Wednesday links: NaNoWriMo, book promotion, being tired, and agent questions

I love regularly reading tips and advice articles in certain subjects — particularly writing and publishing. I don’t always need the information right then, but I know that it’ll eventually come in handy. Or at least, I hope it will.

I know there are a lot of other people out there who feel the same way I do, but sometimes it can be difficult to find every useful advice article that’s out there. So I thought I’d bring you a few.

Here are the tips and advice articles that jumped out at me the most over the past week.

Before I start this list, I want to apologize. I know I missed last week’s Wednesday Links and that this week’s is being published fairly late in the day (and, for some readers, it may already be Thursday). Time has been getting away from me the past couple of weeks, and I’m sorry about that.

To make up for it at least a little bit, this list will cover the articles that I’ve found helpful over the last two weeks instead of just the past week. I hope you enjoy them.

1. 3 Reasons I failed NaNoWriMo – and Why That’s Okay, from Fiction Notes: I, like the writer of this article, wasn’t able to win NaNoWriMo this year. But, again like the writer, it’s perfectly okay that I didn’t. And it’s perfectly okay if you didn’t, too. Excerpt: “I am a failure. I signed up for NaNoWriMo–again. And again–I failed to make 50,000 words. But I have good reasons.”

2. 10 Ways to Promote Your Book on Your Blog, from Write to Done: I’m not as close to having a book to promote as I like, but I’m determined to eventually get there. This article is filled with tips on what to do when I am. Excerpt: “On chatting with other writers on forums, I was shocked to discover that many of them wrote about the writing process, grammar and syntax, their writing habits, and marketing tips. Are readers really interested in that stuff?”

3. Can Being Tired Make Us Better Writers?, from Kristen Lamb’s Blog: Plenty of writers lead busy lives. With day jobs, families, and a multitude of other commitments, it isn’t surprising that so many writers find themselves feeling too tired to write. But that tired feeling could, potentially, be helpful. Excerpt: “Yet, the interesting thing is, being tired can have benefits. If we wait until that celestial alignment when the kids aren’t sick, our pants fit, there isn’t a heap of laundry, the garage is clean, the junk mail sorted, and we feel energized? We won’t get a lot of writing done, so here is some food for thought next time you believe you’re too tired to write.”

4. Guest Post: Beyond The Basic Questions for “The Agent Call”, from QueryTracker Blog: When the day comes that you get that much-anticipated call from an agent, it’s important that you ask certain questions. There are the basics, of course. And then there are the ones you may not have thought of. Excerpt: “Having come through these two years, I’d like to share what I’ve gleaned and put that knowledge in the form of additional questions to consider asking a prospective agent. Some of these are questions that I asked myself, some are questions I’ve since heard were asked by other authors, and some are questions that, having gone through the process, I believe would have helped me to manage expectations, smoothed communication, and resulted in less uncertainty on my part.”