National Poetry Map and the Practicing Writer

Here's a neat resource: the National Poetry Map. It has "local poets, poems, events, literary journals, writing programs, poetry organizations, and more" organized by state - just select your state and see what's available near you. Given the profusion of local journals, local contests/grants (with funds available only to residents of a certain state or area), this is a great resource... plus it's just plain neat to see things organized by geographic location.

While you're at it, check out the Practicing Writer Newsletter (monthly) and the Practicing Writer blog, both great resources for writing and publishing information and opportunities.

Anthology News and Reviews

Here's a great blog to check out - I nabbed the link off the Paying Writer Jobs group on Yahoo:

Anthology News and Reviews is chock-full of calls for submissions on anthology topics from slipstream/sci-fi to inspiring to "female experiences with reproduction" to living with animals - talk about variety!

Educational Markets for Children's Writers

Evelyn B. Christensen maintains a lengthy list of Children's Markets in the Educational Markets section of her website. You can also sign up to be notified by e-mail when she updates the list (see the box at the top of the markets list). This is a great resource for children's and education writers.

Thanks to Laura Coulter at Writing for the Education Market for suggesting this site!

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs!

There are so many job sites and newsletters available online that the biggest challenge is just sorting through them. Here are three that I've found to be useful:


freelancewritingjobs MORNING COFFEE newsletter - fresh freelance jobs delivered every Tuesday morning. Completely SPAM free.


Get Copywriting Jobs newsletter/site - Visit their site and you'll be automatically invited to sign up for the newsletter. There is a little bit of SPAM here, in the form of rare promotional messages and offers from the folks that run the newsletter - but there are also lots of job leads to be had.

Now I have to admit that I lied. The second site is of no use to me because I'm not a copywriter. But if I were...

The Romance Writer's Community

There's a specialty group out there for almost every kind of writing. Today the Romance Writer's Community is in the spotlight.

This Yahoo! group bills itself as "a friendly, helpful group for romance writers at any point in their careers; from those who are just starting out, to those who have sold manuscripts." I'm not a romance writer myself, but I joined the group anyway and scan through the messages when I have time, for one simple reason.

Good writing is good writing, and I can learn just as much from a romance writer as from a food writer or a construction writer, even though I don't actively participate in any of those genres, so long as my mind is open to picking up tips and tricks that might apply to what I do. So if you're a romance writer - and even if you're not - this list may be worth a look.

Put in your research time

Not every newsletter that lands in my mailbox is about writing resources. Sometimes they're about things that I enjoy for their own sake - but since everything is fair game for writing, I try to read them with an eye toward how I could make a story out of something I already like and know about.

If you're a travel writer, you could get ideas from travel magazines - no-brainer, right?

If you write about fashion or trends, I'm sure you've already got your ear to gossip blogs and feeds.

If you write about saving money, you might get ideas from loitering at the thrift shop, subscribing to groups like FreecycleCafe, and browsing the advertisements on Craigslist.

Get the idea? There are plenty of them out there...

Renegade Writer Markets Wiki

The Renegade Writer Markets Wiki isn't just a place for you to look up market listings - you can also contribute. You can start browsing for markets the minute you hit their website, or sign up for an account to be able to add and edit information.

My cynical side wonders how frequently people will actually contribute, but I see they have. Not only do you get the typical information for each listing - pay rate and material sought - you will also find notes about personal experiences with the market. I like that - and I also like that they feature some markets I've never seen before, and most seem to pay well - $.20/word and up so far.

Duotrope.com ...markets galore

Sorry for the week-long absence - when a chance to go to Mexico comes up, you don't ask questions... you just get on the plane and go.

After coming back to the unavoidable pile-up of e-mails, I deleted most of them without a glance. It's just not worth reading up on information that's already out of date.

But there are a few that I read through anyway. One of them is the Duotrope Weekly Wire/Digest e-mails. You can find their main website here and sign up for their newsletters here.

The newsletters come out every week and are divided into a Poetry edition (Fridays), Short Fiction (Saturdays) and Novel/Collection Publishing (Sundays). Each one is concise - you get the basics on only the newly added or updated markets, and an active link to take you to the Duotrope page on that publication if you're interested in learning more. The publication's website is just a click away from there, but you have a chance to see what sort of work they buy and how much they typically pay before you even get there... what a nice way to save time and poking around for payment information.

The Food Writing e-Zine

I love reading a well-written, market specific newsletter - even if I don't write for the market it refers to. I'd like to... I just haven't gotten around to it yet. So until I get around to trying my hand at food writing, I'll just satisfy my internal connoisseur by reading the Food Writing Free e-Zine.

The group page lists this as a bi-weekly e-zine, but the last issue I received announced that it has gone weekly. It features a couple of articles and several markets in each issue, much like other writing newsletters - but it's all about food, food, food!

Writer Beware for warnings and Ralan's Webstravaganza for markets

If you write Science Fiction, Fantasy, or the otherwise undefinable Speculative Fiction, check out the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America's Writer Beware site. They publish a list of Alerts for Writers, case-studies of Scams in Action, a thumbs-down list of publishers and agents not to query, and more. Nobody wants to focus on the negative, but it's good to be aware. They also have a blog for up-to-the-minute warnings and other helpful writing thoughts and information.

I came across the link to Writer Beware in Ralan's Webstravaganza market newsletter. If you're interested in Writer Beware you'll probably also be interested in Ralan's market listings - Check out his site and sign up. It's spam free.

European Writer Newsletter / EU Writer

Are you located in Europe or would you like to write for European publications? Then you might want to subscribe to the European Writer free newsletter. Just click on EU Writer Newsletter in the upper left corner of your screen and sign up to receive the free European Writer e-Newsletter twice a month. As stated on the website, you get markets, information about books, websites, other writing tips... and did I mention markets?

The Core Creative Group

Here's another job site: The Core Creative Group. They search the internet for work-at-home writing jobs and update their listings daily. I just signed up for their newsletter (the link is below the job listings) so that's I'll receive an e-mail when they update the job listings.

I'm especially happy that these jobs are all work-at-home - it saves hours of weeding through on-site job offers that would require me to move away from Alaska.

Paying Writer Jobs discussion group

Here's another discussion list to browse: PayingWriterJobs.

What is a paying writer job? To quote from the list's homepage, "It can be Freelance, Staff, Contract, or Permanent, but must PAY." This is a moderated list, so there's no spam - just a list of paying opportunities (contests and market listings also come through, in addition to jobs) dropped into your e-mail inbox every day.

Is it worth it? Well, if you're up to your eyeballs in constant, paying work, you may not have time or the need to browse a selection culled from the classifieds, as it were. But if you want every job lead you can get, if you're looking to get an idea of what's out there, or if you're just curious, it would be worth your time to subscribe.

Blog: Writing for the Education Market

I love blogs that list viable writing markets and/or job opportunities. It's much easier to snap up a brief blog post in the morning than to read through a whole newsletter, and it makes every day seem like Christmas - what will I find in my stocking today?

Here are two of my favorites:

Writing for the Education Market by Laura Coulter - She posts frequently with markets, job leads, and other helpful information. You don't have to be a teacher to appreciate or make use of this information.

C. Hope Clark/FundsforWriters Blog by Hope Clark - Another frequent poster. Each post features a funding source for writers - contests, grants, fellowships and the like. I love how she prompts writers to think outside the box when it comes to funding (see March 1st post for an example).