Give Water
Just passing along the call to give from fellow blogger Billy Coffey |
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Times are tough here in western Virginia.
You can see it in the boarded up businesses and the long lines at the employment office. In the vehicles parked in front yards with FOR SALE signs in the windshields, right next to the same sort of sign for the house. The newspapers are full of layoffs, bankruptcies, and health care worries.
Hard times, no doubt about it.
But even in these hard times there are things we take for granted, those basic necessities we can’t live without but are in such abundance we forget their importance. Things like water. I have three bathtubs in my house. Five sinks. Two spigots outside. There’s a creek running alongside our house that give me fresh mountain water for the sprinkler. Water, water everywhere.
Not everyone is so fortunate:
A couple of weeks ago, my friend Bryan Allain (I use that term loosely, since he’s a Red Sox fan) sent me an email asking if I would join with him and some other bloggers in a campaign called 30 Bloggers, 30 Days, $30,000. The goal is to raise $30,000 in 30 days. Here’s the list of fine folks Tyler Stanton and Bryan Allain have assembled:
Bryan Allain, Matt Appling, Trey Boden, Jason Boyett, Everett Bracken, Stephen Brewster, Burnside Writers Collective, Tripp Crosby, Greg Darley, Sam Davidson, Rachel Held Evans, Evan Forester, Chad Gibbs, Susan Isaacs, Kevin Keigley,Lacey Keigley, Wes Molebash, Scott Moore, Eric Olsen, AJ Passman, Katdish, Brad Ruggles, Rob Shepherd, Jeff Shinabarger, Shawn Smucker, Tyler Stanton, Tyler Tarver, Tyler Thigpen, Karen Spears Zacharias
I’ve never asked anyone who reads my blog to dig into their pockets. Like I said above, times are tough. So what I’m going to do is provide you with the information and let your heart talk instead of me. The best part about this campaign is that all money donated will reach a specific group of needy people. Here’s where this money will go:
- Our goal is $30,000. This provides clean water to 1,500 people (300 families, 6 entire communities).
- 100% of the money donated goes towards water projects. Private donors take care of all the overhead.
- $20 provides 1 person clean water for 20 years.
- Our money will go towards building water projects in Central African Republic.
- If you give, charity: water will keep you up-to-date with the status of your project, provide you with GPS coordinates of exactly where the well you contributed to is being built, and take pictures and video along the way.
So, how can you help?
- GIVE. $20 provides clean water for one person for 20 years! Go to the 30 Bloggers, 30 Days, $30,000 site and make a donation.
- SHARE about it on Facebook and Twitter. Follow @charitywater here.
- Blog about it.30 bloggers is simply a starting point. We would love to have more people join in and help spread the word! And if you do blog about it, please let me know so I can link back to your post.
Last but not least, here’s a bunch of cool downloads, banners and twitter backgrounds you can use. Thanks for your time.
Share and Enjoy:
Book Project
"Date, Pray, Wait" is a book about dating from my time to yours. I am taking interviews from singles of all ages as part of my research. If you are interested in participating, please send me a message to suzypooh@comcast.net and give me your email address. I will forward you the online questionnaire to fill out and send back.
Your participation is invaluable. Thanks so much.
Writing Devotionals
Until you try, you probably won't realize how difficult devotional articles are to write. In the 1980s, I wrote devotionals for a variety of magazines. They don't pay much ($10 to $25) and some don't pay anything, but I loved the discipline. I couldn't use extra words, limp phrases, or repetitions. Every word had to justify itself. My first draft often hit 600 words and I had to delete two-thirds of the text and still retain the heart of the material. I loved the discipline.
Here's the next rule: You're forced to stay with one idea. Any good article does that, but if you write for this market, you become aware of sentences that may be interesting, but aren't germane to the topic you address, and you delete them.
One idea expressed well and succinctly:
That's the secret of writing devotionals.
Self-Publishing Coming of Age
Read this great article on self-publishing by Ann Byle in Publishers Weekly: http://ht.ly/2sQOY The world is changing & you need to know.
A Day In The Life Of A Writer
The 10 Commandments of Fiction Writing + some
Stolen Melody Restored
Dry Sockets
12 Suggestions On Finding an Agent
1. One author's suggestion to "do your homework" before selecting an agent is key. DON'T sign up with somebody just because they say they're anagent and they want to represent you. I know that's a temptation, butthis is a professional relationship. Would you go to a guy's office foryour health problems just because he claims to be a doctor? Ask around.Check him out. This is the biggest mistake people make with agents, in my view. This past year at CBA you could toss a rock in the air andwhen it came down it would most likely hit somebody claiming to be an"agent." Um... these guys are going to be taking your ideas and helping you sign legal agreements regarding them. Don't take that lightly.
2. Be wary of any agent who charges a fee or advertises what the charge isto work with them. That's a total violation of the guidelines for theAssociation of Author Representatives (and, in fact, those agentswouldn't be allowed as members of AAR). There are a couple relativelysuccessful agencies in CBA who do that. It's unethical, and authors should stay away, if they want to keep from being scammed. On the otherhand, I was VERY glad to have someone write and tell me that "Steve Laube is my agent and he's good." Don't we all get tired of people sort of beating around the bush, telling us one person is bad and another is good, but never mentioning names? The fact is, Steve IS good. So is Lee Hough and Janet Grant and Wendy Lawton and Rachelle Gardner and NatashaKern and Greg Daniel and Karen Solem and Greg Johnson and Andrea Heinecke and Robert Wolgemuth and Sandra Bishop (the last works with meat MacGregor Literary). My guess is that none of these individuals arefor everyone; and neither am I, of course. But they're all professionals who have proven themselves by doing good work for authors. Beware of working with "Bozo and Associates."
3. Check out more than one source. As an agent, I can be perfect for oneperson and perfectly awful for somebody else. Besides, you're more aptto get the facts that way. For example, there is one person I know who has it in for a particular agent. I've heard her say some really bad(and in my opinion, overblown) things about that individual. Okay...she didn't sell your manuscript. It happens! Get over it and move on to something else.
4. Be realistic. A couple people wrote to me to say, in essence, "I don't have an agent because I like doing my own deals," or words to that effect. Good for you. As an agent, I have to wonder if you know how to negotiate and therefore got the BEST deal, or if you really protected yourselves. Or if you really want to spend your time learning how to do that. Not everybody needs an agent, but if you don't know the market, or don't know about contracts, you might want to think carefully before throwing out the idea.
5. On two or three occasions I've had the chance to see a contract evaluation done by Sally Stuart (who lives in the Northwest and doesthe "Christian Writer's Market Guide" every year). She does great work.If you don't have an agent, at least consider working with Sally or an experienced contract person like Susan Osborne. Some company's contracts read like they were created by lawyers from Mars, so be careful signing a document you don't understand.
6. Cec Murphey, who has been in the business since the Cooledge Administration and became famous after writing dozens of books, knows what he's talking about when he says in a blog post, "Writers can still sell books without agents, especially to the smaller houses. What's wrong with starting with smaller houses?" Nothing. All of us start small and move to bigger things. That's how a career (any career) isbuilt.
7. One author asked, "Are there times when an agent might hinder a publishing opportunity?" Sure...when the guy is a jerk. When he doesn't know the market (which happens a lot...try using an ABA entertainment lawyer working with a smaller CBA house sometime). When he sees negotiation as a "win/lose" proposition. An agent should take theapproach that publishing is a partnership between author, publisher,and agent. If he tries to squeeze the publisher to the point where the publisher is losing money, that is no longer a partnership. Yes, my authors expect me to protect their interests, but I have no interest in pushing publishers into losing money...that just hurts the market for other projects down the road. (But, on the other side, I've seen publishers lowball authors way too many times. A good agent will recognize when that's happening and take steps to protect you.)
8. One writer wrote and asked, "How has having an agent affected therelationships you've built over the years with editors - or has it?" My perspective is that acquisition editors are my friends. Ask around and you'll probably find that most publishers will tell you their relationship with our authors is better than if we weren't in the picture. (Really.)
9. One person wrote to contend that "you should be given copies of your rejection letters," and complained because her agent hadn't shows all the rejections to her. Um... I have to respectfully disagree. It usedto be true, when things were done via snail mail and there were far fewer projects. Now almost everything is done via email and we rarely get a detailed response. Most rejections these days are nothing more than, "We're declining Bob Smith's novel 'Home.'" There's not much info to share. However, whenever I get a detailed response, or thoughts onimproving the manuscript, I forward it to the author... AND I send a thank you note to the editor.
10. I also have to disagree with the folks who contended that "the agent will take over the marketing of my book." Hey, an agent should be able to assist with the planning, but as an author, YOU are most responsible for marketing your book. Do not leave that up to the publisher, the agent, the sales staff, your mom, or anyone else. Nobody knows it better than you, nobody has more investment in it than you, and nobody is more committed to its success than you.
11. Again, the biggest complaint most agented authors have about their agent is "lack of contact." That's why you want somebody who you like (love covering a multitude of sins, and all that). But to the person who wrote to say they hadn't heard from their agent in six months...for goodness' sake! That's terrible, to my way of thinking. I guess every author is different. Some want to hear from their agent every week. Others are happy connecting twice a year. Talk about your expectations with your agent -- make sure you both can live with them. But remember that most agents are working with lots of authors, so be willing to understand his/her business and adjust your thinking.
12. A thought...learn to be polite. I never mind an author saying to me,"HI Chip -- I hadn't heard in a while, and I was just wondering if you had an update for me. Have we heard from anyone?" On the other hand, I have a different reaction when somebody writes and says: "WHAT'S HAPPENING?! HOW COME YOU DON'T CALL AND SAY YOU LOVE ME? FOR GOSH SAKES, I NEED A LOT MORE INFORMATION THAN YOU'RE GIVING! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?" (Of course, my mom used to say that to me, but I prefer not to have the authors I represent talk that way to me.)
Compliments of guest blogger: Chip McGregor
Bartlett Christian Writers host first workshop
