5 Key Research Sites You May Have Missed (Plus Cool Tricks) I’m as guilty as the next person: I use Google for everything and don’t wander much outside it. (In fact, I use iGoogle as my browser homepage.) But as any astute researcher knows, Google’s search engine can rank poor-quality content very highly just because the site has good SEO (search engine optimization). Recently, Google adjusted their search algorithm to help control for this, but the problem’s still there. So I wanted to share a few resources to increase your awareness that stuff besides Google exists. However, you should also be aware of Google’s specialized search & data services, so those are also included. 1. Blekko is a specialized search engine that filters out a lot of the crap sites that have low-quality content but high search ranking. 2. 3. 4. 5. A Few Google Tools If you don’t know already about these specialized Google search tools, check them out: Google Scholar: limit your search just to academic/scholarly stuffGoogle Books: limit your search to booksGoogle U.S.
The Passive Voice. The Book Designer — Practical Advice to Help Self-Publishers Build Better Books. Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Shelf Awareness. Publishers Lunch. There Are No Rules Blog By The Editors Of Writer’s Digest. “The High Concept Novel: How to Create a Premise that Sells — Agent One-on-One Boot Camp With Critique Starts April 11 The idea’s the thing. If you build your story around a unique and compelling idea, your odds of selling it increase dramatically. Often, a perfectly good project will go unsold because the premise on which it is based is too predictable, commonplace, or over-published. Whether you’re writing a novel or a short story, a screenplay or a memoir, you need to find a way to set your story apart from the competition — and the competition is tougher than ever in today’s marketplace.
But in this one-of-a-kind boot camp — “The High Concept Novel: How to Create a Premise that Sells Boot Camp” (starting April 11) — you will learn the ins and outs of high-concept, as literary agent, author, and content strategist Paula Munier reveals how you can transform your story idea from “same old same old” to “high-concept hit.” Read more BY ??? The Why and How of Self-Publishing Jordan E. Nathan Bransford, Author. Home - Los Angeles Editors & Writers Group. Janet Reid, Literary Agent.