By Barbara M. Britton @BarbaraMBritton My pitching days began in 2008. I have pitched to agents and editors in the General Market and to those in the Christian Fiction publishing world. I’ve pitched in person and over Zoom. My shortest time allotment was three minutes, and my longest pitch session was fifteen minutes. What were some of the craziest things …
Why I Love Critique Groups
By Cindy Ervin Huff @Cindyhuff11Huff One of the best ways I’ve improved my writing over the years is in my critique groups. I’ve learned so much at writer’s conferences and writing craft books, but the application can be challenging. I don’t often see my writing mistakes. But having critique partners makes all the difference. For a few years, I was …
Self-Deception is Easy when Comparing Yourself to Others
If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. ~Galatians 6:3 NIV Well, that verse hit me between the eyes, literally. My phone slipped. I’ll let you use your imagination. That attempt at humor was necessary because the verse hit too close for comfort. Yes, that was a lame attempt at a pun. Being an independent …
Common Writing Obstacles: Perfectionism
By Henry McLaughlin Perfectionism is the bane of many a writer, even experienced ones. Each story must be perfect or it’s no good. There’s no middle ground. There’s no forgiveness for ourselves. We don’t allow for the fact we’re human, we’re frail, and, despite our pride, we don’t know it all. Perfectionism plagued my early years as a writer, and …
What Derails Your Writing Dream?
By Tara Johnson “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.” ~Thoreau Each year, I meet countless people who tell me they dream of writing, but only a fraction of them take the first step to begin. Why? Here are the most common excuses: Fear of failure Writers fail all …
Contemplation
By Henry McLaughlin I’ve been doing a lot of contemplating and pondering lately. About my writing. About life. About God. About making changes. Not really at a crossroads, but definitely a time of reassessment. Why? What’s the point? For me, it’s about getting priorities straight and getting myself right with God. I’m learning that too often I get private and …
Real Places: Do Them Right or Don’t Do Them
By Gordon Saunders I got kicked out of a novel the other day. Here’s how it happened. I was reading along okay, suspending disbelief and all, sort of getting into the head of the protagonist. She and her friends were ‘vansters,’ that is, they lived in vans and traveled all over the place, the place mostly being southeast England as …
Things I Would Tell My Younger Writer Self
By Darlene L. Turner Time travel stories have always fascinated me. Back to the Future, Star Trek’s The Voyage Home, and Kate & Leopold are a few movies that come to mind. There are lots more. I loved seeing how people reacted in times not their own. I realize these are scripted movies, but it makes me wonder how I …
How a Book Launch Team Works
By Frank DiBianca Knowing new authors have many questions about the publication process, I am relating my experience with Iron Stream Fiction, an imprint of Iron Stream Media. One of the questions on the forms my publisher asked me to fill out in preparation for the publication of my suspense novel, Laser Trap (LT), was “Do you want to work …
Treasuring People
By Barbara M. Britton Have you heard the word platform? Authors are told that they must have an electronic connection to readers in order to make their story a bestseller. Authors toil at increasing their newsletter followers, posting on several social media platforms, and are busy gathering these connections for reviews around launch day. There is reason behind this madness, …