Every writer needs some extra help from time to time. Feel free to peruse the links below to see how they might benefit you and your work. If you are still in need of guidance or consultation, feel free to contact us at any time. We’re more than happy to help!
Publishers Weekly is a weekly news magazine focused on the international book publishing business targeted at publishers, booksellers, librarians, literary agents, authors, and the media. It includes articles and news on all aspects of the book business, bestsellers lists in a number of categories, industry statistics, and pre-publication book reviews.
Widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States, The New York Times Best Seller list is published weekly in The New York Times Book Review. The best-seller list has been published since October 12, 1931.
The L.A. Times Best Seller list is published weekly by the Los Angeles Times in their Books section. With a daily readership of 1.4 million and 2.5 million on Sunday, the Los Angeles Times is the largest metropolitan daily newspaper in the country. It is a Pulitzer Prize-winning publication and it has been published since 1882.
Grammar Girl and its accompanying podcast, both created by writer and editor extraordinaire Mignon Fogarty, are excellent resources when faced with grammatical questions and other “nuts and bolts” writing issues. The site’s content is clear, fun, and includes plenty of mnemonic devices to help you remember basic rules of grammar. Fogarty addresses common conundrums—such as when to use “who” or “whom” and “lay” or “lie”—in ways that make the principles simple and easy to understand. The site also features a highly effective search function that allows you to quickly find the exact tip you need, as well other related tips.
Grammarly offers a free tool on its homepage where you can check a small piece of writing for grammatical mistakes, or you can opt for the paid service and submit larger files. It is incredibly popular, easy to use, and relatively precise. Like any other automated grammar check, it has its limitations when it comes to nuance and idioms, but in general, Grammarly is a very helpful tool. The website also offers thorough yet concise lessons about grammar so you can also learn the rules in order to improve your own writing.
Grammar Book is the free online version of The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation by Jane Straus. This site is clearly organized and offers basic and advanced grammar and punctuation rules, as well as videos and free quizzes to help you hone your grammar skills. This site has no fluff, a scholarly tone, and is easy to navigate. Grammar Book is a great resource to help you learn and understand the essential rules of writing and editing the English language.
Part resource and part diversion, this site offers quizzes on a variety of common grammatical issues, for which visitors receive lavish cyber “rewards” like a “trip to the Bahamas.” If you’d rather just get a quick answer to a specific question, the site also features writing tips and rules for grammar, as well as links to informative (but quirky) videos on the GrammarWood YouTube channel.
Thanks to Bartleby, the entirety of The Elements of Style is now available online for free. To many writers, The Elements of Style is more than just a reference book; it is their vade mecum, their constant companion and infallible guide. Strunk provides unwaveringly confident advice on the use of language, both to ensure the proper use of grammar and to demonstrate the pinnacle of style. Now, in its online form, you can search the text and instantly reference all relevant sections from the book.
Purdue’s OWL is one of the best online writing resources around. It is especially helpful for students and other academics in the process of writing scholarly papers, but it also offers guidance in writing resumes and other professional documents. It is a great site to go to when you are faced with citation and bibliographic problems or questions. It provides links to APA and MLA citation guides.
A classic in the field of writing instruction, this manual has been on the shelf of most every writer since the beginning of the 20th century. It is available in its entirety online in this conveniently searchable format. While full access requires an annual subscription, the CMS online edition includes a helpful “Quick Guide” for free, as well as an extensive Q&A section to which you can submit questions.
A very helpful online resource for creating a properly cited bibliography. It’s free, thorough, and easy to use. It has two modes: the first allows you to search for your resource and the second requires you to manually enter information for your resource. Once you’ve added resources to your bibliography, you can download it as a word document in MLA, APA, Chicago, or Turabian style.
A classic in the world of dictionaries and thesauruses. Very easy to use and navigate. The thesaurus is not only useful for choosing a specific word in a specific instance, it is also a tool for you to expand your vocabulary and learn the nuanced differences between words. Merriam-Webster makes this even easier by linking terms that are synonyms, related words, near antonyms, and antonyms. The site even hosts interesting Ask the Editor videos on grammar, word choice, and etymology.
The site is elegantly designed and provides ample example sentences, synonyms, and derivatives with each entry. The site also provides dictionaries in other languages and a basic translation function.
Google Scholar is a great way to search for scholarly literature. A treasure trove of articles, theses, books, abstracts, and court documents are available in one easy search. You’ll be able to find relevant sources from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities, and educational websites. It even allows you to create a public author profile for yourself and keep track of who is citing your work.
This free search engine, created and maintained by the National Institutes of Health, offers access to the MEDLINE database of life sciences and biomedical topics—over 23 million citations for biomedical literature in total.
This online reference repository is one of the best in terms its ability to find needed resources easily and quickly. RefSeek searches include over a billion documents from books, encyclopedias, journals, newspapers, and online sources. The design is clean and free from distractions so you can focus solely on the information you need.
An excellent resource to ensure that your work is original. It tells you exactly where plagiarized content comes from so that you can revise those portions and cite properly. There is a small charge to submit a manuscript, but many universities subscribe to the site and offer it free to all their students and staff.
The world’s most popular POD (and for good reason), CreateSpace is Amazon’s self-publishing platform that offers an easy way to sell books, CDs, and DVDs. CreateSpace includes support for distribution through online vendors as well as bookstores, academic institutions, and more.
A direct competitor to CreateSpace, this site is considered one of the best in the business for your self-publishing needs. Started in 2002, Lulu has been at the cutting edge of self-publishing since it began. Lulu boasts a worldwide distribution network and they have supported the publication of almost 1.5 million books.
This site contains everything you ever wanted to know about copyright in the United States, but were afraid to ask. Register the copyright for your book on this site or search copyright records dating back to 1978. Please note that most publishers and PODs will automatically copyright your book.
Run by Bowker, this site is the official U.S. ISBN agency. Through the site, you can buy ISBNs (International Standard Book Numbers) individually or in bulk. This can sometimes be avoided, however, as many POD and self-publishing services offer ISBNs free of charge with your order.