A Writer’s Life

What a month! More queries than ever before, but amazingly, I’m keeping up with them. If you’ve sent me an email query and I haven’t responded, that means I don’t have it, so please try again. If you’ve sent a hardcopy via U.S. mail (in which case you’re probably not reading my blog), I haven’t…

I really appreciated all your comments on yesterday’s post. Lots of wisdom there! Related to the situation I wrote about, Katy sent this question: Is it sometimes true that a new author, who’s just signed with an agent, will find the agent unwilling to try to sell some of her already-written manuscripts? How can that…

I want to tell you about an incident at ACFW that was sort of heartbreaking for me. I guess I want you to know that we agents have a lot invested in these conferences, just like the writers do, and sometimes we have disappointments too. I met with a writer, a lovely and sweet woman…

I spent the last several days at the ACFW conference in Minneapolis (along with about 600 of my closest friends) and once again my overriding feeling is… I’m tired. I’m sure everyone who went is feeling the same thing. It was terrific meeting lots of my blog readers and I’m glad many of you made…

Last Wednesday in response to my call for readers to contribute their own additions to the writers conference checklist, one wise person wrote, “Don’t make it all about you.” I had been thinking of including that exact tidbit in my original list because it’s so important. But I ended up leaving it off my list…

Many of us will be heading to the ACFW conference in about a week, so I wanted to give you a handy checklist of things to make sure you bring. Even if you’re not attending ACFW, you might find this useful sometime in the future for another conference. a Some concise and fascinating answers to…

Passing along a press release… Zondervan and Mount Hermon Writer’s ConferenceSponsor Competition for Aspiring Fiction AuthorsWinner Receives $10,000 Publishing Contract GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., September 3, 2008 – Unpublished Christian fiction writers, get your manuscripts ready. Zondervan, a world leader in Christian communications, today announced All About the Story, a writing competition for first-time novelists. The…

I thought it would fun for everyone to share the things that make our lives easier. Internet resources, technological gadgets… what are some things that make your work life or personal life easier, more organized, or more secure?Here are a few of my favorite things:Jott: When I’m out and about, I call Jott from my…

Whenever I walk into Barnes & Noble and see all those thousands of books… Whenever I hear statistics like 400,000 books published last year… Whenever I look at the query section of my inbox (currently at 105 emails)… Whenever I attend a writer’s conference and meet with writers passionate to see their words in print……

Everyone knows getting published is an uphill battle. With few exceptions, it’s a long, difficult and often frustrating road with the possibility of heartbreak at every turn. (I’m so optimistic today, aren’t I?) The fact is that many of us have a desire, a dream, a passion which we believe is fueled by God. We…

As a follow up to what I wrote last week about getting away from your computer and getting to a bookstore… today I want to simply say this: Read. Yes, it’s that simple: You gotta read books! You hear it all the time. As writers, we need to first be readers. I know most of…

I’m excited but not surprised at the lively discussion that’s been taking place in response to yesterday’s Q4U. Anytime we bring up the issue of “safe” in Christian writing and publishing, opinions abound. I’m impressed with the thoughts you’ve expressed here and I don’t have much to add that’s any different from what you’ve already…

Yesterday there was a comment about pitching agents and editors at conferences that I thought was important enough to address here. The question was whether a “newbie” unpublished author should pitch during their one-on-one appointments, or simply use the time to get to know an agent/editor and learn more about the process. In the past…