Index for Writers and Editors website
About this site
As a writer-editor I am often asked for advice about how to make a living as a writer or editor (or both) and how to find a good writer, editor, or proofreader. I launched this website to provide frank information both for people who want to know the basics and for those who want to dig deeper in a particular field. Those looking for a writer or editor might start with the job banks or specialized organizations for writers and editors (which often have directories or job banks). You will find links to websites and organizations useful for writers and editors, both general and specialized, with an emphasis on the United States. The range of specialty organizations is astonishing. For now, think of this as a useful reference library that could use a visual makeover. ~ Pat McNees
- SITE INDEX Connecting writers and editors with each other, resources, markets, and audiences
A • B • C • D • E • F • G • H • I • J • K • L • M • N • O • P • Q • R • S • T • U • V • W • X • Y • Z
If you don't find what you want, try the Site Map
A
A+ blogs, newsletters, and the like
A+ podcasts to listen to while your hands and eyes do something else
A+ radio talk shows and podcasts
Abbreviations, acronyms, initialisms, shorteners, contractions, chat shorthand
AB5 and other problems in the gig economy
Abortion, Covering
Academia and scholarly publishing
Academia and copyright (open access, scientific products, intellectual property, dissertations and theses)
Academic authors, rights and contracts for (how not to give up all rights to academic journals)
Academic freedom
Academic writing and textbook and journal publishing
Accents, symbols, scripts, diacritical marks (how to code for)
Accuracy, honesty, and truth in narrative journalism
Acknowledgments
Acquiring, swapping, recycling, or selling books (buying and selling books online)
Acronyms and initialisms
Active sitting
Ad blocking, whitelisting, and virtual private networks
Addictive and wonderful TV and cable shows
Adding images, sound, story, humor, animation (multimedia storytelling, data visualization)
Adding metadata to photos (McNees site)
Addresses (search engines)
Adjectives, the expected order of (aka "the royal order of")
Adjuncts: The universities' slave system
Ads, ad networks, ad platforms, etc.
Advance praise (blurbs, celebrity endorsements)
Advances against royalties
Advance reader copies aka Advance review copies
Advertising on Amazon
Advertising on Google, Facebook, and Bookbub
Advocacy journalism
Affirmative action, The end of, ? (blog post)
Affiliate marketing for passive income
Agency model for selling ebooks to libraries (vs wholesale model)
Agents and book proposals
Agent, Changing role of the literary
Agents as publishers: a conflict of interest
Agents, how to find and land them
Agents, how to protect yourself against the bad ones
Agents, Q&As with
Artificial intelligence and copyright
Artificial intelligence, ChatGPT, and OSINT (open source intelligence)
Artificial intelligence (AI) What problems does it bring? solve? (blog post)
AIDS and HIV, Covering
Alexa, Echo, and other intelligent voice control system (IVCSs)
All rights vs. work for hire contracts, explained
All-star pages on this website
Amazon and self-publishing
Amazon, Google, and other dominating forces on the internet
Amazon marketing and ads
Amazon, Selling books on
Amazon vs. Book Publishers: Do Writers Win or Lose?
Animal search sites
Animal-focused writers, organizations for
Anonymous sources
Anthologies, Editing or appearing in
Anti-racism reading list and resources for adults
Anti-racism books for and about children of color
Anti-SLAPP statutes
Apostrophes
Apple Pie School Murders (video, Pat McNees)
Aptitude and personality tests
Apostrophes, commas, and other punctuation trouble spots
Area codes (search engines)
Archival materials, Reliable suppliers of (McNees site)
Archiving and preservation resources (McNees site)
Archiving, conservation, and preservation of valued objects, documents (McNees site)
Archiving digital media
Art and craft of memoir and biography (a booklist)
Art, cover: What makes for a successful book jacket
Art, cover: Secrets of successful book covers
Artful books, Producing
Artificial intelligence (AI) (basic explanations)
Artificial intelligence and copyright
Artificial intelligence, ChatGPT, and OSINT (open source intelligence)
Artists with disabilities, Organizations that assist
Art of (Biography, Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Publishing, Screenwriting, Theater) (Paris Review Interviews)
Art of Biography, The (Paris Review, 'The Art Of' interview series)
---Fiction
---Nonfiction
---Poetry
---Publishing
---Screenwriting
---Theater and Musical
Art of editing
Art of the pitch
Arts and poetry organizations
Assembling an anthology
Association of Personal Historians, A short history of the
Audible, Issues with (#audiblegate)
Audiobook credits and footnotes, Recording
Audiobooks and podcasts: competing for ears
Audiobooks, How to and who does
Audio books (finding good ones to listen to)
Audio books, Taking advantage of the boom in
Audio editing software and instructions
Audio narratives, including digital and radio storytelling
Audio recording and editing equipment, software, & tutorials (McNees site)
Audio rights
Audio tools, technology, and tutorials
Author-agent agreements (contracts)
Author book talks
Author book tours
Author branding
Author earnings, income
Author interviews, book readings, glimpses into the literary world (podcasts and downloads for book worms and writers)
Author mills, publishing scams, bad deals, vanity/subsidy publishing and presses
Author platform, building your
Author profiles and interviews (a few interesting examples)
Author interviews (venues for)
Authors Alliance criticized by Authors Guild
Author's alterations and document version control
Authors Guild Fair Contract Initiative
Authors Guild vs Authors Alliance
Authors organizations, Major (see Organizations for specialized writers groups)
Authors' rights and publishers' rights grabs
Authors' wills, trusts, and estates
Author websites, attractive, well-designed (far left)
Autobiography, difference from memoir
Autobiography, memoirs, and memoir writing
Automotive press associations
Awards and contests for poetry
Award scams and contests to be wary of
Awards, contests, and grants for translations
Awards, contests, grants, and competitions for writers and journalists
(main entries for various book awards)
Awards for indie authors and self-published books
Ban Books, The urge to
Banned books and Banned Books Week
Banned books, Lists of (See also Censorship)
Banned Books, What you can do to fight
Barcodes, ISBNs, and other product identifiers
Based on true stories and people
Basic plots
Beginnings (Openings, closings, and transitions in fiction)
Beneficial effects of life story and legacy activities, The (comfortdying.com site)
Beneficial Ownership Information Report (BOIC)
Bespoke memoir (the life story business and market)
Best films and movies (various lists)
Best movies and novels about journalists and journalism
Best radio and TV talk shows (on which books, authors, films, and ideas are discussed)
Bestsellers, All about (tips, facts, stories)
Bestseller lists
Best TV and cable series (addictive)
Best TV and cable shows (various lists)
Betamax/Sony case (Important Fair Use Cases)
Beta readers, How and why to use (under Agents and book proposals)
Biography, The art, craft, and politics of
Biography and memoir, the art and craft of
Biography, Paris Review interviews about
bitcoin
Black lives matter: A reading list for adults
Black lives matter: Books for and about children of color
Black or black? (as racial identifier)
Blockchain technology and cryptocurrency
Block, Writer's
Blogging, digital journalism, and the law
Blogging effectively
Blogging platforms
Blogging tips and resources
Blog posts, index for (index within an index!)
Blog roll
Blogs about self-publishing
Blogs about the book business (by agents, authors, editors, and publishing experts)
Blogs and podcasts about climate change and the energy transition
Blogs and roundups for writers and editors
Blogs, columns, news for medical, health, and science writers
Blogs of academia
Blurbs (celebrity endorsements, advance praise)
Blurbs: Do they help sell books?
Book and literary rights
Book awards and competitions
Book bans
BookBub, Google, and Facebook ads
Book business, Blogs about the
Bookcases and bookshelves
Book club favorites
Book clubs, Marketing to
Book collaboration and ghostwriting (organizations, credits, collaboration agreements, medical ghostwriting, and FAQs)
Book contract terms
Book covers: Great covers sells books, but what makes for a great cover?
Book covers: Secrets of successful covers and titles
Book design and production (including fonts and typography)
Book distribution and fulfillment (Wholesalers and distributors, explained)
Book doctors and editors (when and whether to hire an independent--consulting--editor or book doctor)
Book editing, design, and production (overview of process)
Book events, Virtual (including book launches)
Book fairs and book festivals
Book group "best" and "top" lists
Book group discussions and discussion guides
Book group favorites
Book jackets
Book launch, Virtual (especially during the pandemic)
Book, order of the parts of
Book news, reviews, and author interviews (plus blogs and resources for critics and book reviewers)
Book printing and binding, explained, illustrated
Book proposals and query letters
Book publishing and e-publishing
Book readers' social media (Goodreads, Shelfari, etc.)
Book readings and book talks (by authors)
Book recommendation sites for readers
Book reviews, book reviewing, and book reviewers
Book reviews, Getting them for self-published books
Books about editing and revising fiction
Books about multimedia storytelling
Books about self-publishing (indie publishing)
Books about songwriting
Books about the art and craft of memoir and biography
Books about memoir writing as discovery
Books about memoir writing, healing, and self-understanding
Books about writing personal and family histories
Book sales and author's income, The truth about
Books and articles for and about critiquing groups
Books and articles for fiction writers and editors
Books, Clearing rights for
Bookseller blogs, newsletters, and memoirs
Books for book groups (alphabetical by title)
Books for children's book writers and illustrators
Books for editors
Books for fiction writers and editors (half of writing is editing, after all)
Books for life story writing or reminiscence groups
Books for science and medical writers
Books for writers and editors (in several categories)
Bookshelves and bookcases
Bookshop.org, an alternative to Amazon
Books of memory prompts, for writing your life story
Books on book design and production
Books on fundraising and grant proposal writing
Books on indexing
Books on the craft of journalism
Books on the craft of narrative nonfiction, including useful anthologies
Bookstagram
Books to help you write your own or someone else's life story
Bookstores, brick and mortar
Book talks, by authors
Book titles
Book title, Developing a 'selling'
Book tours
Book trailers: Do they sell books?(book videos, VidLits)
Book trailers: Examples of good ones
Book translation rights
Bots, trolls, and fake followers
Branded content
Branding, Author
Brick and mortar bookstores
Brick and mortar libraries
British vs. American punctuation
British vs. American spelling, vocabulary, style (and those of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand)
Browsers and search engines, explained
Building your author platform
Bullying (cyberbullying) and online harassment
Business cards that work
Business of Personal Histories, The (article for ASJA Weekly. Dec. 2008)
Business journalism
Business writing
Buying and selling books (how to)
C
Cable and TV shows worth getting addicted to
Calculators and conversion tools (for $$ and otherwise)
Calendars and lists of book fairs, colonies, conferences, and festivals
Calendars, world clocks, calendar converters, and time converters
Campus free speech
Cancel culture
Can I make a living as a writer?
Capitalization
Capitalization of small words in titles
(especially such verb forms as be, is, are, do)
Capturing family voices (McNees site)
Car and driving stories
Cartoon caption and gag writing
Cartoonists and comic book writers
Cartoonists. Q&As with
Cartoons, comics, anime, manga, panel stories, graphic novels, and animation
Case Act (Copyright Alternative in Small Claims Enforcement Act)
Case studies
Celebrity endorsements
Censorship
Censorship cases and hearings
Censorship, free speech, and freedom of expression
Censorship history. Timeline of
Censorship in federal government
Censorship vs. freedom of expression
Central issues of our time (Pat McNees site)
Certificate programs in editing
Chains
Changes in book publishing
Changing Times, Changing Minds: 100 Years of Psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (by Pat McNees)
Chapter length
Characters, Creating, in fiction
Characters, in narrative nonfiction
Charitable organizations, rated
Charts (one way of visualizing data)
ChatGPT (artificial intelligence)
Check out email hoaxes, urban legends, and scams
Children, Interviewing (especially about trauma)
Children's books about science
Children's books, Self-publishing
Children's books, Writing and publishing (writing and illustrating for kidlit)
CIP, PCIP, LCCN, PCNs, ISBNs, WorldCat, etc.
Citation and reference styles (footnotes, endnotes, etc.)
Citation boosting, manipulation, and the "impact factor"
Citizen journalism
Civilized conversations, How to have
Civil War, The
Cleaning and household management tips (Pat's other site)
Clearing permissions
Clearing rights and finding rightsholders
Clearing rights for books, scripts, screenplays, etc.
Clearing rights for music, sound, and lyrics
Clearing rights in the visual arts
Clickbait and other problems with social media
Clickbait, news headlines, and other audience grabbers
Climate and weather search sites
Climate change: arguing about, and the issues
Closings and last lines
Cloud computing and cloud services
Codes of Best Practices in Fair Use
Codes of conduct
Codes of ethics, standards, and guidelines, and statements of principle and best practices
Code of Ethics of the Association of Personal Historians
Coding tutorials
Collaboration agreements
Collaboration and ghostwriting (sites, advice, organizations)
Collaboration and ghostwriting of fiction
Collaboration, Sarah Wernick's answers to FAQs
Collaborative journalism
Colons
Colors, named and numbered
Comedy, comedians, comic book creators and cartoonists
Coming-of-age memoirs
Comma abuse and other punctuation problems
Commas, serial commas, and semicolons
Communicating and marketing online (Web 2.0 and social media)
Competitions for writers
Complain effectively, How to
Complaints: Where and how to file them
Computer novices, tutorials for (HTML and other techie stuff)
Computer security(online privacy and data protection, password managers, hacking, backup, VPN, GDPR compliance, anti-virus, malware protection, etc.)
Conferences on longform aka narrative nonfiction
Conferences, workshops, and other learning places (including book fairs, writers colonies, residencies, retreats)
Conflicts of interest in science and medical writing
Confusable words (allusion/illusion, etc.)
Connect with other writers (and editors)
Consent the best defense against invasion of privacy lawsuits
Conspiracy theories
Consumer ratings, reviews, and complaints
Contemporary Latin American Short Stories (McNees site)
Content curation
Content management systems and software (CMS)
Content marketing and custom publishing
Content mill or content farms (low-paying sweat shops for article writers)
Contests for writers
Contracts (author-agent agreements)
Contracts and agreements for services (samples)
Contract terms for books (including reversion of rights and indemnity clauses)
Contact terms to avoid or be wary about (Writer Beware's full set of warnings)
Contractors, freelancers, and entrepreneurs, Resources for
Contractors, Income tax for
Contractors, Sample contracts and agreements for services
Controlled digital lending (CDL)
Conversations, civilized and productive, How to have
Conversion tools and calculators
Converters (time and calendar)
Cool science sites for kids (on Pat's website)
Copper (Brit-based social media)
Copyright and academia (open access, intellectual property, dissertations and theses)
Copyright and open access (blog post)
Copyright: How long does it last?
Copyright: How, why, and when to register it
Copyright issues, documents, FAQs, and explanations
Copyright issues in the digital world
Copyright listservs and discussion groups
Copyright page, Where it goes, what it should contain
Copyright, rights, and contracts for academic authors
Copyright trolls
Copyright, Who owns the (and what does it protect?)
Copyright, work for hire, fair use, public domain, and other rights issues
Copywriting and copywriters
Coronavirus, Covering See also Covid
Coronavirus and freelancer assistance
Coronavirus: What you need to know to survive(on sister site)
Corporate and organizational histories (commissioned histories)
Corporate and organizational storytelling
Corporate and technical communications
Counterfeit books (and book piracy)
Cover design basics
Cover design, Secrets of successful
Cover design, What makes a great
Covering abortion
Covering climate change
Covering Covid
Covering crime and criminal justice
Covering disability
Covering disaster
Covering diversity and inclusion
Covering elections
Covering energy
Covering extremism
Covering gun violence (comfortdying.com site)
Covering health reform
Covering HIV and AIDS
Covering immigration
Covering medical beats and health care
Covering medical and health news (where journalists get their information)
Covering Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP
Covering mental illness and suicide prevention
Covering poverty
Covering public and private tragedy and trauma
Covering the Affordable Care Act (ACA aka Obamacare)
Covering the Covid-19 pandemic: Resources for journalists
Covering the opioid crisis
Covering various other specialty beats
Covering war
Covid-19 fact-checking and misinformation tracking
Covid-19-related grants for authors
COVID-19-related resources for journalists
Covid pandemic, Good reading about
Craft of writing biography
Craft of biography and memoir, A booklist
Craft of interviewing
Craft of investigative journalism
Craft of journalism, A booklist
Craft of life story writing
Craft of narrative nonfiction, A booklist
Create-Space, Ingram Spark, Kindle/KDP, Lulu, etc., compared
Creating characters in narrative nonfiction
Creative Commons
Creative nonfiction (aka narrative nonfiction)
Creator economy
Credits--who gets them, in what order (in book collaboration)?
Crime and criminal justice, Covering
Crime writing (true crime) See also Prison writing
Criminal justice and injustice search sites
Critical race theory (CRT) What is it and why is everyong arguing about it?
Critics and book reviewers, Resources for
Critiquing groups (and critiquing) for fiction
Critique groups and writing workshops (general)
Crowdfunding and other forms of financing (The Writing Life)
Crowdfunding sites
Cruise lecturing
Cryptocurrency and blockchain technology
Cultural appropriation
Culture wars: what are they about?
Custom publishing (aka branded content, content marketing)
Curriculum vitae (CV)
Cyberbullying
Cybersecurity and cyberattacks
D
DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization)
Daphne Project: 45 journalists will continue the slain Maltese journalist's work
Dark Web
Dashes, em dashes, ellipses, colons, slashes, and commas
Data journalism
Data privacy, data protection
Data visualization
Day in the Life series, A (of a science writer)
Deadbeats (clients and publications that don't pay or take forever)
Dealing with online harassment (cyberbullying)
Deal, Landing a book
Defamation and #MeToo
Defamation, libel, and slander
Degree programs in science writing
Democracy: Is it in danger? (blog post)
Description, place, and setting
Design, Books on (especially book design)
Developing a writing practice (The writing life)
Dialogue, Improving
Diaries
Dictation software
Diction
Dictionaries and dictionary-style references, online, both general and specialized
The difference between a preface, foreword, and introduction
The difference between a memoir and an autobiography
The differences between mysteries, suspense novels, and thrillers
Digital and documentary photography
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notices
Digital rights management (DRM)
Digital security (safe practices for electronic devices and communication)
Digital storytelling (audio and radio storytelling)
Disabilities style and media guides
Disability, Covering
Disaster, How prepared are you for (on Dying site)
Disaster, Reporting on
#DisneyMustPay
Disinformation and fake news
Distribution and fulfillment, Book
Distribution of audiobooks
Distribution of self-published and indie books
Diverse voices in science and technology
Diversity, Covering (in the newsroom and out)
Diversity or cultural appropriation (in fiction)
Diversity style and media guides (ability/disability, age, appearance, color, ethnicity/nationality, gender/sexuality, health, and bias)
DMCA Takedown Notices (Digital Millennium Copyright Act)
Documentaries (resources on)
Donating books to prisons
Donating your personal papers (Your literary estate)
Donate or recycle books, Where to
E
EARN IT Act
Earthquake, volcano, and weather watch sites
eBook Basics (how to and beyond)
e-Book Cover Design Awards (Joel Friedlander, The Book Designer) Examples from 2011 forward.
Ebook devices and platforms (publishing services)
eBook formats, formatting, and style guides
Ebook prices and pricing, price wars, price fixing, royalties
eBook publishing
Ebooks and self-publishing (ins and outs, pros and cons)
Ebooks, Reading free online
eBook subscription models and Amazon's return policy
Ebook subscription services
ECommerce platforms (Shopify, Squarespace,etc.)
Economics
Editing academic authors
Editing and proofreading marks
Editing and proofreading, online tutorials and cheat sheets
Editing and proofreading, where to find work
Editing and revising fiction
Editing and revising fiction, The subjectivity of
Editing, business of
Editing checklists
Editing, contracts for
Editing, design, and production (overview of the process)
Editing, errors and error rates in
Editing groups
Editing, kinds and levels of
Editing, proofreading, and publishing (Training, courses, workshops on
Editing Wikipedia
Editing and writing for Wikipedia (blog post about how to)
Editing That Makes Authors Want to Cooperate
Editing yourself and others
Editors and proofreaders, tips and tools for
Editors and publishing professionals (resources and organizations for)
Editors, kinds of, and levels of editing
Editors, organizations and resources for (what various publishing professionals do, where to find work, and what to charge)
Editors, Q&As and interviews with
Editors: Tact and Tone: Editing that Makes Authors Want to Cooperate (Pat McNees)
Editors: How to work with a writer/author
Education
Educational gag orders
Educational search engines (Google Scholar etc.)
Elections, Covering
Elections and election integrity, fraud
Elections: What people need to know and where to find it (under Great search links)
Electronic health records, medical privacy laws, and patient rights
Electronic payment systems (Paypal, Popmoney, Square Cash, Venmo, Western Union, etc.)
Elevator pitch, The
Ellipses and em dashes
Elsevier mutiny (copyright and open access)
Email and electronic files, Managing
Email hoaxes, urban legends, and scams
Email list, How to grow your
Email marketing
Email newsletters
Employer Identification number (EIN)
Endings and last lines
Endnote and footnote styles (see more under Footnotes)
Engagement reporting
Energy, Covering
Entertainment industry news
Entrepreneurial journalism (new models of journalism)
Epilogues and prologues
Equipment, software, and other tools and tutorials for creating multimedia
Erotic novels
Errors and error rates in editing
Essays, How to write
Essays, Examples of good personal
Essays, Markets for
Essays on Modern Love (links to good examples from the NY Times venue)
Essential parts of a book (in their proper order)
Estate planning for authors (blog post)
Ethereum
Ethical issues in medical publishing (apropos medical ghostwriting)
Ethical wills (how to and samples)
Ethics, libel, and freedom of the press (see also rights of privacy and publicity)
Ethics of memoir writing
Eulogies and video tributes
Exclamation points
Evernote
Evidence-based medicine
Extremism, Covering
F
Facebook, Google, and BookBub ads
Facebook 101
Facebook (Social media superpowers under the microscope)
Fact-checking, Articles about
Fact checking
Fact-checking and verification for editors
Fact-checking sites
Fact-checking as verification sites
Fact-finding and news sources
Fair use: a primer
Fair use, copyright, social media, and multimedia in Hollywood
Fair use court cases
Fair use, four factors
Fair use guidelines and codes of best practices
Fake books competing with legitimate editions (counterfeit books and piracy)
Fake followers, bots, and trolls
Fake news and media literacy
Fake news, how to spot and identify
Family history materials, Organizing and preserving (Pat McNees site)
Family trees, resources for charting (McNees site)
Fan fiction
Feedback, How to give/receive helpful
Fees for ghostwriters
Fees for various functions and products
Fellowships and grants for writers
Festivals, Book
Fiction
Fictionalizing true stories and people
Fiction and film about journalists and journalism
Fiction ebooks
Fiction editing
Fiction factory, James Patterson's wildly successful
Fiction fans, Organizations for writers and
Fiction ghostwriters, ghostwriting, and collaboration (sites, advice, organizations)
Fiction series, Writing a
Fiction, How to pitch
Fiction writers, Organizations and sites for
Fiction writers, Paris Review interviews with
Fiction writing
Fiction writing and editing
File extensions, listed and explained
Film awards, festivals, competitions
Films and movies, lists of best
Films, plays, and documentaries
Fiction ghostwriters, ghostwriting, and collaboration
Financial reporting
Finding background music and sound effects for video biographies, podcasts, presentations, blogs, etc. (McNees site)
Finding old photo collections
Finding photos and other images
Finding real-people sources, journalists, bloggers, etc.
Finding vintage music from a particular year or place
Finding the right word
First Amendment rights, organizations fighting for
First lines
First person narration
First-sale doctrine
Flash fiction
Flash fiction markets
Flash nonfiction
Fonts and typography
Food and beverage writing
Footnotes: Citation and reference styles for footnotes, endnotes, documentation
Footnotes and endnotes (in InDesign)
Footnotes, endnotes, references, and citations (general, for academia)
Footnotes, endnotes, and citation boosting and manipulation in academia
Footnotes, endnotes, citations, and references, Macros and software for
Foreign rights
Foreword, preface, introduction (what's the difference? what's the right order?)
Formatting your manuscript
FOSTA/SESTA
Free and inexpensive ebooks and digital libraries
Free books online
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
Freedom of the press
Free speech and protest on campus
Free speech, freedom of expression, and censorship
Free internet, The meaning of
Freelance rates (per hour, per page, per project--estimated, range)
Freelancer, How to make money as a
Freelancers, Income tax for
Freelancers, insurance for
Freelancers, Resources for
Freelance writers in California,Dynamex lawsuit ruling (gig economy)
Freelance writers 17-year class action lawsuit settled
Freelancing, contracting, telecommuting (thriving as a creative entrepreneur)
Frequently asked questions about collaboration (Sarah Wernick)
Frequently asked questions about personal histories and personal historians
Friends, Making and keeping (on comfortdying.com site)
Front matter, order of
Fundraising (getting funded)
Fuel policy and politics
Funding resources (grant funding)
Funding resources (crowdfunding)
G
Games to play online (including learning games for people with cognitive deficits)
Garden writers and garden writing
GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation (regulations affecting online privacy)
Genealogy and family histories (McNees site)
Genealogy gateway sites (McNees site)
Gender identity style guides
Genre fiction and fiction genres
Geography, map, and travel sites
Gerrymandering (subsection under Elections)
Getting funded, generally
Getting funded: writing fellowships and grants
Getting good publicity
Getting published (starting out)
Getting published, Good guides to
Getting the numbers right
Ghostwriters: how much and how they charge
Ghostwriting and collaboration (books)
Ghostwriting, and ghost writers of, fiction
Ghostwriting (medical)
Ghostwriting (medical) and ethical issues in medical publishing
Ghostwriting books, The art and economics of
Gig economy, Problems in the
Global warming
Gmail, Tips for using
Goodreads: Using it to market your book
Google, Facebook, and BookBub ads
Google, Facebook, and other online superpowers, Problems with
Google book settlement
Google searches, Making the most of
Government agencies, Problems covering
Government communicators, Best practices for
Government, Politics and
Government work
Grammar and style (websites, blogs, articles)
Grammar quizzes and exercises
Grants and fellowships for writers
Grant funding and grant proposal writing and editing
Graphic novels
• Great and unusual online shopping (McNees site)
Great books for book clubs (and recommended reading)
Great endings and last lines
Great 'ledes'
• Great podcasts to listen to as you exercise, drive, iron, file, cook, clean, or walk
• Great search links
• Great TV and cable shows and series (addictive)
Guided Autobiography (GAB), What is
Guided Autobiography, Why I love teaching (by Lisa Smith-Youngs)
Guides to fellowships and grants
Gun violence and violent deaths (comfortdying.com site)
Gun Violence, Covering
H
Hachette v. Internet Archive
Hairstyle of My Own, A (Bill Erwin's wry video of me, Pat McNees)
Hall of Fame of Self-Published Writers
Harassment, Online (dealing with cyberbullying)
Harassment, Sexual
Hardcover vs. paperback (the differences between them)
HathiTrust (Important Fair Use Cases)
Headlines, clickbait. and other audience grabbers
Health and disability insurance
Health, healthcare, and medicine (Blogs, columns, and news sites about)
Health and medical reporting and writing
Health insurance, freelancers, and the Affordable Care Act)
Hierarchy of evidence pyramid (in covering medical research)
HIPAA, electronic health records, medical privacy laws, and patient rights
Historic newspapers, online (McNees site)
Historical novels (and awards for them)
Histories of organizations (commissioned histories)
History timelines
HIV and AIDS, Covering
Hoaxes, rumors, and urban legends, Where to check out
Hoaxes, rumors, urban legends, chain letters, and scams, How to check out
Hollywood: The fight between writers and agents
Hollywood, Selling your work to
Holocaust, Resources on (McNees site)
Home office and other tax deductions for freelancers, entrepreneurs
Horror fiction
Help Lines, Hotlines, and Lifelines (comfortdying.com, sister site)
How and where to get book reviews and publicity
How much (and how) ghostwriters charge
How much to charge and how to calculate your rate (for editors, proofreaders, other publishing professionals)
How much to charge (ranges for various types of service or product)
How not to misread or misreport research reports
How reliable are our memories? How close to the truth?
How to ask and answer questions on job interviews
How to get book reviews
How to become a science writer
How to do a virtual book launch
How to do Zoom sessions
How to find and choose the right literary agent
How to give (or receive) helpful feedback
How to have productive conversations in a polarized world (blog post)
How to pitch a magazine story
How to pitch a novel to an agent
How to protect yourself against not-so-good agents
How to send advance review copies (ARCs)
How to talk to a reporter (be a quotable source)
How to work with a writer/author (for editors)
How to write a book proposal
How to write your own (or someone else's) life story (books about)
HTML for beginners
Humor, comics, and comedy
Humor, Making use of
Humor for editors (the funny bits)
Hybrid authors
Hybrid memoir
Hybrid publishing
Hyphens, hyphenating compounds, and other common hyphen-usage problems
Illustrations and illustrators
Images and illustrations, medical and scientific
Images, Finding (McNees site)
Image search and reverse images search sites
Immigration, Covering
Income tax for entrepreneurs and freelancers
Income tax for writers, deductions for
Incorporate as an author, Whether to
Indemnification clauses, How to deal with warranty and
Indemnity clauses in contracts
InDesign book design software, Mastering
InDesign, Footnotes and endnotes
Index for Comfortdying.com site
Index for Pat McNees's website
Index for Writers and Editors website
Indexing--why and how
Indexing, Books and sites about
Indie authors and self-published books, Awards for
Indie authors, Secrets of success
Indie publication, Kickstarting your
Indie publishing
In Re Literary Works in Electronic Databases Copyright Litigation
IngramSpark and Lightning Source, explained
Instagram
Instant streaming (Amazon Plus, Netflix, Hulu Plus, BritBox, Acorn, etc. )
Insurance, Health and disability
Insurance, health, and the Affordable Care Act
Insurance, Liability
Insurance, Media perils and liability
Intellectual property issues
Intellectual property(copyright, work for hire, and other rights issues)
Intellectual property issues, Organizations organized around
Intellectual property listservs and discussion groups
Intelligent radio and TV talk shows
Intelligent voice control systems (IVCSs such as Alexas, Echo)
Internet Archive See Hachette v. Internet Archive lawsuit
Internet monopolies, tech giants, and how they affect our lives
Internet: Who owns it? The death of net neutrality
Internships, paid or unpaid
Interviewing, Artful journalistic
Interviewing, The art and craft (Pat McNees site)
Interviewing (Capturing family voices, Pat McNees site)
Interviewing children, especially about trauma and catastrophic events
Interview questions and guides (Pat McNees site, What to ask in a life story or oral history interview)
Interviews for a job
Interviews, recording, by phone
Interviews, venues for authors
Interviews: Who owns them?? Who controls the right to use them?
Interviews with agents and editors
Interviews with authors
Interviews with fiction writers, Paris Review (a marvelous collection)
Interviews with or about fiction writers
Introduction (as going after foreword and preface)
Investigative journalism, The craft and resources for
Investigative journalism organizations (including Watchdog groups)
Investigative journalism, Remarkable examples of
Iowa Writers' Workshop vs. NYC
IRS, Gutting the: Who wins when a critical agency is defunded?
ISBNs, ISSNs, LCCNs, PCNs,CIPs, PCIPs, WorldCat, and other product identifiers
ISBN, Who gets it for your self-published book, and why?
Is it still a great time to become a personal historian?
Issues, Central, of our time Pat McNees site
Italics or quotation marks?
J
Jacket copy (book covers)
Job banks
Job interviews
Journalism and journalist resources
Journalism, Data
Journalism, Investigative
Journalism, Online
Journalism organizations
Journalism schools, degrees, and training
Journalism--will it survive? in what form?
Journalists, Where they get their medical news
Journals and journaling, for writers
Justice Clarence Thomas ethics controversy (scroll down from top)
Justice, injustice, and the law search sites
K
Key marketing and self-publishing services
Key submissions and self-publishing services
Keywords and book marketing
Kickstarting your indie publication
Kids and science (cool science sites for children, on Pat's website)
Kill fees
Kindle/KDP, Create-Space, Ingram Spark, Lulu, etc., compared
Kinds of editors and levels of edit
L
Landing a book deal
Landing pages
Law, justice, and injustice search sites
LCCNs, PCNs,CIPs, PCIPs, ISBNs, ISSNs, WorldCat, and other product identifiers
Ledes (leads) and first lines in fiction
Liability and media perils insurance
Libraries and librarians, Novels and memoirs by and about
Libraries, Brick and mortar
Libraries, How to sell books to
Library sites and portals
Libraries, Where to get reviews that lead to sales to
Life lessons from the oldest old
Life rights (Can you "own/protect" your life story)
Life story business and market
Life story rights ('based on a true story')
Life story writing, Books about
Life story writing, The craft of
Lightning Source and IngramSpark, explained
Line editing
LinkedIn's power
Link journalism
Listservs and discussion groups about copyright and intellectual property
Literary criticism
Literary estate, Your
Literary fiction: blogs, websites, online magazines
Literary fiction (MFA vs. NYC)
Literary journals and magazines
Literary journals, How to submit to
Little Free Libraries
LLC federal filing of Beneficial Ownership Information Report (BOIC)
Local and regional writers organizations
Local news, Saving
Location independence
Longform journalism (narrative nonfiction)
Lyrics, Clearing rights and permissions for
M
Macro tools and editing software for editors and proofreaders
Macros etc. for references, citations, footnotes and endnotes
Magazine markets
Magazines, New models for
Major writers organizations (see also Organization for specific types of writers)
Making money as a freelance writer or editor
Making money doing podcasts
Malware
Managing submissions
Manuscript preparation and submission, for book publishers
Map, geography, and travel search sites
Malware
Maps and mapmakers
Marion Record, Police raid on
Marketing, publicity, and promotion
Marketing services, Key (for short submissions, publishing, and self-publishing)
Marketing to book clubs
Marketing to libraries
Marketing your editing and proofreading services
Markets for novels
Markets for short stories
Mastering multimedia (writing, reporting, speaking, software, equipment, tools, and tutorials)
Mastheads of magazines, newspapers, and other publications
Mastodon (an alternative to Twitter?)
Math and statistics for writers and journalists
McNees, Pat (bio)
McNees family history. Apple Pie School Murders (video, Pat McNees)
Media bias, Charts of
Media critiques and distrust of the media
Media literacy and fake news
Media perils and liability insurance 101
Media pros and other allied professionals (organizations and resources for translators, indexers, designers, photographers, artists, illustrators, animators, cartoonists, image professionals, composers)
Media, Restoring trust in
Medical beats and health care, Covering
Medical ghostwriting
Medical news, Where journalists get their
Medical writing
Medical and scientific images and illustrations (a partial list of sources)
Medical ghostwriting (aka collaboration)
Medical ghostwriting and ethical issues in medical publishing
Medical narrative (narrative medicine)
Medical news, Where journalists get
Memoir and autobiography, The differences between
Memoir and biography, the art and craft of (Books about)
Memoir- and life-story-related sites and articles
Memoir, biography, and corporate and organizational storytelling — resources on various forms of life story writing
Memoirs (recommended reading lists, by theme)
Memoirs, coming of age (recommended reading list)
Memoirs, memoir writing, and autobiography (links to helpful articles)
Memoirs and personal accounts of vocation, avocation, occupation, profession, "calling" (in other words, work)
Memoirs, healing, and self-understanding (a reading list)
Memoirs of ordinary people (and lives lived outside the limelight)
Memoirs of friendship, family, and other relationships
Memoirs, graphic
Memories and biographies, food-related
Memoirs of illness, crisis, disability, differentness, and survival (sorted by author's last name)
Memoirs of illness, crisis, disability, differentness, and survival (sorted by category)
Memoirs of, and other books about, caregiving
Memoirs of war and conflict: A reading list
Memoir writing as discovery (a reading list)
Memoir writing workshops for prisoners
Memoirs, Writing your (McNees site)
Memories, How reliable are they and how close to the truth?
Memory prompts for writing your life story
Memory, The nature and malleability of (and storytelling)
#MeToo, defamation, and libel
Mental illness, Covering
Metadata for books
MFA literary fiction vs. NYC
MFA writing workshops as group therapy
Microsoft Word macros and shortcuts
Military and veteran writers
Military and veteran writers, organizations for
Military history search sites
Military records, history, and archives (McNees site)
Misinformation (or disinformation)
Model book contracts
Money, Writers talk about
Monopoly, manipulation, copyright violation, clickbait, and other issues with the Internet giants
Moral rights
Morals clauses in book contracts
More resources and advice on self-publishing
Moth, The (great radio storytelling)
Movie mistakes, plot holes, goofs in continuity
Movies and novels about journalists and journalism
Movie, Your novel being made as a
Movies, drama, and documentaries
Multimedia explanations
Multimedia, Organizations relevant to
Multimedia storytelling, how to's of
Multimedia journalism and storytelling, Good examples of
Multimedia software
Multimedia venues
Multimedia, Mastering
Multimedia software
Multimedia storytelling (books about)
Multimedia storytelling (how-to's)
Music and musicians
Music and sound, Clearing rights for
Music journalist and songwriters organizations
Music rights and royalties
Mysteries -- Recommended Reading sites
Mysteries, suspense, thrillers, crime novels, and cozies
Mysteries, suspense novels,and thrillers and the difference between them
N
NaNoWritMo (National Novel Writing Month)
Narrative arc
Narrative medicine (and medical narrative)
Narrative nonfiction (aka literary nonfiction, longform journalism, creative nonfiction)
Narrative nonfiction (books and articles on)
Narrative nonfiction (classic examples in book form)
Narrative nonfiction (examples online, short-form)
Narrative nonfiction (publications and sites that publish)
Narrative nonfiction (good explanations and narrative nonfiction resources)
Narrative nonfiction (publications and sites)
Narrative nonfiction (reports from conferences)
Narrative nonfiction (resources)
Narrative nonfiction (story structure and storytelling)
Storytelling resources from the Nieman Foundation
Narrative nonfiction: Why's this so good?
Narrative structure in science and medical writing
Native advertising
Navigating dis-information and mis-information online
Negative book reviews
Net galley, review copies, and giveaways
Net neutrality: Who owns the Internet
New models for newspapers and magazines
Newsletters and other ways to reach your audience, grow your email list
News literacy and fake news (a blog post)
Newspapers and other news sources, online
Newspapers, New models for
Newspapers, Online archives of historic newspapers (McNees site)
NFTs (non-fungible tokens)
Niche and specialty writing (animals, cars, cartoons, children's books, food and beverage, outdoors, sports, travel, textbooks, veterans, etc.)
Nonfiction (including essays, academic writing, and food writing)
Nonfiction, Paris Review interviews about The Art of
Nonprofit newspapers
Novelists, Organizations and sites for
Novelists, Resources for
Novellas
Novels and novelists (and shorter fiction)
Numbers, How to write and style (words or numbers)
Nut graf
O
Obituaries and other forms of tribute (comfortdying.com)
Online book clubs
Online communities, listservs, sites for fiction writers
Online harassment, Dealing with
Online payment systems
Online privacy (steps to take for data protection)
Online security (password managers, hacking, backup, VPN, GDPR compliance, anti-virus, malware protection, etc.)
Online games to engage the brain (including learning games for people with cognitive deficits)
Op eds (opinion pieces)
Open access, copyright, and revolution in academia
Open access journal publishers, including Predatory OA publishers
Openings and closings (fiction) (ledes and last lines) in fiction
Open Library (violating copyright)
Open source intelligence (OSINT)
Options, deals, contracts, and handshakes (for films etc.)
Oral history as social history (McNees site)
Oral history, Books about doing (McNees site)
Oral history collections online (McNees site)
Oral history interviews, Transcribing (McNees site)
Oral history, online guides to doing (McNees site)
Oral history, Stories about (McNees site)
Order of adjectives, the expected
Order of front and back matter in a book (McNees site)
Organizational histories (commissioned histories), Writing
Organizations and resources for veterans and military writers
Organizations for biographers, memoirists, personal historians, and other life story writers
Organizations fighting for First Amendment rights and Four Freedoms
Organizations focused on intellectual property rights and issues
Organizations for corporate, government, and technical communicators
Organizations for editors, proofreaders, and indexers
Organizations for fiction writers and fans
Organizations for freelancers
Organizations for ghostwriters and collaborators
Organizations for journalists
Organizations for media pros and allied professionals
(translators, indexers, designers, photographers, artists, illustrators, animators, cartoonists, image professionals, composers)
Organizations for medical and science writers
Organizations for music journalists and songwriters
Organizations for oral historians (McNees site)
Organizations for publishers, publishing professionals, and booksellers
Organizations for screenwriters, playwrights, documentary filmmakers, and critics
Organizations for specialty writing niches
Organizations for sports journalists and editors
Organizations for translators and interpreters
Organizations for travel writers
Organizations for writers, Major
Organizations, local and regional, for writers and editors
Organizations, major (fighting for creators' rights, interests, and ethical behavior)
Organizations that help artists with disabilities (on a sister site)
Organizing and preserving family history materials (McNees site)
Orphan works legislation
OSINT Open source intelligence
Outdoor writers organizations
P
Pachter, Marc (farewell to)
Paid family leave
Paid trade book reviews for self-published books
Pandemic: Resources for covering COVID-19
Paperback vs. hardcover (the differences between them)
Paper mills and publishing scams
Parenting magazines, Selling and reselling articles to
The Paris Review Interviews
---The Art of Biography
---The Art of Fiction
---The Art of Nonfiction
---The Art of Poetry
---The Art of Publishing
---The Art of Theater
---The Art of Screenwriting
Parts of the book, Order of
Pat McNees, social distancing (art + info)
Patchwriting
Pay gap in journalism
Pay for ghostwriters
Pay for various functions and products
Pay rates and ranges for writers and editors, Common
Payment problems (late payments, deadbeat clients, slow-paying publications, etc.)
Payment systems, Online (Paypal, Popmoney, Square Cash, Venmo, Western Union)
Payola journalism
Peer review, reviewed
People finders (finding sources, journalists, and bloggers)
Pen name, Writing under a
Permissions and release forms
Permissions, Clearing
Persona, voice, and viewpoint in memoir
Personal and family histories and legacy memoirs
Personal historian, how to become a
Personal historian, How to find a
Personal historian, Is it still a great time to become a?
Personal historians, A code of ethics
Personal Historians, A short history of the Association of
Personal histories and personal historians, 21 frequently asked questions about
Personal Histories, The Business of (article for ASJA Monthly, Dec. 2008)
Phishing scams
Phone interviews, recording
Phone numbers (search engines)
Photo collections, Finding old
Photographers' rights (to take pictures)
Photography, Digital and documentary
Photos, Clearing rights to use
Photos and other images, Finding
Photos, Organizing
Photos, Scanning and repairing
PIOs and journalists
Piracy and counterfeit books
Pitch database
Pitches, Systems for managing
Pitching a book to an agent (query letters)
Pitching a magazine or newspaper piece
Pitching a novel
Pitch, The art of the
Pitch Wars
Plagiarism (as theft of copyrighted material in publishing)
Plagiarism detection and plagiarism checkers
Plagiarism, self-plagiarism, recycling, patchwriting, and sloppy research (particularly in academia)
Platform, author
Plays and playwrights (films, plays, and documentaries)
Plot, story structure, narrative arc, conflict, and suspense in fiction
Plot: See Story structure (for narrative nonfiction)
Podcasts about health, health care, medicine, and medical science (Pat's comfortdying.com site)
Podcasts and audiobooks: competing for ears
Podcasts and podcasting, Resources for
Podcasts, Finding music and sound effects for (McNees site)
Podcasts of author interviews
Podcasts of talk shows
Podcasts, Making money doing
Podcasts to listen to as you exercise, drive, iron, file, cook, clean, or walk
Poetry and arts organizations
Poetry and verse (plus publications, organizations, and contests)
Poetry awards and contests
Poetry contests (legitimate vs. scams)
Poetry, how to submit
Point of view in fiction
Point of view, voice, and persona in memoir
Police raid on small-town Kansas newspaper
Political correctness, censorship, free speech, and freedom of expression
Politics and fuel policy
Politics and military history search sites
Politics and the press
Pollinger, Paul (photo)
Poverty, Covering
PowerPoint
Practical cleaning management tips (Pat's other site)
Predatory open access journal publishers
Preface, foreword, and introduction (what's the difference? what's the right order?)
Presentations
Preserving family and national treasures (Pat McNees site)
Press releases
Pricing on ebooks (a contentious issue)
Pricing strategies for creative professionals
Printers and printing
Printing is not publishing (processes to understand)
Print-on-demand and self-publishing
Print-on-demand (POD) publishing
Print on demand, The truth about
Prior restraint (government censorship)
Prisoners, Memoir-writing workshops for
Prison libraries, Donating books to
Prison writing See also Crime writing
Privacy and protection of data
Privacy laws, medical; HIPAA, electronic health records, and patient rights
Privacy, online privacy, and invasion of privacy
PRO Act (AB5 and the ABC test)
Problems covering government agencies
Process journalism
Procrastination, writer's block, creativity, and time and effort management
Profiles and author interviews
Profiles, Writing compelling
Product identifiers, explained (ISBN, WorldCat, CIP, LCCN, and PCN)
Prologues and epilogues
Pronunciation guides and dictionaries
ProPublica's investigation of tax avoidance and the wealthy
Protecting sources (The PRESS ACT, Reporters' Privilege, Shield Laws)
Pseudonym, Writing under a
Public domain (when do works become copyright free and other explanations)
Public domain resources (works out of copyright)
Publicity
Publicity, Getting good
Public information offices (PIOs), relationships with journalists
Public speaking
Publishers' rights grabs
Publishing (The Big PIcture on Book Publishing)
Publishing (books and ebooks)
Publishing commentators
Publishing, editing, proofreading, Training, courses, workshops on
Publishing (self-publishing and print on demand, or POD)
Publishing and bookseller organizations and resources
Publishing marketplaces
Publishing news, resources, and organizations
Publishing scams, paper mills, and other bad deals
Publishing trends
Punctuating poetry
Punctuation and punctuation problems
Punctuation, generally
Q
QAnon as fringe conspiracy theory
Q&As with agents
Q&As with editors
Query letters (pitches) to land an agent or book publisher
Query letters (pitches) for magazines and newspapers
Quizzes and exercises, Grammar
Quotations, sayings, anecdotes, bits of wisdom
Quotation marks and italics
R
Race and racism, Reading about
Radio programs and podcasts (especially from public radio)
Radio storytelling (audio narratives)
Radio, Tutorials for
Ransomware
Reading ebooks free online
Recipe, Who owns a
Recommended for book clubs
Recording equipment and tutorials
Recording phone calls (ethics, laws)
Recording phone interviews (how to, when not to)
Reddit
Rejection
Relationship, The writer-editor
Release forms
Reporting on X (see Covering X)
Religion research sites
Republicans vs. Democrats (how Republicans differ)
Research reports, How not to misread or misreport
Residencies
Resources for
---Bloggers
---Covering Covid
---Freelancing
---Investigative journalism
---Novelists and short fiction writers
---Podcasts and podcasting
---Producing ezines
---Textbook and academic authors
---Writing your life story or family story (Pat McNees site)
Résumés, CVs, and alternatives
Retraction Watch
Retreats
Reversion of rights clauses in contracts
Reversion of rights to author vs. Rights in perpetuity to publisher
Review bombing
Reviews, book news, and author interviews
Reviews for your book, How to get
Revolution in academia: Copyright and open access (blog post)
Right of publicity (personality rights)
'Right to be forgotten'
Right to be left alone (privacy)
Right to "edit" a transcript or story, The Interviewee's
Right to privacy vs. right to know (right to be forgotten)
Right to record phone interviews
Rights and royalties management
Rights and permissions (clearing rights in visual arts, in music and sound, and in books, scripts, and screenplay)
Rights: Authors' rights (and publishers' rights grabs)
Rights, Authors Guild Fair Contract Initiative on book contracts
Rights and contracts for academic authors
Rights, Book and literary
Rightsholders, Finding and clearing rights with
Risk of telling the truth, The
Romance novels and novelists
Royal order of adjectives (aka "expected order")
Royalties, author's
Royalties for music
Royalty audits
Rules of writing
S
Safe Harbor (and DMCA Takedown Notices)
Sample contracts and agreements for services
Sarah Wernick's FAQs on collaboration
Sarchielli, Helen Jean Medakovich (blog post)
Saving local news
Saving newspapers (new business models for)
Scams and bad deals in award competitions
Scams in book publishing, bad deals, author mills, and other ways to lose money
Scanning and repairing photos
Scanning, archiving, and indexing magazines, journals, and newspapers
Scanning, digitizing, and editing for video and multimedia, guides to (Joella Werlin and Elisabeth Pozzi-Thanner)
Scanning many letters to get a searchable digital archive
Scanning photos, documents, and other images (McNees site)
Scanning photos: what resolution is best?
Scared speechless? Join Toastmasters (McNees site)
Scenes ("show, don't tell")
Scholarly publishing
Science and medical writing
Science denial
Science fiction and science fantasy
Science news, Where to get
Science search links
Science writer, How to become a
Screenwriters
Scripts and screenplays, Clearing rights for
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Search engines and browsers, explained
Search engines, tools, and indexes
Search links
Section 230 (a shield for liability)
SEO
Secure ways to share leaks, confidential tips, and investigative reporting
Self-plagiarism
Self-published authors, News, reviews, and promotion for
Self-publishing and indie publishing: a basic booklist
Self-publishing and print on demand (POD)
Self-publishing and print-on-demand, Tom Benjey's run with (blog post)
Self-publishing (indie publishing)
Self-publishing children's books
Self-publishing ebooks (ins and outs, pros and cons, how to's)
Self-publishing in history
Self-Publishing 101: basics of self-publishing
Self-publishing resources
Self-publishing scams, bad deals, and other ways to lose money
Self-publishing success stories
Self-publishing vs. traditional publishing (pros and cons of self-publishing)
Selling books (Book marketing and promotion)
Selling books on Amazon
Selling your books to libraries, bookstores, schools
Selling your self-published book
Selling your work to Hollywood
Semicolons
Sensitivity readers
Serialized novels
Series, Writing a fiction
Services, Key marketing, submissions, and self-publishing
Settlement of freelance writers class action lawsuit
Setups and payoffs in fiction
Sexual harassment
Sharing workspaces
Shield laws
Should you hire a professional editor?
Short history of the Association of Personal Historians
Short stories, Markets for. See also Story structure.
Short story prizes
Show, don't tell
Signs, signals, and codes
Sites, advice, and resources for fiction writers
SLAPP laws (strategic lawsuits against public participation)
Slashes
Small presses
Social and population statistics sites
Social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, social networking)
Social media for book readers
Social media marketing
Social media monopolies, problems with
Social media regulation in European Union
Social media's further dark sides (surveillance, disinformation, hate speech)
Social networking for book lovers (book discovery and communities)
Social networks for book readers
Social Security documents
Sock puppets
Software and macros for references, citations, footnotes and endnotes
Software for dictation
Software for editing audio
Software tips, shortcuts, macros, tutorials for Word
Sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC, or S-Corp?
Solutions journalism
Songwriting and songwriters
Songs and lyrics, Clearing permissions to use
So, you want to write a book!(Sarah Wernick, updated by Pat McNees)
Sources, Finding
Sources, Protecting
Speaking engagements
Specialty (niche) writing , from children's books to sportswriting
Speechwriting and presentations
Sponsored posts
Sports journalism
Sports journalists and editors organizations
Spotify and subscription services
Standard order of parts of a book
Standing and adjustable-height desks and walkstations
Starting a small business (McNees site)
Starting Out (getting published)
State-by-state book lists(books about every state, lists for book clubs)
Statistics
Stock photos, Sources for
Stop Woke Act
Stories told aloud to a live audience, Venues for
Storyline in life story writing
Story openings/leads and closings
Story structure, plot, narrative arc, conflict and suspense
Story structure: How to shape a book (blog post)
Story structure in life story writing
Story structure (narrative arc) in narrative nonfiction
Story structure, narrative arc, conflict, and suspense in fiction
Story structure as story types, shapes
Storytelling
Storytelling, corporate and organizational
Storytelling, Multimedia
Storytelling venues (digital and radio)
Storytelling venues (for stories told aloud to live audiences)
Storytelling venues (online)
Story, Telling your (Pat McNees site, links to many pieces)
Story types (plots), How many are there?
Strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) (and anti-SLAPP statutes)
Structure and storyline in life story writing (look also under Story structure)
Student loan/debt problem (Central Issues of Our Time, Pat McNees site)
Style and grammar books
Style and media guides on diversity (re ability/disability, age, appearance, color, ethnicity/nationality, gender/sexuality, health, and bias)
Style, grammar, and diction (editing yourself and others)
Style guides, basic
Style guides, online
Style guides and dictionaries, discipline- and situation-specific (print and online)
Style sheets (for a particular book)
Subjectivity of editing fiction
Subject specialties (animals, autos, bowling, children's books, food, gardens, family history, jazz, résumés, sports, travel, website, wine writing, etc.)
Submission fees. Why?
Submission services
Submissions, Preparing and managing (of short works)
Subscription model, patronage model, ads, Spotify, music, podcasts, live audio
Subsidiary rights, Understanding
Subsidy publishing
Substack, the newsletter platform
Suicide and suicide prevention, Covering (on a sister site)
Sunshine laws
Synopsis (Fiction)
Synopsis, How to write for fiction, memoir, narrative nonfiction (Art of the Pitch)
Systems for managing pitches of short works
T
Tact and Tone: Editing that Makes Authors Want to Cooperate
Takedown notices (DMCA)
Talk shows, radio and TV (the best shows for authors, readers, thinkers)
Taping phone calls
Tax avoidance and the wealthy, Covering
Tax deductions for writers and freelancers
Tax, Income, for entrepreneurs, independent contractors, and freelancers
Teacher tenure
Technical writing and editing (how to get into)
Television and cable shows worth watching (addictive)
Telling your story (Pat McNees site, links to many pieces)
Termination of rights: A second bite of the apple (for authors)
Textbook and journal writing and publishing
Textbook and academic authors, Resources for
Text-to-speech tools (TTS)
Theater, The Art of (Paris Review interviews about)
35-year termination of rights (copyright issues)
TikTok
Time and calendar converters, perpetual calendars, world clocks
Timelines, archives, genealogical and other historical resources (McNees site)
Timelines of history
Timelines of censorship history
Timelines, timeline tools
Tips and tools for editors
Tips and tools for proofreaders
Tips on tact and tone (Pat McNees)
Title, Can you copyright your
Title, Developing a 'selling'
Titles, Secrets of successful book covers and,
Tom Benjey's run with self-publishing and print-on-demand
Tools for writers and editors
Top books for book clubs
Training in editing, proofreading, publishing
Transitional scenes
Transcribing tips and tools (including transcription software)
Transcribing oral history interviews (McNees site)
Translation, Grants and awards for
Translation rights for books
Translation, The art of
Translators and interpreters, associations for
Translators and interpreters, for and about
Transparency and openness (in medical and scientific research)
Transparency reporting (getting internet companies to do the right thing)
Transparency, government, and sunshine laws
Travel search sites
Travel writing
Treatment, How to write a (for movies or TV)
Trends in book publishing
Tributes (multimedia) (McNees site)
Trolls, bots, and fake news
True crime
True crime books
True crime podcasts
True stories, Fictionalizing
True stories and storytelling, Online venues for
Trump, January 6, opinions vs. facts, indictment, trials, election tactics, political agenda (blog post)
Trump's first term (blog post highlighting points in NY Times opinion piece)
Trump stinks: Let me count the ways (blog post)
The truth about print-on-demand (POD) publishing
Truth, accuracy, accountability, and public trust
Truth, The risk of telling the
Tutorials and tools for audio production
Tutorials and tools for creating multimedia
Tutorials and tools for video production and editing
Tutorials for audio editing
Tutorials for computer novices, HTML and other techie stuff
Tutorials for radio
21 frequently asked questions about personal histories and personal historians
Twitter, How to make the most of
Twitter (Social media superpowers under the microscope)
Twitter, Life after
Types of stories (plots)
Typography and fonts
U
Umlaut and diaeresis
Undocumented Immigrants (Covering Immigration)
Unemployment insurance
Unions and the press
University presses
Urban legends, Where to check out
Urge to ban books, The
Usability and the user experience (UX)
V
Vanity/subsidy publishing and presses, author mills, and other ways to lose money
Venues for author interviews, webcasts
Venues for author interviews, book readings, glimpses into the literary world
Venues for multimedia journalism, storytelling, and explanations
Venues for personal essays
Venues for personal storytelling
Venues for stories told aloud to a live audience
Venues for true stories and narrative nonfiction
Verification sites
Veterans writing groups and projects
Veterans. Memoirs of war and conflict: A reading list.
Video biographies, tributes, and documentaries (Pat McNees site)
Video production and editing
Video tutorials (about producing video)
Viewpoint in fiction
Viewpoint in memoir
Virtual book clubs
Virtual book events (including book launches)
Virtual private networks (VPNs)
Visual arts, Clearing rights in the
Visualizing data (infographics, multimedia, etc.)
Visual storytelling
Voice, in fiction
Voice, in memoir
Voice, persona, and point of view in memoir
Volcano and earthquake watch sites
Voter rights and voter fraud
W
War and conflict, Memoirs of (a reading list)
War, Covering
War, Writing personal stories about (on McNees site)
Warranty clauses in contracts
Washington Biography Group (WBG) (on McNees site)
Watchdog groups (and investigative journalism)
Water crisis, Covering the
Wattpad, a social storytelling platform
Wealth and poverty
Weather search sites
Websites for an author, Creating your
Websites: Some well-designed author websites
Website traffic, Tools for monitoring
Web3
Web 2.0 (websites, digital media, etc.)
What book doctors and consulting editors do
What editors, copyeditors, and proofreaders do (kinds of edits and levels of edit)
What is the difference between a memoir and an autobiography (or memoirs)
What is the difference between a preface, a foreword, and an introduction?
What's the right word count?
When science bucks science denial, ideology, or special interests
Where journalists get their medical news
Where to find editorial work
Where to get science news
Where to pitch the idea for a magazine piece
Where to watch movies, documentaries and viral videos online, free
Whistleblower protection
White papers
Wholesale model vs. agency model for selling ebooks to libraries (and what authors earn)
Wholesalers and distributors
Who gets credits and who claims copyright for writing in academia
Who owns an interview? Who controls the right to use it?
Who owns a recipe?
Who owns the copyright?
Who owns the Internet? The death of net neutrality
Who owns the rights to your life story?
Why and how you should get your self-published book edited
Why I love teaching Guided Autobiography (Lisa Smith-Youngs)
Why's this so good?
Wikipedia, Editing
Wikipedia, Editing and writing for (blog post about how to)
Will journalism survive? In what form?
Wills, trusts, and estates for authors
Woke, What it means to be
Word count, for submissions in various genres, for various audiences
Word software tips, shortcuts, macros, tutorials
Words (right and wrong, confusables, word pairs, and error spots in diction)
Word software, Tips, tricks, shortcuts and "macros" for working with
Word vs. InDesign for designing books
Work for hire (aka Works made for hire)
Workshops and critique groups
Workshops, conferences, and other learning places
Workshop, Iowa Writers', vs. NYC
WorldCat, ISBNs, CIP, LCCN, PCNs, and other product identifiers
World Wide Web (monopoly giants' power on)
Writer Beware's warnings about contact terms to avoid or be wary about
Writer-editor relationship
Writer's block
Writers colonies (aka residencies, communities, retreats)
Writers conferences, workshops, and other learning places
Writers groups and communities
Writers' offices
Writers organizations. See Organizations, above, by specialty.
Writers sharing workspaces (working alone, together)
Writing about COVID-19 (the pandemic)
Writing and reading about how "black lives matter"
Writing and illustrating children's books
Writing case studies
Writing groups and communities
Writing life, The
Writing niches (animals, autos, bowling, children's books, food, gardens, family history, jazz, résumés, sports, travel, website, and wine writing)
Writing personal stories about war (Pat's blog about illness and death)
Writing science books for children and young adults
Writing white papers)
Writing workshops and MFA literary fiction
Writing workshops as group therapy
Writing your memoirs
X
Y
YouTube
Z
Zip codes
Zoom calls and events (how to and Zoom alternatives)
A • B • C • D • E • F • G • H • I • J • K • L • M • N • O • P • Q • R • S • T • U • V • W • X • Y • Z
Can I make a living as a writer?
As a poet, generally, no. You'll have better luck as a novelist, but fiction is very much a crap shoot. With nonfiction, you're more likely to be able to make a living, and if you choose a field like technical writing, business writing, or speechwriting, and you're good at it, have expertise in fields with few experts, have credentials and a good track record, and live in an area where there's high demand for writing, you can make a very good living. If you want to be rich, your odds are better if you choose another field. But if writing comes at all easy to you, and you develop marketable skills, it's an interesting way to spend a life.
As is probably true in any line of work, the most satisfying jobs are not always the ones that pay well, and it's very hard to predict what will satisfy and what will pay well! Once when I was giving a talk to a writer's group about writing and editing in the Washington DC area, I said that "the more boring the work, the more you can charge," which is generally true--that got a big response. (Note that food and travel writing tend to pay little and technical writing tends to pay more, for example.) But as a result of that talk, I got one of the least boring, most interesting, most lucrative projects of my career. As any writer will tell you, sometimes we take on projects just because we love them, and know the psychic satisfaction will be high. Sometimes we take on work because we like who we will be working with or for. Occasionally everything comes together and we get paid well for work that is satisfying, for publishers or clients who are a dream to work with, writing for an audience we really care about. May you all find such work! May all your editors know what they are doing and do it respectfully, may all your writers turn in compelling and clean copy, and may we all play well in the sandbox!
I have also included links and tips for just plain readers, news junkies, and other enthusiasts. Please let me know about your favorite (and most-used) sites, blogs, organizations, books, etc.