What a Contest Can Do for You

ACFWACFW, Advice, Contests, tips, writing 2 Comments

by Lisa Kelley @LisaKelleyWrite It’s time for unpublished authors like myself to enter the Genesis contest. I encourage you to go for it, but to approach it as a learning experience rather than a ticket to publication. Even though I’m the 2023 Romance winner, I’d enter again this year if I had a finished manuscript. I’m competitive, so it’s hard …

ACFW Announces 2022 Christian Fiction and Industry Awards

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  Palm Bay, FL: The American Christian Fiction Writers in person conference at the Hyatt Regency at the Arch, St. Louis included their 2022 Awards Gala with a number of significant industry awards. Prolific author and devoted mentor and teacher Gayle Roper was honored with ACFW’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Among other recognitions are the following winners of the Carol Awards, …

How to win a writing contest

ACFWAuthors and writing, Contests, Friends of ACFW, tips, writing 1 Comment

By Jill K Willis You’ve decided . . . gulp . . . to enter your book baby in a writing contest. You’ve agonized over the synopsis, formatted the manuscript, and completed the contact form. You’ve edited it a thousand times, along with your mother and your critique partner. You’ve caught typos, grammatical errors, and plot holes. What more could …

To Judge or Not to Judge

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By Tammie Fickas It’s contest season at ACFW – First Impressions just finished up, while Genesis and the Carol Awards are open for submissions. Contests are a great way to hone our craft and get your work noticed. Across the nation, each year, organizations sponsor writing contests, and thousands of writers put their work to the test. Have you ever …

Four Ways to Heed Correction

ACFWAdvice, Authors and writing, Contests, Encouragement, Friends of ACFW, tips, writing 12 Comments

By Terri Gillespie One who heeds discipline is on the path of life, but whoever ignores correction goes astray. Proverbs 10:17, TLV The deadline for the Genesis Contest looms. Pre-published writers are busy checking and double-checking their submissions to be sure they meet the “guidelines.” One way to prepare is to seek others to critique that precious manuscript. The local …

My Friend Writer’s Block

ACFWAdvice, Authors and writing, Contests, Encouragement, Friends of ACFW, writing 4 Comments

By Suzanne Bratcher WRITER’S BLOCK: Anything that stops our writing. My high school English teacher would hate that definition. I can almost hear her snap, “What do you mean by anything? For that matter, what do you mean by writing?” To appease her, let’s try a simile. Writer’s block is like a horse that stops dead in the road and …

To Enter or Not to Enter: The Author Life and Awards

ACFWAdvice, Authors and writing, Contests, Friends of ACFW, writing 3 Comments

by Kimberley Woodhouse Writers ask me all the time about the benefit of entering book award contests. This is a tough one to talk about, because a lot of the contests require the author to enter their own work. And that’s just a bit weird. (Although there are contests that the publishers enter on our behalf.) Let’s go back to …

Pay It Forward

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By Patricia Bradley In my writing journey I’ve met some of the most amazing people, writers who have taken the time to help me along my journey. Some have been critique partners, some have been teachers at different conferences or on-line classes I’ve attended, and some have been judges in the contests I’ve entered. This week I’ve been thinking about …