Disclosure: Buy a book from Amazon after clicking on a link here and we get an average referral free from 2 to 6% of the cover price (depending on how many orders there are). This helps cover fees for site hosting and link-checking.

Archives

Tags

Godwin's Law: ""As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches"
~ Mike Godwin, creator of Godwin's Rule of Nazi Analogies, fearing glib use of the term will dilute the meaning of "Never Again"

Quick Links

E-mail Pat
(pat at patmcnees dot com)
Writers on Writing
(complete archive of the NY Times series, writers exploring literary themes. Requires free membership.)
Letters of Note
(fascinating letters, postcards, telegrams, faxes, and memos--that you were never expected to see)
About Pat (site host)
Aha Moments
(from the brilliant Mutual of Omaha campaign to record people's stories about moments of clarity, defining moments when they gained the wisdom to change their life)
TED: Ideas worth sharing
Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world
Demystifying ID Fraud (C-Net FAQ)
Local idiot to post comment on the Internet (The Onion)
Freelance National Anthem
(Bill Dyszel, 4 minutes)
KeepMeOut
(addicted to a website? bookmark this page and it will remind you to get back to work!)
Today's Front Pages
(check out Newseum's U.S. map -- move your cursor across the map and see the front pages change)
PostSecret
Comic Strip Generator
Online Education Database
150 resources to help you write better, faster, or more persuasively
Help a reporter out (HARO)
(useful for reporters and for sources)
Paris Review "Writers at Work" Interviews
(selections from 1953 on, a gift to the world, and with a single click you can view a manuscript page with the writer's edits)
Padraic Cassidy's great links for investigative journalism
A tutorial on the Web
The Onion
(if the news is making you sick, try this approach)
Writer's Digest's choices for 101 best websites
Truth-o-meter (St. Petersburg Times, www.politifact.com)
(St. Pete Times on whether, and how much, various notable people are telling the truth)
Fact Check
(Annenberg sorts political truths from half-truths)
Telling your life (or family) story
Find Authors
Contemporary Latin American Short Stories
Blog roll (and other great stuff)

Writers and Editors (Pat McNees's blog)

“Mothers: Don’t let your babies grow up to be freelancers"

June 26, 2010

Tags: freelance, journalism

“Mothers: Don’t let your babies grow up to be freelancers,” cracks one journalist, freelancing after leaving a staff job, as quoted by Rebecca Rosen Lum in California Progress Report story Freelance Journalists Suffering in Second Wave of News Media Collapse (more…)

Be the first to comment

Mystery writer Michael Connelly on newspaper novels

May 29, 2009

Tags: fiction, journalism

In Michael Connelly's latest thriller, The Scarecrow, Connelly's hero Jack McEvoy is forced to take a buyout. What other novels about reporters and reporting does Connelly like? (more…)

Be the first to comment

Websites, organizations, and other resources

A GREAT READ
A+ blogs
Blog roll, too
Book news, reviews, interviews
Books for book clubs
Best reads and most "discussable"
Books for writers and editors
Great search links
Fact-finding, fact-checking, and news and info resources
Memoirs (a reading list)
Recommended reading
Narrative nonfiction
BOOK AND MAGAZINE PUBLISHING
Acquiring, swapping, or selling books
New and used books, Amazon.com and elsewhere
Agents and book proposals
Book collaboration, ghost writing
Communicating and marketing online (Web 2.0)
Blogs, social media, podcasts, ezines, survey tools and online games
Freelancing,contracting, telecommuting
Getting published (starting out)
Job banks, publishing marketplaces
And finding freelance gigs
Marketing, publicity, promotion
Blogs, video promotion, intelligent radio programs
Publishing (and e-publishing)
See also Self-Publishing
Self-publishing and print on demand (POD)
Indie publishing, digital publishing, POD, how-to articles
So, You Want to Write a Book!
Includes original text by Sarah Wernick
WRITERS AND CREATORS
Adding images, sound, story, humor
Awards, grants, fellowships
Plus contests and other sources of funding
Conferences, workshops, and learning places
Corporate and technical communications
Copywriting, speechwriting, marketing, training, and the like
Fiction writing
Literary and commercial (including genre)
Film, drama, and documentaries
Journalism and journalists
Local and regional organizations
Major writers organizations
Mastering art and craft
Writing, reporting, multimedia, equipment, software
Media pros and other allied professionals
Translators, indexers, designers, photographers, artists, illustrators, animators, cartoonists, image professionals, composers
Memoir, biography, and corporate history
Nonfiction
Poetry and verse
Science and medical writing
Specialty and niche writing
Groups for writers who specialize in animals, children's books, food, gardens, family history, resumes, sports, travel, Webwriting, and wine (etc.)
The writing life
ETHICS, RIGHTS, AND OTHER ISSUES
Copyright, work for hire, and other rights issues
Google Books Settlement (Pro and Con)
Ethics, libel, freedom of the press
Plus media watchdogs, FOIA
EDITORS AND EDITING
For editors
Preface, foreword, or introduction
Style, grammar, diction
Tips on tact and tone