I get to moderate this panel at Left Coast Crime 2026 in San Francisco.
Here are some tips and resources librarians wish writers and readers knew about, courtesy of the panelists...
Better Google Searches
Sometimes .com or .net is what you need. But if you want to cut through the commercial overload, try Google Advanced Search
There you can search by type of site. Example: “police procedures” site:.gov All your returns will be government sites. You might want edu for school or college sites, or org for nonprofits.
Search boxes allow you to search by “exact phrase” and “none of these words,” etc.
By the way, in a regular Google search, if you end it with -ai it will eliminate Artificial Intelligence responses.
Library Help
* WorldCat is a searchable catalog for thousands of libraries. If you find something you want there, ask your librarian to order it through Interlibrary Loan (ILL).
* Many states and regions now have library consortia that share resources among the consortium’s members. They’re often faster at delivering than ILL. Here’s Wikipedia’s (incomplete) list of library consortia. If you can’t find one in your state, ask your librarian.
* Libraries have searchable databases and digital back issues of newspapers (cold-case info?) for those with library cards.
* If you can’t find what you’re looking for, ask a librarian.
Writing Mysteries
How to Write a Mystery: A Handbook from Mystery Writers of America. Lee Child, Laurie R. King, et al. Scribner, 2021.
Mastering Suspense, Structure, and Plot. Jane K. Cleland. Writers Digest Books, 2016. Cleland also offers free monthly webinars on mystery-writing topics, information available at her website.
Howdunit: A Masterclass in Crime Writing by Members of the Detection Club. Martin Edwards, ed. Collins Crime Club, 2020. “…it will appeal not only to would-be writers but also to a very wide readership of crime fans.”
The Howdunit series, unrelated to the above and published by Writers Digest Press, includes approximately 15 books on various aspects of crime fiction: poisons, CSI, forensic medicine, weapons, deception, etc.
Websites
Indie Author Project. NOTE; We have not vetted this, but it looks interesting. Some libraries particpate in their Inde Author Days, which this year is November 13-14.
Resources for Writers Sisters in Crime – NorCal.
Mystery Writing References, Gotham Writers.
A Textbook Case: Advice for Fiction Writers. Robert Lopresti.
Fascinating Free Resources You May Not Know About...
Etymonline. Free online etymology dictionary. "Murderer's Row" is much older than the New York Yankees.
Flickr: British Library. Over a million public domain illustrations from British Library collections. To take full advantage: Click on the magnifying glass on the lower right. Do a search. Click on Advanced. Click on Content and select all boxes. Click on All.
Google Ngram Viewer. Search millions of books and journals for words and phrases. Great for writing historicals. When did the phrase “the jig is up” start appearing in print? When did it change to its current meaning?
Hathi Trust.Digital Library. 18 million publications, collected from academic libraries. Many full-text. Look up "private detective" and find a report on crime in New York, written in 1873.
Lantern.mediahist.org 3 million pages of public domain magazines about media. Need a review of a 1931 Agatha Christie movie ? (Spoiler: They hated it.) How about an ad for a 1937 Perry Mason flick?
Novelist. An online database, typically accessed for free through your library, that makes doing reader's advisory a cinch. It's also a helpful tool for writers to see what comps their books may have. The beauty of Novelist is that it's curated by professionals, not the general public. Books are assigned tags, categories, read-alikes, and are broken down into themes to make finding similar types of books easier. It also imports and attaches reviews from Library Journal, Kirkus, and Publisher's Weekly making it a must for book buyers.
@prosewithoutthorns is the handle of Denise Madre, an editor, sensitivity reader, and consultant. Her Instagram is a landing page for immensely helpful videos about writing people of color, folks with identities different than yours, and how to be inclusive without being tokenizing or exploitative.TV Tropes. "It's crazy enough to work." "If you kill him you'll be just like him!" "I work alone." All the plot cliches you've ever read or seen are explicated here.
