Get on the Net and Start Surfing...

My philosophy, since the advent of the Internet, has pretty much always been that if you want to learn about something, get on the Net and start surfing.  There is probably no greater research tool than the Internet - so long as you keep in mind that sometimes, not everything you read is necessarily accurate or true.  However, for the most part, the Internet can open your eyes to the world, it can teach you and entertain you.

That sentiment especially holds true for author blogs and author websites.  There is so much information out there being provided by authors on their blogs and on their websites that it can literally make your head spin.  I think these are the places where authors really let their hair down and aren't afraid to tell it like it really is - case in point, J.A. Konrath and his blog, a Newbie's Guide to Publishing.  Now there's an author who's definitely putting facts and figures out there for public consumption and you gotta give him props for doing so.  His blog also contains tons of valuable information, anecdotes, etc.  Then of course, there's Amanda Hocking and her website.  She's brutally honest about her disappointing forays into the publishing world before Kindle came along.  She's blunt, she's without pretext and she's hugely entertaining.  She, like J.A. Konrath, are the earlier pioneers of the Kindle program who have trail blazed successful careers because of their talents, hard work, perseverance and thanks in huge part, to the Kindle Direct Publishing program.  There are, of course, tons of other authors out there that have, and are, doing the same thing with huge amounts of success.

The point that I'm trying to make here is that author blogs and author websites are VRT's (Valuable Research Tools).  Once you find one, you find a link to another one and so on and so on...