A few months ago, I wrote a couple of posts on writing a book proposal and several of you mentioned you are on your own book writing journey. If you are interested in learning more about the publishing process, how to write a book or book proposal, how to pitch to an editor, how to write a magazine article or ways to promote the books you’ve already published, then perhaps you would be interested in attending She Speaks this summer.

Maybe you already have a book proposal and would like to meet with an editor or agent. Representatives from Zondervan, Revell Books, Harvest House, Randall House and others will be there to accept appointments. Or if writing isn’t your thing, maybe you lead a women’s ministry at your church or you believe perhaps you have been called to teach or to speak. This conference could be the perfect place to come to hear out loud what the Lord has already been whispering to your heart.  It would especially be worth it if you could come for free.

All you have to do is write a post on your blog about why you would like to attend She Speaks. (If you don’t have a blog, you can enter over email). Then on Monday, Lysa will be hosting a linky for you to link up to the post you’ve written. I wanted to get this out over the weekend so you would have a chance to work on your post in time for Monday. I hope you win! And I hope to meet you at She Speaks.

Basic Conference Information

Session Descriptions

Speaker Bios

Posted in a writer
4 Comments

Piano was my major when I first went to college. Before you get the wrong idea, it was not at a school known for its piano prodigies. I didn’t have to try out or take a music theory test or send in an audition video to get in. I simply declared it, and it was. For a while.

It wasn’t long before I realized how very much practice was expected of piano majors. The bottom line was that I didn’t love it enough to get better.

Now I’m writing. And writing. And writing. I have designated writing days marked off on the calendar. On those days, after getting the kids off to school, I head to my chair and I sit. I never know what is going to come out.

Writing this book is humbling, overwhelming and even a little bit lonely. I pray. I think. I procrastinate. Sometimes I cry. But before the time is over, I write. And something always happens, because I love it enough to get better.

So this is me, saying hello from beneath the weight of a deadline. And thank you for your kind support.

***

Tomorrow I will be posting another Glimpse of Home, a simple photo project. Join me?

Posted in a writer
27 Comments

Blogs are a lot like shoes. Some practically teach and inform, offering sensible data for the reader to digest and apply, like Simple Mom, Alpha Mom, and I Heart Faces.

Other blogs have a well-defined niche and a lovely, inspiring focus, like frugal lifestyle blogger Jen, or the home blogs – Kimba and my Blissdom roomates: My sister The Nester, Melissa, and Sandy. Their creative ideas for how to make the home you have right now become the home you’ve always wanted leave me feeling empowered and encouraged to make small changes in the way I think about my home that bring about rewarding results for my family.

Still other blogs are a mix of both: practical because they offer products for sale, but also inspiring because their wares are so lovely, like those of Lisa Leonard, Lindsey Cheny and Gussy.

And then there are the writerly blogs, written by women who have hearts I admire, the kind where you know when you read, you will see a bit of yourself and a bit of another and maybe a glimpse of God. They put things into words that weren’t there before, and for that I am equal parts jealous and thankful. When I read Amber, Emily, Melissa, Megan and Arianne, it’s as if I’ve come home.

I almost didn’t go to Blissdom this year.

My time last year was incredible, but I left feeling a little lost, as though perhaps I wasn’t doing this blog thing right. The writerly types weren’t as visible last year. I have no craft to sell, no niche to define me and not one practical top ten list. I left wondering if the writing was enough, like maybe I needed to go out and find a new pair of shoes.

I don’t feel that way anymore, as I have been on a journey of discovering the value of quality content and that writing your passion applies no matter what kind of shoes you wear. I was excited to speak with such intelligent, articulate and passionate women (Deb, Isabel and Amber) on a panel called Content is Queen. Angela attended our session and wrote a nice recap, if you are interested.

Melissa, A Familiar Path; Emily, Remodeling This Life; Amber, The Run A Muck

I loved being at Blissdom this year. I love the women and the diversity and the grown-up-ness of it all (thank you Alli and Barbara!) I appreciated the two separate focuses: the business side of blogging and the writing side of blogging. Blissdom definitely had her big girl pants on this year. And she was wearing all kinds of shoes.

***

Each shoe pictured in this post did indeed attend Blissdom, as did each person who was linked to. If you would like to see more photos of people (and shoes), feel free to browse my flickr photo stream here.

Posted in a writer
46 Comments

Writing a book proposal is not for the faint of heart. Since I did this without an agent or insider knowledge as to what it’s all about, I felt a lot like this:

I knew about writing, but trying to converge my passion into a document that would convice someone my idea was marketable? I was a baby. I knew nothing. At least not enough. I spent a lot of time reading, hoping I would know the difference between valuable information and junk. Here are some resources that were most helpful to me and will hopefully propel you from baby knowledge to at least pre-teen.

A First Time Author’s Perspective: Author, Jody Hedlund writes about her journey from loving the art of writing to receiving representation from an agent and signing a three book contract. Jody shares lots of interesting details about the publishing process from the perspective of a fiction writer.

A Writing Mentor and Veteran Author Perspective: Mary DeMuth is passionate about mentoring writers and regulary allows readers to pitch their ideas to her (or another member of her Writing Spa mentor team) on her blog, So You Wanna Be Published.

An Agent’s Perspective: Rachelle Gardner’s blog, Rants and Ramblings: On Life as a Literary Agent,  is packed full of information about the publishing process; from how to write a query letter to what agents and editors are looking for in an author. I spent lots of hours combing through her archives and checking out the recommended links in her sidebar. I also follow her on twitter @RachelleGardner.

A Publisher Prospective: Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, writes a fantastic blog filled with tons of useful information. I’m so vague. Just read him, if you don’t already. And follow him on twitter, too @MichaelHyatt.

An Editor’s Perspective: I was blessed to have the beautiful and gifted Bonita Lillie of Encouraging Words for Writers read my proposal before I pitched it. Bonita is also a writer and a teacher, so her experience, knowledge of the publishing world and appreciation of the writing craft offered vision and continuity to my work, ultimately inspiring enough courage in me to pitch with confidence.

If you’re planning to write a non-fiction book, buy Mary DeMuth’s ebook: Non-fiction Book Proposals that Grab an Editor or Agent by the Throat (in a good way!) I bought it for $10 last summer and it lifted the veil of mystery off the book proposal writing process for me. It was so helpful that when I met Mary at She Speaks, the first thing I told her was she needed to charge more for her ebook. Not saying she took my advice necessarily, but the cost is now $25 and worth. every. penny.

Michael Hyatt has also written two e-books entitled Writing a Winning Book Proposal, one for fiction and one for non-fiction. I haven’t read these, but almost every site I’ve been on recommends them.

I did read a few hold-in-your-hand books too, like Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird and How to Write a Book Proposal by Michael Larsen. I’m still slowly working through Anne Lamott, as her book is about the craft of writing and I like to breathe in those types slowly. But I read Michael Larsen’s book methodically, from start to finish. I didn’t do everything he suggested, but I really appreciated his practical voice.

Since I have no agent, I brought my book proposal to a writing conference (She Speaks) and met with a publisher rep there. A lot of publishers won’t take unsolicited manuscripts or proposals from authors without agents. You can, however, submit through websites like Writers Edge or Christian Manuscript Submissions.

Check out Sally Stuart’s book, Christian Writer’s Market Guide to learn everything you would ever need to know about the Christian market, from greeting cards to traditional publishing, including how they accept submissions.

I know any one of these resources will be helpful to any of you who may be thinking about writing a book but don’t know where to begin. Do you have any other favorite resources I haven’t mentioned here? Feel free to share in the comments.

Posted in a writer
20 Comments

Since so many of you asked about the nuts and bolts of the publishing process last week, I thought it would be worth a post or two. I am in no way any type of expert, which is why I can only offer a post or two. There is tons of fantastic information available about the publishing process from all kinds of professionals. Perhaps my newbie perspective will be somewhat of an encouragement to those of you who have a message in your heart but don’t know where to begin.

Let me just tell you that I get it. I get that you have this message or a partial fuzzy dream of a message and the idea of taking that message and trying to make some sense of it by drawing lines around it with bullet points and paragraphs is terrifying. And thrilling. And everything in between.

Let me also tell you what a very wise friend told me when I considered hiding from my message.

It’s not going to go away. It will linger over you like a dark cloud, follow you everywhere you go, invade every peaceful moment of thought that you have, stalking your every move. Action cures fear. Get out of the boat and walk on the water to your very bright, very beautiful future in writing.

It doesn’t mean you have to write a book or anything like that. But if you know you have something to say but you aren’t saying it because you don’t have time or money or energy or whatever, I get it. Just know that it isn’t selfish to examine or explore that thing you’ve been thinking about for years. It is part of who you are, how you’re made, what you were made to do. To ignore that thing is to ignore a part of yourself. I know that sounds dramatic, but I still think it’s true.

After I finally decided to tackle this book proposal thing a year ago, it took me a few months to call it a book proposal even to my closest friends. I have a tendency to hunker down and hide out. In my mind, the more people who knew I was working on writing a book, the more people I would have to potentially tell if things didn’t work out.

It’s sort of a personal preference, I suppose; like waiting until the first trimester is over before you announce your pregnancy. If you are like me and tend to keep the big stuff to yourself, I would encourage you to at least have a few, core people who know you well to begin to pray for and with you. I can’t tell you the difference it makes.

It is worth mentioning that I am writing Christian non-fiction. So if you are writing a fiction book about monsters on Mars then perhaps none of my information will help you. I know nothing about writing a proposal for a fiction book. From what I hear, the proposal process for fiction is a little less intense. However, I’ve also heard that a lot of times fiction writers write the entire manuscript before they submit, whereas with non-fiction that isn’t always the case. I only had three chapters finished when I signed the contract for my non-fiction books.

Speaking of book, this post is beginning to look like one. I will post a few of my favorite resources on Wednesday after Tuesdays Unwrapped. For those of you thinking about attending She Speaks this year, I will be leading a session called From Blog to Book Deal: How I Got Published Without Being Famous, where I will share more about this crazy journey. Registration opens soon.

Are you on your own book-writing journey?

Posted in a writer
23 Comments

This post has been written nearly ten times now. I write, and then I delete. I write, and then I tear up. I write, and then I watch the second half of Bring It On on TBS.

And when it ends and comes on again, I watch the first half that I missed. And then I google “Bring It On” because I can’t remember what’s-her-name’s name who plays the captain. Then I write some more. Cry. Delete. Google.

Why this crazed, insecure, distracted grasping for words?

Because two weeks ago, I signed a contract to write two books for Baker Revell. Apparently there is nothing like a two-book deal to make me overwhelmingly unproductive.

And now you know.

It isn’t a memoir, but I can’t write this book without telling my story. And maybe yours, too, if you’re willing to share it. The proposal I pitched was for a book for high school girls, as many of you already know. Turns out they wanted that one and they asked if I would be open to writing one for grown up girls as well. Both are about living life from a place of freedom and rest rather than from behind that worn-out paper face we have convinced ourselves is really us.

There’s more, of course, but for now, I just wanted to share the news with you. My first manuscript is due in August and the book will be released in the summer of 2011. The second book will come out in 2012. I’m really excited. And humbled. And terrified. It is also surprising to me how the elation I thought would come with a book deal has completely alluded me. Instead, I sit between signing a contract and a manuscript deadline with a shiny new set of fears and insecurities that I never knew would exist this side of the dotted line.

I hear vague Jesus-whispers in the background: Live the truth you say you believe. My girl heart freaks out and wants to hide. His voice is kind and inviting, and I consider it a great privilege that He loves me enough to let me be a part of what He is doing. Because it isn’t about a book or a deal or a publisher. It is about truth. In the midst of my fears that perhaps I’m not smart enough or poetic enough or brave enough to write non-fiction that matters, I know that He is present and active. And I know this isn’t about me.

It has felt like a long process, but in the world of book publishing it’s actually happened unusually fast. If you are interested in knowing more of the nuts and bolts of proposal writing or the publishing process, I would be happy to direct you to the resources that helped me so far. Thank you for being such an encouraging, safe group of people with whom I can share this journey.

Posted in a writer
174 Comments