Friday Find: Free Guides to Paying Markets

As some of you may remember, in my former (freelancing) life, I offered a slew of writing-related e-books for sale. As the years passed–and as I transitioned into a full-time staff job–I didn’t have sufficient time to update each e-book as frequently as I wanted. Other reasons prompted me to bid farewell to those guides: The guides to paying fiction and poetry markets, for instance, seemed less relevant once Duotrope became such an established and vital (and free) site. So, over time, I retired several of the guides, making each of them available at no charge for a period of time before sending them to the great virtual beyond.

Ultimately, I was maintaining (and updating, twice each year) two guides. One provides a directory of paying markets for book reviewers, and the other one lists dozens of paying markets for essayists. The most recent updates for both guides were completed last December.

The time is coming to say good-bye to updating–and selling–these two guides, too. But before they disappear from view (which will happen on August 1, 2010), I want to give you all the opportunity to access them (free of charge). They’re still available on the site that has handled the sales from the start: I warn you that you may need to jump through some hoops to access them (you may need a free account on that site, for instance). If you have any trouble, please contact the help staff at the site. I simply have no ability to fix any technical problems you may encounter there.

But let’s be optimistic! Let’s hope that you can access whichever book you want (or both, if that’s the case), and that the markets I’ve researched and updated over the years bring you–and your writing practice–much success!

Friday Find: YOUR Reading Recommendations

As part of our Short Story Month Collection Giveaway Project, many of you were kind enough to share, in the main giveaway post’s comments, the titles of collections you’ve loved and/or are looking forward to reading. Now, following the sage example of the folks at the Fiction Writers Review site, I’ve decided to compile those recommendations so that we can all appreciate them one more time, in one lovely list. I hope I haven’t missed anyone or make any mistakes (please correct me if I have).

Thanks again. You practicing writers are awesome! What a resource this list is (especially for anyone seeking summer reading suggestions).

Kathi Appelt, Kissing Tennessee
Poe Ballantine, Things I Like About America (Erika’s note: I’m not entirely certain this is a book of fiction, but I’ve enjoyed Ballantine’s work in The Sun, so, we’ll keep it!)
Kevin Barry, There Are Little Kingdoms
Charles Baxter, Through the Safety Net
Jorge Luis Borges, Fictions
T.C. Boyle, Wild Child and Other Stories
Kevin Brockmeier, Things That Fall from the Sky
Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities
Raymond Carver, Cathedral
Julio Cortazar, All Fires the Fire
Phillip F. Deaver, Silent Retreats
Charles D’Ambrosio, The Point
Edwidge Danticat, Krik? Krak!
Anthony Doerr, The Shell Collector
Howard Goldowsky (ed.), Masters of Technique: The Mongoose Anthology of Chess Fiction
Richard Ford, A Multitude of Sins
Richard Ford, Rock Springs
Ben Fountain, Brief Encounters with Che Guevara
Petina Gappah, An Elegy for Easterly: Stories
Lisa Glatt, The Apple’s Bruise
Allegra Goodman, The Family Markowitz
R.W. Gray, Crisp
Amy Hempel, Collected Stories
Jhumpa Lahiri, Unaccustomed Earth
Kelly Link, Stranger Things Happen
Lydia Millet, Love in Infant Monkeys
Alice Munro, (“Anything”)
Joyce Carol Oates, Faithless: Tales of Transgression
Flannery O’Connor, Everything That Rises Must Converge
Mary Otis, Yes, Yes, Cherries!
ZZ Packer, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere
Lydia Peelle, Reasons for and Advantages of Breathing
Benjamin Percy, Refresh, Refresh
Laura Pritchett, Hell’s Bottom, Colorado
Annie Proulx, Fine Just the Way It Is
Eric Puchner, Music Through the Floor
J.D. Salinger, Nine Stories
George Saunders, Pastoralia
Lore Segal, Shakespeare’s Kitchen
Sam Shepard, Day Out of Days
Lara Vapnyar, Broccoli and Other Tales of Food and Love
Patricia Volk, All It Takes
Hannah Tinti, Animal Crackers
Wells Tower, Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned
David Foster Wallace, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
Eudora Welty, The Golden Apples

We Have Two Winners!

Congratulations to commenters #24 (John Vanderslice) and #2 (Cara Holman), who, with some help from Random.org, have triumphed and emerged as winners of our short story collection giveaway project offerings. John and Cara, please e-mail me and let me know which book you prefer (first e-mailer gets first choice). Please include your mailing address–I will order the books and have them shipped to you asap.

Thanks to everyone for participating!

Friday Find: Free Books (Short Story Month Collection Giveaway Project)

I know, you’re all getting tired of my yammering on about the Collection Giveaway Project. Especially if you’re kind enough to be following me on Twitter.

But we are entering the Project’s LAST WEEKEND. This is your LAST CHANCE to win one of the two collections I’m offering (Susan Perabo’s Who I Was Supposed to Be or Margot Singer’s The Pale of Settlement) and/or any of the books that have been promised by other participating bloggers (you’ll find them all listed and linked at the end of this post).

Good luck to everyone who has entered to win a book so far…and for all of the procrastinators out there, you don’t have much longer to join in!

Have a great weekend, everyone. See you back here on Monday.

Friday Find: Free Books!

Just a reminder that in the spirit of Short Story Month, Fiction Writers Review is coordinating a multi-blogger “Collection Giveaway Project.” If you’re a blogger and want to participate (by running a short story collection giveaway yourself), there’s still plenty of time to do so, and you can read the details here.

There’s also still plenty of time to win one of the books others (including me) are offering as their giveaway prizes, including (so far) collections by Robin Black, Skip Horack, Joshua Furst, Susan Perabo, and Margot Singer.

Have a great weekend, everyone, and see you back here on Monday.