.
7. REEDSY
Reedsy’s free book-editing and typesetting tools will help turn your story into a polished manuscript you’ll be proud to publish, while blog posts provide extensive writing and publishing tips. You can also connect with freelance editors, designers, ghostwriters and other professionals off ering paid services to authors.
8. WINNING WRITERS
Subscribe to the free Winning Writers newsletter for access to an extensive database of free literary contests across genres, updated monthly. While exploring the site, check out Winning Writers’ contests, plus a list of resources recommended by site editors.
Discover more of the Top 101 Websites for Writers in our May/June issue! Get a copy here, or subscribe to get WD all year long.
