On Wednesdays, I'll cross-post my blog from Routines for Writers here…

Some weeks I get so many great links to interesting articles that I feel it's a real shame if I don't share them. I think one of our writing routines needs to be to putting writing first, ahead of reading about the industry or Tweeting or keeping up with Facebook. But it's good to do a little of those things, too. Here are some of the interesting articles I've read recently.

Speaking of Twitter and Facebook, if you (like me) think that social media is not necessarily the gateway to greater sales, read this article by Kristen Lamb about Why Traditional Marketing Doesn't Sell Books. I found it really interesting, but we'll have to read the second half next week. (Or we can go buy her book, We Are Not Alone – The Writer's Guide to Social Media. I downloaded the sample to my Kindle for Mac to take a look at when I have time.)

Wondering about the state of the publishing industry? Here is an article from the New York Times. Let me caution you about statistics though. The industry as a whole has had an increase in revenues as well as number of books sold (in 2010 from 2008). But in the third to last paragraph, the author says that mass market paperback sales (the kind of book I'd be selling, that some of you might be selling) has decreased 16% since 2008.

I think the brain is fascinating and it doesn't seem to take much nudging for me to read an article on some kind of neurological study or discovery. This article on how to write faster is both humorous and informative. And it makes me feel better about myself!  🙂

I'm reading some ebooks on how to self-publish ebooks (Zoe Winters here, Jason Matthews here, and Stephanie Zia tomorrow). But if you only need to know how to re-format your manuscript with no other superfluous information, you can download the Smashwords Style Guide for free. So far all of the ebooks I've read suggest using the Smashwords guide because your manuscript should be almost error-free when you're done (the human element notwithstanding).

Trying to keep up with what authors (who don't already have a following) are really earning from their self-published books? My friend Debra Holland has updated her sales numbers for July in a blog post. In the comments of that post, there are also links to a few other blogs dealing with sales for self-published books. If you want to read some othergreat posts from her on her self-publishing journey, Debra's got some other posts on the topic there as well.

I hope you find some of these articles interesting, informative and helpful. Now get back to writing!