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Inklings Issue 1.01
i n k l i n g s
Newsletter for Writers on the Net
Issue 1.1 Monday, September 11, 1995
=================================================================
Why a newsletter?
-----------------
I already maintain two sites for writers, INKSPOT: Resources
for Children's Writers (http://www.interlog.com/~ohi/inkspot/) and
Writers' Resources on the Web (http://www.interlog.com/~ohi
/www/writesource.html).
Why bother with a newsletter?
Having a list of links is fine; it helps sift through the massive
amount of information available on the Web. INKLINGS will carry the
sifting process one step further by providing more detailed commentary
and in-depth information.
INKLINGS also intends to cover other topics of interest to writers
on the net, such as electronic mail, newsgroups, how to make your own
home page, computers and computer software. Please feel free to
suggest other topics (http://www.interlog.com/~ohi/inklings/feedback.html).
Also, having a newsletter format makes it possible to have
issues delivered right into your electronic mailbox as soon as they
are ready. If you wish to subscribe and are not on the list already,
just send e-mail to morgaine@utcc.utoronto.ca with the words
"subscribe inklings" in the subject header. Or you can use the
form available at:
http://www.interlog.com/~ohi/ink/subscribe.html
In This Issue
-------------
Feature Topics: Literary Agents On The Web
Essential Search Tools For Every Writer
Regular Columns:
FRESH INK What's new for writers on the net
MARKET Market information
WORKSHOP Improve your writing skills
MAILBAG Answers to readers' questions
FRESH INK
=========
The Writer's Edge is a relatively new resource for writers,
artists, and musicians. Although it's still under development
(there are still some 404s lurking), it already has a large number
of useful links including conferences and workshops, fiction and
non-fiction links. Its goal is to provide jump-off links for writers
of all genres including comedy, software-writing, and songwriting as well
promoting their work. Sounds like a good site to keep an eye on
for future developments.
The Writer's Edge: http://www.nashville.net/~edge/
The people at the Children's Writing Resource Center have started up
a mailing list devoted to children's writers and illustrators.
To subscribe, send an e-mail message to majordomo@lists.mindspring.com
with the words "subscribe childrens-writing" in the body of the message.
Children's Writing Resource Center: http://www.mindspring.com/~cbi/
LITERARY AGENTS ON THE WEB
==========================
Stephan Spencer began the Internet Directory of Literary Agents
six months after his directory of Published Writers had come online.
He started the writers' directory last December after
seeing an article in his wife's copy of Writer's Digest magazine.
The article was about finding writing assignments online
by getting onto forums on Compuserve, AOL, etc. and chatting
real-time with editors and publishers, a situation Stephan didn't see
as being realistic.
"As if any publisher or editor worth his weight is going to be
sitting around chatting with God-knows-who on Compuserve looking
for writers!" says Stephan. He thought of a better way: a database
searchable by keyword that the editor could surf through quickly
and then with one click send out an email to any particular writer.
"This way the cards are all laid out on the table: list of
published works, biographical statement, agent, writing
interests, etc. And the Agents database was a logical extension of
the Writers database."
Stephan soon plans to have a Writing Assignment database, where the
editor/publisher can post assignments.
The Internet Directory of Literary Agents is still in its early stages
of development (there were only seven agents listed when I checked), but
promises to be a useful resource. You can browse or search for agents
by name, agency, area of specialization, or location.
Internet Directory of Literary Agents:
http://www.bocklabs.wisc.edu/ims/agents.html
Internet Directory of Published Writers:
http://www.bocklabs.wisc.edu/ims/writers.html
You can find some useful FAQ on agents at Bricolage:
Do I need an agent?
http://bel.avonibp.co.uk/bricolage/resources/bureau/mw/08.html
How do I get an agent?
http://bel.avonibp.co.uk/bricolage/resources/bureau/mw/09.html
What do agents charge?
http://bel.avonibp.co.uk/bricolage/resources/bureau/mw/10.html
Bricolage: http://bel.avonibp.co.uk/bricolage/welcome.html
The Association of Authors' Representatives (AAR) has prepared a
checklist of questions to ask potential agents. If you send the AAR
a SASE #10 envelope with 55 cents in postage (or more if you're
non-U.S.) and a cheque or money order payable to the AAR for US$5
(no cash, please), they will send you:
A list of member agents.
Copy of the AAR's Canon of Ethics.
Brochure describing some basics about agents in general and AAR in particular.
The address is: Association of Authors' Representatives, 10 Astor Place, 3rd Floor,
New York, NY, USA 10003.
Association of Authors' Representatives
http://www.interlog.com/~ohi/inkspot/agentlist.html
ESSENTIAL SEARCH TOOLS FOR EVERY WRITER
=======================================
As the Web expands at its exponential rate, it becomes more and more difficult
for writers to find the information they're looking for. Fortunately there are
several good search tools available to help you find your way through the
masses of information out there.
There is no one definitive index to the World-Wide Web. The Web is not
owned by any single individual or group. Each of the search engines and
catalogues on the Web are run by different organizations, and as a result
the method of searching information on each differs slightly.
Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com/)
-----------------------------
Yahoo has the most elegant interface. Well-organized and user-friendly,
Yahoo has a nice layout that doesn't overwhelm you with information
like some web catalogs do. It also tends to have a quicker response time
than other search tools. I've spent hours wandering through its links,
astounded at the variety of information available.
If you have a particular topic of interest, you can use Yahoo's
search facility. Just type in the subject and press enter. Yahoo allows
more complicated search patterns, such as case sensitive matching and
boolean operators. Links are added to Yahoo by request, so if you can't
find something here, don't assume it's not available on the Web.
EXAMPLE:
Typing "books" in the search field at the top of Yahoo's main menu
will result in the message "Warning - Limit was reached. Only the
first 100 of 1091 matches shown". This means that there were 1091
web pages found that contained the word "books", but you will only
be shown 100 since that is the current set limit.
You can change this limit as well as narrow the search criteria
by using Yahoo's search options at:
http://www.yahoo.com/search.html
You can specify whether Yahoo should search for a match in only
the web page title, or include text and url as well. You can also
specify case sensitivity, boolean and/or, whether search keys are
substrings or complete words, and number of matches.
Lycos (http://www.lycos.com/)
-----------------------------
Lycos may not present its material in as nice a format as Yahoo,
but it has more links (typing "books" turned up 1316 matches
instead of 1091). The Lycos search options are located at:
http://query3.lycos.cs.cmu.edu/lycos-form.html
with search language help available at:
http://www.lycos.com/lycos-search-help.html
When I'm looking for specific information, I generally check
Yahoo first. If I don't find what I want, or need more information,
I try Lycos. Lycos tends to be busier and its search options are
not as sophisticated as Yahoo's.
Other search tools on the Web include:
Webcrawler (http://www.webcrawler.com/)
Infoseek (http://www2.infoseek.com/)
Open Text (http://www.opentext.com:8080/omw.html)
DejaNews (http://www.dejanews.com/)
If you're interested in finding out more about search tools (or search
engines, as they are often referred to) on the Web, you could check out
Chris Steele's page about World Wide Web Search Engines or Netscape's
hints on Searching the Internet.
World Wide Web Search Engines:
http://www.interlog.com/~csteele/newbie3.html
Netscape's hints on Searching the Internet
http://home.mcom.com/home/internet-search.html
All the above links are available in Inkspot's section on search
tools at http://www.interlog.com/~ohi/inkspot/search.html.
MARKET INFO
===========
PRISM
-----
PRISM is an literary magazine which has moved into the paying
market field. They pay $20 per printed page (Cdn. funds) plus
a one-year subscription beginning with the issue in which your
work appears. For selected work, they purchase one-time-only
digital rights, in order to place the material on their web page.
They pay $10 extra per page for this. PRISM publishes short
fiction, poetry, drama, translation, and creative non-fiction.
http://edziza.arts.ubc.ca/crwr/prism/prism.html
Steve Jackson games
-------------------
Steve Jackson Games publishes role-playing games and magazines
and welcomes new writers. Check their general writers' guidelines
before submitting. Writers are also advised to submit to
Pyramid Magazine (http://www.io.com/sjgames/writers-guide-pyramid.html)
first. "Then, when we're impressed with you, submit a proposal
for a bigger project."
http://www.sjgames.com/writers-guide.html
WORKSHOP
========
STRUNK ONLINE
-------------
No writer should be without a "Strunk".
It's true the phrase "grammar and style guide" is enough
to cause the average person's eyes to glaze over, conjuring up
nightmarish memories of elementary school grammar exercises,
wracking one's brain over the difference between "lie"
and "lay".
The Elements of Style, however, is different.
William Strunk Jr. is clearly passionate about this
subject, and it shows in his writing.
The web version is well-organized and definitely
worth bookmarking. Like its paper counterpart, Project
Bartleby's online edition covers the elementary rules of
usage and principles of composition as well as including
lists of commonly misused and misspelled words.
Elements of Style:
http://www.cc.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/strunk/
Other useful sites:
Keith Ivey's English Usage Page
http://www.webcom.com/~kcivey/engusage/"
Jack Lynch's Grammar and Style Guide
http://www.english.upenn.edu/~jlynch/grammar.html
University of Illinois Grammar Handbook (gopher)
gopher://gopher.uiuc.edu:70/11/Libraries/writers/g1
MAIL BAG
========
Every week I receive many requests for writing resource
information. In each issue of Inklings I will
take a few of the questions of general interest and
post my answers here.
-------------
Hi Debbie,
I wandered here in search of trying to find,
somewhere, if text articles can be had/read from
the New York Times newspaper. I'm quite lost!
- BD
-------------
The New York TimesFax (http://nytimesfax.com/cgi-bin/tmp/login)
is a short 8-page edition of the paper. First time users will need
Adobe Acrobat to read it; free software is available online at:
http://199.97.97.11/acrobat/.
More and more online publications are using Acrobat, which allows users
to see a publication exactly as its publisher intended,
with the same layout, fonts, etc.
You can find other commercial newspapers available in the
Yahoo newspaper hotlist:
http://www.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Business_Directory/Companies/Media/Newspapers/
Journalists might also be interested in Newswires at:
http://www.yahoo.com/News/Newswires/
or Yahoo's journalism page:
http://www.yahoo.com/News/Journalism/
More journalism resources will be covered in a future issue
of INKLINGS.
================================================================
Non-profit, non-commercial publications may reprint articles
if full credit is given. Others please contact me at
morgaine@utcc.utoronto.ca. Publication, product, and
company names may be registered trademarks of their companies.
For more information about Inklings: how to subscribe,
where to find back issues, and other useful stuff, send email to:
morgaine@utcc.utoronto.ca or see
http://www.interlog.com/~ohi/ink/inklings.html
WWW-VL: Writer's Resources on the Web:
http://www.interlog.com/~ohi/www/writesource.html
INKSPOT: Resources for Children's Writers:
http://www.interlog.com/~ohi/inkspot/
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