Informative Industry Sources (Self-Pub & Traditional):
The Future of Ink
ALLi (Alliance of Independent Authors)
A Newbie’s Guide To Publishing
The Book Designer
Bookbub Partners
Reedsy (New to publishing? This resource list will help!)
Jane Friedman’s The Hot Sheet
Platform, Marketing & Promotion Advice:
Kristen Lamb: We Are Not Alone
Problogger
Jane Friedman
The Creative Penn
Molly Greene
We’ve put together a terrific collection of our best marketing advice, handouts, promotional swipe files, and more, so if you want to know how we handle marketing and promotion, bookmark this link.
Protect Yourself & Your Writing:
Writer Beware: Find scammers before they find you
Copyscape: Think maybe someone’s stolen a blog post? See if you’re right.
Professional Services & Tools For Writers:
Fictionary: Intelligent online STORY editing software that helps writers and editors create award-winning fiction. (Give the free trial a try – your story will thank you for it!)
ProWritingAid: Premier and affordable software to help you strengthen your writing. There’s a free trial & this is used by nearly 1 million professionals (note: affiliate link)
BetaBooks: Beta Reader Management software for authors (great way to include your fans in the writing process and make them feel like insiders!)
Reedsy: a marketplace of vetted professionals to help authors publish
Gumroad: sell PDFs via your own online store
ScribeCount: Track your digital sales, bestseller rank & more
TechSurgeons: Hosting & website design (specializes in author sites)
Anti Social: Shut off social media or internet for a specific time to focus on work
Siteliner: Search for broken website links and more
Canva: very easy-to-use image creation service which is free and works terrific for marketing materials. They also have book cover templates.
Editing & Formatting Services:
C.S. Lakin: has edited several of our thesaurus books
Gloria Singendonk
Michael Dunne: has proofread for us–highly recommended
JD Smith Design: Jane works quickly and is very professional!
Fawkes Editing: September is a former Resident Writing Coach and she knows her craft!
Heart of the Story: Sara Letourneau is a former Resident Writing Coach who has done some first page critiques in our monthly contest
Marissa Graff: Marissa is a Resident Writing Coach and an editor with Angelella Editorial. She has been a guest editor for our critique contest and received rave reviews
Lisa Poisso: Lisa is a Resident Writing Coach who can help you with one-on-one coaching, editing, or something in between.
Stuart Wakefield: Stuart is a book coach who gives thorough, compassionate coaching for writers. He’s been a guest editor for our critique contest and received rave reviews!
Astrion Creative: Erica Converso proofread The Conflict Thesaurus for us and did an outstanding job. We were so happy with her work, we wrangled her into being a guest editor for our Phenomenal First Pages contest!
A Powerful Writing Tool:
One Stop For Writers®: Build deep, memorable characters, fresh plots, and a world readers won’t want to leave using this site’s arsenal of storytelling tools. Need step-by-step help as you plan, write, and revise? Our Storyteller’s Roadmap will guide you to a publish-ready novel.
Writing can be easier! Give the free trial a spin.
More Help…
Autocrit: Search for grammar, weak words, overused language, etc.
edWordle: Create word clouds from your story text. Helps you find overused words, theme & key words that might make a good title
Scrivener: An excellent “does it all” writing & organization tool
QueryTracker: Great organization & information software for your agent search
The Writers Helping Writers® Toolbox: Lots of free downloads on writing & editing
AIYAP Worksheets & More: worksheets on just about everything to do with writing fiction
Hiveword Online Fiction Organizer: great little online organizer & writing tool
Save The Cat Tools: Must have printable sheets that work on Save The Cat principles
Jami Gold’s Worksheets for Writers: A plethora of excellent writing & editing tools
Writing Pacemaker: A completely customizable way to track word count progress and set word count goals to fit your writing style and productivity schedule
Story Structure Database: Movie structure breakdowns to help you master story structure
Word Frequency Counter: Find your overused words quickly with this counter
100 Online Dictionaries: If you are looking for specific or niche information, give these specialized dictionaries a whirl
Recommended Online Learning Centers
Writing for Life Workshops – improve your writing and editing skills, better understand how to hit the bestseller lists as a self-published author and more. C.S. Lakin is our book editor and highly skilled in writing craft, and has several great courses that can help shorten the learning curve
WANA International
Write Now Mastermind
Writer’s Digest University
Recommended Writing Communities
Fictionary Community: Not only is this a great place to learn more about editing and story craft, this community is built on kindness. If you’re looking for a nurturing hub to learn, network, and find people and resources to help you, this is the place.
The Creative Academy – no one should feel they have to navigate writing and publishing alone, and for those who need community, support, and mentorship, there’s The Creative Academy. Find your tribe, build relationships, and benefit from the advice of experts ready to help you level up your skills and reach your publication goals.
Scribophile – further your writing skills with a community that focuses on critique swaps and provides a database of craft articles and resources. Scribophile’s forums are also a great place to connect with others on the writing path to discuss all things writing and publishing.
The Critique Circle – give and get critiques by your peers, growing and learning together. (This is where Becca and I met…terrific people here!)
SCBWI Message Board (Formerly Verla Kay’s Blue Board) – # 1 place to be if you are a writer of Kidlit or YA. Tons of information about publishing, agents and the writer’s road.
Query Tracker Forums – helpful community for writers on the query trail–share knowledge, strategies and make new, supportive friends.
NaNoWriMo – The “write a novel in a month club” that keeps on trucking all year long. Even if you don’t Nano, this is a treasure trove of writing resources and links!
Seekerville – a writing blog with a big community heart. Excellent articles on writing and tons of encouragement and support.
Angela’s Vault of Wonders
MythBank’s World Mythology 101: This amazing compendium of myth and folklore from around the world is a fantastic starting point for your next story. Be prepared to come away with a ton of ideas.
Litcharts: This amazing directory will help you better understand literary devices and terminology, including Rhetorical Devices. It also has a comprehensive database of information guides on popular works of fiction, and more. Do check it out!
Compete in a fun series of writing challenges for a chance to be published in an anthology (and bragging rights)! All proceeds are donated to The Office of Letters and Light (NaNoWriMo) and every entry receives valuable feedback.
Rainy Mood: Write to the sound of rain
Blade Play & Incised Wounds: A primer on knife wounds to insure accuracy
Reverse Dictionary: know related words, but not quite the word you need? Meet your new best friend
Visual Thesaurus: Displays words and meaning, connecting like-concepts
Action Verb List: Lose the bland and get specific
Tough Issues For Teens Write gritty YA? Find a huge list of Issue books broken down by topic for research
Serendipity: Need inspiration or ideas? This is generator nirvana
Silk: Self doubt gnawing at you, or you’re feeling stuck? Get inspired and create something beautiful as you think your way through any writing problem
The Skeptic’s Dictionary: A perfect place for story inspiration on the weird and wonderful
Author Name Pronunciation Guide: Meeting an author and don’t know how to say their name? Help is here
Writing for Beginners 101: New to writing? You might find these tips helpful
Onomatopoeia Dictionary: Need to write a sound? Here’s how
Writing Realistic Injuries: Don’t wing your injury descriptions after battles and mishaps–write it accurately
The Character Therapist: Put your characters on the couch
World Building Research: So many great topics of time period-specific research…let’s just call this WOW for short
The Writer’s Knowledge Base: A search engine built just for writers? You better believe it
The One Stop For Writers® Pinterest Board: The best of the best when it comes to writing articles, broken down by specific topic. Shorten your learning curve with this virtual learning center
The Writers Helping Writers® Pinterest Board: All of our most popular articles in one place for easier sharing
Best Hashtags for Writers Tool: Are you looking to find hashtags to connect with readers or network with authors? Have a look!
One Stop For Writers’ Checklist and Tip Sheet Database:
Want to add sophistication to your story?
One Stop for Writer’s massive database of checklists and tip sheets will help you navigate story problems, refine your ideas, and take your story from good to great.
Just click, download, and share. Happy writing!
I am just now revisiting a post you published in October of 2015 titled ” Planning a Novel: Character Arc In a Nutshell.” It is extraordinary! Thank you for such an informative article!
So glad you found that post helpful! These four things are really four cornerstones of a story, and when we figure them out, everything else becomes much easier. 🙂 Happy writing!
Good post guys
I have used WHW for a couple of years. I am amazed every time I take a couple minutes to explore the site. My solution: SET A REMINDER IN MY PHONE CALENDAR!
Thanks, again!
Mike Emminger
Wow! what an awesome one-stop info for all the prerequisites and requirements for authors.
I have bought most of your books and gifted to a good friend too.
Please share with us more info to help us be self-published successful authors soon.
Thank you 🙂
I am just a wannabe amateur writer, and I am grateful for all your invaluable resources that you have enlightened us with. Honestly speaking, your first thesaurus is like the first glimpse of light in a long dark tunnel where I was stuck and lost for a long time. I am deeply thankful for your great effort. I would love to see like everybody else out there more thesaurus. If you plan to release thesauruses on outer and inner conflicts I do believe that would be one of the greatest gift one can experience as a writer. I hope you will take my request under your kind consideration.
Thanks & Regards
What a lovely note–we are so happy we are able to help you! And I don’t know if you are aware, but in addition to our books, we have a site that houses ALL our thesauruses – 14 in all. I mention this because today we just put up a Character Motivation thesaurus that looks at the internal and external motivations of a character. LOL, how’s that for good timing? The link is here if you wish to check it out: https://onestopforwriters.com/character_motivations
It’s fantabulous !!!! 😍
That’s terrific—so glad it will help!
I am seeking help to write my book
Hi there, Bakari. 🙂 You’ve come to the right place because this site is filled with articles and tools to help you write. If you have a specific problem you need help with, try to give me as much detail as possible so I can direct you to the right articles or tools, or you can use the search function in the right side toolbar. 🙂
The Dick Tracy watch for writers.
Thank you!! 🙂
What an amazing collection of resources! Thank you so much!
Thanks. That is a lot of good info. I appreciate you! 🙂
Thanks for a very helpful post.
Love your books. This resource page is a treasure for writers. Thanks for your generosity.
So glad you’re enjoying it, Jeff!
What a great resource! Thank you for sharing.
Happy to share, Sue! Thanks for your visit. 😉
Wow! Great lineup of resources. Thanks so much for sharing them!
<333
I am constantly looking for resources for writers and I must say that this is such an amazing list. Thank you for taking the time to put this together!
Vary happy it helps! 🙂
What an incredible list! Thank you so much for sharing.
Happiness is mine,indeed!
This is generosity!
Happy you found us, Edgardo!
This is such a helpful list. thank you so much. I will check them out.
I love everything about your site. Lots of info for a newie!
Thanks,
Richard Freeze
Thank you so much for this massive list.