A New Blog from Jane Friedman...

Writer's Digest Books Editorial Director Jane Friedman launched a brand new blog yesterday, There Are No Rules.

Jane, who oversees the publication of more than 50 nonfiction titles a year and speaks at a bazillion writer's conferences on myriad publishing-related topics (and is my boss) says her goal is "to deliver valuable advice to aspiring and established authors through frank commentary on publishing trends, live reports from conferences/events, and brief interviews with agents/editors/authors."

So check it out. Bookmark it. You will likely learn something or come away with a provocative thought about the ever-changing publishing landscape. Leave a comment while you're there. (Feel free to say something nice about me.)

There Are No Rules is part of the new-and-improved WritersDigest.com.

Robert's Poem-A-Day Challenge for National Poetry Month...

April is National Poetry Month and to celebrate Robert Brewer (poet, Writer's Market editor, and Poetic Asides blogger) challenged himself to write a poem every day of the month--and he wants other poet's out there you to join him.

Robert kicked of his Poem-A-Day Challenge yesterday. The goal is to simply get poems on paper without worrying so much about quality as just doing the writing. For those who'd like to join the PAD Challenge but need a little kickstart, Robert is offering a poetry prompt each day on his blog. For more inspiration, view the comments on Poetic Asides posts and read the poem's submitted by poets who are participating in the Poem-A-Day Challenge.

If you're not a poet you can still celebrate National Poetry Month by reading poems (kids love em!). Here's an Amazon list of children's poetry books to give you some ideas--heavy on the Prelutsky, of course.

New Newsletters & Blogs by Market Books Editors...

I started the month of July by taking many days off work. Now I'm back in the office and down to business once again. (And happy to be here after several days of Murray's Potty Training Boot Camp, which was not particularly enjoyable for any of us. Any tips for a stubborn almost-3-year-old who is simply against potties are welcome.)

My first order of the afternoon is to invite you all to sign up for my CWIM newsletter which will debut later this month. The CWIM newsletter will include some industry news, an interview here and there, market info, news on upcoming conferences and various other things I think you'll be interested in reading about. The newsletter will come once a month, so it won't jam up your inbox, so why not sign up?

We are also offering new newsletters by other knowledgeable market books editors: Guide to Literary Agents' Chuck Sambuchino, Novel & Short Story Writer's Market's Lauren Mosko, and Poet's Market's Nancy Breen. Writer's Market editor Robert Brewer has been sending a newsletter for ages. If these topics don't appeal to you, please tell your writer friends.

We've had a couple new blogs debut recently as well--Chuck's GLA Editors' blog and Nancy and Robert's poetry blog, Poetic Asides.

I like This--You Should Visit (an ongoing series)...

I just learned about Editorial Anonymous, "a blog of a children's book editor." Who she or he is, I have not a clue. Oh the intrigue of the anonymous Blogger! (Think Miss Snark, Evil Editor.) They willfully share their knowledge, thoughtfully answer our questions, let us in on the inside scoop--all the while keeping their identities secret. Curiouser and curiouser (as the other, more famous, Alice would say).