What are books and websites I should look at before trying to write a grant?
The form of a successful proposal varies wildly from organization to organization and often also within different programs in an organization. Many grant organizations thus provide "model grants" or "writing guides" somewhere on their website that you can look at to see what they are looking for (they aren't interested in wasting their time either).  See, for example the NSF's grant-writing guide.  

Government organizations also generally allow you to search a database of previous grant recipients: you can look for some who are close to your area (thematically and/or geographically) and ask them for advice or to share their examples of winning proposals.  People are often willing to help out like-minded colleagues in this way.