Writer's Conference

                I attended the ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writer’s) online conference on March 21st and 22nd. There were seven sessions in which I fully listened to five of them (I bailed out of a couple of them early) and I had the opportunity to talk to an agent. I learned more about editing, the importance of the first page of the book, how to get publicity, book submission mistakes and marketing. The information I received enlightened as well as discouraged me. Yeah, not what you want to hear, but it’s the truth.

                The editing and first page sessions made me realize I need to work on my manuscript. My opening line is supposed to hook a reader into wanting to read more. Here is what I originally wrote:

High above the arid landscape surrounding a ghost town known as White Hills, Arizona hovered a malevolent entity shrouded from human eyes.

                Does that grab your attention and want to make you read more? Maybe it does, but I thought it could be better. I changed it to:

Atasaya, Prince of Hell, refused to let it happen, especially in his territory.

                Doesn’t that just grab your attention? Refused to let what happen? Not good enough? How about …

Atasaya, Prince of Hell, clenched his fists as he glared down at the army base sprawled out before him. He won’t let the Paladin of God rise in his territory, especially from the psis on that base.

                Anyway, the class certainly ignited my brain to think about what I wrote and how it could be better. The instructor of the class graciously offered all attendees a single read of our first pages, and she would comment on them. When I received mine back, she thought it was “oh…kay”, as she put it, which I interpreted to mean…mediocre. She thought the first line for the genre was strong (I sent the single line version above), but since she doesn’t read sci-fi/fantasy, it “didn’t wake her up.” Okay, that was a mix of encouragement and discouragement.

                The publicity and marketing classes honestly made me want to cry. There is so much to the author business I didn’t know about, or hoped I wouldn’t have to deal with it. Afterall, that’s what the publisher is for, right? Wrong. The big takeaway from these classes is that I need to have my “platform” and “brand” in place before I can secure the help of an agent or contact publishers directly. They say I need to have two to three thousand people following me on social networks, but more importantly on my e-mail list of newsletter subscribers.

                Ouch. That’s going to take a lot of work. (I’m at 30-ish.)

                That agent I talked to? She confirmed a lot of what I heard in the classes. Sigh. In our ten-minute appointment, I wanted to cover an agent query letter to see what she thought of it. I attended a different online class in February to learn what it needed for these query letters. It turned out what I was taught didn’t fit what this agent expected. She told me it can vary by agent what they want to see in a query letter. That really didn’t sit well with me, and she saw it on my face. Apparently, there aren’t any standards for these things. So, more learning and revising ahead.

                So where does this all leave me? Well, I was discouraged enough that I wanted to quit writing (again). However, that passed to let the analytical side of my brain take over. I will be going over the recordings of the sessions I attended to take more detailed notes about just what I need to do. The plan is to try and map out how long it might take to accomplish various goals. The biggest being the 2,000 followers/subscribers. The presenter of the class which mentioned this number said it should only take 4-5 months. I suspect it will take me longer than that.

                Hang on folks! This journey may take me another year or two to complete.

I have another conference in July I’ve already signed up to attend. It’s in Grand Rapids and specifically for Sci-fi/Fantasy writers. This may be the start of networking with other writers in order to gain followers.

Please pray for me for guidance. God bless everyone.

Website Update

Completed:

1.      Nadda. Busy with other things.

In the works:

1.      Eric’s world timeline

2.      Canthany system

3.      Psionics System

And many more.

The Paladin Awakens Progress Report

I am up to chapter 27 with the ACFW Scribes critique group. Chapters 28 and 29 will likely be submitted by the time this post is broadcast to everyone. In the meantime, I’m up to chapter 32 of the rewrite. There are 36 chapters and an epilogue, so my portion of the rewrite should be completed in April.

Due to what I learned at the conference, I will end up revamping the prologue and possibly the first two chapters to make them more sellable.