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Cowboy Musings
Volume Four
Computers Will Fool Us The Dead Whisper On I could be old-fashioned Talking about rejection again I Don't Get It Had a Nice Birthday God Talking to Me Church Conflict Barnes and Noble Test Philly Report Not only with words . . . but also with power! Laugh-in As a Writing Lesson? Satan's in your Inbox No Guarantee of Tomorrow A New Client List A Mobile Office Ashamed of Legislators To Dance in the Desert The Hair Shirt Harry Potter – friend or foe? One Step Over the Border Information Overload I've Been to the 'People Store' Back in the Saddle Again International Christian Retailers Show Message from God Holidays can be Distractions Always or Never? It's a Guy Thing Voters are Bigots It's All About People Manuscript Guidelines It's you job to sell them Meet you in Philadelphia Website Record Day of Happy – Day of Sad I Don't Want to Know Back in the Dorm Packing New Industry Numbers How Much is Enough? 4 Day Weekend Working Proposals Conference Aftermath Colorado Christian Writers Headed to the mountains They don't wanna read my stuff Changing Character Names Top Ten List for Short Fiction Turn the other cheek End Times? Classic Submission profanity Encouragement POD Bias?
Entertain Angels Unaware? Leave the VT Kids Alone Hardest Rejections Re-affirmation First Fiction Guest Blogging again New Western site Speaking Modules Facing the Giants
Lions WIN Road Trip Still more on books
for boys More
on books for boys Workaholics No Fridays Politics Publisher Migration
I Like Faces
Hanging out
Meeting Will Rogers
New
Interview The
Publishing industry Thoughts on queries
I don't do subtle well.
When there is a
problem with a computer or with a computer program, the largest key to being
able to fix it is deciphering the clues the computer gives us. Ruling out
things it can't be by simple tests. For example my email quit working. The
first step there is always resetting the wireless router. Still no. Ah, the
internet is still working. That means it has to be the email server itself.
Plug in the wireless card and try through it. Works. That means it has to be
the email interface. Now I'm ready to call them.
I watch the
computer geeks work through problems like this. Of course if we use online
support the hardware people will automatically say it is the program. The
program people will say it's hardware, and of course the internet server people
will blame both. I once got all three online on a conference call before I
could actually get the problem solved. They could no longer blame each other
that way.
Sometimes the
obvious isn't so obvious. Yesterday I decided to reset my mail delivery options
so even though I have to use several mail addresses to send depending on which
server I am on, they would all show one email return address. Less confusing
for people. It seemed to work fine. I went to yahoo groups to set all the groups
that I'm in to recognize it. Email immediately quit coming. I worked on it and
worked on it and spent far more time than I had planned on investing in the
project. Time I really didn't have to spend. Later I found out it wasn't what I
had done at all when yahoo sent a note out that they had experienced some mail
delivery problems which would be fixed shortly. It was just a coincidence that
it happened just as I changed my settings. Spent hours on something that I
didn't do and couldn't fix because I read the 'clues' wrong.
Who knew?
Book Review:
Candace "Canada Mac" MacHugh lives
a ghost of her former life.
Once a proud
Her beloved father is dead and she doesn't speak to her mom. More than anything, Candace Mac misses
her father. He promised to contact her from the "other side" if he
could...but it's been eleven long years. And now even her beloved city of
Candace Mac is alone. Longing for the past. Dreaming of making a difference.
Until one night when her father's voice speaks to her from the shadows. Bud
MacHugh's trademark growl. The dead, it seems, have messages they hunger to
share with the world...warnings of impending disasters and grave danger. Of
cities doomed to burn.
About the Author:
Tony is the author of the acclaimed Waking Lazarus. He has been an advertising agency
owner/principal, a trade amgazine editor, and now a novelist.
He has been a professional writer for more than 15 years with articles
appearing in publications as varied as Log Homes, Conservative Theological
Journal, and Travel & Leisure. He is also Creative Director at
His long list of past odd jobs includes trimming Christmas trees, sorting seed
potatoes, working the graveyard shift at a convenience store, and cleaning
cadaver storage rooms.
The book link is: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764202057
Could
be? Is the Pope Catholic? Of course I'm old-fashioned. I'll admit it. We were
talking about church attire in Sunday
School this past Sunday. Our church is pretty casual. There are like 6-8 men
who wear a suit and tie.
I'm
one of them.
The
point was made that God doesn't care whether we wear a tie or shorts and
sandals if we are genuinely there to worship. I can't argue with that. I do believe God looks at the heart, not the
clothes. But I've worn a suit and tie to
church since before I was a teenager. I don't wear them to impress anybody. It
doesn't concern me what others wear, if they are dressed comfortably and are in
the right spirit to worship then their attire doesn't matter to me. I'm not
trying to win anybody over.
You
see, I wear a suit and tie for ME! In my family we went to church in our very
best, at least for the main service. In the evening we dress a little more
casually. I still dress for church, and always will. To me it is a
It
comes up every so often as if people think I'm implying they aren't being
worshipful by not dressing up. Nothing could be further from the truth. It
isn't about anyone else, it's about me.
It's ONLY about what I want to do to come into the house of God.
Thought
I'd share that and see if anybody else runs into this sort of thing.
For
me rejection is when somebody tells me I have body odor and my mother dresses
me funny. It's personal. The dictionary says it is to repudiate, throw out or discard.
Very
personal.
We
take them hard when one of two things happen, we got our hopes up too much, or
when we take the response too personally.
When
an editor or agent responds it can't be personal, they don't know us that well.
It HAS to simply be about the fit of the project we are proposing to the
Get
our hopes up too much? Sometimes that's hard to prevent. We research the
How
do we keep our hopes from being too high? Write the next project and get it
out. Like a fisherman, the more lines we have in the water the better the
chances of landing the big fish, and the less time we spend watching any one
bobber bouncing on the waves because we're busy watching them all.
Easier
said than done? Sure. But if it was easy everybody would be doing it.
I just got through
going through my submissions log and moving those that I am waiting on a
response that are more than six months old to the inactive file. There were
over 50 of them.
I don't get it.
Someone spends the money to come to a conference, takes the time to make and keep
an appointment, arouses my interest, maybe even gets past the query or proposal
stage, then fails to follow up. I'd like to think perhaps they all found
another agent or publisher but I sincerely doubt that is true. People are
pretty good about dropping me a note if they publish or decide to go with
somebody else. Believe it or not I'm happy to hear of such successes.
So what's the deal?
Why go to that much work and not take the final step? Procrastination is probably the big one, they
just don't get around to it. That's a shame. Some may do it yet and I'll have
to dig it out of the inactive file, only then as I read it I'll have questions
in the back of my mind about whether they can work with a deadline or not.
Some get scared of
success. They are generating interest and it might just work out . . . then
they'd have to get out and do public events and promote, and that scares them
so they sabotage their own efforts. It happens, I've talked to a number of them
in my "Too shy to pitch or promote" program.
Cold feet? Could be
one reason, when they get down to it they decide it just isn't good enough and
are afraid to risk rejection. They shouldn't be, I get notes back on how great
my responses are even if I'm not interested. I may disappoint but I doubt that
I'll hurt their feelings. Or maybe they've already gotten a number of those
rejections and have given up, don't even want to try again. That happens too.
Life could have
just interfered, family, illness, there could be lots of things, but when that
sort of thing happens I tell them to take their time. I want them to wait until
it is just right to send it, and believe me there is no rush on my end. I just
want to know it is still in play.
Maybe I do get it.
I got phone calls, emails and cards all day long.
Granted some of them were a little rough on me. You'd think turning 65 meant
you had one foot in the grave. Saundra and mother took me out to eat at a nice
restaurant. That's what we do. If there is an occasion, we eat. I mean, it's no
accident that I can't see my belt buckle.
Some of the most faithful were the grandkids – phone
calls from nearly all of them. That was terrific. It was the cousins that gave
me the most trouble. I'm the senior cousin, the head man, and I should command
more respect. Besides that, since I hit it first it is a serious tactical error
to do anything to me they do not wish to see repeated in spades when they come
ambling up the path behind me. Serious error.
You would think they would have learned when I turned
40. There was a big ambush then which gave me plenty of time to plan my
retaliation. I did. But I suppose 25 years was ample time to forget that
lesson. It appears it will have to be taught again. Be afraid, cuz, be very
afraid.
Thanks to all of those who took the time to send me a
note, I really appreciated it. Birthdays are not something we celebrate much
but I suppose this one merited notice. We don't have a guarantee on longevity
in this life, not even of tomorrow. Still, mother is 93, Grandad Ward lived to
be a couple of months short of 106, aunts and uncles pushing 90, I guess the
odds are I've still got a few good years left.
So put the black balloons away, I plan to be here for
a while.
For the time will come when they will
not endure sound
doctrine; but after their own lusts
shall they heap to
themselves teachers, having itching
ears.
2
Timothy 4:1-3 KJV
This verse came up in Sunday School. I took it at face
value for how it amplified the lesson. Shortly after that it was mentioned in
the sermon in the morning service in a bit of a different context, but it
caught my attention that it was showing up again. Later that afternoon it was
used to make a different point in discipleship training.
I asked the pastor why he had focused on that verse so
much and he was surprised, not really aware he had used it three times. Okay,
anything in the Bible repeated three times does it for major emphasis. I was
now pretty sure it wasn't something the preacher was intentionally doing.
Each day the International Bible Society puts a verse
on on my web page. I have no control over it and have no idea what the verse
will be, but it surprises me how often it seems directed right at me. Want to
hazard a guess what the verse is today? I was stunned.
If you've read the writing terstimony on my website
you know that God used this sort of affirmation to tell me how He wanted me to
use my writing for Him. He does it periodically when He wants a point to come
through to me loud and clear. That point ends up being affirmed several ways.
Saundra and I went through the "Experiencing God" course to learn how
to better understand and see these affirmations.
What am I supposed to be getting from it? At a
conference in
I often wonder if others are as obtuse as I am, if God
has to be as blatant with them to finally get them to understand the message.
I know, I know, anybody who
has gone to church any length of time has been involved or witness to
churchconflict.
It happens.
Doesn't make it any easier.
I went off to the Philly
conference leaving behind a church that was a real family, happy and close. I
miss the services Sunday because the airlines were busy giving me a guided tour
of the entire
But I digress. I come back
and the Music Minister, the Youth Minister and their entire extended families
are conspicuously absent. In a small church like ours that's a couple of pews
vacant. Pretty hard to not notice, besides the fact that a Deacon was up there
leading the music Wednesday. I start
jumping them about what was going on and get the old "I can't talk about
that" line.
That doesn't work for me.
The Church belongs to the Lord, but beyond that it doesn't belong to the Pastor
and the Deacons, but to the congregation. I resent being told that things like
that are none of my business, and that has happened on several occassions. The
government does it too, keeping so much from us as if we aren't intelligent
enough to be given information, that we're better off with them just taking
care of us.
The rumor mill has a lot of
information, of course, probably much of it wrong. The music minister is one of
my best friends so I talked to him at great length, but I recognize that is
only one side of it. I was a chamber of
commerce manager for 26 years, a professional organization executive. I know
how to manage group interaction and failing to manage the information flow to
the group is not the way to handle a situation like this. We've lost some good
people from the church and could lose more. It didn't have to happen that way.
From what I have pieced together I don't know that I feel strongly about the
situation itself, it does appear to be a church leadership problem. I do have a
problem with the way communication is being handled to the congregation, like
having an elephant in the room that everyone pretends is not there.
We were talking on the
However, in the discussion we can't lose
sight of the fact that one of the most significant reasons for a submission to
fall flat is what I like to call the Barnes and Noble test. In a bookstore
people pull that title down, look at the back cover, sample the first page, and
then either put it on their short list for purchase or put it back and sample
another one. Sure, they may sample some other places, but these are the only
two places we can count on them looking. The job of that first page is to get
them to committ to going further into the book, plain and simple.
I like to see a piece of action that does
not conclude on the first page, a question raised that is not answered on the
first page, curiousity arroused that it not satisfied on the first page, or
anything that will not leave it to chance, but will compell them to go further
into the book. It doesn't matter to me whether it is fiction or non-fiction,
the job is still to get them off that first page as quickly as possible and down
into the book.
Did the format we used work without hurting
the feelings of those allowing their babies to be analyzed? I don't know, I
suppose that is best answered by those who had their pages looked at. Was it an
important session for those who are taking the final steps to send their work
as submissions? You betcha.
I do read further to see if I connect with
the work or not even if I don't think the first page gets it done. If I do I
ask them to put a more compelling opening on it and send it back. If not, well,
somebody else may connect with it better. It's a personal opinion.
The Write His Answer conference in
Philladelphia was excellent. Marlene Bagnull and her people always do a great job.
It was inspirationally fulfilling, content rich, and had an excellent faculty.
I had the opportunity to do 45 interviews plus the unofficial meetings that
always happen over meals and at off times, did two workshops and two panels, so
all together I had the opportunity to interface with a lot of people. I heard
some excellent pitches and had a couple of people say I gave them exactly what
they came to the conference to learn. That's pretty much a divine appointment
and to get the chance to do that a couple of times pretty much made my
participation worthwhile.
The trip home was entertaining. My
connection to the airport didn't quite work out so I missed my first
connection. A young man by the name of Justin went way above and beyond the
call of duty and managed to cut and paste a retun trip together that worked
even though it took six extra hours and required a $300 upgrade. It also just
lacked a couple of states taking me cost to coast then going back to
To accomplish it I had to carry on my
luggage which meant I had to cut back to 2 bags since I couldn't check the two
I had brought. To do that I had to nestle my carryon inside the bag I had
bought books in. I sold a majority of them at the conference, but still had too
many to do it so I had an impromptu booksigning right at the Philly gate
signing them and giving them away. We had something of a book discussion to
determine who got the free books, with Justin of course getting two. Was a
little expensive, but fun. I'm not sure why, but connection problems tend to
happen on the return trip, never on the way to something. Saundra thinks it's
because the devil always conspires to keep me from getting back to her and she
tends to take it very personally. It has
happened the last five trips, one of which I just rented a car in
. . . but also
with power!
That's the theme of the writing conference
here in Philly. I sit here in my motel room contemplating the people who had
appointments with me, the workshops, the panels, it was a busy day. Then there
were the times set aside for worship. I've done a dozen conferences so far this
year with as many left to go. They have been both secular and Christian writing
conferences. Having done a secular conference recently and now at a conference
with a strong faith base, I realize I miss the chance to nourish my spirit even
as I learn things to improve my craft when I'm not at a Chrisian conference.
The attitude is different. Often at other
conferences I find so many who are upset because they can't get started or
because their writing career is not going the way they want. They are so much
in need of help and encouragement because they are on the verge of giving up.
The attitude at conferences like this is so much more uplifted and
encouragement abounds because of the hope that is inheirent in a faith based
program.
At these conferences there is a constant
thread of people supporting each other's work. I've so many people come up
promoting someone else's work when they themselves have a project to pitch.
Seldom have I had that happen at a secular conference, where things are all
writing and all business.
It's a pleasant change, and if you have
never had the opportunity to go to a Christian Writing conference I encourage you to treat yourself and do so.
Three times yesterday I used the
"laugh-in" example to encourage someone who had just gotten a tough
rejection. "Laugh-in", are you kidding me? I got such good feedback I
thought I'd talk about it on the blog this morning.
I know, I know, a lot of you never even heard
of it. It was a really popular show back in the 60's or 70's as I recall, but
you can catch it now and then on a TV channel that runs nostalgia. The idea was
that in one portion of the show all the people in the cast would be behind a
bunch of windows on a wall. One would throw open the shutters and deliver a one
liner, after which another somewhere else would open up and give the punch
line. It was really funny at the time, but just yesterday it popped into my
mind and I realized it was a terrific representation of the publishing
industry.
Publishers have taken over the famous wall
of windows and they throw open the shutters to a publishing opportunity. Then
they get what they want and close it, and another window comes open. Getting
published is all about having the right product at exactly the right place at
the right time, ie when the window is open. Timing is everything. At any given
point in time there may be only one window in the industry where the fit is
perfect.
It also means there will be close calls and
near misses, times when a project makes it up the ladder, so very close, but
only to be beaten out in the end by a project that was just a little better
fit. Lots of people get discouraged by this process and give up before they try
enough windows to find the one where they fit. The ones who are successful are
the ones who stay with it.
I've played the windows game, had shutters
slammed in my face, tried to hit the open slot like trying to hit the gophers that
pop up out of holes in the arcade game (another great analogy). Well, on my way to Philly for the Write His
Answer conference – hope to see you there.
Now and then a notion just strikes me. That
happened this morning. I was over looking at the site stats, and I noted
yesterday that I had people from Ireland, England, Canada, Australia, and a
couple of places that I think are down in South America browsing around on the
site. I have writing friends I talk to who are all over the world. We don't
list where we're from very often so it's easy to forget what a wide range of
folks we're talking to. I get proposals in from an amazing array of countries
even though at present we don't have anybody working with international
clients. I've always been told it is a small world, now I guess it's more true
than ever.
It hasn't been long ago that doing this
would ential having foreign "pen pals" writing letters and figuring
out international postage rates if we'd have known who they were to write to
them, which is unlikely. That or it would involve some very expensive phone
calls or even more expensive travel. Now I know folks all over the world, talk
to them often, and don't think a thing about it. I take it for granted.
While I'm not evangelizing most of the time
as I talk to these people my faith is generally pretty clear, and hard to miss
if you spend any time on my website. I know many others are much better at this
type of witness than I am and every bit as far-reaching contacts as I have. The
power of the internet to reach out and carry the message is awesome. Sure, it
carries other stuff as well, evil stuff, that threatens my mailbox all the
time. I have some friends that get some
of this and their response is to get offline so they don't have to see it. Me,
I figure it's the price I have to pay for such wide-ranging contact.
Sure, I try to do all I can to keep it away,
spam filters, technology, but the final line of defense is the delete key.
These things are a reminder to me that Satan knows exactly how powerful this
medium is and how important it is that we not back out and leave it to him.
My heart goes out to the
people of
The first thing that popped
into my head however, is what a small assurance we have of tomorrow. There are
some at the bottom of the
We went to my 45th
high school reunion a couple of years back. Had a great time, but at one point
when it was time to recognize those classmates who were no longer with us we
released a ballon for each as their name was called. The sky was filled with
balloons, and it really made an impact on us.
One of our number, who
became a preacher, gave a short memorial and he said it really hurt him to
wonder how many of those classmates were never saved, and hurt him worse
because he hadn't shared his faith with them while we were in school together
because it wasn't "cool." "What if I was the one God had in mind
to lead them to Him and I failed to do it?" he said. "That eats at
me."
It isn't surprising a
preacher would think that way. What is surprising is the fact that most of us there
confessed we had thought the same thing many times over the years, that we were
conflicted about that, and about a number of people since. "What if we
were the one, and failed to get it done?"
Nobody on that bridge
planned for that day to be their last . . . but there is just no guarantee of
tomorrow for any of us. We pray for all
involved and for their families, and sincerely pray all who lost their life had
their salvation secure.
I added a new feature on my
website, a list of the clients that I'm working with. The direct link is http://www.terryburns.net/CLIENT_LIST.htm I have to say it has been been slow getting
to this point. Even with a well established agency behind me, I figured it
would take several months to find some projects I wanted to represent, several
more months to get contacts working at various publishing houses (they are
different from those as a writer) and
several more months getting submissions out and fielding responses. That
projection proved to be pretty accurate.
I've gone through 640
proposals, I'm waiting on 72 of them to send me further information, have 28
here I'm working my way through, and have signed 31 clients. I've gone to 11 conferences and have that
many scheduled coming up looking for projects I like and trying to establish
those editorial connections. Finally the pieces are in place and I've sent 119
proposals to over 50 editors, 69 of these proposals are still working and
eleven have requested full manuscripts or have gone further through the
decision process.
I know a number of writer
friends think all you have to do to be an agent is hang out a shingle and start
raking in commissions. That's why I
thought it'd be good to share a little of these stats. It's slow going and
expensive to get started. Fortunately I'm not doing it for the money, but
because I felt led to use my gift of encouragement to encourage other writers
and to help them get their work to
I probably shouldn't be
sharing all this, but I figure people know I've been doing this less than a
year and might be interested in the process. And I think the people that got in
on the ground floor with me are going to be happy they did.
A
I have an office at home,
but my real office is wherever
I happen to be. I take
submissions electronically
so I can work them where I
happen to be.. Some folks
send hard copies anyway and
if I find myself in that
office I deal with them if they
haven't gotten lost or
thrown away before then.
Saundra often drives while
we are on trips so I can
work. I just added a
wireless card to my arsenal to
allow me to do it a little
better. Here we were on the way to
I'm getting and making
phone calls, getting submissions and
answering them by email and
sending off electronic proposals.
I felt like a
wheeler-dealer.
At the same time Saundra is
getting calls related to her massage therapy business, and since her phone is
also a PDA she's looking up her calendar and booking slots. She's on the phone
with her sisters setting up a sister weekend, making airline reservations,
booking rooms, doing business. We got a lot done. Technology today just blows
me away.
After a while we looked at
each other and said, "We really need to learn how to take a little time
off."
Still that block of time in
a car is too good to not use, and it really makes the trip go fast. I know my
commute time in the morning and afternoon, when I have to drive, is one of my
favorite prayer times. But yes, I do keep my eyes open.
I hate to say that, but
it's true and has been getting worse year by year. I'm a rare bird, a real Independent even
carry a voter registration card with that on it. I'm really interested in getting good people
in office, particularly people who might take their faith with them when they
go, regardless what political party they might be in.
Since that's the case I can
throw rocks at either pary in an objective manner, and in this case it isn't
hard to do. When this country was founded, they never thought there would be
such a thing as a 'professional politician' with the possible exception of
Thomas Jefferson. Politics was all he wanted to do. The rest that served were
intended to go do their bit, then go home and live under the laws that they
passed while somebody else did their service.
I cringe as I watch the
infighting. I get the distinct opinion that the issue is never what is good for
the country or what action might best represent the will of the people, but
which party gets credit for doing what and what will most embarrass the other.
I can't imagine what might happen if everybody was genuinely doing what our
forefathers envisioned they should do. Oh, the problems they could solve.
There are times I just want
to turn them all out and start over. Then I hear that government has gotten so
complicated that new people make little contribution until they have had time
to learn how things work. Is that true? Or are they simply not effective until
they learn how to play the game? What if they were all new and had to actually
represent the people because there were no entrenched power structure to have
to cater to in order to get "inside" where they could get something
done. What if we really did send them up there to represent instead of them
spending all their time figuring out how to get re-elected before they are even
unpacked? What if their re-election really did depend on what they did and how
they represented us instead of expensive campaigns and catering to various
minority groups trying to pick up votes and all sort of other political
maneuvering?
Wow! A guy can dream, can't
he?
I'm a member of the Christian Fiction Blog
Alliance
now and once a week will
post a review I have done
as I did with Stephen Bly's
new one last week, or a
review by one of the other
alliance members. This
week is one from River Oak,
the publisher of my
Kathleen Popa.
Kathleen Popa
“Not a safe world.” How many
times had she heard it over and over again? Well, it is not a safe world and
Dara Murphy Brogan knew it better than most, which is exactly why she had
tucked herself away on a desert mountaintop. Now it was just her, the voice
inside her head and the boxes of hastily packed odds and ends—all that was left
of her pathetic excuse of a life. Hadn’t she chosen the desert because it was
barren and brown and dead looking and far, far away from anyone who may have
seen the news?
So what was
this, this trespasser, this interloper, this wacked out earth mother doing
dancing outside her window? Celebrating life and the Spirit in a way Dara never
could have dreamed. Until she opened her door and met Jane Cameron.
A book that makes me laugh is a joy, a book that makes me cry
is a rarity. But a book that moves me to dance is sublime. To Dance in the
Desert is a spectacular experience. Beautifully written, deeply moving, and
warmly engaging—that this is Kathleen Popa’s first novel astounds me. That she
will quickly be counted among the top caliber of Christian novelists delights
me. I simply loved this book. ~Kathryn
Mackel, Author of The Hidden
Kathleen Popa creates a
compelling vision of a small community’s power to coax waning spirits back
toward life. This gem of a novel worked on me like a dream. Popa’s evocative
prose captured the nuance and complexity of transformation with equal parts
mystery and truth. She conjures the deserts of Dara Brogan’s life with intimate
clarity, reminding us along the way of the profound strength of what we take
far too much for granted—the deep friendship of kindred spirits. This is a
journey worth taking.
~Jeff
Berryman, Author of Leaving Ruin
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1589190947
A message came through loud
and clear at church. One of Satan's devices is to get us to compartmentalize
our lives. To put church in a box and only bring it out on Sunday. We tend to
separate our church life from our private life.
None of us that are
believers want to or intend to do this, but I suspect we all do to a degree.
Yet if we are one thing at church and something else in our daily lives,
doesn't that have to mean we are being false at one place or the other? Doesn't
it mean we are pretending to be something we're not when we are in the house of
God? Or if that isn't true are we dealing falsely with the world, hiding our
light, failing to have the witness we are supposed to have?
But this can't mean me, I
spend hours each week at church. I thought that, then in my head I heard,
"This isn't talking about how many hours we spend at church or how we
spend them, but how we utilize the hours outside of church." It's called
being a 'Sunday Christian,' something I would never do intentionally. But without thinking about it . . .
"Okay, Lord, I get
it." It's a fair question and one nobody can answer for us. A true answer probably
involves more and deeper self-examination than we are comfortable with. God has
a way of putting a hair shirt on me occassionally until I learn what He wants
me to learn. Can you imagine how uncomfortable it would be to have to wear a
shirt made of hair?
Bottom line? It isn't what
we do at church but the faith we demonstrate to the world that most closely
shows our walk with the Lord.
I know there is a debate
among Christians as to whether Harry Potter promotes sorcery or other things we
shouldn't be presenting to our kids. I get that. And I'm not getting into that
debate here. I want to talk about something else. The book is blowing the doors
off the bookstores, no doubt about it. Is that a good thing or bad?
I hear the argument about a
blockbuster that "if they weren't paying so much for that book they'd have
more money to start fledging authors or promote midlist authors." Is that
true? I don't think it is. I think it's these big hits that generate the
revenue that allows publishers to take a chance on some other projects, books
they hope they can develop.
Is it fair for somebody
with a big name to make big money off such a book particularly when often the
book is not very well done or more likely than not written by somebody else?
Not suggesting Harry falls in this class but I can think of some politicians
who do. For the answer see above paragraph.
I think there is something
else that enters into the Harry Potter debate. Kids, particularly our
'reluctant reader boys' spend so much time with video games, iPods, TV and
other sources of entertainment that as Thomas Nelson CEO Michael Hyatt said in
his blog, "It's hard to catch them with a book in their hands." He
pointed out how much more difficult the competition for their time has become.
And I came away from ICRS with another thought stuck in my mind, one put there
by Nancy Lohr of Journey
That's opening the door and
we need to redouble our efforts to ensure they go on to pick up other books. If
we are one who doesn't think Harry is the appropriate fare, we need to follow
it up with books that are every bit as appealing without the elements we might
object to. Isn't that our job?
I don't recommend books
here often.
I should do more of it.
Stephen sent me his
new one and I read it in
one sitting.
I thoroughly enjoyed the
tongue-in-cheek
humor and a couple of
cowboys that I swear
I've met behind the bucking
chutes at the
rodeo. The ladies will enjoy
the comedy / romance
of the "search for
Juanita" and the guys will enjoy the
shenanigans of Hap and
The particulars? From the
Christian Fiction Blog
He's mayor of a town of 308 in the mountains of
That keeps him very western. And he collects old
Stephen says about his writing, "I write about the West (historic or
modern) from the inside. Born and raised on western ranches, I have both the
heart and mind to describe things as they really were...and are. There are
those who think the frontier has long passed and with it the 'code of the
west.' The truth is, both are still around...and it's fun to show that in a
contemporary story. The West is so big, so diverse, so enchanting it's a thrill
to write about it in any era."
Stephen is the author of ninety-five books and hundreds of articles.
Do yourself a favor and get
your hands on this one.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1599956896
In set
appointments or in catch-as-catch-can meetings on the floor, I met with around
50 editors at ICRS. Most of the set
appointments we did as an agency, Joyce Hart, Tamela Hancock Murray and I. In
each one we started
from "What
are you looking for right now?"
then dialogued about what they wanted and what we had that we were
representing. In each case a few things were requested, and information was
gathered that will dictate our interface with them in the months to come.
So much
information.
Back home the
initial thrust is on getting the proposals and manuscripts out that were
specifically requested. That's a no-brainer, and there are over 60 of them. I'm
still not through getting them out. Beyond that I have to start sorting through
the information gathered, matching it against my client base to see what is
there for each.
So much
information.
I have more
events coming up and the chance to meet with additional editors or follow up on
with some I have met on what I have sifted from the intel I have already
gathered.
More information.
Now to convert
that information into productive contacts and make it work. Several times the
past week Saundra has thought she has detected a sort of burning rubber smell
coming from me similar to the one we smelled before our last computer fried
itself and ended up as a doorstop. Several times she has made me walk away from
it to spend some time with her. For some reason she doesn't want to be married
to a doorstop, imagine that.
I've been to the 'People Store'
Travel to
astounding. Oh, I
often also browse through the lesser versions, a busy restaurant, store or
mall, but for sheer diversity nothing can match the airport.
I capture
descriptions that reduce the person to one or two sentences. Are they happy or
sad? What might their story be? Businessman plodding home? A grandmother eagerly
traveling to see grandkids? Honeymooners are pretty easy to spot.
I see suspense
and intrigue as well. I try not to speculate on someone waiting for the same
airplane that I am that might be there for sinister motives, but sometimes one
does cross my mind. I see spies and those who seem to be working very hard at
not being noticed, obviously on the run. The soliders are fun, are they going
or coming? What can I read in their face? I see people so happy that even the
boredom of the wait cannot contain it, and those who are obviously depressed
and the unscheduled waiting is not helping. I speculate what might be causing
each extreme. The stories are there, toying with my mind.
I walk the
hallway, tipping my hat to the ladies, speaking to the men. I get happy
responses from people glad to be recognized as a person in the anonymous
crowd. I get brief scowls from those
whose thoughts I have interupted or a lady who thinks I might be flirting.
Brief glimpses into their personality, an unguarded moment that lets me see
what's behind the mask. I capture them in writing . . . someday I'll have a use
for them.
I can't even say
that phrase without hearing
Gene Autry
singing it in my head. Yes, I grew
up helping Gene
and Roy clean up the West
in Saturday
morning matinees. I loved it
and it's probably
why I love to write stories
set in that time
period. (the picture by the way
is me with fellow
writer Brenda Lott taken at
the American
Christian Fiction Writers dinner in
I have to tell
you, I was on my way over to the Crossroads reception when a young lady, maybe
3 or 4 years old, broke away from her parents and ran up to me. She had a huge
smile on her face. "Are you a cowboy?" she asked. "Do you have a
horse?" I told her "not with me," squatted down and talked with
her a little. A little later I came out of the reception and she was coming by
with her parents in a horsedrawn carriage, riding up on the bench with the
driver. I said, "I see you found you a horse," and she smiled and
waved. Those carriages are known for
romantic rides, but may never serve as romantic a purpose as satisfying this
little lady's love for horses.
But I digress . .
. back home now and stepping back up into the saddle leather working the
queries and submission that stacked up while I was gone, and even more
important pulling the information together that editors wanted to see. Couldn't
start last night because there was a higher priority, taking mother out for her
93rd birthday. We really had a great time.
I guess I'm
putting off getting back to work so I better get at it.
Int'l Christian Retailers Show
Travel to
as many
obstacles as possible in my path, but he failed to succeed.
The event
was huge, and we spent three days ( Joyce Hart, Tamela Murray and myself)
meeting with editors from breakfast meetings to late night every 30 minutes.
These were pitch meetings, not a place where we could present a whole work or
proposal, but rather explored what we thought they might be looking for and
tried to get the scoop on what holes in their catalog they were actively trying
to fill and tried to get them to invite a more indepth proposal.
As
questions developed areas of interest we pulled out one sheets on the work we
thought would fit and got a quick "I'll pass on this," or "yeah,
send me something on this." All three of us came away with chances to
submit further from almost every session.
As you can
see we had little control over the way things were presented or the areas of
interest that developed. We had ideas in mind for them going in that we started
with, but if it proved what they were looking for lay in another direction we
tried to fill that need. Either with the other two or by myself I met with 42
editors and it will take some time to follow up that many leads and prepare the
material they need to see. With them agreeing to take this level of agent
submissions (there were other agents there doing the same thing) responses will
be a bit slow. Also, editors tend to take time off after the conference so that
will slow responses as well.
Just as an
overall comment there was a particular interest in the 18-25 range and in the
baby boomer (as grandparents) market, especially in non-fiction. In
fiction suspense/thriller. In youth there was interest in historical. We made a
contact that could lead to some international sales if we can scratch them
where they itch. Overall I'd say it was hectic but very productive.
It's as if He said:
"Excuse me, do you have a moment? Can we talk?" I have a spot on this website, just under
this blog, where the International Bible Society places a quote of scripture
each day. I don't choose them, don't know what they are going to be, and they
follow no discernable schedule that I can see.
Yet so often they seem much more directed to me than to the public in
General.
I have a prayer time in the
morning on my way to work. A nice solid block of time, and no, I don't close my
eyes. But I can't tell you how often I
get to work, turn on the computer, it comes up to my home page and there it is
in that scripture block, something directly relating to what I just prayed
about. Amazing. I've asked the pastor
why he chose a topic that seems to be exactly what I needed to hear and on occasion
he has told me he changed from the sermon he had prepared earlier in the week
because he felt led that he needed to talk about something else. Bible lessons, things friends say, yes even
submissions that are sent to me. I have something on my mind and these little
messages start coming through.
I was in prayer this
morning about the way I do this agent thing. I've been a writer much longer
than I've been an agent, it's important to me to give feedback and as quick a
response to submissions as I can. But time is such a problem. Then today's
verse was about reaping what I sow and I realize I have to spend more time
sowing seeds for the clients I already have and not as much time working new
stuff coming in even if it does increase response time. Clearly what I needed to hear.
I'm on my way to
How often we have to be reminded. Easter is
not about hunting eggs and cute rabbits but
about the death and resurrection of our Lord. Christmas is not about presents, but about
the birth of Jesus.
I remember the boys I went through basic
training with, and yes we were just boys. Boys who understood going off to war
meant possibly having to pay the supreme price, but who understood that freedom
has never been free. Many of them paid that price. It's still the same, young
men and now young ladies standing in harm's way to keep us free.
Oh, I know there is all this rhetoric about
whether we should be there or ever should have been there. That's not the
point. It was the same in
We should never allow our politics to get in
the way of supporting them, and we should never allow ourselves to forget the
debt we owe to those who put themselves on the line for us. Our Saviour died for our salvation, and our
soldiers have died to keep us free. We must never forget.
Take a few moments this Independence day to
stop and remember those who made it possible.
As soon as we hear or see "always" or "never" used in writing or
conversation, someone has commenced to lie to us. I don't think it is possible
for something to be always or never unless we are talking about our Lord who is
always the same, faithful and forgiving, and will never change.
Nothing else meets the test of these two
words. As soon as I say I am never going to do something again along comes a
reason for me to do just that. By the same token if I say you can always count
on me for this or that there will immediately be a compelling reason for that
not to be the case either.
I don't think this is accidental, I mean,
the speed with which these exceptions present themselves simply cannot be a
coincidence. I think as soon as we purport ourselves to be, or claim any
situation or action will "always" happen or "always" be the
case God quietly and probably with a slight smile on His face reminds us that
we are not allowed to be that consistent.
Saundra wants me to be dependable, I'm sure
all of us want that from our mates, but as soon as she thinks she has me
figured out I reverse myself on
something I usually do. I don't do it on purpose (often). But "usually," "often" or
"seldom" are words that are within our reach and are a pretty high
level of dependability for us mere mortals.
Having said that, however, I have no
hesitation in saying I will "always" love Saundra and be faithful to
the Lord. I hope God will let me have those two uses of the word.
OK, so the hat has a few sweat stains. So
you can see on the brim and on the crown where it's been jerked off a few times when the situation
demanded. It gives it character. But Saundra has decreed, "You need a new dress hat. You can still
wear that one for everyday, but you aren't going to all those meetings in
She says it so casually. Never mind that it takes time to train a new
hat to your head. Never mind that a new hat on a guy sticks out like . . . well .
. . a new hat. Never mind that a guy
gets emotionally attached to his hat.
How would she like it if I made her buy some new shoes just because –
cancel that, bad example.
I always buy a silver-belly Stetson. Not
this time. Black wouldn't show those stains as bad. Hmmm, how about dust, will
black show dust? We didn't get the Stetson either, we got a Resistol, I think
mostly because it had
I asked her if the hat made me look like
him, and she said "Yes," and said it with a straight face. How can
you trust a woman that will lie to you like that?
I don't want you to think I drug my heels on
the shopping expedition just because I . . . uh . . . drug my heels a
little. She is a good judge of what
looks good on me, but then I'm a pretty good judge of what looks good on her
too. Still, I have to admit it does look
pretty good on me. And maybe we'll get a dust storm on the way to the airport
so I won't look so much like a green hand, or . . . shudder . . . a dude.
The amnesty bill appears to be dead. And
while I have no wish to bring politics to this forum which isn't set up for
that purpose, I do note that politicians immediately started lining up to
denounce the large number of people calling
into their offices in opposition to the measure.
The kinder ones called the efforts
"misguided," while several
went as far as to call those calling in "bigots." The merits of the
bill are not something I want to get into, but what does bother me, regardless
of how people come down on the measure, is the arrogance of the legislators. In
essence what they are saying is "we don't care how many people speak out
on this, we know what's best for them and they should shut up."
That bothers me. Our forefathers tusted
government to the people, doing their best to represent the will of the people.
Today the attitude is "the only place the opinion of the people is
important is putting us in office, after which we will decide what is best for
them and only tell them what they need to know." How often do we see
politicians in both parties actively doing things we know people do not approve
of, only changing direction when major pressure is brought to bear on them? Is
that representing the majority? How often do we see them pandering to very
small special interest groups knowing full well that the majority disagrees?
It isn't about representing their
constituents, it's about trying to make deals and alliances to get elected.
They are backing and opposing measures for political gain, not judging what is
the best interest of the country. Neither side is exempt from this. The members of that first continental
congress would be shocked and appalled.
Networking, we toss that word around, and I
think everbody agrees that it's important, but do we really know what it is and
what's involved? I'm busy setting up
appointements with editors at ICRS, so right now it is very
much on my mind. Agents don't make sales to publishing houses,
but to editors, editors with which they have been able to forge a
relationship. I'm spending a huge amount
of time and money this year, and it is primarily directed toward that end,
firming up those relationships.
I asked some writers that at the Wheaton
conference if anybody's feelings would be hurt if I said no matter how much I
enjoyed meeting with them, maybe passing on a little information to them, and
hopefully finding some exciting projects to represent, my primary goal was
shoring up those editor relationships.
It didn't seem to hurt anybody's feelings, probably because that was a
primary reason they were there as well, to establish relationships with agents
and editors. They interface with instructors and other writers to improve their
craft, but they seek links with agents and editors to publish.
I don't really have time to spend in online
groups and sites, not as much as I do, but that networking and that visibility
is vital to what I do. I hear things in
this networking that helps to alert me to minute-by-minute changes in the
I'm always pleased when people go to our
submission guidelines at the Hartline website before they send a proposal. But
even if they do that and comply I have often been disappointed that the manuscript
itself is not ready to submit. I have links to online articles about preparing
manuscripts but they need updating. They
still counsel two spaces after sentences when most now want one, still say to
underline for italics when most just want the italics themselves. There are
other things that show when they were written publishers were still taking
manuscripts and preparing them to print. To a large extent they now want a
manuscript ready to go where they can make the transition to print as easily as
possible. Most now just take them electronically and load them into their
system to process.
Now in addition to our submission guidelines
I have a link on my site on
"Is it ready to submit?" where I give a checklist for making sure
the manuscript is ready to go. I posted on several writing lists and had a
number of people comment, helping me clarify and add to the checklist. True, a
number of the things on the list are not deal-breakers and are not going to
make the difference between an acceptance or rejection. A good manuscript is
not going to be turned down because it doesn't have enough spaces above the
chapter beginning or not have a proper heading on each page. However, if there are enough of this type
errors it probably will be rejected as not ready to submit.
But we have to type these things in some
manner and it might as well be in the industry standard. It's just as easy to
do it that way as any other and the result is a professional looking
submission. This is one area of life where standing out is not a good thing. We
want our writing to stand out, not the formatting of our submission. Thanks to
all of those who helped me insure that I had the proper items on the checklist.
Five, count 'em, five people yesterday
explained at great length how the publishers were wrong in how they were
looking at their particular
At ICRS we have meetings with editors set
for 30 minute appointments for most of three days. There are three of us so I'm
going to get to make maybe a ten minute pitch. I won't be trying to use that
time to lecture them on how they need to change what they are wanting to
publish in favor of some submission. No, I'm researching carefully what I think
they are really looking for right at that point in time. It changes monthly, or
even quicker, you know? I will be able to do a couple of pitches, and if I get
in there and see they are after something else I have to be able to switch
horses and pitch another product. Much as I , or a client, might think they are
making erroneous decisions on what they want to publish, it's their money and
they get to say.
I can't take a proposal and try to shoe-horn
it in a place where they think it doesn't go. It probably won't work in the
first place, and in the second, it would in all probability make it that much
harder for me to get them to take something else in the future. No, I'm in the
business of doing the same thing I was doing so many years in chamber of
commerce work. Taking someone with a product to sell and finding the
There are a lot of pieces that have to be in
place for publishing to occur, and as quickly as these publishing windows open
and close, there may only be a couple of places where a particular submission
fits at any given point in time. The challenge is to get the right PRODUCT in
front of the right PERSON at the exact POINT IN TIME that it needs to be there.
Then it will be given serious consideration and will rise or fall on the
quality of the writing and the quality of the way that writing is formatted and
presented. My job is to try and find that open window and help one of my people
squeeze through before it closes.
I have a note from Marlene
Bagnul, Director of "Write His Answer" in
The theme, as it was in
available at http://www.writehisanswer.com/Philadelphia/
and I know this site is a convienient location for a number of you and hope to
see you there. There will be a terrific track for beginning novelists presented
by Kathryn Mackel on one end of the scale, and an advanced track (Nangie 303)
put on by Angie Hunt and Nancy Rue. There will be 60 on the faculty including
professional authors, 22 editors, 18 periodicals, publicists, and agents.
I go to quite a number of
conferences now, but dating back to when I started taking my writing seriously
I would make one or two of them a year as I began to try and learn my
craft. I have 24 books in print now, and
without exception they began with a contact made at a conference as well as
quite a number of articles, short stories, and other publications. I do one or
two a month now, and don't see how a writer can be at all serious about their
craft without making such an investment in advancing it. Hope to see you there,
and at the American Christian Fiction Writers Conference in
information for it is at http://www.americanchristianfictionwriters.com/
but I'll talk more about that one later. Meet you in
Saturday 967 unique
visitors came to this website. That's a new one day record. I often look at the
numbers trying to figure out what is working, what isn't working, and I don't
know on this one. The most likely cause might be the fact that I responded to a comment asking for
professional editors over on the American Christian Fiction Writers list and
pointed them to a link in my library listing those I have. And telling them
they are all welcome to use the links in that library ( www.terryburns.net )
any time they wish.
I'm up to almost 324,000
unique visitors who have viewed over 2 million pages at the site. I do what I
can to increase that traffic, but sometimes these spikes are hard to pinpoint.
My fathers Day blog drew a lot of comments here and over on the mirror blog at
shoutlife.com, but that would be the numbers reported in the stats today, 333
visitors. More like a normal day numbers.
I get small spikes when I'm
off at a conference about to take appointments as people go there to check me
out and get a little intel on me before we meet. A good idea, one that Donald
Maass gave me before I met with him at a meeting a number of years ago. Turned
out he wasn't the right agent for me, but I knew it by the time I made the
appointment and we spent the time talking about my writing career and how to
advance it.
I have some regulars who
come often because they know my blog changes most weekdays unless I'm somewhere
that I can't upload a new one. I have an announcement list that I will alert
when something special has occurred, often referring them to the site for
details. I get spikes on those days. But
I think mostly, like God, websites work in mysterious ways. Now there's a book
plug if I ever heard one.
When I awoke this morning,
Saundra was already up, in the living room crying. I thought I knew why, but
held her as she told me she woke up with dreams of her father. We lost him just
a few months ago. The dreams were very happy, but missing him made her sad. I
lost my own dad years ago, but he always comes to mind on Father's Day, and
occassionally at other times, often
unexpectedly. To this day I have a lot of trouble listening to the song
"Daddy's Hands."
It has always amazed me at
the times where I find it is possible to be both happy and sad at the same
time. How can such diverse feelings co-exist? But there they are. We know they are
in such a better place and that all their suffering has ended. All of our memories of them are such sweet
recollections, but are accompanied by pain.
Saundra and mom took me out
to eat after church. One young lady in particular caught my attention as she
led her father into the restaurant by the hand, ceremoniously. It was so very
clear that it was a special occasion and just exactly who the honoree was.
Another young dad with two very small kids, too small to understand the
occasion, but he knew, oh yes I could tell he knew.
I feel sorry for families
where a mother is raising the kids alone. Not that they aren't very capable of
it, but in a day where the family unit seems under fire, I love to see the
young families with both parential influences in place, and so obviously
caring.
I talked with my son and
they were about to go get ice cream. My daughter sent me a terrific card. Father's Day gift? All I need is for my kids to tell me they
love me and I'm set. Those were the last words I said to my father, "I
love you, dad." I hope he remembers them where he is as much as I remember
them here.
The shoutlife site
is down this morning. I wanted to know something that is over there. When I got
to the conference up in
I don't need to
know what makes the lights come on, I just want it to happen when I throw the
switch. I want water to run when I turn the faucet, the car to start when I
turn the key. I used to be able to work on my car when I was in high school,
spent a major part of my time under the hood. Now I look under there and I
don't see anything I recognize except the battery and even it looks different
than it used to.
People seem to
constantly be trying to expand my knowledge base in areas where I have no
interest in retaining facts. It reminds me of a story where a new county agent
was talking to a farmer, walking through his fields pointing out where he could
do this and that better, showing off the knowledge he had just spent several
years acquiring. Finally the old man held up a hand and said, "Son, you
don't understand. I'm not farming near as well as I know how now."
Guys, I don't need
to know, just make the lights come on, ok?
Can you believe
it? A grandpa with ten grandkids and I'm staying in a dorm at
Dorm rooms haven't
changed in the . . . the . . . well, let's not go there. A couple of desks, a
couple of hard, twin size beds, and a bathroom shared with the guy or guys next
door. I hear them occassionally but have not seen them. The campus is beautiful,
the facilities for the conference are excellent, and the food in the cafeteria
much better than I remember from college days.
I tip my hat. It's
a reflex. I've done it all my life. One lady asked me if I knew people didn't
do that any more and all I could say is "Out in
I critiqued some
manuscripts before we got started and have been catching appointments. By and
large the quality of what I am seeing is excellent. Doesn't mean it is all going to be something
that will fit our bag of course, but the caliber of the attendees compares very
favorably to other conferences I've attended.
Does this make me
feel like a college boy again? At times
the memories come back to me. On my third trip of the day clear across campus
these old leg muscles tell me how old I am. I may can fool my mind . . . but
my body knows.
It makes
Saundramad. She packs for a couple of days for an vernight trip. She asks me a
couple of hours before we leave if I'm going to pack and Isay "Sure"
and it takes 5-10minutes. What's so hard? Dirty clothes out, clean clothes in,
socks and underwear, hat and boots. Maybe the big part is not having to decide
what I 'm going to wear. My "uniform" for getting up in front of the
group. Add whatever is back clean from
the laundry, and I'm et.
This time it's the
"Write to Publish" conference at
Getting through
security is entertaining. Boots have to come off along with the big belt
buckle. I have to remember to take the knife out of my pocket or lose it –
that's the pits. Western shirts have metal snaps that almost guarantees getting
tickled by the magic wand. Computer has to come out of the case and go in a
separate container. I almost have to get nekid
I could give in
and travel in shorts and slip on shoes, but the sight of my super white legs
would blind everybody in the airport. Besides that I'd miss the younguns that
come up and want to know if I'm a "real cowboy?" That's worth the
hassle gettingto talk to them . . . and to be as much of a cowboy as they
really want me to be.
Publishers
Marketplace released some new numbers this morning. Bowkers has changed the way
it calculates new titles to recognize POD and other publishing sources and that
resulted in an astounding 291,290 titles,an increase of 120,000 titles over the
way they would have calculated it before. The recalibration took the 2004
numbers to over 295,000 titles. That is amazing.
Sales are
estimated at $29.6 billion which is a growth of 2.7% but unfortunately it is
due to price increases rather than sales growth. Christian book sales continues to lead the
way WITH A 20% GROWTH in units sold.
Adult paperbacks led the way and childrens books was the big loser.
Juvenile had a small increase but not as much as expected.
Another
interesting fact for me in the report was a prediction that a big shift to
electronic college textbooks was finally coming. I've said for some time that
the e-book industry would experience significant growth when textbooks started
being produced that way and people started getting acclimated to reading that
way. I thought the quality of the devices would be a major part in that but
this study says that is not as much of a factor as "price, accessability
and portability." I guess that makes sense, although in the report they
say "the el-hi markets and college markets are flat." Kinda
contradicting.
The big winner in
all this seems to be Amazon as more and more people buy their books online and
of course Amazon leads the pack there.
What they don't talk about in this report, regardless of how they crunch
the numbers and who is winning or losing is the fact that people are reading
books. And that should be good news for all of us.
The internet can
be addictive, no doubt about it. It can interrupt our train of thought and thus
interrupt our writing, can steal time away from creative pursuit, can
monopolize our time.
On the other hand,
it can provide reference and research, be a tool for visibility and promotion,
provide networking and word of mouth book sales, and in my case be the means to
interface with clients and a majority of editors. To this end I participate in
a substantial number of online lists and subscribe to a number of publications,
but how much is enough? To what extent am I keeping my "ear to the
ground" for industry intel and fostering visibility and promotion, and
when am I wasting time I could put to better use?
Tough call. Some
goups have left me, posting so rarely that even though I am technically a
member they require no time at all, nor do they really do me any good. Some are
VERY active, but I often just scan for content trying to insure I don't miss
anything useful but not taking the time to respond if it doesn't interest me. I
suppose this makes me a "lurker" in internet terms. Does it also mean
I am not holding up my end of the implied agreement when I joined that I would
participate. Probably to an extent. But I think most of us pick and choose when
we will participate, doing so when a topic of interest arrises.
I nearly left a
group because some content on the group offended me. I was told that was a
parochial attitude, inferring it was akin to "taking my ball and going
home if I didn't like the way the game was going." That's probably true,
but with a scarcity of time and probably an overparticipation on my part I get
to pick and choose where I invest my time and if I'm no longer comfortable in a
group or if it no longer seems to be fulfilling the purpose I got in it for,
that's an easy choice.
How much is
enough? I suppose we all have to decide that for ourselves. I suppose when
participation reaches the point where we can't justify the investment of time
for what we are having to give up to do it. Now, how to figure that out . . .
4
Day weekend working proposals
I spent most of it
reading proposals and manuscripts trying to get caught up a bit. There were
some good projects in there and I offered to represent a few of them. There
were others I suggested something needed to be done and if they did so I'd take
another look at it. The most common writing related problem was that they
opened too slowly. If a writer is
writing literary fiction, readers there are willing to give a great deal of
time for a story to develop and don't demand that they immediately be sucked
in.
Genre fiction is
different. People need to be drawn in immediately and teased with a compelling
first chapter until they are securely committed to reading the story. Even then
we can't take that commitment for granted and people will put a book down much
easier than we would like to think. Editors know this and judge books the same
way they know readers will.
As I went through
one after another I saw a number of writers with an excellent voice and style,
good writers who could tell a good story but who have not yet mastered the art
of pulling the reader into the story and keeping them there. Telling a good
story and understanding the compelling opening and the pacing necessary to keep
the reader firmly in the story are not necessarily the same thing.
Have you ever been
told a joke by someone who really understands timing, and the pacing necessary
to make it work? Have you seen somebody else without this timing try to tell
the same joke and it fall absolutely flat?
This is the difference between telling a story and pulling a reader into
the story. It is something that is immediately apparent to someone who
constantly reads manuscripts.
It was quite
interesting.
Getting things
back to normal, at least
for a couple of
weeks until I head out
to
the "Write to
Publish" conference. The
conference up in
an inspirational
conference, but very
productive as
well. I had a couple of
appointments that
looked really good, I'm
anxious to get a
proposal from them, as well
as a number of
others that might be very good
as well. I made
some good editor contacts, and one of them skipped the query and proposal stage
to take a full manuscript on one of my clients that interested him. I had a
nibble at the conference on a potential movie deal on one of my own works,
something I surely didn't expect, but I'm pretty excited about it.
Working in
publishing is sorta like being a spy. We try to gather intel about who is
looking for what, what editors are really hoping to see, making connections,
and the person with the best intel has more success. I got some good intel in
I used to have a
trench coat and a fake mustache that would make a great spy disguise. I don't
need the fake mustache, but I wonder what I did with that trenchcoat?
"Write His
Answer," the
Christian Writers
Workshop was
an awesome
experience, mostly
because of the
lady in the photo
with me. Marlene
Bagnull is the
long-time director
of the
conference, and in
addition to
putting on a
terrific conference is a
prayer warrior
like I have never seen.
There was a
stellar lineup of faculty, I felt
honored to even be
included.
There were over
300 people, some wonderful voices that made the singing sound like the Mormon Tabernacle
Choir, and the entire event was spirit filled from the opening session to the
hayride Saturday night. It was all recorded on tape and CD, of course, and if
you couldn't attend I'll have a link posted here shortly where you can buy the
entire conference. Not as good as being there, since you can't benefit from the
agent and editor appointments or the chance to dialogue with the amazing
writers that were there, but you can still savor the meat of the conference.
"Not only
with words but with power" was the theme, and we were told ahead of time
that God was going to meet us on the mountain. I have no doubt that meeting
occurred, and the conference focused more on what God wants us to do for him
with our words than on the mechanics of writing (although there was plenty of
that). I believe over the next few days
that I'm going to ask some of the attendees to share what they found to be the
big take-away for them and post it here. Great conference.
The Richard Holman family were always dressed to match
during the conference and absolutely captured the hearts
of the attendees. Terrific folks . . .
CLICK HERE FOR A ORDER FORM FOR AUDIOS OF WORKSHOPS
Yup, gonna get to
spend a few days up at
THIS SITE JUST HIT
THE 2 MILLION MARK ! That's
"hits" of course, the number of pages viewed by over 300,000 unique visitors.
That means they have either returned from time to time or have viewed several
pages when they are there. That's not bad for a simple little poor-boy
home-made site. Why come back? Because something changes here every day. The
blog changes most weekdays, and the library is a big draw. I keep writing links
that I use there where I can easily access them, and so my friends can use them
as well.
I think another draw is the fact that a number of
folks are learning right along with me what this business of being an agent is
all about. I share a lot of it here.
They don't wanna read my stuff
Back when I was
getting rejections by the wheelbarrow-load I got depressed, if you can believe
that. "People just don't want to read my stuff," I lamented. Then it dawned
on me what I was saying. Of course
people people don't want to read my
stories, I have to MAKE them do it. I
have to catch their attention with the first sentence when they are standing in
front of that book rack and make them read down the page. I have to raise a question in their mind or
interest them in some action or something on that front page that will make
them turn to the next page. I have to get them invested in the story as quickly
as possible so they will carry that book to the check-out stand (or cause that
editor to ask for more of it).
It doesn't stop
there. They don't want to read it so I have to make sure they can't put it down
at the end of a chapter but drive them to the next chapter, and it doesn't even
end on the final page because I have to give them a payoff, something that
makes them feel the read worthwhile so they will pick up another book with my
name on it.
Don't read this
and think I'm negative, I'm not. I'm a realistic optimist. I think people whill
enjoy my stories and based on the sales and on the letters I get they do (if I
can get them to sample even the tiniest part of the story), but only if I do my
job and pull them in and keep them in. If they don't stay with the story it
isn't their fault, it means I failed in MY job.
I believe they'll
like it, but I have to write as if they won't, and work to get them invested in
the story . . . then keep them there.
One of the main
characters in my new work just changed names. Why would I change the name? At
the North
I have two going right now and I decided he would most like to be in the young
adult that I'm working on. He'll get to go back to his high school years and
will get to be the most popular kid in school. There's a disclaimer of course
that the character is only NAMED for him and any resemblance to him at any age
is strictly coincidental.
I have a big stake in this book, it's being written as a vehicle to help my
grandson come to know Jesus better. He's at just the right age but needs a little
no-pressure boost in the right direction. Since it is such a work of love, I
suspect it's going to speak to other kids that age as well. We will see. It's
about a third completed at the present time, enough that I could pitch it on
proposal if I wanted, but completing the story and getting my grandson and a
couple of his friends the opportunity to review if for me (for a fee just to
catch their attention) is a greater priority for me.
It's an interesting project.
Comments:
I would expect that after having spent the past few months or more on
the other side of writing, it is a good feeling to get back to the actual
process of writing.
You have made a fan of my mother. Now and then, she will ask me if you have a
new book coming out. I hope to be able
to tell her that, yes there will be other Terry Burn's books to look forward
to. Good news for readers of your
books. Myself included.
Les
I don't watch David Letterman, but I am aware of
his top ten list. Preparing a workshop for the
Colorado Christian Writers Workshop next week
I produced a top ten list of reasons to write
short fiction (or articles).
Top
ten list of reasons to write short fiction and articles
10.
To get positive feedback while waiting for long projects to achieve
fruition
9. To learn to reduce wordiness
and write concisely
8. To promote other work
7. To increase confidence
6. To increase visibility and
build name identification
5. To build contacts and
connections – network.
4. To win contests and awards
to enhance saleability
3. To learn
our craft
2. To build
writing credentials
1. Money – can
make more money doing freelance articles than most writers can make with a
book. Most people writing for a living make a major part of their living as a
freelancer.
Agree? Disagree?
Depending on the
survey it is estimated that around 90% of the people in the
I think we're
turning the other cheek. Christians are supposed to be passive, take whatever
is handed out to them, right? Show how peace-loving we are? No, that's not what
that scripture means at all. A slap is an insult, whether it is a physical blow
or a verbal one, and as Christians we are supposed to rise above that.
No way that is
supposed to mean we are not supposed to defend ourselves against attack,
physically or verbally. All through the Bible God's people defended themselves
against attack. Those people aren't doormats, how did we fall for a definition
that being a good Christian meant passively accepting whatever is handed out to
us. And we are under attack, make no mistake about it.
The way to boil a
frog is to raise the temperature a little bit at a time and the frog gets so
comfortable that he stays there fat and happy until the end. Satan is a master
at boiling frogs, and the temperature has been going up on us as we accept tiny
advances of evil one after another keeping silent because that's what
Christians do.
I look at the way
society is today and compare it to when I was a kid and if all that change had
been done all in one stroke there would have been rebellion in the streets, but
it wasn't done that way. It was done one tiny step at a time with us becoming
acclimated to one step before another was placed on us. Those who speak up are
labeled "Religious Right" as though that is an evil label when for
the most part it simply means a Christian who will speak up. Some go too far,
of course, I wouldn't deny that, but for the most part some Christians are
simply speaking up and saying, "Hey, the water is getting hot."
It has been a major
topic of discussion for some time, but when the "Left Behind" series
came out it shifted into high gear. I've been reading about leading Jewish Rabbi
Yitzchak Kadouri who in 2005 issued a call for Jews to come to
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=128&view=item&idx=1347
http://www.christian-forum.net/index.php?showtopic=10897
It has sparked major
dialogue among Jewish clerics and religious people all over as they study the
material he named in support of his contention. Many agree with him, many say
it is a misinterpretation of his words, some say his age had gotten to him, but
the dialogue is occuring.
Is this another sign
of end times? I'm not enough of a Bible scholar to get into this argument, but
it has my attention. What surprises me is the fact that no matter how we might
interpret this event it is obviously very significant yet there has been no
word on it at all in the media, and one has to go searching for information to
find out anything about it whatsoever.
Is the veil being
lifted in
There was a
certified letter card in the mail. As my wife headed to town to stand in line
for thirty minutes to pick it up I muttered, "It had better not be a
submission." It was. Not a good
start. I opened it and the first line said "I have read your submission
guidelines over and over and . . ." Read them over and over
and you didn't see where we take submissions as a Word attachment to an email and don't want to receive hard
copy submissions? Must have overlooked that. Strike one.
At least I think
that's what it said, it was handwritten in tiny script. It said "I know
most letters like this are typed, but I wanted this to stand out." Most don't
stand out all right, because they are all formatted and prepared to look like a
professional submission. If the writer is a new writer the object is NOT to
stand out, to keep that fact for the reader to discover after they know a
little more about the submission. It's a business letter, and business letters
are typed. Secondly, a typed letter can actually be read. Third, were I to
start working with a writer anything in their submission or cover letter can be
cut and pasted and used if it came to me as we request. Not so with this.
Strike two.
There was a self
published book inside. I can't do anything with a self published book, it's
already published. But wait he doesn't seem to be pitching it near as I can
tell but some children's short stories. Must have also missed in the guidelines
where we only handle book length work. I wonder why he sent the book? The
stories submitted are not in proper manuscript form of course, strike three.
No SASE, that
figures. In most houses not including an SASE means no response at all. Since
ours come electronically we respond by email anyway, but no, no email address
either. The first words in the guidelines he read so closely say to provide the
specific content in a proposal that we ask for, follow the specific email
instructions, and never send hard copy
unless we ask for it. Since those are
the first words I'm unsure how he could read it over and over and not get any
of that right. Strike four.
Should have been a
query, followed by a proposal if we ask for it, followed by a manuscript if we
request it and all by email. Then it
says unsolicited hard copy proposals will be discarded and not evaluated. Even
if he was skipping the query and going straight to proposal it contained none
of the content so carefully outlined to be included in such a doccument. He
broke more submission rules, but that's enough. Strike five. You don't even get
that many in pee-wee league.
It's an ongoing
discussion, those who
maintain that you
can't be realistic in
writing without using
profanity and
who decry the
Christian publishers
for not wanting it
in books. Where do
I come down on it? I
agree that bad
men talk bad, it's a
fact of life. Having
a villian saying
shucks and dang IS
unrealistic, they
have a point. But I think
we're better writers
than that. Cussing often
goes on in my books
but I don't show the words,
I show the emotion
I'm trying to portray.
Jack, you
*$&%$*, I'm gonna &%$*%%$. Had I used the real words it would tell us what
he said. But how about "Sam spun on him, hatred in his eyes. He slapped
the small chair that stood between them up against the wall, reducing it to
splinters as he filled the air with putrid breath and equally foul language.
Jack put a hand to his nose as if to ward off both as he took an involuntary
step backwards. He would have gone further but he was restrained by the
wall."
In case #1 (if it
had actual words, I sure don't advocate actually substituting symbols – that's
worse than using watered down words) I would be giving a seminar on how to cuss
proficiently. In the second case the profanity is happening, big time, but I'm
showing the emotion, not showcasing the language.
My grandfather never
used bad language in his life. One day he was working on his old car and he was
dropping tools and banging his knuckles, faced with a nut that he just could
not loosen. He worked and worked, getting hotter and hotter, both physically
and emotional. He got so angry he began to shake and got red in the face as
sweat began to bead on his forehead. The kids had never seen him so mad and
backed away in fear. He twisted off the
nut, breaking it, spun and sailed the wrench he was holding clear out of sight. He closed his eyes, shook both fists in the
air and with a gutteral roar screamed "GEE!" The kids were terrified.
True story, but what
word of profanity could I substitute that would make it more powerful? It isn't the language, it's the emotion, it's
creating the visual . . . it's doing the
writing.
What's on the top of
my head this morning? Finishing my Bible reading it seems the word
"encouragement" is popping up for attention. When I got to spend time
at the Glorieta Christian
writing conference I
came away feeling I had been gifted with three special gifts, and encouragement
was one of them. (see my writing testimony at Testimony.htm
)
But how to use it? I'm
in a number of writing groups, local and online, not only to learn but to be an
encouragement. I'm doing a couple of programs or workshops a month as an effort
to use the gift. I've mentored some new writers. And that's what led me into
trying to work as an agent, to help other writers get their words out where
they will serve the Lord.
Not everything I
work with has a strong Christian message or theme, but we need good, family
oriented entertainment as well, these days more than ever. As Christians we are
exhorted to love one another and encourage one another. I suppose today the
spirit just gave me a little status check to see if I was doing it as well as
I'm supposed to be doing. I wonder . . . I wonder if I ever completely measure
up. I suppose all I can do is my best and hope it's enough.
Is the reluctance of
a traditional publisher to publish a book that has been printed as POD an act
of pride and arrogance because I didn't go to a "real" publisher?
That was the
question. I told him POD was a method of publishing, as is a small house,
regional house, vanity press, major house, and a variety of voice and
electronic options. But once a book is in print, it is in print, no matter how
that printing occurred. That means for another publisher to print the book they
have to do it with reprint rights because it has already been in print once.
The fact that the original printing may have been at a very small publisher and
few books were sold doesn't affect the fact that it was printed and offered for
sale.
Unfortunately few
publishers want to bother with reprint rights in book length work (magazines
are a whole other matter). While I wouldn't argue that there might be such bias
in the industry (there is bias everywhere) it is primarily a matter of simple
print definitions. There are those books that have done very well in such a
format and as such have attracted the attention of a major publisher, but those
stories are the exceptions, not the rule.
Am I against POD? Of
course not, I have a small poetry book produced that way and I'm considering it
as a strategy to bring an out of print title back where I can include it in
signings and sales again. But as a strategy to place it in front of a major
publisher? That can work, but only if you really have a lot of sales, otherwise
it can work against such a placement, not for it.
The Bible says it'll
happen. It's
something that
crosses my mind on
occassion. That
handicapped man who
needed help getting to
things and who
showed up at my door
several times
after I spotted him
needing assistance
and offered it.
After I helped him several
times he
disappeared. When I thought about it,
I'd never seen
anyone else helping him, or passing up the chance to help him. Was I there for
him or was he really there for me? I don't know.
There are others,
probably more often than I've had time to wonder about them. The person who
kept me from stepping off the curb in front of a car I didn't see. The one who
gave me a much needed word of encouragement or advice when they couldn't
possibly have known I needed it. Just God working through mortals . . . or
something else?
God does use us, I
know that too. He uses us more than we know, but on that rare occassion when we
do realize we have been used it may be more encouraging for us than for the
people we have been used to serve. Are all of these occurances simply God at
work in our lives using other people as he uses us?
Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for
thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Hebrews 13:1-3
Just working through
people? Or something more? Like I say, it's something I often think about.
On TV this morning a
forensic
psychologist told them to quit
showing the staged pictures of the
derranged gunman and publishing
his "manifesto." He said there was
nothing to be learned and nothing
to be gained except to encourage
another disturbed person to follow in
his steps to get the same type of publicity.
Bravo! About time somebody with a national
platform said it. I was also talking to a writer friend yesterday who lives
there and she told me what a nice, beautiful place it is and said I should come
visit when all the maddness has ended.
Madness, indeed. The first couple of days it
was news. Now kids are trying to start the healing process. Many will be
dealing with PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) similar to what soldiers
returning from combat have to face. Being asked what if felt like or asked to
relive those horrible events over and over, cementing them further in their
minds is not the way to start that lengthy healing process.
The
best thing we can do is pray for them, and allow those who are trained to deal
with this sort of thing do their job. Besides, aren't there some tornado or
natural disaster victims somewhere for the media to torture instead?
The hardest rejections of all are when you
have to tell a friend you just can't represent their stuff. Man, I think it's harder on me than it is on
them. Hmm, why does that sound like
"This spanking is going to hurt me worse than it will hurt you?" I
mean, it's my nature to want to help my friends, so when the submission just
isn't a fit for what we're working in I have no real choice, but it's still
hard.
After so many years of receiving negative
responses from agents and editors myself you'd think I'd be inured to it, but
that doesn't seem to be the case. In fact, I empathize too much, something that
probably shows in my response as I get back to them. Of course, as a new agent
I'm not trying to swing too wide a loop. As I get more comfortable and develop
a stronger contact base I'm sure I'll reach out to some markets I'm not working
in now.
It is good to be working in an established
agency so I have their reputation behind me, and their experience to call on.
It also means if I find something good that I'm not in a position to handle
that I may can pass it to another agent.
I told a group the other day the bad news was that I'm relatively new as
an agent, the good news was that I have terrific support to offset that, and
the better news was that I'm actively building a client list.
But it's still hard when I have to tell
people I really like no.
Our oldest grandaughter Shanda
and her husband Kenneth came
to spend the weekend. It was a
delightful visit, and their love and
faith were a much needed
counterpoint to the horrific
stories coming out of the
Before they arrived Saundra came down with a
stomach bug that really put her on her knees, but she recovered in time to
enjoy their visit. I got to thoroughly enjoy it as well, right up until the
time that I had to come rushing home from church to spend my time battling the
same bug. It seemed to hit me worse, of course, you know what babies men are
once they decide to surrender to some illness.
I can't tell you how much I hope they don't have to spend their time
with it as well.
I told Kenneth at his wedding that if he did
half as well in his selection of a life partner as I had done that they would
have a wonderful life together. While they were here, he told me, not to dimish
how great Saundra is, but he thought he had done at least as well himself. I
don't doubt it.
My friend
They have a feature called the bullpen where
those new to the business can publish a short story and have it critiqued. The
link to "read this story" doesn't seem to be working quite right, but
you can click on "review" and it will open up. I hope you will go
over and offer a comment or two.
You see, Les is an avid reader of and support
of westerns. He has a lot of western writer friends and he reads our books
religiously, posting reviews and even helping us promote. He's in a couple of different
western online groups.
If the name sounds familiar to you he has
commented on this blog before and been a guest blogger here a couple of times.
He has some articles and non-fiction work published, but this is his first
foray into writing fiction.
Good first effort, Les, keep it up.
Comments:
THANKS for the plug. How's this
for role reversal? My first effort at
writing a western may not be up to the quality of a Terry Burns story, but over
all, I'm pleased with how it came out. I
hope other readers of this blog will give it a look, and feel free to critique
my story. That's one of the ways I learn
and can improve my writing.
While they are at it, take a look around Rope
and Wire. There's something for everyone
who like things western.
HAVE A GREAT DAY
Les
Friday the 13th!
Good thing I'm not superstitious, knock
on wood. Kathi Macias asked me to stand
in and blog for her today over at the Christian Authors Network and the site address is http://canblog.typepad.com/canbookmarketing/
Guest blogging, doing
programs at conferences and workshops, participating in a number of online and
physical writers groups, none of these come naturally to me, but they are an
important part of generating word of mouth book sales and of creating that
all-important visibility and net presence.
The Christian Authors
Network, by the way, is a co-op of a number of authors who have banned together
to do some promotional efforts together they could not get done by themselves.
It is an invitation-only group, but the website where they share information on
promotion and how to better do it and be successful at it is available to
everybody. I encourage you to go over and look at all the great advice offered
there, bookmark it, and go back often.
Scott Gese dropped me a note and asked me to
contribute a couple of items to help him kick off his new Western website.
It's called "Rope and Wire –
Western Lifestyle Magazine. http://www.ropeandwire.com/
I took a look and what I found was an
attractive, professional looking site that already has some good Western
content. Well, it also has a short story and a couple of cowboy poems from me
too, but don't hold that against him.
It's a neat place. Besides stories and cowboy
poetry you can go to the movies right there on the site by selecting and
watching one of a selection of old western B movies that have become classics.
The site says they are seeking experienced writers and greenhorns too to submit
short stories, cowboy poetry, country lifestyle and farm and ranch articles, as
well as country recipes and country humor.
There's a place for a free subscription to receive it.
Nice job, Scott, I'm
sure it's going to be a success.
Comments:
Thanks for posting this site Terry. I just now returned from meandering
around Rope and Wire. This site is as you say..."An attractive,
professional looking site". I've gone so far as to add my name as a
subscriber. I hope others who read this blog will follow suit. I enjoyed your
poems and short story as well.
Les
I'm spending a little time going over
the material for the programs that I
have to do at the Colorado Christian Writers Conf. in
Where do these come from? They come from
articles I've written, other talks I've given, comments and feedback from
previous groups, and lately from blogs. I've discovered that some random point
I open my head up on will often find its way into my stack of speaking modules.
This one will almost certainly end up as a piece of the "To shy to speak
and promote?" session I'm slated to do there.
Not only do these modules allow me to custom
fit a talk to a group, they help give me the confidence to face them knowing
that question might lead me away from the subject I have in mind to talk on.
Yet that's exactly what I hope will happen. I hate to stand up and lecture, I'd
much rather have discussion and dialogue. You see, the success of a program
doesn't at all depend on how well I handle my delivery, but on whether people
leave thinking they got something of value from the exchange. To be sure that
happens I have to get people involved.
WHAT? My grandson Bryce face to face
with a lion? Pictures don't lie. Apparently
the cubs were out at the local mall and
the kids went out to see them. That is
just too cool. Older grandson
seems to have one asleep in his lap
in the picture below.
It brings to
mind a graphic I have here on my
wall. It's a
picture of a tabby cat sitting in
front of a
mirror, and reflected in the mirror is
a full grown
lion. Another version of the
same thing
shows a young man on a pony
sitting and
looking at the reflection in a pond,
but instead
of seeing his own reflection he
sees the
image of a tall, broad-shouldered
Texas Ranger.
In a panel beside it is a
weather-beaten
old cowboy on an equally
ancient-looking
horse. He too is looking at
his reflection in
the pond, but he sees . . .
the young boy.
In the movie "Facing the Giants"
the father of the young kicker tells him
his actions will tend to follow his thoughts, that if he believes he can't do
something the chances are he won't be able to.
If we genuinely do believe we can do something, the chances are much
greater that we can. Back in the 1960's
author Napoleon Hill wrote that "Whatever the mind of man can conceive
and BELIEVE, it can achieve." Of
course in the movie, the young kicker sought and received God's help in his
task.
Hill was on the right track, there IS power
in positive thinking, and our actions do tend to follow our thoughts, good or
bad, which makes the things we believe in mighty important.
But the father of the young kicker had the whole picture, a deep faith
and belief in the power of the Lord. A
strong man knows when to turn it over to
God. The power in his positive thinking is centered in a source much greater
than himself.
WIN stands for Writers of Inspirational
Novels, a chapter of the American
Christian Fiction Writers. That was the
group I was presenting to Saturday.
There were quite a few that braved
the cold and who weren't out of town
for Easter weekend. We had a good
time and hopefully they got something
from it. The picture is two members of the
group, Jan Warren and Vickie McDonough who took Saundra and I out to eat Friday
night along with Vickie's hubby Robert and Jan's lovely daughter Shelly.
I have to say I was really impressed by the
library where the meeting was held, Hardesy Library there in
President Therese Stenzel ramrodded the
meeting, and the participation was great. They made Saundra and I feel right at
home, up until Saundra went out to terrorize the local stores, that is.
Following the meeting I joined Vicki McDonough and Margaret Daly signing books
at Borders Bookstore where they really treated us well.
Let me put their website in again in case
someobdy lives in that area and needs a great writers group to interface
with http://win-acfw.com/.
The trip took us away from our church for
Easter, however, bitter cold forced the cancellation of sunrise services there
anyway, and we did get to do Easter with family on the way back home.
A freiend just sent this picture of me taking
pitches in Granbury.
A good example of why I try not to have my
picture taken
without the hat. The hat has all the
personality.
Saundra and I will be out doing it again this
weekend
as we travel to
(Writers of Inspirational Novels) chapter of
the American Christian
Fiction Writers. Their website is http://win-acfw.com/ I'll be doing
two sessions, "Writing for the Christian
Market" and a second session
on "So you've always wanted to
write?"
I'll be following Lena Nelson Dooley and
Teresa Stenzel, who came in to speak in January and February, no easy task.
However, if I get good group interaction it generally works out okay and I'm
sure we'll have a lot of fun. In a couple of weeks I'm planning to be at the
NETWO (North East
In
answer to your question, yes, it is taking a toll on my writing and causing the
proposals and manuscripts to stack up. I'm working on that.
Les Williams, a good friend and regular
reader of this blog often comments on what he reads here. His comments
yesterday are not so much comments as they are an additional blog, so I'm going
to present them today as a guest blog:
I'm
curious if this is something else kids "learn" from their parents.
When I was growing, up my dad was a avid reader. I picked this up from him. He
started me reading Edger Rice Burroughs, Zane Gray and many other authors who
were popular at the time.
Parents
would probably like their kids to read, but they either don't read themselves,
or are to busy shuffling them from one activity to another. wheather the kids
want to participate or not.
Parents
buy their kids( mostly the boys) the latest and greatest electronic device so
they ( the kids) can "entertain" themselves allowing them( the
parents), more time to spend infront of the TV watching what passes for
"entertainment" in todays society.
I don't
know if this lack of reading by boys will turn itself around, given the
poliferation of hand held games, computer games and the like. One can only
hope.
All I can
say is I am definately glad I grew up in the time that I did. Boys who do not
read, have no idea how much they are missing out on.
My long
winded 2 cents worth.
Les
Comments:
Yes, Les Williams knows what he's talking about when it comes to
reading. My concern goes a bit further. Print media tend to be more rational,
while visual media tend to be more emotional. The less we read, the less
practiced we become in rational thought. The more visual media we watch, the
more conditioned we become to merely emotional response. Over time, we as a
nation are losing the rationality that built this country and have kept it on a
moderately even keel. The more we can persuade people to read, the more we can
counter this trend.
Donn
Another voice being heard is
Flying Point Press where industry veterans Steve Hill and Peggy Hogan are
packaging books for YA boys. They're focusing on exciting non-fiction at
present, but they are a strong voice for reaching out to these readers.
I really believe this is more
than just helping a guy (or some of my other children's writers clients) sell a
book. I think it's about getting more
publishing houses to recognize that we have to aggressively go after this market,
and if the response isn't what they want, to strongly promote and build the
market to where they DO want it to be.
To have the patience to grow young male readers, and compete with those
video games. If they don't they are kissing off a major market share in the
future, as well as now.
There's a good recent interview with Max at http://www.dancingword.net/kidmaginesitefiles/chattinitupmaxelliotanderson.htm
I think my son and daughter are workaholics.
Teri can seldom be found anywhere except at the Fire Training Center that seems
to be the center of her life and Bryan is busy replacing a roof, working on his
house, helping coach his son's team, working on a friend's car and a motorcycle
for his sister and a few other odds and ends in his off duty hours from being a
police Lieutenant. I don't think they know how to relax.
They come by it honest, my dad was that way,
constantly working around the house, spending time with the Optimist boys club
and other civic endeavors while keeping up with a bunch of chores for a bunch
of widow ladies he had taken to raise. His idea of relaxing was working in a
huge garden, which I believe is also work.
Now me, I still spend time at a day job for
the time being, four days a week anyway.
But I know how to get into that recliner and relax, turn into a couch
potato in front of the TV. Oh sure, I do my chores first and I stop by mama's
house every day on the way home and might do a chore or two there, but when I relax, I relax. Well, maybe if I'm
watching TV I may work a few queries or proposals in during commercials and
they might intrude on the show a little,
and I do tend to go work conferences or workshops most weekends that
involve driving 5-10 hours one way, but driving isn't work. And I do try to
work in a little writing time.
I for sure don't work on Sunday that's our
day for worship. By the time we work in Sunday School, worship service, eating
out, back for choir practice, Discipleship Training, Evening Worship, it may be
a full day, but it isn't work. I suppose it isn't relaxing either though.
Hmmm,
well I'll be, I'm not sure I know how to relax either.
I took off and wrote full time for three
years. A lot of what I've sold was written during that time period, but I
finally decided I needed a bit more
income and took a day job. I just
cut back to a 4 day week as an interim step to go back to full time as an agent
and writing. I'm building the contacts
and the client list and expect to be back to full time again by the beginning
of next year. This time it'll take.
I nearly made it last time. I was doing
freelance work doing not only book-length but magazine articles, short stories,
a newspaper column, even poetry for greeting cards. If I ran across something I
thought I could write and sell I tried it.
We had some people come in to do programs for the local writing group
and I'd do the exercise in class, then go sell what I wrote. No point in
wasting words. I sold a lot of what I wrote as reprint rights and put it out
again.
I've
never been one to waste words, if I take the time to write something, I try to
get it out there in some manner. In a Writers Digest article I took on the
question of whether we should write for free or not. I said we shouldn't, but
went on to say it's possible to be paid in other ways than money. Sometimes
when starting out resume credits can be as valuable as money, or visibility and
promotion for a book that's releasing. I think we have to realize those things
can have value, depending on our situation at the time.
I don't often talk politics, people get all
upset, and nobody changes anybody else's mind. For all the years that I managed
various chambers of commerce around the
southwest I carried an "Independent" voter registration card because
it was important for me to show that I could work with both parties. That meant
I had to give up the privilege of voting in the primaries because then they
would have stamped my card with that primary stamp and I could no longer wave
it around when I wanted to prove I was really an independent.
But it was more than just eye candy for the
politicians, I really am an independent. These days it seems the politicians
are lining up as liberals or conservatives (which to me would be more
meaningful labels than Republican or Democrat since some of each reside in
either party) and I've generally voted for the man or woman with values I
respected more than party labels. Now it
seems like so much of the leadership is getting far left or far right and the
70-80% just plain folks left in the middle don't seem to have anybody talking
for them. Something wrong about that when people running for office spend all
their time trying to court this little group and that little group and leave
all us common folks scratching our heads.
If
somebody quit trying to please all these little groups and jumped out here in
the middle speaking for us they might find a whole passel of votes out here.
I just saw where STL is moving at least a portion of their operation
to
People migrate too, and it fascinates me to
see editors moving from one house to another, agents becoming editors and
editors becoming agents. Trying to keep
up is a true challenge.
What houses are looking for changes as well.
The mix fluctuates as they work to fill certain slots in an upcoming
catalog. That's why "writing for
the market" can often be so difficult. If we write aiming at a particular
market we may finish only to find others were doing the same thing, have beat
us to market, and the niche is now saturated, at least for the time being.
All
of these things and other factors mean we as writers (and even more so for an
agent) need to be constantly watching the industry for changes, for intel on
who is doing what. Just sending out queries or proposals without knowing who we
are sending to or what their situation is virtually guarantees a rejection. But
hey, if it was easy anybody could to it . . . right?
A substantial number of people from the
various lists that I am on have showed up over at Shoutlife.com, a sort of
Christian Myspace. Most of my clients have even wandered in over there. I've discovered I like that for a couple of
different reasons. First, if I need to get hold of them, clicking on it shows
me if they are online or not, and when I do drop them a note the place where
I'm writing it has their face on it, making the communication feel much more
personal to me.
So much of the time we do business in this
industry by phone or email, and I've done a significant amount with editors and
clients and have never met them face to face. Oh, I do finally get to hook up
with some at conventions or events, but
even then it's nice to see their face when I'm trying to communicate with them.
I'm an old country boy, and I put a lot of
stock in people that are real, people who stand by their word and do what they
say they'll do. If I had my way we'd all
be doing business on a handshake, but unfortunately this business is driven by
contracts and agreements. I do know my reputation is one of the most important
things I have and if I say I'll do something I will, and if I say I'll be
somewhere you can look for me at the proper time. If it's just out of my
control I'll get back to you and tell you. Out in this part of the country that
was the norm and for the most part is still pretty common.
I
like to do business that way, and I like to be able to see somebody's face when
I'm talking to them, even if it's on a computer screen.
I do a lot of networking. It's important to help
generate that all important word-of-mouth that is the very best promotion for
books sales. It's important to help get my name out as I join the Hartline
Literary team as an agent, and it's important as I have opportunities via the
various online connections to use the
gift of encouragement to lift up other writers, to encourage them to allow
their faith to shine through in their writing, and as an agent to try and help
them get their words out where they will work for the Lord.
A place of encouragement many of us have
found is over at http://www.shoutlife.com/
and is a place of Christian encouragement and a networking opportunity
extraordinaire. It's a sort of Christian Myspace, where the people you meet are
far more likely to be kindred spirits. Writers from the American Christian
Fiction Writers list, the Fellowship of
Christian Writers, and Faithwriters have
found their way over to the group in force and it's a neat place to put faces
with names.
By
the way, my good friend Dusty Richards just won not one, but two Spur Awards
that will be presented at the Western Writers of America conference in
Happy
Birthday Louie
Today
would have been the birthday of
novelist
Louie L'Amour. His official website
says he was born Louis Dearborn LaMoore and
he lived
the first 15 years of his life in
Jamestown
North Dakota, the son of a
veterinarian.
His sister Edna was a librarian
and he
spent many long hours there studying
and
reading, and was often far ahead of his
school
studies. His entire family were intelligent
and well
read, and his father taught him the ways of animals and a deep belief in hard
work. His brother Parker was a newsman and taught him a reporters speed and
simplicity of prose.
He
traveled and worked jobs all over the world, sampling life of an amazing
scale. He met many people who had first
hand accounts of the history of the old west and was fascinated by it. He had a
first hand knowledge of the various remote locations where his stories would be
set . He knew from an early age that he would be a writer but initially
intended to be a poet (until he found out it didn't pay well . . . in fact not
at all).
The 1960's
he produced his famous Sackett series, and in the 70's he signed a 30 book
contract with Bantam. He would go on to write over a hundred books. His novels "Hondo" and "
Five years
after outselling John Steinbeck's record of 41 million copies, Louis L'Amour sold his one hundred millionth
book. He was told he had topped that
figure days before he passed away. Even today, nearly 20 years afterhis death
in 1988, he continues to sell and to dominate the western bookshelves.
I often
hear detractors talking about the "literary merit" of his work and he
is seldom discussed in college writing classes. Yet those literary titles that
are often held up to young writing students cannot touch the book sales and
exposure of his titles, because few writers have had the ability that he had to
speak to the common man.
I've
pulled a few facts from his official website at http://www.louislamour.com where more information on this legendary
writer can be found.
Saundra
and I really felt like we got
to meet
him even though he died in
1935,
before we were born. Two men
(
including Randall Reeder – right)
took turns
being in character as the
famous
entertaininer, cowboy
philosopher
, cowboy, movie star,
roper
extraordinaire, and the genuine
media star
of his day. We saw
movie
clips and newsreel footage and
learned a
lot about him as the Will
Rogers
Writers Workshop progressed
the past
few days. The workshop was
a special
writers workshop put on by
I was
honored to do a couple of workshop
sessions
as part of the event and because it
included
St. Patrick's Day made a few
comments
at the banquet where I neither
admitted
nor denied that I was in reality a
"Texas
Leprechaun" but if they didn't want
to take a
chance they could shake hands
with me
and thereby avail themselves of a
liberal dose of "luck of the Irish." I also admitted to the
truth that you could capture a leprechaun and force him to reveal the location
of their pot of gold, but unfortunately all the pots of gold were in the old
country and I couldn't help them there.
A stellar lineup of presenters kept
attendees writing notes the whole time,
the Friday night event at the
MaryAnn Diorio
did a nice job of making me look good in an interview posted on her website
if anybody is bored enough to go take a look. A good interviewer can make or
break you, you know? Over the years,
particularly when I was doing chamber of commerce work, I was often interviewed
on one subject or another. An interviewer determined to make me look good would
ask great questions, as MaryAnn did, and I'd come off just fine.
One who
was looking to sensationalize might ask very aggressive questions, even take
sound bites or quotes out of context that would cause me all kind of problems.
I feel for those who live on the public stage and who have to live or die by
the text snippet or the careless word. True, some of them an interviewer
doesn't have to work at it to make them look bad, but that's another subject.
I had the
chance to attend the U S Chamber course on how to do interviews. It was done in
their media center and I don't know if its still the case, but a lot of
Senators and Congressmen used to go through it. They would find out things
about you and just tear you up in an interview. It was terrible to watch it
played back. Then they'd teach some coping skills and take you through it
again. Interesting process.
That was a
really long time ago, but I still remember two of the key techniques. Lots of
people will do a good job providing a response, then totally mess themselves up
when the interviewer leaves the microphone in front of them prompting them to
go on. The answer was they won't use dead air, quit when we've said what we
want to say. Duh.
The other
is a favorite with politicians, when they ask a question we don't want to
answer use the occasion to provide information we want to get into the
interview, one of our previously thought out "talking points." If we
can provide a good segway, that's great, if not it'll work anyway.
"Senator, how do you plan to vote on funds for the war?" "I'm
glad you asked that, health care is very important to me and . . . . "
The public gets it.
Continuing
to pull information together for the program I have to give this coming
weekend, and continuing the subject I broached yesterday. Information was shared yesterday about an
online site that would help. The information was based on a book entitled
Business of Consumer Book Publishing 2006.
There's a lag time of course, but I found the numbers quite encouraging.
The book industry as a whole grew 24.9 percent.
Within that romance continued to be the big dog with 26.4 percent of the
market and religious inspirational with 25.5 percent.
The 9,949
Christian titles eclipsed the 5,994 romance titles which means even though
there were more religious titles, romance books sold more copies. Another factor within these numbers that I
found encouraging was YA sales jumped 10.6 percent to 3.61 billion dollars.
This is important because the publishing industry can only survive and flourish
if there is a growing base of readership.
With
romance and Christian together accounting for better than half the market, the
next largest share was business books 12.9 percent, health books at 7.7 percent, sci-fi/fantasy at 7.6 percent and mystery at 6.1
percent. Others ranged down from that.
However,
even with the industry growing, the number of titles released dropped 9.4
percent to 172,000 new titles.
There were lots more numbers, but the
bottom line is this snapshot of the industry showed encouraging growth led by
romance and Christian with a strong YA showing admittedly fueled by a Harry
Potter release. Now to figure out how to use these numbers.
Christian fiction?
I have to
speak at the Will Rogers Writing Workshop in
In fact,
the trend has lured most major
Lena
Nelson Dooley suggested with the
Where does
Christian fiction stand? I love this quote from
Or this
one from Carol Johnson, vice –president of editorial at Bethany House,
"Now Christian publishing is a force to be reckoned with by the world and
the media, we are no longer to be
considered a small, insignifican ghetto."
And if so, does it also mean it is moving
out of Christian bookstores and onto the shelves of the mainstream stores? If it is, it would probably postively impact
sales, but books tend to remain available longer in the Christian stores than
on the rapid turnover shelves in the big boxes. I think it behooves all of us
to encourage our small Christian retailers to stay in the game.
Success as
an agent depends on writing queries and proposals. I find I do a better job if
I proceed with the assumption that nobody wants to read what I'm sending. That
could well be true. It might be the 50th query letter on a long exasperating
day and it's still too early to leave so they decide to do a few more but
aren't really in the mood. Easy to imagine that or even worse situations. My
query letter has to reach out and pull them in, even if they don't want to be
pulled in. And the purpose is not to do the whole process, too much to ask, I'm
not trying to sell a manuscript but trying to get them to invite a submission.
Those I
receive as an agent have to do that. I'm get a couple of dozen a day along with
requested proposals and manuscripts. Many I will weed out on the basis of the
query letter as it tells me it simply isn't an area we are working in now. No
reflection on the writing, I haven't seen any writing, but I get lots and lots
of good writing so I'm looking for things that might be a good fit for the
markets we're working in right now and I can't read everything given the
quantity that I receive.
The object
is to stand out, to interest me and force me to ask for more. If the writer has
correctly identifed me as working in the appropriate field and makes the case,
I'm going to look at more. Then the drama will repeat itself as a proposal has
to attract an agent or editor in exactly the same way.
Oh, I
could be a Pollyanna and just be so sure that what I was sending was going to
be eagerly received and would just enjoy spectacular success leading to a
publisher rushing to my door and offering me obscene amounts of money for the
privilege of doing the project. I could, but I find I have better luck if I am
a "realistic optimist," that is believing the best is going to happen
but only if I assume the worst and approach it from that standpoint taking steps
to overcome it.
When I started approaching it that way, my
results started to improve.
A friend of
mine, Marilynn Griffith, said something at a book event in
Isn't that
great? My writing has for all practical purposes been set aside for the moment.
I've mentioned that I feel led that it is even more important to help others
get their writing out where it can serve the Lord, or even to provide good,
clean entertainment that is badly needed today. But even before that happened I
was under conviction that I needed to change my focus with my writing. I'm
still not sure what the Lord has in mind, I just know Marilynn has it right and
I need to write what He wants me to write.
Not that my
writing has had no impact, I've been extremely humbled and pleased at notes
that I've gotten back. I've even had people buy extra copies to give to unsaved
friends because of the content, but I've done that and now feel I need a new
direction. I've prayed for the Lord to give me strong guidance, as I don't do
subtle well. I need a firm hand on the reins.
COMMENT: You know what? I do remember saying
that now, but I didn't think much of it at the time. I'm so glad that God used
my muttering lips to speak your heart. I love it when that happens!
Great post,
mary