Top 5 Online Research Sites

I miss lots of things about living in the U.S., but whenever I sit down to research an article, one thing I really miss is the libraries. I practically get misty-eyed thinking of libraries of my past: the majestic staircase and dusty stacks of Olin Library at Wesleyan University; the noble, marble lions, Patience and Fortitude, outside of the New York Public Library; the gilded ceilings of Library of Congress. I remember with special affection the tiny, musty Southwest Library in Washington, D.C, where as I kid, I came to scoop up my favorite friends (The Little Princess, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, A Wrinkle in Time) and bring them home for a visit.

It’s hard to get so worked up about online libraries.

I do work in brick-and-mortar libraries here in France sometimes. We expats in Paris are lucky to have the wonderful American Library in Paris as a resource. And French libraries have a surprisingly large number of English-language books available as well as a digital system that makes these books easy to find. But the vast bulk of the research I do takes place online.

Here are 5 of my favorite resources:

1. Project Gutenberg. I just love this site for doing historical research. The scent of old parchment practically emanates from it. This digital collection has some 34,000 texts, many dating as far back as the 16th century. As a bonus, if it doesn’t have the book you’re looking for, it provides links to other free libraries that might. Awesome.

2. FindArticles.com (BNET). This site is as close as an expat freelancer can get to browsing the magazine racks at Barnes & Noble. Here you’ll find back issues of some 900 magazines. The site’s not only great for research, but it’s good for checking out whether and when a magazine has covered a particular topic.

3. Google Books. Using Google Books makes me feel slightly dirty. I didn’t like the broad, careless way the company interpreted copyright laws when they initiated the project, and it creeps me out to think of how they could restrict access to information, if they so chose. But, damn it, the resource is so freakin’ useful. I’ve turned to it many times when I couldn’t find a particular book in the American Library of Paris, or didn’t have two hours to wander the mammoth halls of the Bibliotèque Nationale. The expat freelancer’s job would be a hundred times more frustrating without it. So I can’t help but recommend it. I mean: 7 million digitized books. Holy cow.

4. Questia. Questia is an online library that requires a subscription for access to most of its books. But a portion of their library, particularly academic journals and periodicals, are free. It has nowhere near the number of digitized books as Google Books (only 1.5 million), but unlike with Google books, you can read the entire text of the books offered.

5. The Internet Public Library. This site, created by a group of graduate students at the University of Michigan, is a new millennium concept of a library. It not only provides you with access to countless newspapers, books, magazines and articles from all over the US and abroad, but it offers features of a brick-and-mortar library. For example, it has a “Reading Room”, presents special exhibits, has an online librarian, and houses a variety of collections. I’ve found good information on this site and it’s extremely easy to navigate. The only downside is that it offers the same dangers as a “real” library: it’s easy to get sucked into fascinating rooms that you didn’t mean to be in. I love it.

What are your favorite online sites for research?

WordHustler - A free magazine database!

Hi folks - found another handy source for finding markets that I thought I'd share with you. It's called WordHustler and it's actually a submission platform for writers. Among its many features, it automatically sends out and tracks submissions for you, allowing you to review all your outstanding submissions at a glance and know their status (published, pending, rejected, etc.) instantly.

While it mostly appears to be designed for fiction writers (all of their examples seem related to novels and screenplays), but it is clearly mean for freelancers and non-fiction writers as well. It has a "markets" database that lists over 5,000 magazine publishers, literary agents, contests, etc. with proper contact information. You can search by a variety of categories, such as travel, health, essay markets and so forth. I spent about a half-hour browsing the markets and came up with several interesting publications I hadn't heard of before.

Searching the market listings is free but having the program send and track queries costs $2.99 per query letter. To me, this seems a bit steep considering I can do it myself for free. But for those who have the ability to churn out dozens of queries each week, maybe it's worth it. (Again, I think the service part is better geared to fiction writers or those with longer-length projects). Anyway, I think it's worth checking out, even if just for the market database.

If there's anyone out there who has tried WordHustler's other services, feel free to comment on this blog and tell us whether it's worth it!

EuroWriter - a new magazine database

Drive-by post: Just wanted to alert all you expat freelancers (and regular freelancers) to a new magazine database that features English-language magazines published in Europe! EuroWriter is a site updated and maintained by Alistair Scott, a freelancer living in Switzerland. The site not only offers contact information and links to writers guidelines, it also features English-language writing competitions in Europe. Go check it out!

Still *another* way to find markets!

Just a quick post to say that I found another great database: Mondo Times. They list over 25,000 media outlets in more than 200 countries. It's not just magazines and newspapers but television and radio, too. You'd think that with all that information it'd be confusing, but it's really easy to navigate. Outlets are divided by topic, country, and city. I'm seeing lots of regional and smaller pubs that don't make it onto other databases. Very cool!

How to Find Anglophone Markets

I don't know what other expat freelancers moan about, as I don't yet know any. So, I'm going to write about the thing that bugs me the most about freelancing from abroad -- finding good markets to query.

I like writing about pregnancy and parenting since that those are the things on my mind these days. But as many pregnancy and parenting magazines as I know are out there, it can be tough to find anything beyond the big name glossies. I'm insanely jealous of those freelancers who can spend an hour or two browsing the magazine racks at B&N or who stumble across local or regional magazines in their dentist's office. Potential markets just rain from the skies for them! What's an expat freelancer to do? How can we tap into lesser-known Anglophone markets from abroad?

Here's the way I decided to go about it:

1. Subscribe to as many magazine databases as possible. Currently, I'm subscribed to Writer's Market, Wooden Horse Publishing, and Media Bistro. The three are quite different from one another, and I feel like I have many bases covered by checking-in at all three. I also check-in at Freelance Writing, which is free and not only lists magazines and their guidelines, but also articles, job postings, writing contests, and more.

2. Sign-up for as many newsletters as possible. I've lost track of how many newsletters I've signed up for. But among my favorites are: Writing For Dollars, Hope Clark's Funds for Writers, Writer Gazette , and WritersWeekly. Each of these has its own magazine database, and highlights new magazines and guidelines every week.

3. Persuse online magazines directories. These directories won't give you submission guidelines and the names of editors you'll need to contact. However, you will get the names of magazines as a point of departure. I check-in with www.amazon.com, Yahoo's Magazine Directory, and http://www.allyoucanread.com/.

4. Do Random Online Searches. I once read about a magazine called, "Chicago Parent." A few weeks later, I came across a magazine called "L.A. Parent." A lightbulb went off (came on?). I started doing searches for parenting magazines under titles like "D.C. Parent" and "New York Parent" and suddenly, I have a wealth of new magazines at my fingertips that I haven't ever seen in the magazine databases.

5. Pay attention to where other writers have published. Usually, when writers publish an article, they cite two or three publications where their work has appear in their bio. These days, I find myself studying bios as if they were articles themselves, and jotting down the names of magazines that interest me. In fact, that's how I came across "Chicago Parent" which was the magazine tipped me off to so many other parenting magazines.

6. Ask other writers for recommendations. We're all on the hunt for new, potential markets, and in a good online writing community, fellow writers are almost always willing to suggest potential markets when you're stuck for ideas about where to submit a query. I participate in Absolute Write and find the people there extremely helpful and supportive.

7. Ask your friends for recommendations. My poor friends. They are so involved in my writing career. I'm always pestering them to share their pregancy and parenting experiences to create more writing fodder for me -- and now I've begun to bug my U.S. friends to share with me their favorite local and/or regional magazines. I also ask my expat friends here which pubs they subscribe to and ask for their cast-offs when they're done with them.

8. Go to the Library. Okay, in Paris we're pretty lucky that we have an American Library that subscribes to many U.S. periodicals. Most of them are big-names, so it doesn't really help me in my search for smaller profile mags, but still, it's a great resource. I didn't even know about The American Library until I'd been living here for three years (of course, I wasn't freelancing then, so it wasn't on my radar screen, but still - you never know!). If you think that your adopted country doesn't have such a library, double check. And also check out American Universities and cultural centers - you might have luck there.

If there are any readers out there with additional ideas, let's hear 'em!