At a recent staff meeting, Janet Grant filled us in on a Bookspan/Publisher’s Marketplace webinar she attended a week or so ago. She took great notes on many topics but one point stood out to me. The presenter observed that …
Fiction
The 10-Novels Rule
In the past week I’ve read more than 650 pages of royalty statements for our clients from a variety of publishing houses. Such an activity gives me a bird’s eye view of how the industry is doing, as I’m looking …
Five Flagrant Fiction Flubs
When I read fiction for pleasure I strive to turn off the “internal editor” as I read, but lately I’ve come across a number of glaring mistakes that pull me right out of the story. Let me address five of …
Favorite Book of 2019
As has become my tradition, at the beginning of each new year, I like to reflect on the books I’ve read in the year that’s just closed out (not necessarily books published in that year) and call out my favorite …
How to Write Great Discussion Questions
by Janet Kobobel Grant
Some authors choose to write discussion questions that will appear at the back of a book or to be available on the writer’s website. Having written a slew of such questions and having been trained in …
Quick Character Labels
By Wendy Lawton
I was reading a fiction manuscript last week that quickly described a character as a cripple. I winced when I read the word and stopped to think about why I had such an immediate revulsion. After all, …
To Pitch or Not to Pitch
Blogger: Wendy Lawton
With a number of writers conferences on the horizon, I want to explore the question uppermost in many writers’ minds: to pitch or not to pitch?
What is pitching for a writer? There are scores of classes …
Fiction Techniques
Blogger: Wendy Lawton
Today I’m just going to highlight a few techniques I love finding in fiction.
Beats— This is a technique the author uses to seamlessly substitute an action that identifies the character in place of the tired …
Writing Obsessions
Janet Kobobel Grant
What stimulates you to write a story or to compose a manuscript about a certain topic?
Writing Hints
I find it instructive to listen to interviews with highly successful authors. They often are asked–and love to talk …
Walking the CBA/ABA Tightrope
Blogger: Rachelle Gardner
I frequently receive questions from writers about whether their novel is a better fit for the Christian market (CBA) or the general market (ABA). The nature of their story, the language, and some of the content might …