The Blog Reaches 1,500 Posts — And I Offer 11 Good Reasons For You To Keep Reading It

I passed 1,500 posts recently. Rock on. This blog is approaching its four-year anniversary and keeps growing. Last I checked, the blog now receives 140,000 page views a month. I just want to thank my regulars, my commenters, and my many amazing guest bloggers.

And to celebrate, here's some details of a giveaway (UPDATE: Diane H. won): I will pick one random commenter to win both a copy of Triptych, a sci-fi novel written by the GLA blog's newest success story (author JM Frey - see below), as well as a copy of Hooked, an amazing writing resource by Les Edgerton that talks about starting your story right. Winner gets both books. Comment within one week. All you have to do is say something nice about any book or product or website run/created by WD.

And if you're new to this blog, let me give you 11 good reasons why you should add it to your usual reading. Here are 11 people who contacted me to say they signed with agents because of my
blogging and links:

1. JM Frey, author of Triptych (2011)

"I just wanted to let you know that because of your wonderful blog, I am now represented by Evan Gregory of Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency. Evan e-mailed me after my guest post had been up for about a week, and was 1 of 2 who did so directly because they'd read the blog entry."

2. Writer Gwen Hayes, author of Falling Under

"I found (agent) Jessica (Sinsheimer) through your GLA interview last August. She signed me in September and we sold Falling Under, in December. Quite the whirlwind!"

3. Writer Jess Haines, author of Hunted by the Others and two more books in the series.

"I found my agent (Ellen Pepus) through a GLA article. My first book, Hunted by the Others, came out in May 2010."

4. Caroline Starr Rose, author of May B (2012)

"I found Michelle Humphrey on the Guide to Literary
Agents blog and fell in love with her upbeat attitude about the
publishing process ('Make rejection pie!' she said). She responded to my
query the next day. Less than two weeks after reading Michelle’s GLA
post, I had an agent."

5. Trevor Shane,
author of Children of Paranoia (2011)

"I've been a near daily visitor to your site since
2005 when I started writing Children of Paranoia. Much of what I
learned about querying/agents/editors and the business in general, I
learned from your website. You really do provide a great service for
all of us frustrated and frightened aspiring writers."

6. Mary Glickman, author of Home in the Morning (2011)

"When I was lost and agentless, the Guide to
Literary Agents blog was like a lifeline pulling me into a place where I
could say: It can be done, it can be done. And sometimes, a little
bit of hope can go a very long way.

7. Writer Jen Corkill Hunt

"After you posted Kimberley Shumate as a new agent, I
contacted her and was signed. You're awesome and I send as many authors
to you as I can. Thanks!"

8. Writer Joanna Haugen

"I've been reading your blog for a while, and when this post about
Bree Ogden came through my RSS feed, I decided to try querying her with
my picture book. Within a week I had signed on as a new client with
Martin Literary Management. Thank you for featuring new agents ~ I never
would have found Bree without this column!"

9. Writer Danielle Winston

"Your blog has been enormously helpful! Through your new agent alerts, I connected with Marisa Corvisiero, who is now representing my children's book."

10. Writer Traci Borum

"I used the GLA blog extensively during my agent
search. So helpful,
mainly because I knew I could trust what I found on your blog. I knew
these agents would most likely be legit - and - the personal interviews
with them always helped me personalize my query letters to them. I have an agent now: Steven Chudney."

11. Writer Nina Berry

Nina was signed by agent Tamar Rydzinski of Laura Dail Literary Agency after being named one of the three winners of Tamar's "Dear Lucky Agent" Contest (a recurring contest on this site with different agents) on the blog.

That's my version of "Show, don't tell." Hope you like it!