Making a Literary Life Friday: Wandering the Web

A reader wrote to us asking what were some of the better web sites to enrich a writer's life. Too many was the initial response. If any of you are Slate readers, then you know what a time-sucker the Internet can be to a writer. Still, there are riches to be found.

Below, we've shared some of our favorites, but we'd like to hear about yours. What web sites inform your writing?

Lisa Marnell
Verlakay! A beautiful interactive website developed and maintained by author Verla Kay. It's a hang-out for writers and wannabe writers of children's fiction. There's even a thread for those of us attending LA's summer SCBWI (Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) conference - see you there? Couldn't live without you, Verla.

Lois Lowry - I love her. Discomermaids (Jay Asher's blog).

Amy MacKinnon
Where to start? I read a lot of sites because I'm naturally curious, some for pure entertainment, but to further my career as a writer...Let's start with the industry standard, Publishers Weekly. Booksellers, sales reps, agents, and editors all read it. You should too. In fact, it was an article in last week's edition that pointed me to my next new favorite site, Books on the Nightstand. It was started by two publishing insiders who wanted to share good reads. They do that via columns and podcasts. Very savvy of them to mix up the media. So you can clean off your desk while you listen. They even take their show on the road and recommend books to eager readers. Clever. And one of my absolute favorites web sites is American Fiction. Who is Mark Athitakis and where did he find his voice? He has his ear pressed to the inner circle of the loop and shares it all with us. How he consistently culls the finest articles, interviews, news from the world wide web is beyond me. I'm just glad he does it.

Hope you come back on Tuesday because I have the most magnificent news to share! I'm bursting to tell you, but I must wait my turn! If you're really curious, like I am in life, I've embedded a clue in my post.

Hannah Roveto
Good ones, all. What else? I do love reading the inside view from agents' perspectives. There's Nathan Bransford and Kristin Nelson's PubRants, whom I love to visit now and again. I do miss Miss Snark, but you can find oldies but goodies still out there floating around!

Lynne Griffin
I echo Amy's choices for must reads. I would also add Publishers Marketplace, which though it does require a monthly subscription fee is critical to learning which agents represent the types of fiction or non you write. I also like it because it keeps you up-to-date on what authors are selling, trends, etc... Another insider site I love is Mediabistro's Galleycat. It's casual tone shouldn't fool you, the info gives you a valuable glimpse inside the business. And finally, I am a big Poets & Writers fan. It has everything the magazine does and more. Extended interviews, web only articles and an amazing archives, I can spend hours here.

And don't forget to peruse our friends of our blog link list to the right. Many of these sites offer generous amounts of content. Happy reading.