Seven Best Writer’s Resources to Come By Email

Updated May 2019
I am stingy with my time. In trying to live a full life and write a book or two a year, I rarely indulge in prowling the Web for useful stuff. At the same time, I know I must stay current on the craft and business of writing and indie publishing. How do I reconcile temporal frugality with the need to know?

Scribophile: Best Peer-to-Peer Writers' Resource

This is the second installment about indie author communities I find valuable. These are places where you can hone your craft and/or contribute to bettering our profession. 

Updated Feb. 14, 2014

Scribophile, online since February 2008, is a friendly and effective peer-to-peer author critique resource. It bills itself as an “online writing community that provides serious feedback for serious writers.” Basic membership is free. A premium membership is available for an annual fee. It provides extra services and privileges.

Indies Unlimited: Top Site for Indie Authors

This is the first installment on indie author communities I find valuable. These are places where you can hone your craft and/or contribute to bettering our profession.

If I had just one indie author site to subscribe to, it would be Indies Unlimited. This site, which began in October 2011, offers everything an indie author needs to get noticed, develop one’s talents and engage in the indie author community.

Counter Currents Gets Silver Medal

Counter Currents is the 2013 silver medal winner for Historical Literature Fiction – Modern (set 1500-1940 AD) awarded by Dan Poynter's Global Ebook Awards. This is the first novel by Shaun J. McLaughlin.

Get the Correct Words for a Historical Era

When I wrote my previous novel, Counter Currents, and while I write its sequel, I often stop to check if words I use are true to the era in which I set the story. I feel I must do more than engage and entertain my readers: I must not misinform.

Most important to me are the verbs and nouns I choose for narration and conversation. I strive to make sure those words were part of the common vernacular in the story’s era.

Sound difficult? Not so much!

Researching My Novel: Dark Southern Sun

Writing authentic historical fiction, I believe, requires research. Such novels cannot be constructed entirely from fiction. My research for the sequel to Counter Currents took me to southeast Australia.

Many Literary Awards Exclude Indie Authors

In the past, I often bought books that won or were shortlisted for one of the major English language literary prizes. Not any more. When I became an indie author, I began to boycott such books because many prize-granting organizations specifically exclude self-published authors. How can you claim to award the best if you exclude vast numbers of authors?