Writers' Roundup: February 12

It’s the weekend! Time for links!

• From my favorite blogger, Penelope Trunk: How to write about your life.”Write your own messy life, and let it spill out,” she says.

• What to ask a literary agent when you’re offered representation. From Casey McCormick at Literary Rambles.

• A guide to Search Engine Optimization for WordPress from a marketing blog called ViperChill.

• Author Dani Shapiro (who visited us here on the blog recently) has an piece in the L.A. Times about how new authors are now expected to sell books from the get-go, instead of selling as they gain experience.

• New York Times Book Review says new release A Mountain of Crumbs could be taught as a master class in memoir.

• Editorial Anonymous, a children’s book editor, writes about what editors can and can’t fix in a manuscript.

• Occasionally I link to the New York Times Modern Love column (because reading it makes you a better writer). This week’s piece spoke to me because it’s about Africa.

• The Evolution of the Travel Memoir, from MediaBistro. I wanna be this guy.

Happy writing!