OC Christian Writers Conference

Questions written by Edie Glaser
Answers supplied by Kathy Ide

As a full-time editor and in-demand writing workshop leader, I know you are very busy, so I appreciate your time in sharing some of your Christian editing experience. I'm sure there will be many hopeful editors attending the May 1st Christian Writers Conference who will wonder what the best path is toward becoming a working Christian editor. What was that path for you?

In 1998, I lost my day job as a computer graphic designer due to tendon injuries. Since the writers in my critique group often told me how much they appreciated my suggestions, I decided to give freelance editing a try. You can also read the more detailed version of how I became a freelance editor.  

I started by working for a manuscript critique service run by a friend. Once I had some experience under my belt, I began advertising my services on a Web site and at writers’ conferences I attended. Then word of mouth took over. I soon had so much work of my own to do, I stopped working for the critique service. Shortly after that, I had more editing jobs than I had hours in the day to do!

In 2004, I started The Christian PEN: Proofreaders and Editors Network so I’d have a group of editors I could pass leads along to when I became too busy (or when I got requests to edit manuscripts that weren’t really my specialty, like children’s books or poetry. We now have more than 450 members, from aspiring editors to established professionals.

Two years later, I started the Christian Editor Network, a sort of “matchmaking service” for putting authors, publishers, and agents together with established, professional editorial freelancers. This is now where I send most of my extra job leads. On the Web site, authors can fill out a form to request an editor, or editors can apply for membership.

You have learned the ropes to becoming a successful freelance editor. What would you have done differently, if anything, on this path?

The main thing I wish I could’ve done differently would be to learn what I was doing from someone who’d already become successful at it. But I didn’t know how to go about that. Now I offer that service through The Christian PEN online classes on topics like “Copyediting and Proofreading for Clients,” “Establishing Your Freelance Business,” “Developing Your Specialty,” and “Marketing Your Services.”

I also offer one-on-one mentoring to aspiring, new, or intermediate editors.   

In addition, The Christian PEN has a wonderful e-mail discussion loop and lots of helpful tips and articles on the Web site. 
      
How awesome that beginners have a place to learn and be mentored. As these new editors enter the workforce, what significant changes and trends do they need to know about editing Christian books?

The biggest trend I’ve seen is a raise in the quality bar. More new (and even intermediate) authors are using professional freelance editors, which means that proposals and manuscripts sent to publishers are more polished. That means the publishers have higher-quality material to choose from, which means that many authors who submit work that hasn’t been professionally edited doesn’t get considered. While this may be dismaying to newbie writers, I believe it means a higher standard of quality for Christian books, and that’s a good thing!

For far too long, the general public has considered Christian books inferior to secular ones, and I think it’s high time we reversed that image.

That's so true, Kathy. Thank you for supplying that quality. Do you see any trends in Christian fiction that editors should be aware of?

The biggest change I’ve seen in Christian fiction is a willingness on the part of some publishers to test the waters with new genres, like science fiction and fantasy. Those were completely taboo when I started editing. Now I hear talk of Christian vampire novels!

lol! If you were to edit a Christian vampire novel, what software tools would you use?

I love the Track Changes tool in Word and WordPerfect! It not only makes my job easier, I know it’s easier for the author to accept (or reject) my edits.

Yes. I use Track Changes, too, as a teacher and sometimes as a critique group member. It's a great tool. 

Well, this has been an enjoyable journey and sadly, we have come to the final question. Would you please share three qualities that you believe effective editors for the Kingdom possess:

• A commitment to prayer. (If this is what God wants you to be doing, He can make your venture successful. If it’s not, you don’t want to be doing it anyway.)
• A natural ability to notice errors (like typos, inconsistencies, and misspelled words), an eagerness to look up punctuation rules and definitions, and a desire to learn the nuances of professional writing techniques.
• An encouraging personality. Authors are handing you their babies and asking you to tell them what’s wrong. That’s scary. A good editor will find ways to offer corrections and suggestions in a way that’s not overly critical or hurtful.

Writer’s conferences are great fun. Really. Your palms get all sweaty, your heart races and you forget everything you wanted to say to that Very Important Person that you accidentally sat next to during lunch. You jog from one lecture to the next, hastily scribble down notes and fumble for your business card whenever you meet someone. At the end of the day, you realize that you’ve had lettuce stuck between your two front teeth for the better part of the day. And yet somehow, in the midst of all the angst—that makes you feel like you’re suddenly back in Junior High School—you meet a nice person who catches your vision or likes your writing or just plain smiles when you feel like crying.

For me, Mick Silva was that nice person. He was also a Very Important Person, since he’s an editor at WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.

He spent time talking to me about my novel-in-progress, intuitively figured out who my favorite authors were (how does he do that?), and encouraged me to keep writing. On top of being an editor, he regularly writes about the publishing industry on his popular blog, YourWritersGroup.com, a pioneer site that he launched years before everyone else realized the wisdom in this business model.

Mick will be joining the faculty staff at this years OCCWF Writer’s Conference, which will be held on May 1, 2010.

MERRIE: How long have you worked at WaterBrook and what is your title there?

MICK: I worked at Focus on the Family for five years as a writer/editor before coming to WaterBrook in the fall of 2005. My title is plain old editor, but all of us do acquisitions as well as development. I’ve also been helping out the guys who published The Shack as an A&D editor for about a year.

MERRIE: What types of books are you looking for right now?

MICK: I’m looking for round books. Round ones that will fit square holes. If you know what I mean.

MERRIE: I think all my books have been round. Somebody needs to teach me how to write a square book. Actually, could you elaborate a little?

MICK: Yeah, that was fairly obtuse. I like books that use interesting words. Like obtuse. Which means an author with an above average vocabulary. (By the way, Freerice.com is a great place to spend 5 minutes a day to learn new words.) I like unusual books, e.g. round books. If all books are one way, I like the one that’s not. But I need authors who are willing to fit a square hole. That means their glorious words have to be malleable, not sacred, invoked to help the reader, not to manipulate her, and to respect the balance between accommodating to fit the market and designing for widest accessibility.

MERRIE: I love that explanation. Is WaterBrook still looking for fantasy / sci-fi or are all those slots filled?

MICK: I checked with Shannon Marchese (Hill) who is grand pubah of all things fiction at WMPG. We’re hopeful to expand our successful fantasy fiction line. But of course, they have to be exceptional and fill a unique place within the line, a place we can contend that there’s money to be made.

MERRIE: I know a lot of readers—and writers—who will be happy to hear that. What projects did you work on last year?

MICK: Let’s see…not a lot you’d recognize. I usually handle about 30 projects a year give or take, and not all for WaterBrook Multnomah. My favorites were Susan Meissner, Jeff Overstreet and Sigmund Brouwer. I also managed a lot of nonfiction repacks as we were scurrying to escape the doom and gloom being predicted because of the economy and ebook competition. I also do a bit of freelance and those are always projects I enjoy with some really weird authors who aren’t about publishing so much as being useful conduits for their message. Those are always fun to work on.

MERRIE: You just revealed a sacred truth: Editors are really busy, all the time. What three pieces of advice would you give to a beginning writer?

MICK:
1. Love words.
2. Grow impervious.
3. Never give up.

MERRIE: Great advice—I especially like number one and number three. The second one drove me to the dictionary. [The editor always knows more than the writer. It’s a rule.] What do you like most about your job?

MICK: Inspiring disproportionate enthusiasm in an author, or for one.

MERRIE: That’s cool! What do you like least?

MICK: Being forced to.

MERRIE: How should a writer submit a book proposal to you? And what do you want to see first: Query, synopsis, sample chapters, full proposal?

MICK: Depends what you want. For WMPG, I like a full proposal, but only if I’ve asked for it. If I haven’t, a query is best, but only if it’s from a conference where I’ve been. We only accept solicited (agented) proposals. If it’s for Windblown, a heart-felt query is best.

MERRIE: I hope everyone who reads this post takes note of what you just said. There is a “special dispensation” for those who attend conferences—editors are often more willing to look at your work, even if you’re not agented yet. Who are your favorite authors (that aren’t published by WaterBrook)?

MICK: I love what Dave Long is doing with Mark Bertrand  at Bethany. I actually tried to do something similar at WaterBrook, but got turned down. Ultimately, I couldn’t convince them my vision was something they could sell. But I’m so hopeful it works—Mark is an amazing author and deserves to be widely known. I also really like what you write and wished it could have worked for WaterBrook. Jim Rubart  is writing some cool speculate stuff for Karen Ball at B&H. And I’m predicting Ann Voskamp’s  personal narrative on gratitude for Zondervan will soon be many people’s favorite book. It’s like Lewis for mortals.

MERRIE: Thank you so much for the wonderful compliment about my writing. Personally, I’m very excited to hear about the new books coming out by Mark and Jim and Ann. I just put them all on my TBR wish list. Back to the questions: In CBA, which genres are selling well right now and which ones aren’t?

MICK: P.D. James said, Write what you need to write, not what is currently popular or what you think will sell. Many authors will tell you, don't write for a perceived audience or market because it may well have vanished by the time your book's ready. But to answer your question honestly, BIG NAMES. They’re always selling. And romance is always hot. But add some fantasy to that romance, something speculative, and especially supernatural elements—angels, demons, nephalim, undead, man-beasts—you’ve got a winner. We joke about Amish vampires, but I guarantee you’ll see something like this soon. Maybe with pirates. People love their mash-ups. And it’s always hard to say what’s not hot because as soon as you do, someone revives interest in it.

MERRIE: Thanks so much for the honest update on what the current trends are in the marketplace. Of course, I’m rooting for an Amish zombie or an Amish vampire mash-up. Do you have any advice to someone writing in any of the genres you mentioned?

MICK: My advice is always the same: don’t write something that isn’t you. Write what is in you, and write THAT to sell, but don’t change what you’re doing just to sell. A historian/linguist might try epic fantasy and a physicist sci-fi. If you’re into fantastic romance, great. But don’t write just to get published. That’s suicide.

MERRIE: Do you have any closing comments?

MICK: Let me balance that last comment a bit. Serve your reader. Help them escape or explain their world, whatever you do, and do it to open their eyes and inspire them. But know thyself and write only the things you must. Anything less is not enough.

MERRIE: Mick, thank you so much for answering all of my questions. I really appreciate it! I hope you have a great time at the conference.

Interview done by Merrie Destefano, an urban fantasy author with HarperCollins/Eos. Her first novel, Afterlife, comes out in October, 2010. The former editor of Victorian Homes magazine and founding editor of Cottages & Bungalows magazine, Merrie was recently awarded Writer of the Year at the 2010 Mount Hermon Christian Writer’s Conference. You can read more about her work at her website: MerrieDestefano.com.

Julie Andrews and her daughter Emma Walton Hamilton, co-authors on Julie Andrews' Collection of Poems, Songs, and Lullabies, speak about poetry, raising bookworms, and more.

They are not OCCWF Faculty, but they are fascinating nontheless.

Susan Meisner
Questions written by Elizabeth Loneseth
Answers written by Susan Meisner

Welcome Susan to the OCCWF faculty interview series. You are an award-winning Christian author. Please tell us, what inspires your writing? Music, travel or something else?

I know a lot of writers who can write just about anywhere with any kind of background noise and they can still zone in on their private little writing world and get the job done. Not so much with me. When I write I like to be in my writing room; a cave-like spare bedroom away from all the other rooms, with dark walls and a north-facing window that is behind me. I don’t want any music playing, not even instrumental. I even get annoyed when the neighbor’s dog begins its Wednesday litany. (It only barks on Wednesdays – in series of fours). I like quiet when I write. Believe it or not, solitude inspires me.

As a writing workshop leader, what are some of the most common mistakes you see writers making?

It’s fairly common for a new writer to be zealous to find their writing voice by imitating the writers they admire the most. They try to write like that writer. Oftentimes the result is a voice that we’ve heard before that doesn’t sound quite as nice. It’s better to work very hard at developing and recognizing your own writing voice. It is buried deep within you. It is already there as you begin to write, like an acorn. The more you write, the more your writing voice develops and matures. Your voice is your unique sound. It’s what makes your writing distinct, even if just a little, from anyone else’s. Yours may be similar to a writer you admire, but you should never expect to match it. That’s selling yourself too short.

You will be showing writers in your workshop at the OCCWF Conference how to develop characters. Some of you characters are based on historical characters (Lady Jane Grey). Have you ever based a character on a Biblical person?

I have never intentionally constructed a character to mirror a Biblical character, but I have toyed with the idea. What had held me back is the setting limitations. I don’t know or enjoy ancient history as well as I know and enjoy modern history. I would have a lot of homework to do.

Many of you novels especially White Picket Fences deal with perceptions or rather misconceptions we have of other people. Why?

Partly because this is something I am sensitive to. I think we, and I mean the collective ‘we,’ spend a lot of time jumping to conclusions when we should hold off on both – jumping and concluding. We hardly ever know the whole story. And we usually make the assumption that we do.

Your plots are varied and on your blog you analyze the plot of "24." Are you a plot connoisseur?

For me, plot is character, meaning that a plot is nothing if there is no character in the mix that matters to me. When a plot is driven by a flat, one dimensional, unbelievable character, the story usually stinks. So yes, I would say I am a plot snob, but only because I want characters who I can care about, cheer for and cry for. If what they do and say and think is inane or cliché or implausible, I stop reading. Or watching.

Lady In Waiting sounds fascinating. On your blog you mention it has been challenging. What are some of the challenges you faced while writing it?

I love the story of Lady Jane Grey. Hers is a dramatic and traumatic story of choice, obedience, redemption and fidelity. I immersed myself into many books and articles and had no trouble writing the chapters that involved historical Lady Jane. But I had lots of trouble with the modern day Jane whose story I dovetailed with Lady Jane’s. My modern day Jane was hard to like and she said the dumbest things. Yes, I know I was the one making her say them, but still. I just didn’t empathize with her.

My editors at WaterBrook were wonderful diagnosticians who helped me redevelop Modern Jane into someone the reader could care about. But it sure wasn’t easy. I had to nearly reinvent her at the molecular level. But I am so glad I did. She and I are good friends now. That book comes out Sept. 7 and I am really looking forward to its release.

On behalf of myself and the conference attendees, thank you so much for your thoughts and for your workshop leadership. We look forward to meeting you, Susan.

Faculty member and successful Christian writer for children, Nancy Sanders, was recently interviewed in the Orange County Register. about her books' unsung black heroes.

Jeff Gerke, Publisher, Marcher Lord Press
Questions written by Elizabeth Loneseth
Answers written by Jeff Gerke

Thank you, Jeff, for taking the time to share your writing life with our readers today. You sure do wear many hats. Please tell us which one of your three personas is your favorite...Writer, Book Doctor, or Publisher?

Definitely writer. There’s nothing like creating and inhabiting the world of a story. My own fiction-writing career has been on hold for several years, but I’m hoping that can change soon.

But I do love publishing. I thrive on discovering new authors who write well and tell amazing stories. These are the people who would be (and are) my friends. I love encouraging these people—and the ultimate way to encourage an author is to be able to publish her books!

That said, it follows that I also love being a book doctor. When I’m working with willing writers, there’s something incredible about telling them what’s wrong with their writing—not to hurt them, but to help them succeed—and having them respond as the critique was intended.

I like all three, but the priority would be in the order I’ve described.

Which of these 3 ventures is requiring the most of your time these days?

My freelance editing is what pays the bills these days. That would probably fall under your heading of book doctor.

What are your thoughts on the state of Christian Speculative Fiction?

LOL, I ask this question every month for my featured interviews at WhereTheMapEnds.com. It’s only fitting that I should have it asked of me.

The state of Christian speculative fiction writing is as strong as it’s ever been. Perhaps stronger, as so many adults and about every Christian teen writer is producing amazing Christian speculative fiction.

The state of Christian speculative fiction publishing is both awful and wonderful. It’s awful through traditional publishing channels: the big Christian houses do not publish much spec fic. Nor should they. Their audience wants Amish romances not Alien rampages, you know? They would be making foolish business decisions if they published more speculative fiction than they do. But they keep trying, now and then, hoping to find the next Left Behind.

Since the start of your publishing company in 2008 are sales in this genre increasing?

I don’t have access to those numbers, but I would suspect they are not increasing. If they were increasing, you’d see publishers falling over themselves to publish as much Christian speculative fiction as they could get their hands on. That’s not happening [ahem].

CBA houses took a run at vampire fiction over the last couple of years. The fact that those series are being ended—sometimes before the final books are published—and no new vampire series are coming out is a good indicator of how that worked out for them.

But Ted Dekker’s books continue to sell well, which is a blessing for all of us—not least Ted and his publisher. Still, I think the Christian fiction reading demographic gives the occasional pass for a token author in a given field. Right now, it seems that pass belongs to Ted. He’s “the weird author,” a designation allowed by the audience in very small numbers. Sort of like “the town elder” or “the town lamplighter.” You don’t need that many.

But there are thousands of talented Christian spec fiction authors. That’s why I launched Marcher Lord Press—to give those authors a voice and to let the many readers of these genres find more of what they love.

Is there anyone else publishing this genre?

Yes. Nearly all the major CBA houses publish the occasional purely speculative title. They’re even more likely to publish traditional novels with a speculative twist. A good example of this is Nancy Moser’s excellent Time Lottery novels. The mechanism propelling the story was speculative: winners of a special lottery got to go back in time in their own lives to see if they would make choices differently. But the novels themselves were about relationships and choices, the things the core CBA fiction readership love.

Strang Communications has the Realms imprint, which, at its launch, was committed to Christian speculative fiction. They still do spiritual warfare novels, but they’ve recently branched out to the bonnet and buggy genres too, possibly to try to stay (or become) profitable with fiction.

Some other Christian publishers have become known for publishing speculative fiction in the past, usually because of some author or series that became popular. AMG is known for Bryan Davis’s Dragons in Our Midst series. Tyndale made the most of the Left Behind series. Waterbrook publishes Donita K. Paul and her very popular dragon books.

Note that Bryan Davis and Donita K. Paul write for YA (youth) audiences, which is the subgroup of the Christian fiction demographic that is giving fantasy a warmer reception.

Why do you enjoy Christian Speculative fiction, besides standard reality based fiction being boring?

The stories that impacted me most as a person—and that made me want to become a storyteller—were all speculative. I was 12 when the original Star Wars movie came out. I can still remember sitting in the theater that day. It felt as if Lucas had unscrewed the top of my head and plugged his movie directly into it, so perfect was the storytelling. I discovered later that the reason for this was that he had tapped into the hero’s journey (Google that term and Joseph Campbell). The next story that did that to me was The Lord of the Rings, which I discovered in college. Another hero’s journey story.

The fiction that made my heart and mind jump were all speculative. So when I sat down to write fiction, it was no surprise that speculative stories were what naturally came to me.

Where do you get your ideas for plots?

Everywhere. I get a lot by reading LiveScience.com because many of the breakthroughs and developments lend themselves to speculative ideas, like the fungus that takes over the minds of certain ants. The ants become zombies controlled by the fungus, which they’ve unwittingly picked up. The fungus causes them to go directly to the forest floor and die, where their decaying bodies become the homes of more fungus. Incredible.

So…what if that were to happen on Earth? A supposedly benign space fungus is brought to Earth—but then the scientists studying it become zombies, walking in hordes to dark damp places and dying, letting more alien fungus grow from their bodies.

Hey, you asked! Now you get a glimpse into the mind of a speculative fiction author!

How strong is the Christian message in your writing?

I hope it’s unmistakable. But neither is it to be a sermon. The idea is to craft stories that have Christianity so central to them that you can’t tell the story without it.

For example, I published a SF series about a future in which all religions are outlawed and a rebellious teenager finds the last Bible. The secret police are after him. He wants to sell the thing for the paper value. And his father wants him to get rid of it so the secret police will leave them alone. But he’s begun to read the Bible and it’s beginning to do something to him… That’s Steve Rzasa’s The Word Reclaimed and The Word Unleashed (Marcher Lord Press).

This is true in my own writing, as well. My second trilogy (Operation: Firebrand) is about a Navy SEAL who is a new Christian. On a mission, in which he’s supposed to assassinate someone in his role as sniper, he hesitates, wondering how this reconciles with his newfound faith. The hesitation causes his best friend to become terribly injured. His guilt and attempts to understand his faith propel the rest of the book. Plus, there’s explosions and pretty girls, so what’s not to like?

Is the gospel clearly given in your novels?

No. Well, in both my trilogies, the third book in the trilogy is usually the strongest in terms of what amount of gospel content they have. In both third books, a character comes to Christ.

In your partial novel Grasping At Angles the main character, John Green has bitterness toward the Lord clearly setting us up for a salvation encounter. Do your science-fiction/fantasy novels do the same?

Some do. The point in my fiction isn’t to bring readers to Christ directly, as with a gospel tract. Rather, I’m doing apologetics, showing real (read: flawed) Christians trying to live the Christian life and showing the hope and peace they find in Him. Living it out trumps preaching in my book—and my books!

Is your audience mainly male?
Surprisingly, no. I do have a lot more male readers than most Christian novelists, but the primary Christian fiction reader—even of speculative and military fiction—is female.

It was a pleasure speaking with you, Jeff. I look forward to your seeing you on May 1 and God bless all of your ventures.

Don Alban, Editor of Power for Living Magazine
Questions written by Edie Glaser
Answers written by Donald Alban

Hello Don. On behalf of our members and attendees, we appreciate you sharing your expertise in this interview and at the conference. Here we go with the first question:

Many hopeful writers wonder what the best path is toward becoming a working Christian writer. What was that path for you (practically and spiritually) and what would you do differently, if anything?

My path into this field was mostly unintentional. I grew up in a ministry family and resolved during my college years to pursue the missionary calling that my parents had followed to Brazil before my birth. When I graduated from college, I pursued this goal. Unfortunately—or providentially, as it turned out—I had little success raising needed funds, so I took this to be a confirmation of others’ suggestions that God had better equipped me for service in another venue, one that also had long interested me—public service of some sort. I followed this new vision, first, to law school and then to a graduate program in journalism.

After completing an MA in Journalism, I went to work for a daily newspaper as a reporter for a year or so, uncertain how God might blend my diverse experiences. He provided an answer in late 1994 when Scripture Press Publications, then located in Wheaton, Illinois, contacted me about Power for Living’s open editorship. After an on-site interview, SP offered me the position—partly, I later learned, because I was the only candidate with both theological and journalistic training. As it turned out, God brought my diverse experiences together in His time, and I’ve been privileged since then to watch Him impact many lives through the publication.

What would I do differently?

First, to the extent that it’s possible, I would be less self-sufficient than I once was. God’s Word states that “The heart of a man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps” (Prov. 16:9, ESV).

While it’s important to take steps toward fulfilling your God-given vision, we shouldn’t lose perspective. If the vision is indeed God-given, He will create the right opportunities for realizing it and will do so when the time is right. Perhaps experience alone can impress this truth on the human heart, but assimilating it early in life can spare someone—indeed, it might have spared me—from the anxiety and confusion that can pollute our lives when our sense of self-sufficiency is overinflated.

Second, had I known that Christian publishing was part of God’s call for me, I suppose I might have devoted more time to scrutinizing the content of Christian publications. Most Christian publishers and publications have very specific missions, and their audiences have very specific expectations that the publishers and publications must satisfy. Would-be contributors to their pages do well to study these works with this in mind and to channel their services only to publishers whose mission corresponds with their own. 

Power for Living magazine is a ministry boldly proclaiming Christ to 250,000 weekly readers. As its editor, what role does theology play in the publishing strategy of PFL and from what or from whom does PFL base its theology?

I submit, first of all, that all writing is theologically motivated. A writer’s assumptions about human origin, human nature, human purpose, human destiny, and values (whether moral or aesthetic)—which, fundamentally, are always faith-based—inevitably frames his or her writing about virtually anything.

What does the writer choose to write about?

How does he or she write about it?

Why does the writer write about it as he or she does?

What does his or her story say about the good, the true, and the beautiful?

A writer’s answers to questions like these—which are implicit, if not explicit, in virtually any story—are always grounded and motivated in a theology of some sort.

Perhaps the real question, then, is not whether theology plays a role in our publishing strategy, but which theology motivates our publishing strategy.

Scripture Press’s theology is Biblically grounded, and our publications are expressions of this. We believe God’s Word discloses otherwise indiscernible, foundational truths that are meant to be lived, not merely “believed” in some Platonically abstract sense.

How does Power for Living espouse these truths in its articles?

Since its inception in 1943, Power for Living’s mission has been to advance this understanding through stories about ordinary people whose recited experiences communicate not merely these truthful principles, but also their relevance to everyday living.  Truth is something to be lived. Among the Biblical passages that teach this is 2 Timothy 3:16-17:

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped, for every good work.”

Do you see a trend away from this theological truth in today’s Christian writing market?

As noted, all writing is theologically informed and motivated, so in a sense any perceived drift away from theology is illusory. If anything, theology has become less explicit in Christian publishing than it used to be. For reasons amply exposited by Neil Postman, Walter Ong, and other media ecologists, our culture is more visual, less verbal, less imaginative, and more entertainment-oriented (versus information-oriented) than it used to be. This, along with the culture’s related shift toward moral and aesthetic relativism, has created an environment in which even people, including Christians, choose their media based more on its entertainment value than on its informational or truth value. 

Our consumeristic credo is more egocentric than Theocentric. Not surprisingly, then, theology, at least in its traditionally abstract packaging, holds little appeal in a culture like ours, so it tends not to sell very well. When’s the last time you stepped into a Christian bookstore with a theology section that is larger than its fiction section?

We can respond to this trend in a couple of ways. First, we can wring our hands, decry the culture’s shift in this direction, and continue to publish works in the traditionally abstract forms that modern readers won’t read anyway. But this doesn’t change the fact that the culture is where it is. The second approach, which I believe to be Biblical, is to meet people where they are, to present the same message to them in the language and media forms that most effectively get the message across to them. Our message doesn’t change, but the forms for communicating it do. Jesus certainly practiced this principle in his interactions with diverse audiences. So did the Apostle Paul, who explicitly endorsed it in 1 Corinthians 9: 21-23.

This explains why I continue to believe so strongly in "Power for Living’s" mission. Its historic mission is to communicate the truthfulness and practical relevance of specific Biblical teachings via compelling stories (the types of stories disinterested readers would want to read) about real people whose recited experiences do just that. Our format is highly narrative, highly visual, and brief—essentials for capturing an audience’s attention in today’s publishing world.

Your second session, “Third Person Testimonials,” delves into what makes a successful Christian profile. What is the most common mistake writers make in attempting this unique genre and where can profile writers find success in publishing them? 

I could list several common mistakes, but two are especially common. First, profilers who profile personal acquaintances sometimes fail to realize that, while the profilee’s story is personally interesting to the profiler, it’s not likely to be interesting to an audience of strangers.  We reject scores of profile submissions for this reason every year.

As I teach my journalism students, the writer needs to gauge a prospective story’s interest value not via his or her own eyes, but via the eyes of the story’s likely readers. 

To qualify for publication in PFL, a story must not just affirm a Biblical principle, it also must have the unusualness component that makes it potentially interesting to disinterested readers. A story about someone’s struggle with cancer, though perhaps laudable, is too commonplace to provoke such interest unless, of course, it involves a famous person or some other such element that makes the story unusual. Writers would do well to focus on the variables that make a story unusual in the way that draws an editor’s notice. Ken Blake provides a helpful overview of these variables on his website.

A second common mistake that writers of profiles would do well to avoid concerns the story’s plot structure.

Although PFL’s stories concern real people, we urge writers to construct the stories in the third person voice, using a mostly chronological, pyramidal plot scheme that writers of fictional stories commonly use. A pyramidal story begins with the introduction of a crisis (social, financial, physical, emotional, spiritual, etc) that the writer then exposits, chronologically perhaps, in a way that intensifies the reader’s sense of the crisis and provokes his or her longing for its resolution. Later in the story, the crisis, or the reader’s sense of it, peaks in a climactic moment, a turning point, when the crisis begins its move toward resolution. The story then finds resolution. In PFL, this section usually includes quoted statements from the profilee in which he or she identifies the Biblical principle that his or her recited experience affirms and that readers can apply to their own life experiences.

Visit Writing.com for a brief but sufficient overview of this plot structure, as it appears in the classic children’s tale, “Little Red Riding Hood."

Now for some tools of the trade. What do you suggest writers use to help perfect their craft?

I have no software to recommend, other than MS-Word. However, I recommend that would-be writers of non-fiction study works on how to practice this craft effectively, works like Lee Gutkind’s The Art of Creative Nonfiction, Mark Kramer and Wendy Call’s Telling True Stories and Jon Franklin’s Writing for Story.

I also encourage writers to review writings of this type that has made its way into print, and especially those writings that have received awards for their excellence.  Norman Sims and Mark Kramer’s Literary Journalism is a fine collection of such work.

What are three qualities that you believe effective writers for the Kingdom possess?

•    Humility
•    Versatility
•    Persistence

And finally, where can writers learn more about you and PFL?

Donald H. Alban, Jr., PhD
Associate Professor of Communication
Liberty University
1971 University Blvd.
Lynchburg, VA 24502
E-mail: don.alban@davidccook.com
Power For Living promotional website

Thank you so much for taking the time to compose such thoughtful answers. We look forward to seeing you and your wife, Vangie, at the conference.

 


 

Susan King, Editor of The Upper Room, a daily devotional guide
Questions written by E. Glaser
Answers written by Susan King

Hello Susan,

Thank you for being a part of our faculty interview series. Our readers look forward to your responses. Here we go...

Many writers wonder what is the best path toward becoming a working Christian writer. What was that path for you and what would you do differently, if anything?

Best path: 

Start out as a freelance writer. This helps build your resume.

Otherwise, the best path to becoming a writer is the same as the best path to becoming an editor (or any other highly-competitive profession). That way in the writing world is to choose a publisher you’d like to work for someday and offer to work as an unpaid intern. It’s amazing how many interns eventually get hired because:

• They are a known quantity and this known quantity has displayed excellent skills, and
  
• The employer doesn’t have to go to any effort or expense in seeking someone to fill that position.  In other words, you are the right person in the right place at the right time. 

Additional benefits to interning are:

• You’re learning and/or honing important skills.
• The internship alone looks good on your resume (and will yield professional recommendations).
• You can continue your freelance writing at the same time.

This is what I did:

I began as a freelance writer career because I wanted to stay home to care for my children until they were in school.  However, circumstances required that I look for a position outside the home when my youngest was two. At that time, I got a job as a writer and editor based on my freelance resume and clippings.

What is the most fulfilling part of your work as an editor for The Upper Room?

As I tell my friends about my work at The Upper Room, “I get paid to read the Bible every day!”  Also, it is very satisfying to work for a magazine that makes such a difference in the lives of millions of people worldwide.

My favorite individual task in working for The Upper Room is speaking at conferences and mentoring writers—helping them to achieve excellence in their craft.

What do you feel is the most challenging/difficult aspect of editing devotionals in contrast to editing other non-fiction works?

To the degree that devotionals are harder to write, they are harder to edit.  The essence of good writing is saying a lot with a little.  Therefore, given the length of our meditations and how much we expect from each one, writing devotionals for The Upper Room requires the most advanced skills a writer can acquire.  We three editors have to possess the same skills to edit each meditation.

Is it really easier for a new Christian writer to get published in the devotional market or is that a myth?

As long as a person puts in the effort to acquire the skills of writing, to polish those skills, and then to adapt them to the particular genre of devotionals, it is absolutely easier to get published in that market over many others.

The main reason is that many devotional magazines have a high percentage of opportunities for freelance writers. The Upper Room, for example, is 100% freelance written.  This means that we have openings for freelance submissions 365 times in a year.

Another concrete indication of how open and welcoming a devotional magazine like ours can be is the number of accomplished writers and editors (many of them speakers at Christian writers’ conferences all over the country) whose first published work appeared in The Upper Room.

How would you define a superior devotional?

I actually have 12 hours of instruction on this topic!

However, to get a glimpse of what The Upper Room is looking for, you can refer to our guidelines.

In a nutshell, our basic criterion in evaluating a meditation is this: 

Will it be helpful to a reader in a similar situation? 

We want meditations that show real people struggling to live faithfully in real-life situations, with the Bible as the touchstone for and measure of faithful living.  We believe that God wills only good for each of us and that God calls us to lives of love, forgiveness, and service to others, according to the example of Christ.

The Upper Room's mission is to provide a model of practical Christianity, accessible in varied formats, to help people feel invited and welcomed into God’s presence to:

• listen to scripture as God’s personal message, linking their stories to God’s story
• commune with God in prayer
• see their daily choices and small acts of obedience as part of God’s work
• realize our connection through Christ as a universal family of seekers who want to know God
• encounter the living Christ and be transformed into Christ’s likeness.

Typically, the elements of an Upper Room devotional would be:

1. True personal experience—either 1) the writer's or 2) that of someone close to him/her, or possibly 3) that of a person or persons in the Bible. (If #2, then the writer needs to establish this person’s relationship to him/her, as in “my mother/brother/son/friend/neighbor/coworker,” etc.).
   
   
2. Direct connection to God (spiritual application within the temporal experience).
   
   
3. Usually a third element is also necessary. This would be a small section at the end in which you help the reader to make an application in his/her own life (since he/she may never have experienced what you experienced—or even may not yet have experienced a relationship with God).

Remember that the focus is not the personal experience per se, but to teach the reader something that will cause him/her to live that day differently than he/she would have before reading your devotional.  In other words, give the reader concrete, practical tools for dealing with situations that would be in some way like the situation you encountered.  (In fact, one of the methods for the third element is to list possible similar life situations that might apply to the readers.)

In your first session, you will be teaching the four essentials of writing a devotional. Would you please share three qualities (writing style or other) that superior devotional writers seem to possess?

Actually, the qualities I’ll be focusing on in the workshop are the qualities of the writing itself:

• biblical basis
• authenticity
• concentration on a single dominant image
• universality

The qualities that writers of superior devotionals tend to possess (and every editor of a Christian publication would appreciate) are:

• Daily reading of and meditating on God’s Word
• Top-notch writing skills (the ability to write tight and to edit oneself—something I will be addressing in my second-session workshop)
• Teachability

This involves seeking instruction in your craft, paying attention and asking questions when you don’t understand, and then going out and doing what you’ve been taught. In practical terms, this means giving each publication’s editors exactly what they want. This involves:

• researching what a particular publication publishes,
  
• writing to that publication’s needs, and
  
• being willing and able to alter what you’ve written at the request of the editor and to that editor's specifications.

John Fox, Short Story Writer and BookFox Blogger
Questions written by E. Glaser
Answers written by John Fox
Visit John at TheJohnFox.com

Your first session is “Top Blogging Secrets: How to Build Your Career and Brand.” In what ways has blogging helped build your career and brand?

The editors of US Airways, the LA Times, and PBS found me through my blog and asked me to freelance for them. Plus, I’ve made an enormous amount of contacts in the world of publishers, publicists, and editors.

What one thing should beginning bloggers avoid?

Thinking short term. Google rankings depend on the age of your site and the amount of content. And nobody in the blogging world trusts you until you’ve been around for at least a year.

Your second session is “The Ultimate Strategy Guide for Literary Journal Submissions.” Would you give us a peek into this talk by sharing one of these strategies?

For a peek, I’ll ask a question. Do you know the four levels of rejection slips? Correct interpretation of your rejections can prove mighty handy in knowing which journals to persevere on and which to forget.

Should writers apply differently to Christian literary journals?

The Christian literary journals are "Ruminate," "Relief," and the big dog, "Image." "Rock & Sling" died, and so did "Mars Hill Review." The most important thing to know about Christian literary journals is that they’re no different. They just want a good story, good characters, and good writing. Also, remember the faith element should not function like a sledgehammer.

As a short story aficionado, what appeals to you about the short story?

As far as writing, it’s much more manageable, and much more friendly to experimentation. As far as reading, I love the punch. A short story can whale on you, and knock you out quick. Also, I love the way a collection amplifies all its individual stories into a resonating whole.

What three qualities must an effective writer for the Kingdom possess?

I call them virtues. Above my desk I’ve taped a paper with three words. The first is courage, because you’ve got to be brave to write what could destroy you or others. The second is perseverance because no writer who said, “I’ll give it a year” has ever succeeded—you have to give it your life. The third is discipline, because if you don’t flog yourself to write, nobody will.

If those three terms sound vague or sentimental, it’s only because you haven’t been on the journey long enough. Eventually you want to sell out your courage and write fluff that gets published. Eventually—meaning that 800th rejection letter—you want to slough off on perseverance and slide into a less demanding form of writing. And every day it’s a struggle to discipline yourself to sit in a chair for hours. Those are the perennial battles.

It’s not about possessing the virtues as much as nurturing them. Possession implies something static, while your reservoir of virtues will rise and ebb. Feed and grow these virtues. It’ll pay off.

Thank you John and many blessings on your blogging efforts.

Kathi Macias, Author/Editor
Questions written by E. Glaser
Answers written by Kathi Macias
www.kathimacias.com and http://kathieasywritermacias.blogspot.com

Your first session is “Basic Building Blocks for Establishing a Successful Writing/Editing Career.” Is this a highly competitive field? If so, how do advise new editors to overcome this obstacle?

Breaking into this sort of field is a bit like trying to break into acting or singing: many try but few succeed. Much of that is because people aren’t willing to spend the time to learn how to do it correctly by building their career from the bottom up. Few people start at the top, but the successful ones are committed to sticking with it and working their way up as their career is established, little by little.

Your second session is: “Publishing Options in Today's Changing Markets.” What publishing methods have you used in the past five years and which would you never do again?

In the past twenty-five years, I have primarily used traditional publishers; a couple of times, however, I self-published via Author House. My Train-of-Thought Writing Method Workook is the most successful example. I needed that book published quickly; traditional publishing would have taken a year or more. By self-publishing, it was printed and in my hands within thirty days of submitting it to Author House. They did a quality job and kept me in the loop each step of the way. Because I self-published that book, I still own all the rights and can make changes any time I wish. Though I wouldn’t go that way in every instance, there are certainly times when self-publishing is the best option.

Many hopeful writers/editors wonder what the best path is toward becoming a working Christian writer. What was that path for you (practically and spiritually) and what would you do differently, if anything?

I definitely started at the bottom, writing for free for my church newsletter and eventually becoming the editor. I also wrote a weekly newspaper column for $10/month (honest!) and began selling a few articles to Christian magazines—sometimes for pay, sometimes not. I eventually managed to get an entry-level job at a Christian publishing house, which got my foot in the door and gave me the opportunity to land my first book contract. That was about 25 years ago, and it hasn’t all been easy since. I’ve worn a lot of different hats in the Christian publishing world, but I still get lots of rejections on book proposals. I say that because I don’t want to imply that once you’re “in,” it’s all smooth sailing. I’ve learned that God has a purpose for each project—whether it’s accepted or rejected—and that keeps it in perspective.

As an editor, what are your favorite software or paperware tools?

LOL! I’m an old-school editor who, though grateful for computers and the simplicity they offer when it comes to things like cutting and pasting, I still prefer to do my initial work on hard copy. I know just enough about software to be dangerous. But I know words, I love them, and feel called by God to work with them, whether writing or editing. That’s why I do what I do.

Would you please share three qualities (writing style or other) that you believe effective editors for the Kingdom possess:

• Humility (editors must never forget that it’s NOT their work; they are simply called to help others do the best job possible with their manuscripts)
• Strong biblical understanding/training
• Good journalism or some sort of professional writing/editing training/experience

Kathy Collard Miller, Keynote Speaker #1
Questions written by E. Glaser
Answers written by Kathy Collard Miller
www.KathyCollardMiller.com  and www.KathyCollardMiller.blogspot.com

What do you believe is the most challenging/ difficult aspect of writing for the Kingdom and how do you overcome it?

I think having the right motives. It's so easy to let our own egos motivate us rather than wanting to give glory to God. And unrighteous motives sneak in so subtly. We might want that byline to show our mother we really can do something well. We might want the money to spend on our own pleasures. We might want big sales so that we can become famous and popular. In the beginning we feel very pure in our motives. We'll even say we don't care about the byline. But very easily and subtly, self sneaks in and we want ourselves to be praised rather than God. We can easily learn to correct our grammar, but correcting a greedy or ego-centered or proud heart is a lot harder.
     God has been dealing with me on these issues recently even though I've been writing for 30 years. In fact, I've been in some sort of sabbatical from writing for the last 5 years so that impure motives of my heart can be dealt with. I'm learning in new ways to surrender the pride and idols of success and admit my brokenness and neediness.
     I feel passionate that we writers can seek to have pure hearts all along by seeking God and asking Him to reveal the idols of our hearts. We can open our eyes as the Holy Spirit points out the idols which are the result of impurity. They are revealed when we become jealous of someone else's success. They are revealed when we become angry because someone thinks our work is imperfect and we feel exposed. They are revealed when we become impatient when someone doesn't cooperate with our marvelous plans for success.
     In contrast, pure hearts dedicated to God are revealed through being gracious, forgiving,  understanding, cheerleaders for others, and willing to be seen as imperfect. Pure hearts trust God's sovereign timing and plan. Matters of the heart are harder to work on but much more glorifying to God.

Why did you choose the topic of “Coping with Criticism, Compliments and Competition” as your keynote address? 

I see these as issues of the heart. So often we teach and/or learn about the mechanics of writing but we don't examine the heart which include the motives behind our ministries. God is more concerned with our hearts than our production of articles and books.  Out of a pure heart we'll be able to deal in a godly way with things like criticism, compliments, and competition. That will give glory to the Lord as much as lots of published material.
     Plus, Satan can easily undermine our efforts if he can cause us to act in ungodly ways. We might lash out at criticism rather than see if God wants to use it to prune us. We might become proud from the compliments we receive rather than seeing our skills and talents as gifts from God. And we may see others as our competition rather than our brother and sister in Christ with whom we're on the same team.
     I hope my presentation will help all of us to increase the purity of our hearts that bring glory to God.

Many hopeful writers wonder what the best path is toward becoming a working Christian writer. What was that path for you (practically and spiritually) and what would you do differently, if anything?

First of all, there is no “best” path. Every writer's path is different as directed by God. It's really important not to compare someone else's path with yours or to try to model your path after another writer's. I think that leaves out God's creative touch.
     For myself, I had a desire to write from childhood. Then as an adult when God delivered me from being being an abusive mother, I felt a desire to share my story. In an adult education class, I learned about the query letter. I sent a query to Moody Magazine and they were interested. I wrote it and they published it. After only one other article—a short story—was published, I attended the Forest Home Writers Conference in 1980. That was a blast of amazement! I knew for sure then writing was my calling. After that, I took it seriously as I could while being a wife and mom. I continued to attend writers conferences, took a writing course by mail (no Internet then!), read articles and books about writing and formed a critique group. Little by little my sales built up. And now 30 years later, I have 49 books published and 200 magazine sales. Yet I'm not a household name. But God encourages me with occasional reports of how my writing has made a difference in other's lives. One of my favorite “show and tell” items is a letter from a reader of one of my books who lives in the Sultanate of Oman. She became a Christian because of my book. By the way, I am hoping to have that 50th book published soon! I like round numbers.
     What do I wish I'd done differently? Had more of my heart dedicated to my family in the early years. I think I was too consumed with writing to have given enough of my attention to my young children. My children were 4 and 2 when my first article was accepted and they were 10 and 8 when my first book came out. More specifically the speaking that resulted took me away more than I wished it had, looking back. Yet I must remember that God sovereignly opened those doors, so it boils down to a matter of heart attention. I may have been with my children, but often my heart's attention was focused on writing. Thankfully, God's grace covered my immaturity and I have wonderful relationships with my grown children today. And my daughter wants to be a writer!!
     I also was impatient with God's timing for my success and opportunities. It was hard for me to trust in His sovereignty. I also took rejection personally, which was another sign of lack of trust in God's sovereignty. Today, God's sovereignty is one of His many characteristics that I value the most because it gives me peace and power to follow however He leads.

You have written a broad range of non-fiction from devotionals to memoir to self-help and purely informational. How do you come up with and keep track of all of your ideas and the research for them?

The ideas come from what God is doing in my life at the time. My book on the Proverbs came from trying to come up with a way to study Proverbs myself. My book on worry started when I recognized the extent of worry in my own life. My current project which I'm marketing is Heart Change: Going to the Core of Transformation. (Editors: contact me! LOL). It resulted from the work God is doing in my life for my own growth in holiness. And right now I'm toying with the idea of something about hope, because since I've been in chronic back pain for 7 months, I'm learning to hope not in procedures which have not solved the problem, but in God and His will for me. So for me, projects come out of what God is doing in my own life.
     For organizing, I'm always filing things that I find of interest: both in computer files and manila files. Once I get a theme for a project, my search starts in earnest and I end up with tons more material than I'll use. It's funny how once I know the project theme, it seems like so much of what I read or hear applies to it.
     Plus, I'll specifically read books that relate to the topic. When I have a working table of contents, as I read each book, I'll write down in the margin the chapter number that the information relates to. Sometimes I'll also put a sticky note with the chapter number or do this later when I'm ready to start writing. That way I save time later finding what goes in each chapter.
     In my ebook, Writing Professionally, I share a twelve-step process for organizing and writing a book chapter or article (plus everything else needed for writing successfully). It's available on my website at www.KathyCollardMiller.com.

Is there any particular software or other writing tools you like to use?

No, not really. Oh, except my Synonym Finder. Don't touch my Synonym Finder or someone will get hurt. That applies to chocolate too.

Would you please share three qualities (writing style or other) that you believe effective writers for the Kingdom possess:

• A panting heart for God
• A teachable heart
• A surrendered heart

Thank you Kathy and many blessings on your writing efforts for Christ!