I have been away on holiday for a couple of weeks, so this Writer Shout Out is stuffed with links that I meant to post earlier but was still in laid-back-pass-me-another-beer mode. 

Trying to top up my income for what's left of the month, I have found some valuable advice at many of the sites mentioned. A few of these links fall into the category of book publishing, a topic I will be touching on in more depth next week. If you are considering dipping your toe in the vast ocean of publishing then the following sites offer some great advice for helping your book swim to success. 

On that bad metaphor, I think I will go in search of another beer.  It is almost the weekend after all.

Nathan Bransford is a literary agent for Curtis Brown Ltd.  His blog is fresh, frank and funny.  His post on vampires.html">how to pitch a book that capitalizes on the success of Twilight without mentioning Twilight is a must-read for anyone with a manuscript on Vampires, or as he puts it, "some combination of vampires, zombies, faeries, pixies, ghosts, and/or Dick Cheney."  Also a useful general post on how to pitch topical book ideas.

I will be writing more about Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen  next week, but I wanted to introduce you to her in this shout out.  She has several blogs which all offer great advice to writers.  The Adventurous Writer in particular is notable for it's honesty and Laurie's desire for writers to share their experiences so that we can all learn.

Conversation Agent is filled with practical writing advice for serious bloggers.  Forget a few guest posts here and there and think staff bloggers, corporate blog management and social media consultants. Good tips and links to some of the best blogging, writing and social media guru sites on the web.  Read, click and bookmark.

Anne Mini is a writer and editor extraordinaire with a blog that is packed with must-read information for any aspiring author. She has also created a recommended reading list for writers on Amazon.  Her choices are eclectic, inspiration, useful and well worth reading.  Add one or two to your basket; add them all to yourwishlist.

One of my goals for this year is to have more control over my schedule and finances. A few of my clients are very sporadic with the work that they need done, but I find that if I am proactive in regularly checking in on them that I tend to generate more assignments. Freelance Switch has a great post about How to Ask for Work Without Looking Desperate.  It encourages writers to ask their clients for referrals to generate more work

I am still determined to rekindle my love of poetry, so I was thrilled to find an easy way to share some great poems with my blog readers.  52 Poems is a UK site promoting poetry,  and has a great widget available that will serve up a fresh poem on your site each week.  Grab it for your blog, site or Facebook page.