Resources for Aspiring Authors

We're all writers here, and with nearly 50% of our members aiming to become fully published authors, we thought it would be beneficial to create a compilation of resources about what it takes to get your work on the shelves.

This isn't a definitive list, more of a work-in-progress. We're would be more than happy to add any suggestions – so if you know any good resources, on deviantART or off, link them in the comments! Feel free to discuss your goals and experiences here too.

And if you have had your writing published, or have any experience in this area, we'd love to hear from you. Leave a comment or send us a note about it and we'll add any guidance/advice you have to the blog.



Tips for Editing Poetry by suture.

(Lit) Author Tag Tutorial by Kalen-Bloodstone.

Publishing Resources List and An Idiot's Guide to Publishing by SadisticIceCream.

On Writing – Getting Published and How to Get a Literary Agent by mree.

writingresources has a very useful set of favourites collections.

Resources for Young Writers, Part I and Part II by WineWriter.

Getting Published the Hard Way by msklystron.



"Getting Published", a guide by Patrick Ness, UK YA writer and author of the Chaos Walking trilogy:
Are you ready?
Where to send it?
What to submit?

booktrust has a lot of great resources.

How to Get Published by literary agent Rachelle Gardener, and What to Ask an Agent are both useful.

How to Get Published: Novel Publication Tips on Squidoo.

terribleminds.com ranges from talking about what life as a freelance writer is like to tips on getting published (and self-publishing), as well as advice on the craft itself.


We've included webzines because compilations of written works are often directed towards young writers and they're a great place to get started in the publishing world.

Strange Horizons
"... a magazine of and about speculative fiction and related nonfiction. Speculative fiction includes science fiction, fantasy, horror, slipstream, and all other flavors of fantastika."

Voiceworks
"Voiceworks is a national, quarterly magazine that features exciting new writing by Australian young writers. It is a unique opportunity for young writers and artists (under 25) to publish their poetry, short stories, articles and comics, illustrations, drawings and photos, as well as receiving feedback on their submission. It is produced entirely by young people and relies totally on contributions from the readers to make up the content."

The Missing Slate
"The Missing Slate will be a representation both literally and visually of young, metropolitan life. Its general tone will be one of wit, satire, awareness and criticism but will not be unjustly critical."

Furrow
A literary magazine published at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. It accepts submissions (up to 5 pieces of poetry or ±5,000 words of any form of prose) from any undergraduate student in the USA, regardless of what school or what major they're studying in. Submissions can be sent as word attachment to furrowmag@gmail.com. (Contact PeanutButterLegs for more information.)

New Pages' classifieds
This page contains a regularly updated list of opportunities to be published/featured in various blogs, journals, webzines and other publications. Definitely worth bookmarking.


If you're connected to the Twitter world at all, it might be useful to consider following these accounts.

@JaneFriedman
@publishingtalk
@Style_Matters
@PublishersWkly
@WritersDigest

Duotrope – lists over 3,000 fiction and poetry publishers, and has a comprehensive search engine.


autonomy.com – A website from the publisher Harper-Collins, where users can upload their novels and people rate/review them. Novels with a high amount of good reviews can get sent to an editor's desk for review.

TheShelfLife – A group on deviantART run by Memnalar, dedicated to showcasing work from published authors on dA.

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And we've been steadily putting together our own collection of writing resources on deviantART:



There you have it: all of the writing resources we could conjure up in a relatively short space. Don't forget to comment with your aspirations/experiences, and to share your knowledge of any other publishing resources with the rest of the literature community!

We hope this helps, and we'll keep an eye out for your name on the shelves. When you're famous, don't forget to write home, okay?