Posts

(Today’s peek into my mailbox.) Dear Rachelle, I’ve been writing a series of novels, and have completed six books. My question is: How do I go about submitting a series? I have a query that describes the series an includes an excerpt from each book. Would this be the correct way to present the series?…

(No regular post today in honor of Good Friday.) After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back…

Sorry, I don’t have an April Fool’s post for you. Encouragement Week continues. I’ll be back next week with all-new posts. *** Hey… you. Yeah, you, the one sitting alone in your basement hammering out a thousand words every morning before you go to work. And you. The one filling out your registration for a…

Continuing with Encouragement Week… featuring posts from years past, each offering a little inspiration for your writing journey. I’m away from the blog, but I’ll be back next week with all-new posts. Enjoy! *** Everyone knows getting published is an uphill battle. With few exceptions, it’s a long, difficult and often frustrating road with the…

Encouragement Week continues. I’m featuring posts from years past, each offering a little inspiration for your writing journey. I’m away from the blog to observe Holy Week, but I’ll be back next week with all-new posts. I hope you enjoy this series. *** “The best time for planning a book is when you’re doing the…

It’s Encouragement Week here on my blog! I’m featuring posts from years past, each offering a little inspiration for your writing journey. I’ll be away from the blog to observe Holy Week, but I’ll be back next week with all-new posts. I hope you enjoy this series. *** Many of you know that my kids…

We writers tend to make a big deal about the physical spaces in which we write. There are countless blogs and websites that feature photos of writers’ workspaces, and I admit I love looking at them. There have even been entire books full of photos of writers’ desks. I guess it’s fun trying to see…

The Query Dear Ms. Gardner: Moira is a nurse practitioner with a hidden talent, one she knows little about- the ability to send healing energy she calls “Light” into others to augment healing. When one of her patients dies in her arms passing along not only a powerful gift, but a dire warning of doom,…

One of the most frequent questions I get is, How long will it take? How long should I wait before following up with an agent on a submission? If I get an offer from a publisher, how long before they send a contract? How long until I see my first check? When will my manuscript…

A few weeks ago, author Sandie Bricker wrote a guest post about how she followed her “writer GPS” to find the genre in which she could successfully break into publishing. There was an important lesson in the comments to that post. Sandie’s former agent, Steve Laube, chimed and and mentioned that when he’d been representing…

One of the questions I get asked most often is, “What makes you say yes to a book?” I usually try to evade the question because (1) it’s so subjective and (2) there are so many possible answers, depending on the book. Plus, sometimes I’m not even sure. I start reading and I like it.…

The Query: Hello, Ms. Gardner, I am seeking representation for A Circle of Reasoning, a 77,000 word women’s mainstream novel. Catrine Teddi and Austin Sanchez have been separated for over four years because of a misunderstanding. They are reunited by the disappearance of their child because of someone’s mistake. Between the anger and blame, romance…

(This is the first of the query critiques I’ll be doing over the next few weeks, probably one or two a week. Look for them on Wednesdays and sometimes Thursdays. Please bear in mind that these will be longer than my typical posts. ) The Query: Hi there! I’m seeking representation for my 60,000-word non-fiction…

Lately people have been confused about what I mean by “Christian worldview” and what kinds of projects I’ll consider representing. My experience the last seven years has been in CBA and for the first couple years of being an agent, most of my sales have been to CBA publishers. As many of you know, I’m…