Publicity - Everyone Needs It

So You’ve Sold a Novel—Now What?

When I started entertaining fanciful notions about becoming a writer one day (around the age of twelve, I think), it was through the eyes of screenwriters and authors. I saw myself making that big deal for my genius of a book, the publisher arranging a press tour where I flew

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ACFW Happenings

Critiques and Contests

Authors create what we read. But how do they learn the craft? Most authors start by joining critique groups and then branching out to contests for feedback and the opportunity of getting their manuscripts in front of an agent or editor. American Christian Fiction Writers offers excellent participation in both critiques and contests.

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Publisher's Corner

Christian Writers’ Market Guide Hits 25

Looking at the current Christian Writers’ Market Guide, I’m astounded that it is the twenty-fifth annual edition. When I put together the first one, I had no idea that for the next twenty-five years it would become central both to my writing and to my ministry to other writers. Although the guide has been in existence for all those years, each year new and experienced writers are discovering it for the

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Heard It Thru Hartline

Camera Ready Manuscripts

One of the many changes in the publishing industry since the economic downturn has been the need for authors to provide “camera ready” manuscripts. The editorial burden of tightening up a manuscript used to fall on the publishing house. In the past, an editor would have been assigned to the writer, providing personalized service in helping with an author’s rewrite before going to press. With the recent layoffs and

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Agent Column

The Best Book Proposal Ever

Proposal. It’s a word that often strikes fear in the heart of writers. Especially those in the early stages of their careers.

And rightly so, I think. Be it fiction or nonfiction, for most new authors, getting a proposal done, and done right, is the hardest and most dreaded part of the writing process. You’ve already researched until your brain is nearly worn to its stem, and you’ve worked your fingers to nubs writing the blasted

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