Freelance Writing Success: Read More Than You Write

Over the years, I've read countless magazines, articles on the web and books in an effort to continue building and maintain my freelance writing business. Some of the material was very engaging and taught me a lot, while others did not. I've decided to compile a list of what's worked for me over the years:

Resource books about the business of writing:

Make a Real Living as a Freelance Writer: How to Win Top Writing Assignments, by Jenna Glatzer
The Well-Fed Writer: Financial Self-Sufficiency as a Freelance Writer in Six Months or Less, by Peter Bowerman
The Renegade Writer: A Totally Unconventional Guide to Freelance Writing Success, by Linda Formichelli and Donna Burrell
Outwitting Writer's Block and Other Problems of the Pen, by Jenna Glatzer
The Write-Brain Workbook: 366 Exercises to Liberate Your Writing, by Bonnie Neubauer
Make Your Creative Dreams Real: A Plan For Procrastinators, Perfectionists, Busy People, and People Who Would Rather Sleep All Day, by SARK
The Everything Get Published Book: Everything and Everyone You Need to Know to Become a Successfully Published Author
The Career Novelist: A Literary Agent Offers Strategies for Success, by Donald Maass

Resource books to support the business of writing:

Words You Thought You Knew: 1001 Commonly Misused and Misunderstood Words and Phrases by Jenna Glatzer
The Pocket Writer's Companion
Grammatically Correct: The Writer's Essential Guide to Punctuation, Spelling, Style, Usage and Grammar, by Anne Stilman
Writer's Digest Handbook of Magazine Article Writing, edited by Michelle Ruberg, Introduction by Ben Yagoda
The Writer's Little Helper: Everything You Need to Know to Write Better and Get Published, by James V. Smith, Jr.
The Little Red Writing Book: 20 Powerful Principles of Structure, Style and Readability, by Brandon Royal

Each of these books, in addition to my dictionary, thesaurus and The Elements of Style, are all nestled on my bookshelf. Some I've read once and was able to drink in the information and retain it, while others I've chosen to revisit time and time again (like those containing writing prompts, exercises and other bits of inspiration).

Sites to visit providing many articles about the business of writing include Absolute Write, Writer's Weekly, Writing World, Writing For Dollars, Well-Fed Writer and e-Writer's Place.

I subscribe to each of the newsletters offered on these sites so up to date information, editorials, articles and other important information is delivered to me on a weekly basis. If I find something I know I'll need to refer back to often, I'll print it out and file it away into a resource file. In the past, I've also saved many of these articles in a "hand-out's" file on my computer.

As you can see, I've lived up to the best piece of advice I've ever received in my freelance writing career and have read everything I've considered useful as often as I can. I'm always open to new learning experiences, so I'm always on the look out for new books, new articles and new web sites to sink my teeth into.