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Resources

Books

• Release Your Writing, Book Publishing Your Way by Helen Gallagher
• Becoming a Published Author by Theresa Banks
• A Guide to Writing Jobs in Chicago
• A Guide to Chicago Book Publishers
• A Guide to Chicago's Zine Scene & Alternative Press
• Get Published! Chicago Public Library's guide to a selected list of materials which are available at The Harold Washington Library Center, to assist you in your publishing odyssey.
• The “Bibles” for copyediting. Whether you agree or disagree, these are the books that professional editors use to resolve issues of punctuation, spelling, capitalization, etc.
  • Chicago Manual of Style. The primary reference for book editors.
  • Associated Press Style Book. The primary reference for newspaper editors.
• The Chicago Public Library weighs in on how to "get it right" in print.
• Eats, Shoots, and Leaves.
• Guide to Managerial Communications: Effective Business Writing and Speaking.

Courses

• Jennifer Brown Banks teaches various writing seminars @ The Discovery Center
• Becoming a Published Author Theresa Banks instructs @ South Suburban College in South Holland, IL
• How to Land a Literary Agent and How to Write and Sell Your Fiction Instructor J.A. Konrath @ College of Dupage
• Hollywood 101 @ The Discovery Center
• Gutters: a free workshop for independent printed media Gutters meets the last Sunday of every month from 3 to 6 at Chicago Comics, 3244 N. Clark
• Poetic License Group is a monthly poetry workshop taught by Michelle Ailene True.
• Midwest Writers Workshop.
• Finding Your Voice, Telling Your Stories, a 1-day workshop for writers, journal writers, and family historians who want to record their life stories.
• The Guild Complex workshops
• Off Campus Writers' Workshop. Weekly workshops Thursday mornings in Winnetka.
• John Schultz's Story Workshop
• The Second City Writing Program
• StoryStudioChicago
• UIC Writers Series University of Illinois at Chicago offers non-credit courses on business and creative writing.
• The Writers Loft
• Chicago Scriptworks

Web Sites

• Writing tips
  • Rick R. Reed's Advice on Giving Your Writing Your Best & Getting It Published
  • Marcus Sakey's "How Not to Knock Yourself Out of the Game" & "Celestial Navigation"
• http://www.dictionary.com. Free look-up for the American Heritage dictionary and Roget's New Millennium Thesaurus.
• Strunk and White's timeless classic The Elements of Style, now available online.
• Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, now available online.
• Experts at the Univesity of Chicago Press address questions not covered in their printed Chicago Manual of Style.

• Formatting your manuscript
  • Novel Manuscript Format by Matt Carless
  • William Shunn's Guide to Proper Manuscript Format

• Submitting your manuscript
  • How to Write a Great Query Letter by Noah Lukeman
  • J.A. Konrath's Agent Query and Pitching Tips
  • Evil Editor
  • Marcus Sakey's "Pitch Perfect" & "Query-Go-Round"

• Finding an agent
  • Agent Query
  • Writer Beware's 20 Worst Agencies List
  • Everyone Who's Anyone
  • J.A. Konrath's How to Find and Agent and Sell Your Writing: A Practical Guide to the Impractical World of Publishing

• Copyright Q's
  • Leslie Ann Budewitz's Copyright Basics
  • U.S. Copyright Office

• Promoting your book/manuscript
  • Book Connector - Connect to book reviewer sites, newsletter sites, and reading and signing venues!
  • Book Catcher - Free book publicity service!
  • PRWeb - Free press release service!
  • Scott Nicholson's How to Write an Author Press Release
  • Bookhitch - Free book listing service!

• Tips on marketing your book
  • J.A. Konrath's Tips on Writing and Marketing
  • J.A. Konrath's "Self-Promotion for Writers" on New Works Review
  • JA Konrath: A Newbie's Guide to Publishing
  • Barry Eisler on Marketing
  • Rick R. Reed's Advice on Giving Your Writing Your Best & Getting It Published

• Advertising your book: Business cards, bookmarks, postcards, t-shirts, etc.
  • Earthly Charms: Specializing in Promotion for Writers
  • VistaPrint
  • Iconix
  • CafePress

• Designing your book
  • TLC Graphics

• Self-publishing tips
  • Dan Poynter's Self-Publishing

• Watchdog groups
  • Predators and Editors
  • Writers Beware