If You Want to Write... Part Two

The Best of the Blogs, Part Two

If you want to figure out what a LITERARY AGENT does...

Shame on you! You should already know!

Kristen Nelson has a funny blog over at www.pubrants.blogspot.com where she writes about contracts, publishers, auctions and makes it entertaining! She recently blogged about her trip to New York City and what different editors are looking for in submissions.

Jessica Faust blogs at www.bookendslitagency.blogspot.com and keeps a mix of contests, reader questions, mini-articles by her or her colleague on aspects of the business and posts by some of her published clients.

And Nathan Bransford, an up-and-coming agent in California, blogs about The Wire, The Hills and The Publishing Game. Always funny, he is on a personal mission to eradicate rhetorical questions from the beginning of queries: find out at www.nathanbransford.blogspot.com.

If you want to know how to BECOME a successful author...

Check out J.A. Konrath's blog at www.jakonrath.blogspot.com. J.A. is the author of a mystery series, and gives excellent, if sometimes hard to hear, advice on making it in the publishing industry. His blog is as witty as his books are, though not as scary. Usually.

And Melissa Walker! Melissa blogs over at www.melissacwalker.com. Melissa has written Violet on the Runway and Violet by Design (released this week) and has interviewed with us before. What I like a lot about Melissa's blog is that she posts "Marketing Mondays" and "Win-It Wednesdays," detailing how she spreads the word about her fashion-forward series.

All of these blogs, I believe, are on my Google Reader (except for Nathan, who I read via email) because they are excellent. I confess I also have Modelslips (www.jezebel.com/tag/modelslips), two of my friends' personal blogs, and am addicted to the huge Blogging Project Runway (www.bloggingprojectrunway.blogspot.com). You want to write? Read this stuff. You'll learn tons.