10 Tips for a 1st-Time Conferee

by Ane Mulligan, @AneMulligan

Someone recently said they were about to go to their first ACFW conference and they asked for advice. As a conference veteran—I've attended close to two dozen—I offer the following:

1. Don't be terrified. I promise you'll love it. Look for names you recognize. Don't be embarrassed to look at name tags. ACFW gives you Zone (regional) stickers to add to your name tag to help recognize other zone members. If you've been active on their e-loop, you'll likely recognize names. Look for your favorite authors.

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Advice to New Authors

by Rachel Hauck

In this ever changing world of publishing, e-books on the rise, the popularity of electronically self publishing, it seems the author has to be writer, promoter and marketer. When I was first published seven years ago, there were twitterings of an author spending half of their advance on promotion, but I thought those were just rumors. Heresay. What “one” author had to do.

But it’s true. Then and now. When you get your first contract, plan on setting aside a third or a half for promotion. Consider it seed money for your career. Get it out of your head now that you’re writing to earn income for the family. You’ll be disappointed if you do. You’re writing to tell great stories. You’re writing because it’s your heart and what you love. You’re writing to eventually make some money.

A novelist career is a slow build of readership and dollars. In fact, the two are tightly correlated.

What do you do with those marketing dollars you set aside? Giveaways. Subscribe to a newsletter service. Pay for a good web site design. Hire companies like LitFuse to host a blog tour for your book or run a contest for you. Give away a Nook or a Kindle. Buy business cards. Bookmarks.

You want to start touting your book about two months before the release date. Post on your Facebook and Twitter. FB and Twitter are free and a GREAT way to build relationships with readers. And I do mean relationships. Social media is a conversation not a super cyber market where you only talk about your and your books. Or try to get people to buy something from you.

If you write have a category book that has a shelf life of one month, run a blog tour that month. If you’re book is a trade and has a longer shelf life, you might consider running a blog tour the month of your release and maybe a few months later. I always run my blog tours three months after the release date. Whatever promo or marketing publisher might have done would be fading by then as they moved on to their next quarter releases so I jump in and boost my books with a blog tour.

Spend about fifteen minutes a day on social media. Twitter a few times throughout the day. Look at others tweets and retweet them. Post on your Facebook. Answer comments others might have posted. Don’t stress over it, but try to stay engaged.

Managing your time is key to success. Whether writing a book or not. Your number one job as a writer, besides carrying for your family, is to write a great book. Before promo and social media, write a great book. Don’t get distracted with other things. If your writing suffers it’s hard to pull together again and get focused. Since we all work differently and have different responsibilities, it’s hard for me to say, “This is how YOU must mange your time.”

I have no children. I can write all day. I can goof around all day. I can do pretty much what I want. So if I were to say, “write every day from noon to five,” that might not work for you.

Here’s what I can tell you. Get a hold of your time. Schedule your days. Some people can schedule down to every 15 minutes! Yowza! Not me. I schedule in blocks. Morning. Afternoon. Evening. But I know what needs to be done and about how long it will take me to do it — more or less.

Talk to your husband and kids. Figure a way to involve the family in your success as a writer. Some authors have office days. Those are the days they work on the business, answer interview questions, email, do promo or marketing. I’m not that popular of an author to really need a day to get in touch with all the throngs who want to talk to me, soooo, I answer interview questions and email as they come in.

I have a program called Concentrate that shuts off my internet for whatever time I specify. When I’m on a deadline or need to get focused and finish a project, I launch Concentrate. I have it set for 45 minutes. Every 15 minutes, this computer lady comes on and says, “You are brilliant, keep working.” LOL. It’s great. When I get the twitch to goof off on the internet for a few seconds, I realize I can’t because of Concentrate, and I keep working. Yeah, I could turn it off but somehow that feels like cheating to me.

It’s important for writers to stay involved in life, in our families, in our churches and communities. Don’t say yes to everything that comes your way. No is a good word. But pray and ask the Lord to show you what He’s called you to do.

Cut off the noise like TV. Really. Amuse is the opposite of muse which is what we must do to write. I love movies and a good TV show. I learn from them. But in my house we only watch DVDs or Netflix instant. There is no nightly TV watching or channel surfing. When I had that option, it was a huge distraction. Five o’clock? Rerun of Gilmore Girls and I’ll be if I just didn’t quit working to watch.

Stop the excuses. If you’re a soft, giving personality, learn to toughen up and say no. If you have an addiction to TV, cut the cable for awhile. If you’re doing too much, let go of a few things. Don’t feel guilty or condemned. If God’s called you to be a writer, He’ll give you time to write. He’s not called you to do all and be all to everyone else so you don’t have time to write. Or so you have to sit in a corner of the house at midnight with your laptop on your knees writing while everyone else sleeps so you can get your word count. No, He’ll give you the time. Don’t fill it up with other things.

Writing is a job. Do it with excellence. Manage your time. Pray hard.

And whatever you do, don’t quit.

TWEETABLES

Advice to New Authors by Rachel Hauck (Click to Tweet)

Get a hold of your time~ Rachel Hauck (Click to Tweet)

And whatever you do, don’t quit~ Rachel Hauck (Click to Tweet)

New York Times, USA Today ​and Wall Street Journal best-selling, award-winning author Rachel Hauck loves a great story. She serves on the Executive Board for American Christian Fiction Writers. She is a past ACFW mentor of the year. A worship leader and Buckeye football fan, Rachel lives in Florida with her husband and ornery cat, Hepzibah. Read more about Rachel atwww.rachelhauck.com.

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A New Season of Writing

By Michael Ehret

Last month in my Novel Rocket post “You’re Invited!,” I began telling the story of my participation in Allen Arnold’s ACFW Conference class, “The Wildness of Writing with God.” You can click back and read the previous post or this snippet from it will set the stage:

You're invited into The Story!

Last September at the … workshop … Allen Arnold announced that he had prayed for all of us and had asked God to give him the words each of us needed to hear about our creative lives. Then, he said, he had written those words into a notebook that he would present to us.

I felt that familiar tummy turmoil as he walked around the room randomly handing out notebooks. Questions raced through my mind as anticipation and fear warred.

Then Allen set a notebook in front of me. My notebook. And I knew it was not a message from him—he was just the conduit. It was a message—an invitation—from God.

And I feared to open it.

Why did I fear?

Why do we fear anything? The unknown. Failure. Lack of confidence in our abilities. There are a plethora of reasons why we fear hearing from God. For me it was all of those—and more.

For me the fear stemmed from knowing. I knew God had called me to write and I had purposefully been avoiding it since 2007, when an appointment with an agent at a conference took a dark, unexpected (to me), turn.

"You'll never be a writer."

It’s hard for me to talk about my own work, and the experience always leaves me trembling (I know many of you can relate). But I screwed up my courage and got a 15-minute appointment with my dream agent. I gave my horrible pitch and handed the agent my first chapter.

The agent, one of the most respected in the field, read several pages. Enough that I was feeling a little confident. After all, the agent didn’t toss it right away, right?

“This is not publishable,” the agent said, with no softening preamble. “You’ll never be a writer.”

Truthfully, the agent definitely said the first part of that quote. Without a doubt.

I remain unsure about the second part. It certainly seems like it was said. In my head I still hear the agent saying it. But from what I know about agents and editors, particularly in the Christian market, I have doubts that it was verbally said.

But regardless, I heard it. And I believed it. And I let it cripple me.

My notebook inscription

God's messages are all around us.

So when I received the notebook from Allen, I opened it in fear and trembling.

“I’m inviting you into a new season of writing. Aslan is on the move! Have fun!” —God

See what God did there?

The agent was correct. My manuscript was not publishable at that time. But that isn’t what God addressed in His affirmation. He addressed what my heart heard and took inside, “You’ll never be a writer.” He poked my wound—to bring healing. And reminded me that His will for me should bring me joy, not fear.

And He didn't scold me for running from my calling. Before the conference, I asked God for a clear sign. Something that could not be mistaken. "Is this still something You have for me? I need to know."

And now I know. Will I ever be published? Well, first of all, I already am. Have been many times. Will my fiction be published? I don’t know. It’s in my hands, and it’s not. But I know this: I am a writer. I’ve made my living as a writer (and editor) since 1986 and I expect that to continue in this “new season.” God told me so.

Are you willing to ask God for a clear sign? And when (not if) He answers, are you willing to listen to what He says? What is He writing in your notebook? Don’t be afraid to open the cover.

Read the story I wrote for ACFW about Allen Arnold's workshop.

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Michael Ehret has accepted God's invitation and is a freelance editor at WritingOnTheFineLine.com. In addition, he's worked as editor-in-chief of the ACFW Journal at American Christian Fiction Writers. He pays the bills as a marketing communications writer and sharpened his writing and editing skills as a reporter for The Indianapolis News and The Indianapolis Star.

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Introducing Author Lindi Peterson!

I am an author of contemporary Christian romance novels focusing on the amazing love of Jesus Christ and how His love influences our ability to love one another. I live north of Atlanta, Georgia with my hubby. We are empty nesters as far as children go, but we do support, feed and care for a dog, 2 cats and 2 birds. (Who are at often time way louder than the kids used to be!) I've wanted to be a writer ever since I can remember. So about 12 years ago I started witing novels. Writing for publication is an amazing, crazy journey, but I wouldn't trade it in at all!

How did you come up with this story? Was there a specific 'what if' moment?

My ideas for stories start with the ‘what if’ moment. In this case it was what if there were three friends and two of them started dating, how would the third person feel?

Did anything strange or funny happen while researching or writing your book?

There is the story of the heroine’s name, Allison. My father wanted to name me Allison, but my mother said no. She won. My dad wanted us kids, if we had a girl, to name her Allison. He has three granddaughters-Brenna, Laken and Meryl. No Allison. So I thought “I’ll name my next heroine Allison. Then my father will have his Allison.” Well, my step daughters didn’t know this story and they didn’t know I was working on a novel with a heroine named Allison. My step daughter Melanie was pregnant and we knew the baby was a girl, but we didn’t know the name. I started writing my book at the end of June—Melanie’s baby was due at the beginning of August. I wrote the first draft of Her Best Catch in 74 days. I was living, breathing everything Allison. When Melanie went into labor we were all at the hospital and when we were all gathered together in her room before she gave birth she said, “Since everyone’s here we’ll tell you the name now. Her name is Allison.” I said “Allison?” At first she thought I didn’t like the name, but then when I told her the story we all thought it was very cool. Very God. The dedication in my book reveals this story in a few words.

Every novelist has a journey. How long was your road to publication? How did you find out and what went through your mind?

My journey was about 12 years from that first book idea to publication. When I wrote ‘The End’ after that first book, you know the one that will never see the light of a published page, I found I loved writing ‘The End.’ The only way to write those words is to finish a book. At some point during those 12 years there was a period of about a year and a half where I didn’t write. I read the Bible all the way through. I had never done that and that’s how I spent my mornings instead of writing. I think it was a good time of reflection for me.

Do you ever bang your head against the wall from writer's block? If so, how do you overcome it?

I think I used to more than I do now. Now, if I can’t think of anything to write, I just start writing something. A lot of time the something gets erased, but a lot of times it gets me unstuck.

Do you consider yourself a visual writer? If so, what visuals do you use? I do think

I’m a visual writer. I have photos of my hero and heroine on my bulletin board. In the book I’m working on now I have a computer file saved with pictures of the huge house I wanted my heroine to live in. So if I’m writing a scene in her bedroom I pull up the photo. Sometimes there’s nothing about the description of the room in my scene, but it anchors me as the writer to where she is and what she might be feeling.

Novelists sometimes dig themselves into a hole over implausible plots, flat characters or a host of other problems. What's the most difficult part of writing for you?

Ha—writing anything other than dialogue! Seriously, I love writing dialogue and then scratch my head at having to layer in emotions, setting. I’m working really hard though on my current wip to at least think about emotions as I write. I figure if I learn one step at a time, maybe the next wip I will can add more in as I write that first draft.

How do you overcome it?

Oh, answer above!

Where do you write: In a cave, a coffeehouse, or a cozy attic nook?

I have an office that I share with my hubby. We each have our own desks. Well, I’d like to think I have my own desk. I think it’s my cat’s desk and they let me use it now and then. When I write I have at least one if not both cats laying on my desk and/or sitting in my lap.

What does a typical day look like for you?

Up early, devotional, check email, work on current wip---go to work, come home. At night I find it hard to create. I can revise, judge contests entries, do internet networking or blogging.

Some authors report writing 5-10 thousand words a day. Do scenes flow freely from your veins or do you have to tweeze each word out?

When it flows, it flows. I rarely have a significant block of time to work. I have the occasional Saturday where I can work for long periods of time. I’ve had to learn to write in 20-30-60 minute blocks. But I will say, if I have that Saturday and I get going, I can really put some words to the page. I LOVE being in that mode. (But then of course there’s usually a LOT of dialogue and I have a LOT of revising to do!)

What’s the best writing advice you’ve heard?

There are actually two. From Nora Roberts—sit your behind (Nora used a different word here!) in the chair and write. The other one is to not give up.

Do you have any parting words of advice?

Basically what I stated above. If you can’t get those crazy or not so crazy characters out of your head you have to get them on paper. You have to sit in the chair and write. Also, no matter how long the journey is, stick to it. Keep learning, keep networking. Keep creating.



Her Best Catch
Allison Doll’s mother is rebelliously turning fifty, her two best friends have started dating and a gorgeous injured relief pitcher has joined her Sunday school class rocking her world into confusion, heartache and temptation, places she hasn’t visited in a long time, much less all at once.

But with the help of family, old friends she really hasn’t lost, a new friend she really can count on, and God, she finds herself no longer a girl waiting for life to happen, but a girl who’s ready to commit to her best catch!

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