Author: authorfredhurr

Best-selling Waterstones Author Fred Hurr found the inspiration for his supernatural spiritual warfare thriller Light of The Wicked, the first novel in The Light Trilogy, while living in Conwy, North Wales. Now living with his wife Linda in England, the book has received excellent reviews from all over the world. The second book in the Trilogy, Light of the Holy, is nearly complete and promises to be better than the first. In addition to a writing career, Fred Hurr is a bible scholar, philosopher, art historian, and leading health and safety consultant and civil engineer in the UK, with several prestigious construction projects in his portfolio.
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Finding a Publisher – 10 Steps to Success – Part 2

I’m returning to discuss those ever important steps in finding a publisher. You can find Part I that covered steps one through five here.

Step 6 – You may have ten or maybe even twenty publishing companies still on your list. Now take a look at their websites to see for yourself what kind of books they publish. Pick out one or two books similar to your own story and discover where the publisher actually sells them. For instance are they available in book stores or only on internet sites like Amazon. Browsing the books for sale can also tell you if the books are best-sellers. Read the readers’ reviews etc. Spending time in this area can help build up a picture of the publisher, and this kind of research is always fruitful for new writers. Are the publishers small or big, successful or not, new or well established, respected or not? On this last point the internet often has blogs and comments about bad publishers. Read them but be discerning because sometimes the comments may come from an embittered author whose books were repeatedly turned down.

Step 7 – So you have now made a shortlist and want to decide where to send your precious MS. Remember you can send copies of the MS to several publishers at the same time. Better to fire off several barrels rather than just one bullet, scattered guns normally hit something; whereas, the single shot usually misses the target.

Make sure you really read the details of their submission guidelines. Each company will have a different slant as to how you contact them. Some want the whole MS; others don’t. Some want the first three chapters only; whereas, some publishers just want to see a synopsis of the book. Remember to keep strictly to the guidelines, or your MS may end up in the waste paper basket. And always send a stamped addressed envelope so that the copy can be mailed back to you. That way you are more likely to get a reply even if it’s not the one you wanted.

Step 8 – A warning! The ‘sharks’ out there often disguise themselves as bona fide publishers. They might look safe, but all they want is to chew on your money. This is not saying that ‘self-publishing’ companies are predatory. Most often they’re not because in the case of self-publishers you get what you pay for.

I am sorry to say that there are Christian companies out there in the big ocean that act like sharks. One such company contacted me and said they wanted to publish my book, but it wasn’t until the third or fourth email that they told me it would cost $18,000 up front. The contract also tied me into buying a hundred books at $10 a book. If however, you are serious about your writing, find a reputable publisher and use your best judgement to pick the right one. If it doesn’t feel right, then it probably isn’t!

Step 9 – So you’ve sent your MS off; do not despair if after a short while you don’t hear back. Just be patient, and resist contacting the publisher to find out what’s the score. Most often it takes at least three months to get even an acknowledgement or even longer. I know that you are on tenterhooks, but the best way to stay sane is to ‘forget’ about the submission and get on with the next project. If you get rejections, don’t lose heart. Some of the most famous authors had hundreds of rejections before someone smart bought the book. Remember a lot of publishers make errors in their choices. The Harry Potter series was turned down by loads of agents and publishers. Have faith and keep knocking on doors; you’ll win in the end. The writers who found success are those who never gave up believing.

Step 10 – If you are a Christian writer, here’s a Ready auto transport service you can use. In short, what it does is post three chapters of your book and a brief author bio with your contact details on their website. The website is known to many Christian publishers who take a peek on a regular basis to see if there’s anything worthwhile posted there. It’s inexpensive, and your submission stays on the website for six months. One last piece of invaluable advice for Christian writers is this: remember the Lord is keenly interested in you and your work. Pray every day for success. I found success with an agent and a publisher who were five thousand miles away from where I live.

Care to share some of your publishing experiences?

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Finding a Publisher: 10 Steps to Success Part One

If you are a first time author and looking for a publisher, you need to know several facts about the book publishing business. It’s a big ocean to dive into, and remember: there are sharks. Like any kind of business, and book publishing is a business, there are people who want to make a quick buck out of naive and vulnerable authors, so avoid them at your peril.

Step 1 – Write the book. Publishers are not really interested in ideas. They want to see proof that a would-be author has the skill, the stamina and the discipline to finish the job. Publishers expect that a novel should be about 80,000 to 100,000 words long and, taking an average, that’s about 300 pages.

Step 2 – Before you send your MS to a publisher, have the courage to show your creation to someone who will give you an honest assessment of your writing. Don’t ask your spouse or best friend because they are not the best people to give you an honest report. Your local librarian might be a good place to start. It’s a harsh truth, but unfortunately the writing world is overcrowded with writers who have great expectations of themselves but have little talent.

Step 3 – Okay, you have written a book, and your honest critics say it is brilliant and should be published, well done! Now is the time to do some hard work trawling through the books, internet sites and writers groups who can aid you in your search and provide professional help and good advice.

In the UK there is a very useful publication called The Writer’s Handbook, and it is up-dated every year. The editor Barry Turner has done much of the leg work for you, and his handbook really is a useful and complete guide to agents, publishers, editors and copywriters.

I am sure there must be a similar publication in the USA, so go out and get your own copy. I know it seems daft, but you need to know your own book, what genre it is and even what sub-genre it falls into. Next get a highlighter pen and work your way through the handbook and mark out those publishers who publish novels similar to your own. Be meticulous in this exercise, for it will save you time in the long run. It’s a total waste of time sending your romance story to a publisher who only publishes science fiction. Read the small print carefully.

Step 4 – Having got your list of prospective publishers then check out the minutiae of the submission guidelines. Many publishers will not accept unsolicited MS. So do not waste your time, money and effort sending your MS along to one of these companies. When they say they don’t accept unsolicited MS, they mean it, and they probably have their own arcane reasons for this rule. 

Step 5 – There are many publishers who do accept ‘unsolicited’ MS especially from new authors, in the hope they are going to sign-up the ace in the pack and that might just be you.

Your publishers list may be getting shorter by now, but this is good because you are refining your search, and with every step you are closer to finding the right publisher for you.

What are some steps that you took to find the best publisher for you (if you have one)? What are steps that you need to take to find a good publisher for you and your book (if you don’t have one)?

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Spiritual Warfare

Any author writing a story or a full length novel based upon spiritual warfare must first do his research. Spiritual warfare is an extremely interesting subject and offers a rich tapestry on which to weave an exciting and dramatic plot, and it presents the writer with fascinating materials through which to explore ethical, philosophical, and spiritual truths.

It is a very controversial subject, and in Christian circles the spectrum of opinion ranges from total skepticism and disbelief to obsessional beliefs that everything has a demonic origin. Clearly such extremes do not present the serious writer with a reasonable storyline. But the middle ground offers a fantastic backdrop to create fiction.

Spiritual warfare, simply described, is a range of Christian activity whereby satanic demons are combated, confronted, and defeated using prayer and faith. Christians who find themselves immersed in these battles and struggles are often aided by heavenly angels.  Spiritual warfare is being fought out between two kingdoms vying for power, the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Darkness, ruled over by Satan.

For Christian writers the ground on which their research should be based is the Bible. There are many and various references throughout the Bible, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, to angels and demons in conflict with each other and with God’s people. The many examples in the Bible provide unequivocally proof that:

1. Angels and Satan and his demons exist and do interact with God’s people for good and ill.

2. God himself and Jesus, while on the earth, Old Testament peoples and New Testament Christians unequivocally believed in demons and their ability to inflict harm.

Anyone studying spiritual warfare will quickly find that, although there are numerous references and descriptions of angels and demons and their activities, there is not a definitive description of either. But this is not a disadvantage to the writer, for he can use his imagination, within the bounds of biblical truth, to create both angelic and demonic characters which are both interesting and, more importantly, believable. Their interaction with humans, as described in the Bible, shows that at least part of their personality must be human-like in order to have efficacious communication.

One aspect of angels and demons that I find very interesting is whether they have wings. I have done my research, and I strongly believe that they do not have wings. That is going to a topic for my next blog.

The introduction of angels and demons into a spiritual warfare story makes it possible to delve deeply into questions of good and evil which can then encompass all human faults and failings of character such as corruption, temptation and lust for power, money, and sex.

Of course it also allows the writer to paint a picture of redemption, healing, and salvation and access to the throne of God’s grace.  The subject of spiritual warfare should not be labeled simply supernatural fantasy as it truly is a wonderful canvas on which to create a story that can have a direct and powerful affect upon readers’ minds and souls and all for the good. This is when fiction can be used to its fullest and most noble degree.

For those people who want to look deeper into this subject, I strongly recommend Dr. Karl Payne’s book, Spiritual Warfare, which is a balanced and very informative book.

Are any of you including elements of spiritual warfare within your book? If so, to what sources are you turning for your research?