CWFI: Christian Writers Fellowship International (CWFI) Yahoo group was established by Sandy Brooks for subscribers to Cross & Quill. After the magazine ceased publication, the group was opened to non-subscribers. Weekly discussions are based on a Question of the Week, moderated by Donna Clark Goodrich. Overt promotion is discouraged on the group, but members are encouraged to report publishing successes.  Apply for membership in the group at the link above.

CWGI: You must fill out an application form for Christian Writers Group International (CWGI), also a Yahoo group. There is no fee, so this is a much larger group. The last time I checked there were about 800 members worldwide. Discussions are made more interesting by input from members in places like Australia and South Africa.

TWV1: the Writers’ View 1 is for “advanced and professional writers in the Christian market. Topics are advanced and explore the entire publishing process.” Owned by Mary DeMuth, this group requires a membership application and there are a number of panelists covering a wide variety of genres.

TWV2: The Writer’s View 2 is “for beginning/intermediate Christian writers serious about taking their writing to the next level.” Membership application required for this one, too. You must choose which TWV you want to participate in, because you are not allowed to participate in both. Mary also owns this group, but the list of panelists is different.

ACFW: The groups mentioned in this blog are ones that I have participated in or investigated for myself. If you are a fiction writer, check out American Christian Fiction Writers. Member benefits include forums that might be helpful to you.

These groups not only help you improve your writing, but they help you get to know people who can introduce you to others in the industry. I invite comments on this post from people who have participated in other writers’ groups.

Yes, because non-paying markets give you:

• Bylines to use when marketing to other publications. (You can sell reprints after the piece is published.)
• A chance to establish yourself as an expert in your subject matter and showcase your writing.

No, non-paying markets will not get your submissions because:

• It’s just not fair for publications not to pay their writers. (The Bible does teach that the laborer is worthy of his/her wages.)
• You need some income from your writing in order to justify spending time on it.

Maybe, if:

• I’m just not getting published, and I’m ready to try anything.
• I’ve had a lot of work published recently, and I want to “give back” to the community.

How do you feel about this? I’d love to hear your comments. Instructions on how to comment are in a previous post here.

Note: After last week’s article using the Four P’s of the marketing mix to analyze your writing effort, I decided to check and see how many of the articles on Blog4writers fit into the four categories (Product, Promotion, Place, and Price). I could not believe that I had not one single article dealing with Price. This article fills that gap, and I plan to add more this year.

And I need your assistance:

I’m planning subject matter for Blog4Writers 2011. Please help my participating in my one-question survey. Just click on the “Take Our Survey” button and go where it leads.

If you haven’t planned to attend a conference this year, now’s the time to consider it. If cost is a factor, look for a conference nearby to keep travel expenses down. If you have never attended a conference before, choose one of the smaller ones to “get your feet wet.” So, how do you go about finding the right conference?

• Search online for conferences in your area at Shawguides.com. For Christian conferences, go to Sally Stuart’s conferences page. Sally has not updated the list for 2011, but the list includes links to conference websites.
• Agent Steve Laube offers a conference list on his site here.
• Ask for recommendations from fellow writers. Members of online groups are happy to make recommendations if you don’t have local contacts to help you.
• Visit author John Vonhof’s WritersConferenceGuidelines.com and browse the wealth of information he provides about how to choose a conference and prepare for attendance.

I can answer questions about Kentucky Christian Writers Conference, Indianapolis Christian Writers Conference, and Southern Christian Writers Conference, as I have attended all three numerous times.

See my previous post on conferences, Writers Conferences: Why-to, How-to.

I missed the live event, but I listened to the whole recorded session this morning. Sally answered basic questions like, “Why should you get a new guide each year?” She gave hints on how to get started in the Christian market as well as tips on how to lay the marketing groundwork for your nonfiction book. She spent a few minutes on the children’s market. After a brief discussion on agents, Sally dove into questions about self-publishing. She briefly touched on social marketing for fiction and nonfiction writers.

After 25 years of producing the market guide, Sally knows a thing or two about what you need to do to get published. Primarily, she said, good writing will sell. Work to improve your craft, know your audience, and strive to become “the best writer you can be.”

I learned so much, but I don’t want to spoil it for you. It was like being in a conference workshop with Sally Stuart. The teleseminar took place yesterday (January 20, 2010). If you missed it, you can still listen to the whole thing by going to www.asksallystuart.com. Then, fill in your first name and e-mail address and click “Here’s my question, Sally.” You will receive an e-mail with a link to a Web location where you can download the entire teleseminar.

I encourage you to do the download now. It’s free! It takes about an hour to listen to the whole thing. Once you’ve got it on your computer, you can listen to it any time.

Some say that Sally’s guide is not necessary now that so many publishers offer their guidelines on the Web. However, it’s often hard to find the guidelines or even a publisher’s site unless you have the details offered in Sally’s guide listings. Sometimes the publication title will show up in a search, but you have to hunt around for guidelines. Also, Sally gives information that you’ll never find in guidelines. For example, in the magazine listings, you’ll find details like what percentage of their articles are written by freelance writers and what percentage is written by in-house writers. If the percentage of freelance is, say, 10%, then you might not want to waste your time submitting to that publication. Conversely, if the percentage is 90%, then your chances of success would be much greater.

I’ve also heard writers say that the Stuart guide is outdated because it needs to be online. Recent editions have included a CD with the entire guide in Word format. It’s not as efficient as a database, but you can do searches on the CD. The CD also includes 70 pages of resources that are not included in the printed guide at all. Stuart has changed publishers this year, and she states that the new publisher intends to have an online version in the future.

And—writers new to publishing want to buy or borrow an older version to introduce themselves to the Christian market. Especially for the beginner, the market guide is a critical tool. It costs less than $30, about the same price as a year’s subscription to many magazines, so save yourself a lot of time by using the newest guide. At a conference session, Sally was asked if an older version was suitable for beginners. She stated that, if there were not so many changes each year, she would not bother to put out a new guide each year. So, don’t waste your time trying to update and use old information when Sally has already done it. Stuart posts regular updates to the printed guide in Christian Communicator and on her blog at http://www.stuartmarket.blogspot.com/.

See sample of the guide, including table of contents, introduction and how-to info at Google Books.

Don’t spin your wheels in 2010 trying to succeed in the Christian market without Sally Stuart’s guide. Order your copy direct from Sally on her Web site. You may find the book in your local bookstore, and you can also order from Amazon or ChristianBook.com.

See also:

See Lettie Kirkpatrick Burress’ review of the 2009 edition on my book review blog. Lettie teaches beginner classes in how to write for publication in the Christian market.

5 Minutes for Books

Teleseminar featuring Sally Stuart at http://www.asksallystuart.com/.

It’s hard to say which of the computer-based tools are the most useful, but for Christian writers, I have to say having numerous online Bible versions has to be near the top of the list. For my writing, I’ve tried to find one online source that offers all popular translations. I submit regularly to publishers who use the New International Version (NIV) or the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). In addition, I like to use The Message on my devotional blog.

All sites below offer numerous translations as well as search by keyword or by Bible passage. Let’s take a look at the details.

Blue Letter Bible

• No NRSV or The Message,
• Several commentaries including John Calvin, Martin Luther, Matthew Henry, and Charles Spurgeon,
• Study tools page features charts, outlines, encyclopedias, and dictionaries.
• Images link takes you to several maps.

Bible Gateway

• In addition to search, there’s a topical index,
• Features a number of English translations, including The Message,
• Does not have NRSV,
• Allows you to put the verse of the day on your site,
• Commentary and dictionaries available under Additional Resources.

Bible Study Tools

• Has more English translations than the others, including NRSV, NIV, and The Message,
• Parallel Bible lets you compare two versions on one search,
• Numerous resources including commentaries, dictionaries, encyclopedia, and interlinear Bible.

It can be overwhelming when you try to absorb what’s offered on these sites, so I suggest choosing one and exploring it before going to another. I like Bible Gateway, but, since it doesn’t have the NRSV, I often go to Bible Study Tools instead. Most of the time I don’t need all the stuff that’s on BST, but it does come in handy when research is needed.

I invite readers to comment on these Bible study sites and to offer suggestions on other resources not mentioned here.

In the beginning, the book was developed by William Strunk, Jr., as a teaching aid in college classes at Cornell University. E. B. White was a student of Strunk, and, in 1957, he was asked to revise the book for publication after Strunk’s death.

Strunk’s motto was, “Omit needless words.” A timeless truth. Why muddy the waters with words you don’t need? Express your thoughts as succinctly as possible to keep your reader’s attention.

Elementary rules of usage are covered in Part I, followed by Elementary Principles of Composition (Part II). Matters of form, commonly misused words, and a section entitled “An Approach to Style” complete the book.

As mentioned earlier, this book has been recommended in numerous writers’ workshops I have attended. However, I’ve discovered that Elements of Style does not enjoy universal endorsement. See a collection of articles criticizing this venerable reference on the New York Times site. Don’t stop there, though. Read the comments on that article. I think, to say the least, the value of  Strunk & White for writers is up for debate.

I suggest that you buy or borrow a copy and read it for yourself. To have lasted to long and to be recommended by so many people, there must be something of value between the covers! Buy it on Amazon: The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition

Marketing Lessons from the World of Retail (by T. L. Higley on Christian Author Network blog). This one offers some specifics about Facebook.  Higley has other posts by the same title here and here.

Marketing Principles: Agent Rachelle Gardner features writer and marketing consultant Jim Rubart in a three-part series. Scroll to the bottom of the link to read the first article and work your way back to the top.

The Twitter URL is http://twitter.com/WWGT (What would God tweet). The writer’s moniker is Holy Ghostwriter, and the location is listed as “heaven.”  The Twitter page shows a link to an article on a Web site named Not the LA Times. Huh? And, God Himself is supposed to be the writer.

The writer attempts to craft Bible verses in the latest modern language while keeping it under the 140-character per-tweet limit. Spiced with humor, the writing is very creative.  On the Twitter venue, the writer is sure to reach some people who don’t know or have lost interest in the Bible.

Check out this example of the Twitter “translation.”

“Jesus foresees Twitter, shortens 10 Commandments to under 140 characters: Love God 110%, love neighbor like self. (Mark 12.30-31)”

OK, so I should have called it a paraphrase instead of a translation. I’m going to follow WWGT for a while and see where it goes. Check back next week for my article on the online Bible study tools.

There’s been a lot of discussion about self-publishing on the Internet lately because of recent announcements by royalty publishers that they are going into the self-publishing business. That must mean that self-publishing is the wave of the future. Or, it could mean that the royalty publishers are just looking for another way to enhance the bottom line.

If you are considering self-publishing, ask yourself these questions:

• Is your work really ready for publication? Even if you answer “yes,” you should submit your work for a professional critique. Most of us cannot really be objective about our own work. You may need to hire a “book doctor” to get your book into “saleable” shape.
• Are you ready and willing to sell your own books? The answer to this one must be “yes,” because nobody will sell them for you. Having a listing on Amazon or other sites is not going to yield enough sales to recoup your investment.
• Do you have a speaking ministry or other platform to help you sell your books? If not, perhaps you’re better off building a platform before you invest in your book.

If you know you’re ready to self-publish, choose a reputable company that is recommended by other writers. Do not look for bargain basement deals. Look instead for value and dependability. See the resource material I’ve listed below as you expand your research on self-publishing. If you don’t read anything else in the list below, read Jim Watkins’ article.

Recent Online Buzz about Self-Publishing:

Chip MacGregor’s Blog (Agent)

Rachelle Gardner (Agent) has two posts, “A Rant and a Q4U” and “My Final Comments on Self-publishing.”

Jim Watkins Article

Writer Beware Blogs!

Web Sites for Self-Publishing Companies

Some of these companies offer print on demand services, too.

ACW Press

Intermedia Publishing

Thomas Nelson

Winepress (POD division Pleasant Word)

Note: I have not had personal dealings with any of these companies, so please do not take their listing on this blog as a personal recommendation.