Month: March 2012

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WordServe Literary News

Exciting things have been happening at WordServe Literary!

On the final post of each month you’ll find a list of Water Cooler contributors’ books releasing in the upcoming month along with a recap of WordServe client news from the current month.

 New Releases

More Beauty, Less Beast  Deb Coty’s new release with Barbour Publishers about “Transforming Your Inner Ogre.”

Engaging Today’s Prodigal Carol Barnier’s first release with Moody Publishers to help parents find hope if their child is away from the faith.

The Surrender  Book #3 in “The Last Cavaliers” series by Gilbert Morris with Barbour Publishers.

New WordServe Clients

Dawne Beckel, while born and raised in Ohio, traveled across the nation searching for inspiration and adventure. Before settling on a B.S. in Marketing, she pursued an English degree from The Ohio State University. In March of 2012 she received her M.S. in Marketing & Communications from Franklin University. Dawne combines her deep love of history and passion for writing to create enchanting Christian historical romance works. You may also find her operating her cooking blog where she shares recipes from her Italian roots, and she currently serves as the Marketing Director for Zumba Wild. (Agent: Sarah Freese).

Andrea Boeshaar has been writing stories and poems since she was a little girl; however, it wasn’t until 1991, after she became a Christian, that she answered God’s call to write exclusively for the Christian market. Since then Andrea has had more than 25 novels published as well as numerous novellas and nonfiction pieces. She has served on the Advisory Board of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and is one of the organization’s co-founders. In addition to her own writing, Andrea is a certified life coach and helps writers organize, prioritize, set goals, and work toward publication. Currently, she is working on her new Civil War historical romance series, Melodies of War. For more about Andrea, visit her website at www.andreaboeshaar.com. (Agent: Barbara Scott)

Deborah DeArmond is a highly experienced and sought after executive coach, trainer, speaker, and facilitator, having worked in marketplace ministry with audiences at all levels across a broad spectrum of industries and organizations. She is an expert in the fields of leadership, communication, relationships, and conflict resolution. Deborah owns DeArmond and Associates, dedicated to helping others build successful solutions to the challenges they are facing. Deb is also the co-founder of MyPurposeNow.org, a website for Christian women 50+. Deb’s debut non-fiction project is titled Related by Chance, Family by Choice: Moms and Loving the Girls Who Married Our Sons. (Agent: Barbara Scott)

Jan Drexler, with her Anabaptist upbringing and ancestral ties to the Amish church, brings a unique understanding of Amish traditions, doctrine, and theology to her writing. Her ancestors were among the first Amish immigrants to Pennsylvania, fleeing intense religious persecution in Europe in the 17th century, and then continuing west, arriving in northern Indiana in the mid-1800’s. Their experiences are the basis for her stories. Jan is a debut author and has written her first Amish novel titled Love Bears All Things. (Agent: Barbara Scott)

Christina M. H. Powell, Ph.D., is a writer trained as a biomedical research scientist at Harvard University. She is also an ordained minister and public speaker. She conducted her doctoral research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. After receiving her Ph.D., she performed research in the fields of bioinformatics and genetics at Harvard Medical School with a concurrent appointment at Massachusetts General Hospital, ranked the number one hospital in the country. As an undergraduate, she was named one of Glamour Magazine’s Top Ten College Women. She has written extensively on bioethics and contemporary issues. Currently, she is writing her first book, Question Your Doubts: Discovering and Developing Authentic Faith, which explores the many roots of doubt while offering a corresponding response of faith to everyone whose heart struggles with unanswered questions. (Agent: Sarah Freese)

Donna Schlachter is a debut fiction writer, although she has published two gift books previously. To date she has completed five full-length novels and a novella. She is currently writing another full-length contemporary romance and a historical novella. Her current project is titled Counterfeit Honor. (Agent: Barbara Scott)

New Contracts

Deb Coty signed a new contract with Barbour Publishers for another book of felt need devotionals. With a working title of Fear, Faith and a Fistful of Chocolates, the book will help women reel in the fear that so easily entangles them. (Agent: Greg Johnson)

Rick Johnson has agreed to write two new books for Revell, the first A Couple’s Guide to Romance. (Agent: Greg Johnson)

Tracie Miles signed a contract with Leafwood Publishers for her debut non-fiction work titled Stressed-Less Living: Finding God’s Peace in Your Chaotic World. Tracie is an international conference speaker for the popular and rapidly growing ministry known as Proverbs 31 Ministries and a monthly contributor to the Proverbs 31 Ministries Encouragement for Today devotions, which reach a half of a million people each day. (Agent: Barbara Scott)

Joe Wheeler has signed with Howard Publishers for a book of short stories about Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War Years. The book will be timed for release with the 150th Anniversary of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. (Agent: Greg Johnson)

Jeremy and Jenny Williams have signed with Thomas Nelson to tell their story of A Season of Courage. Jeremy played college football, married his sweetheart and eventually started a family. One child was born with spina bifida, then Jeremy was stricken with Alzheimers–while still in his 30’s. While in a wheel chair, battling the effects of his dibilitating disease, his team won the State Championship in Georgia, and he was named National High School Coach of the Year. Extreme Home Makeover eventually did a show for them and built them a new home, but a docudrama was also produced and will soon be available (http://seasonofalifetime.tv/). (Agent: Greg Johnson)

What We’re Celebrating

Barbara Scott is in attendance at the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference in Northern California from March 29 through April 3, where she is meeting with numerous editors and WordServe clients, as well as teaching afternoon workshops titled “What to Expect From an Agent” and “Follow Market Trends to Advance Your Career.”

Julie Cantrell’s book, Into the Free enjoyed a very strong February and early March, hitting the New York Times Bestseller list and, for three consecutive weeks, the USA Today’s Top-150. It continues to be among the top sellers at Amazon.com in ebooks for fiction.

What can we help you celebrate?

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Creating Characters with Personality

My characters didn’t always have personality.

In blind date jokes, the matchmaker skirts around the topic of a candidate’s looks and plays up their wonderful personality.  It was the reverse situation for my characters.  According to an editor, they had the looks, even the quirks, but no personality.  I was mortified to discover I had cardboard characters. I didn’t understand how it could be possible when I had developed a character notebook filled with descriptions, pictures, and imaginary back story.

I might have stayed in denial if my editor hadn’t challenged me to study personality typologies.

I quickly discovered by using type theories that someone else had already done all the work. I didn’t have to dream up any more character bios or answer a hundred silly questions about what my characters would do in various situations. I dreaded those kinds of exercises.  But I loved research. In a sense, this was researching my characters. All I had to do was find a key piece, and all the other pieces fell into place. I didn’t have to force myself to do something I didn’t enjoy. I found the process fascinating.

Now all my major characters have designated personalities which drive their actions and dialogue, and create tension and plot. I use a popular personality typology called the Enneagram. If you’re interested, personality TYPE helps are as easy as Googling personality typology.

First I look at my story premise to see what will be expected of my heroine. Then I examine the Enneagram chart’s short summaries to see which type will allow her to perform what’s required for the story. After reading more about her type, it’s easy to match her personality or purposely clash her personality with other characters by setting all their personality types. Some typologies even recommend matches, especially in the love and occupation departments. Back story practically writes itself because there’s also a section devoted to childhood.

Once you set a character’s personality TYPE, the story unfolds in a more believable way. That doesn’t make it predictable. It deepens it.

During writing when things aren’t clicking like they should, we often tear into our plots. But uncooperative characters may actually be the culprits. Before they can enhance the story, they must be equipped with personalities that will move the plot forward.

A roller coaster slowly climbs to its peak. In the same way, a story builds toward its climax. Imagine what would happen if the occupants of the roller coaster jumped out, swung from the scaffolding or pushed the coaster off its track.  It might be perversely entertaining at first, but the ride would be ruined. Readers expect characters to stay on track, so the story’s climax is thrilling and fulfilling.

I use the Enneagram at the beginning, when the story gets in trouble, and before I start edits.

While personality typology works for me, it’s not the only way to get the job done. What method do you use?  Just for fun, do you know your personality type?

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Confessions of a Rhetorical Rapist

Before I ever published anything, I wrote mostly for myself. As an outlet for new discoveries about God or myself or the world. Or a place to struggle through matters of faith or relationships or parenting and work through past traumas. Sometimes, I wrote to vent.

I wrote in short, lots of things I was unlikely to say openly. Not secrets, exactly, but still things that might upset people if they knew. My mother’s brain tumor back when I was a teenager and my parents’ subsequent divorce and the lingering dysfunctions it caused in my family, for example. Or my early marriage struggles with my mother-in-law.

Writing was a way to move troubling matters out of the part of my brain that wakes in the night and worries into a more neutral medium where I could store them, reconsider them, ponder them in my heart.

In any case, when I assembled my first batch of writings for publication, I found I had a job before me: to somehow unsay things that might upset the people I wrote about.

From my publisher’s perspective, it was a legal matter. Although libel—misrepresenting the truth with malicious intent—is hard to prove, invasion of privacy is not. And I was amazed to discover how often I invaded others’ privacy in the stories that make up my memoirs. A friend’s cancer journey mentioned in one of my essays, for example, and a funny conversation about faith I had with a blind man I met on a bus became privacy right minefields.

My editor said I had three choices: cut the offending material, get releases from the people I was writing about, or alter names and details to make them unrecognizable. For that first book I used mostly the first two strategies—reluctantly, I must admit, and complaining all the way. This is ridiculous! How can this be necessary?…

If you can figure out a way to cut out the problematic part and still get your point across, that’s probably the best solution. Also the most painful. But cutting generally improves writing. (This blog post started out 1000 words longer, and, trust me, it’s better this way.) As my husband likes to point out, no one ever leaves church saying, “Boy, that was a great sermon—just wish it had lasted half an hour longer!”

The second solution—getting releases—was the most repugnant to me. Lots of work composing release letters, getting them signed, going to the post office! (I generally avoid all work that involves a post office.) Worse: The person might, after all that work, say no. Worst of all: They’d know I had invaded their privacy. Kind of like rhetorical rape, when you think about it. And I’d know they knew. And we’d all feel bad about it.

Surprisingly enough, everyone I asked said yes, although one person wanted to remain nameless. The guy on the bus, though—whose business card I found in my bag later, which enabled me to contact him—stipulated that I had to use both his names to be sure people recognized him. People are frequently flattered to make it into someone’s book.

Nowadays, I use mostly the third solution: changing names and details. I avoid a lot of topics from the get-go that I think may upset people. But then, if I absolutely need to tell some story that has potentially sensitive material in it, I give those involved new names and professions and hometowns and often a sex change operation.

Bottom line it’s illegal—not to mention a potential violation of the Golden Rule—to play fast and loose with others’ laundry. (Was that a mixed metaphor?) But avoiding it is no big deal.

How have you had to revise your writing in order to respect others’ privacy?

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A Mean Delivery

I’ve spent the past few weeks doing the unthinkable: scrubbing unwanted birthmarks, surgically altering dangling participles and mutated paragraphs off my newborn. Manuscript, that is. But it feels every bit as painful as though it were one of my children that is running circles around me, hanging out underneath my elbows even as I type.

An occasional deep sigh runs out of me like flipping the pancake syrup bottle over too quickly. This is my baby.

Its inception was 7 years ago as I spoke at a conference and heard so many stories about this issue. I wanted to reach them with fiction.

Its conception began a year later. But starting actual labor was harder; I much preferred the slow incubation and the relative safety of my baby being hidden from other eyes. I tolerated the creeping pace of false of labor and welcomed the wussy labor pains, preferring to box the baby back up and allow it to grow some more until the mood struck/it was convenient to write/I was having a good hair day.

And then my book club/accountability girls decided it was time for Pitocin. “Let’s speed this thing up,” they chorused. “You’ve written other books and had them published. Get on it!”

“But those were non-fiction,” I protested. “I don’t know if I can share this one.”

Ignoring me, they chose my novel as the November book, thereby forcing me to have it completed by October 30th.

They loved it. It was inexpressibly joyful to have actual readers discussing opinions and for me to be able to explain my thoughts. “That surprised me, too!” And it did. Sometimes my characters took over.

Then my baby went to the NICU with Sarah Joy Freese. She was so gracious in her admiration. No plot problems or character problems, a rarity in a first-born. BUT…there were changes to tweak, tighten and thrill. Some things had to go the land of the unwritten for the sake of pacing.

That’s a lot of pressure for someone who’s not yet been out of the isolette! But I’m learning this process of birthing a different sort of baby. When the changes are completed, it will go from the nurturing NICU into the hands of the ruthless publishers.

And instead of a decent score on the Apgar scale, I’d settle for naming it “Published.” The last name could be, “Best Seller.”

How is your baby doing?

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Spruce Up Your Spring Blogging Wardrobe

Tired of the same old blogging drudgery? Ready to don something light and new? Want to increase the traffic on your site? Here are a few different outfits for you to try on your blog.

VLOGGING

Everyone’s got a blog, but how do you get yours to stand out? Try vlogging. A vlog is simply a video log. Instead of writing the same old, same old blog entry, you simply speak it into a camera.

Before you freak out, read my lips: this doesn’t have to be fancy. In fact, I wouldn’t know how to edit if you paid me. I use Photo Booth and do a vlog entry all in one shot. If you want to get fancier, though, you can use things like Microsoft Movie Maker or Apple iMovie to add all kinds of fun effects to your video.

Why should you vlog?

It’s a great way to spice up your usual blog posts. It adds variety. Personally, I choose to post humorous vlogs, but you could make them “how to’s” or even use them for interviews.

Vlogging is a great way to show your readers the human side of you. Your facial expressions, your inflections and intonations, are seen instead of imagined.

The other benefit I’ve noticed is that vlogging bumps up hits. If you’re looking for a way to increase traffic, give this technique a whirl.

It’s not as scary as it seems.

I’m not going to lie. The first time your knees will probably knock a fair amount, but after that, no more noodle legs. If it creeps you out to see your mug up on the screen, then here’s a little tip…just post it. Don’t watch it.

Even if you decide not to continue with vlogging on a regular basis, it’s a great way to perk up your blog once and awhile.

TUMBLR

No, that’s not a typo. Tumblr is a trendy way of shortening the words tumble and log. What gets tumbled? Thoughts, mostly. Think of it as a stream of consciousness, where nothing is lengthy, and randomness rules the day. On Tumblr, you’ll see posts that are as simple as a link, a photo, a quote, sometimes even just a phrase.

Why use Tumblr?

This site facilitates quick and easy posting of single items. If the thought of writing blog entry after blog entry is overwhelming, this might be just the site for you. It’s not a replacement for Blogger or WordPress, but an alternative for less in-depth, editorial pieces.

Plus, it’s super easy to use. Setting up your own page takes about 2 minutes. Literally. Plus you can post from a computer, a smart phone, or yes…drum roll please…even from a text.

How to use Tumblr.

1. Sign up. Go directly to Tumblr.com and follow the directions.

2. Learn the dashboard. Your account will have a private dashboard that only you will see. This is also where you’ll find the different kinds of posts that are available for you to utilize.

3. Customize your page. Make it your own. You can upload background images or use some of the free templates.

4. Start posting. The best way to figure out Tumblr is simply by putting your hands on the steering wheel and hitting the gas pedal. It’s a creative place, so go ahead and run free. Try out new things you’ve maybe never done before, like a vlog, or post a stanza of poetry, or maybe a photo you shot recently.

5. Follow other users, kind of like Twitter. It will get your name out there in Tumblville, and eventually you’ll be pulling in followers of your own.

Even if you’re not quite ready to take the Tumblr plunge by setting up your own page, go ahead and check it out. It’s a fun place to hang around.

Vlogging and Tumblr are just a few ways to zest up your blog. Share the love…what’s one way you’ve discovered to update your spring blogging wardrobe?

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Do You Hear The Voices?

Dialogue should be short, snappy, and punchy. Image: photostock / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Dialogue that is short, snappy, and punchy, engages other characters as well as the reader. Dialogue is meant to be experienced, not studied. Halting over a line of dialogue can interrupt the reader’s experience.” ~~ Sol Stein

At a recent writer’s conference, an agent said dialogue could make the difference in making a request for more of a writer’s work. She takes the first five pages of a manuscript and looks for the white space created by dialogue. Then she puts the manuscript aside and picks up the next one.

From that conversation, I gathered dialogue is an important part of novel writing. Internal monologue is not dialogue. So, even if no one else is in the room, the character should talk aloud to himself, or to his pet.

Conversations in real life often have little or no purpose. In fiction, that’s a killer. What do you hear as the characters meet and greet? Is it meaningless chitchat? Or are they talking about anything and everything to avoid the deeper subject they know they should discuss? That’s great. Avoidance dialogue is called subtext.

Who’s talking? Do the characters sound alike? Are they predictable? Do they always say what you’d expect them to say?

If so, the writer’s in trouble. You see, dialogue has to sound natural, but it also has to be more condensed and much more interesting than everyday language.

Info dumps are boring. Just as you don’t enjoy listening to a person who talks on and on without giving others a chance to get a word in edgewise, neither do your readers. Most exchanges in dialogue should be brief. Consider using five word exchanges or less in your dialogue. Avoid using more than three sentences without a break or at least an action tag on the part of the speaker.

Can the reader visualize the characters? Characters don’t talk in a vacuum. To avoid the talking heads syndrome show us what they’re doing. Is Mary cooking dinner? Is LeRoy chopping wood? And by the way, is the ax dull?

Speaking of what’s happening, in your own writing, don’t mix the actions of one character with the dialogue of another. Be sure each speaker gets his own paragraph. Even if the character only uses one word. Make it easy for your reader to know who is talking.

And while we’re on the subject of give and take between characters, teach them to give another character a chance to react. Short dialogue paragraphs leave that coveted white space and increase pacing.

Last but not least, dialogue should move the story along. Do the characters have an agenda? Does dialogue reveal the different sides of an issue?

For dialogue to do its job, it needs to create an emotional effect in the reader. How much of the dialogue reveals disagreements and misunderstandings that affect the other characters’ goals? Does it increase suspense and uncertainty?

Q4U: Would you care to share a tip for stronger dialogue?

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Social Media and Your Book Release

Often, authors ask me what they can do to put their book in the social media limelight. While it is not difficult to accomplish, as we have discussed before, there are a few important steps that you can take to ensure that your book receives the attention it deserves. Here are a few ideas that scratch the surface…

1. Start Immediately I had a client named Dan (all names have been changed to protect the innocent).  Dan had a wonderful book coming out in about six months.  He was so excited, I am sure he felt like he was going to give birth to a baby, or as close as guys get to this feeling (besides kidney stones).  Dan wanted to wait until his book came out to get all social media going.  Although waiting can still be effective, I don’t advise this or think it is best. Make sure you are lined up with all of your social media accounts now. Do you have Twitter, Facebook, Pintrest, and maybe even Google Plus?  Make them look pretty. Get your friends and family on board and let them know what you are doing, so they can be your biggest cheerleaders.  Don’t wait. Start today.
2. Start Blogging and Guest Blogging  Here are my three simple rules for having a successful blog:

* Be consistent. Same time, same day.

* Don’t be too wordy or too simple.  500 -700 words is a good mark. Don’t over blog. Sadly, I just unsubscribed to one of my favorite blogs because I would receive two or three updates from that person a day. Save the poetry you like for your Facebook page.

* Be consistent. Oh, I said that? But it is valuable. I want my blogs in my inbox the same time every week.

Guest blogs need to be done strategically.  Pair up with friends who blog as well. Showcase yourself.  It can be a win – win for both of you. Promote it well,  and you both will end the day with a bigger audience.

3. Create A Data Base. Compile an email list and blast it out to all your friends and family.  I use Mail Chimp: it’s easy, it’s free and it does a great job managing a database.  There are some other ones that people have told me about,  author Lucille Zimmerman said that AWeber is great.  Celebrate great reviews, talk about new projects, and keep people on the inside of your circle, making them feel valuable.
4. Give Away Books. When your book is going to come out, encourage your friends and family to buy a copy.  Sure if you are REALLY close to them, you can give them a copy for free, but still get them to buy one and give it to a friend.  (Ever heard of Guerilla Marketing?) If your publisher gives you books to give to your friends and family, tell them they can only have one if they agree to write a review on Amazon after reading it. If your book is about the church, give it to church leaders ask them to help promote your masterpiece.

Get your books in the hands of “tastemakers.”  What is a tastemaker, you ask? Acoording to Urban Dictionary, “Tastemaker: An individual who’s determination of what’s stylish influences a significant quantity or quality of people resulting in a supportive trend.”  A tastemaker is someone who is savvy and all-knowing. It could be your best friend or your coffee shop barista. You want your tastemaker friends to talk about your book; people listen to tastemakers.
What is your best tip to be socially media savvy? 

Ingrid Schneider is WordServe’s resident Marketing Maven. With a specialty in social media, Ingrid loves helping authors find and manage an online tribe of readers. After spending the last 15 years managing and marketing restaurants, people, and businesses, Ingrid knew that helping people market themselves via social media and online platforms was a passion and something at which she excelled. Now doing social media marketing for some great-named authors, Ingrid also loves to imagine that she is a secret agent, because she can’t disclose with whom she is working. (Believe us when we tell you that Ingrid handles some big names, but for anonymity’s sake, we can’t disclose this TOP SECRET information.)  Imagination and creativity is something Ingrid is serious about and loves to incorporate into her work with her clients.

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Amazon.com’s ‘Vine Program’ Can Either Help Or Hurt You

Not all marketing tools are created equal. Some will move books; some will bite you where the sun doesn’t shine. Today, allow me to tell how the use of one book marketing tool could have sunk my book.

“The Amazon.com Vine Program” is a service offered by Amazon.com to book publishers. Basically, publishers contract with Amazon.com to send out a certain number of books to reviewers in exchange for their unbiased ratings. Theoretically, it’s a way to jump-start ratings on an author’s page immediately after a book is released.

But there can be problems with this system. In at least one case that I know of (MINE!), the publisher failed to communicate with the Vine Program that the book in question had a Christian viewpoint. And since nothing noticeably Christian appeared in the title, subtitle, cover art, or even in the book’s description, it was a cauldron of trouble. The book ended up being inadvertently sent to people unsympathetic to faith issues who rated the book poorly and then slammed the publisher for being deceptive about its religious agenda.

You could argue that this was really the publisher’s mistake and not the Vine Program’s. But it still highlights the fact that the Vine Program can be utilized ineffectively and, hence, end up hurting your efforts more than helping.

How can you avoid this situation? Ask your PR and/or marketing folks if they intend to utilize the Vine Program. If so, work with your agent to make sure your publisher adequately broadcasts your book’s content through its title, subtitle, description, and cover art. Otherwise, your book won’t get to its intended readers, and your reviews may be less than stellar.

Even if this Vine problem doesn’t happen to you, expect some unfair ratings to come your way in the Amazon.com rating system. People are imperfect; therefore, readers (and publishers and authors) are imperfect. Some readers aren’t capable of understanding what you say, and others read too hastily or misunderstand your message for other reasons.

The good news is, eventually, justice tends to prevail. Unfair and/or misleading reviews tend to fall off the map. Once enough people rate the unfair reviews as “unhelpful,” the Amazon.com rating system automatically deletes them.

In addition, reviewers have the option to “comment” on each other’s reviews and clear up any confusion. (Only, sometimes, their comments make things worse rather than better. You should see the caustic verbiage that flew back and forth between two reviewers of my book, The Eden Diet. I have an overall five-star rating, but I got a two-star review that apparently ticked off one of my supporters. The comments that followed were so mean that they were actually funny–in a “Pulp Fiction” kind of shocking-human-nature way. It was like a psychology experiment went wrong, right on my Amazon.com review page. Thanks a lot, people!)

The point is, online review systems are fraught with inherent inaccuracy and bias, and they sometimes hurt more than help. But if you want to be a writer, you have to get used to this and other imperfections in the system as a whole. That’s why book writing (and the reading of book reviews on said writing) is not for the faint of heart!

Care to share some of your review experiences?

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Nuke the Slush Pile

Photo Credit: 02-11-04 © Maartje van Caspel / istockphoto.com

What is a slush pile?

Have you ever read a market listing for a book publisher that reads something like, “Receives 2,000 submissions a year; publishes 20?”

The 1,980 manuscripts that didn’t get published are the slush pile. They are the mountain of unsolicited—and largely unpublishable—manuscripts that land on editors’ desks every day.

The slush pile also represents your competition.

I’ve spoken to more than a few writers who became discouraged at the sheer numbers of manuscripts out there and gave up on ever getting published. That’s unfortunate because it’s possible to move that slush pile out of the way.

Here are three simple practices that will help you stand out from the competition.

1. Learn Your Craft.

Believe it or not, most wannabe writers never take the time to learn how to write well. If you will take the time to study, learn, and develop your craft, you will stand head and shoulders over 90% of the people out there who say they want to be writers. Thus, when you submit a query or manuscript, your writing will stand out as superior.

Trust me. Good writing gets noticed.

2. Be Professional.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re trying to make a living at writing or if you just see writing as something to do on the side. If you want to be taken seriously, then you have to approach your craft as a professional. That means properly formatting your manuscript, proofreading it carefully, and following the publisher’s guidelines to the letter. It also means being courteous, not missing deadlines, accepting editing and critique. It means committing yourself to turning out the best product you can–every time you sit down at the keyboard.

If you adopt a professional approach, you will distinguish yourself from many writers who do not take the time to learn (or practice) the etiquette of the publishing industry.

Do this and you will move more of that slush pile out of the way.

3. Network, Network, Network!

Over the years, I’ve learned that personal networking with editors, agents, and other writers can greatly accelerate your journey to publication (assuming you’ve learned your craft and are acting like a professional). And the best place to network is at a writers conference.  Consider this: If you had the choice between sending a query to an agent or editor (who will probably have a stack of them piled on her desk) or sitting down with her for fifteen minutes and pitching your idea in person, which would you prefer? At a writers conference you can meet that agent or editor face to face. You might not be able to attend a conference every year, but try to make at least one. It’s an investment, but it’s one you won’t regret making.

Learn your craft. Adopt a professional approach. And network, network, network. Keep these three principles in focus—and persevere—and sooner or later you’ll find yourself in print.

Because you’ll not only move the slush pile out of the way, you’ll nuke it.

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A Gracious “No” and a Greater Glory

Do you have difficulty telling people “no” and setting good, healthy boundaries in order to stick to your writing schedule? I have to admit, sometimes I do. But in order to meet my current writing deadline, I have to be more diligent about protecting my time. I am a morning person, so my designated writing time is from eight in the morning to noon, four days a week.

Just after determining my weekly word count for the year and setting goals to meet my December deadline, some friends I hadn’t seen in awhile invited me to join them for a long lunch at one of our favorite restaurants.  I needed to say no. I stammered. I paused . . .  I caved. I went to lunch and thoroughly enjoyed catching up. However, as a result, I got behind and ended up spending Saturday at the office, missing family time, in order to stay on schedule.

I would venture to say, most Christian writers do what we do from a deep sense of mission. We feel “called” to write, and we want to glorify God with our work.  Jesus glorified God on earth by completing the work He was given to do (John 17:4). In order to complete His mission, Jesus had to stay focused, and there were times He had to say “no” to what appeared to be great opportunities.

One time, after teaching and performing miracles in the synagogue at Capernaum, word spread, and by evening the entire town gathered at Simon Peter’s house where Jesus “healed many” and “drove out many demons” (Mark 1:34). What happened next serves as a great example for those of us who need to stay focused and struggle to say “no.”

“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: ‘Everyone is looking for you!’  Jesus replied, ‘Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come” (Mark 1:35-38 NIV).

Jesus said “no” because he needed to remain focused on his mission. If we want to complete the work God has given us to do, we also have to be willing to say “no” to wonderful, yet distracting opportunities.

So, I’d like to share a few tips I’ve found helpful in my effort to graciously say “no” and remain focused on my writing mission:

  1. Pray. Spend focused time in a solitary place, talking with your Father. Prayerfully plan your schedule; seek His guidance for your writing and the way you spend your time.  It is easier to say “no” without feeling guilty when you’ve prayed over your writing schedule.
  2. Protect your writing time. Set aside a specific time to write and schedule it in your calendar (or your phone) just as you would record a doctor’s appointment. When someone asks you about your availability, you can avoid facing a perplexed stare or wrinkled brow as you apologetically explain why you need to spend the time writing. Instead, you can simply say you are booked at that time.
  3. Present alternatives.  When an invitation interferes with your writing schedule, offer alternative times when you are available, or make an effort to arrange something at a later date. It’s easier to say “no” now when you are offering to say “yes” later.
  4. Plan some flexibility. Some interruptions are inevitable and necessary. There will be days when the urgent gains our attention. So, prepare for interruptions when you set your writing goals. For instance, my daughter graduates this May, and she will be going off to college in the fall. I’ve incorporated gaps in my writing calendar during the months of May and August. Plan some flexibility. Get ahead when you can. Catch up when you get behind.

What additional tips can you offer to help all of us graciously say “no” so we can stay focused and complete the great works God has placed upon our hearts to write for His glory?