Measuring Success as a Christian Novelist

If you choose the riskier path and decide to spend your life as a creator, you have the job of feeling successful no matter what your objective successes look like. You must train yourself to feel successful, despite what your heart and the world tell you about your lack of success.
Erick Maisel, The Van Gogh Blues

I must follow this man's advice.

My readers aren't camping out for first editions or dressing up as my characters for Halloween. Book signings are exercises in humility--or delightful parties. It depends. My royalty statements are reacquainting me with negative numbers. (I'm so grateful I taught 5th-grade math. All that number theory is coming in handy.) And my books have shorter shelf-lives than strawberries. (My husband says this is an exaggeration, but for those who have received out-of-print notices, it sure seems true.)

And so, how can I feel successful in this media-guided, capitalistic, celebrity-worshiping society?

Be a sheep!

Matthew 25:31-46 is a red-letter passage where Jesus is explaining how he will cull the goats from the sheep when he comes in glory. He surprises the "sheep" of his story by saying when they fed the hungry, offered drink to the thirsty, invited in the stranger, clothed the naked, tended the sick, and visited the prisoner, they did these things to him.

And so, in Jesus' kingdom, success is belief and meeting the needs of "the least of these." What does this mean for the writer of fictional stories?

I'm just starting to give this topic some thought. Here is my rough draft, open for critique and review:

To feed the hungry, I must offer the Bread of Life, Jesus! There's nothing like the fragrance of baking bread. Stomach juices create a symphony of anticipation as toasted wheat and yeast fills the house. That's what this sheep of a writer must aim for. I want my stories to demonstrate an aspect of Christ the Lord that is so winsome that the reader will hunger to partake of him.

My stories should offer refreshment to the parched soul, a drink of water. Erase any Pollyanna story you have in your head. My readers live in the real world. They need hope. Nothing refreshes like hope.

Not everyone who picks up my stories is "at home" with Jesus. They've come to know a "Jesus" through the media, misguided religious institutions, or family members who is NOT the soul-loving, passionate, holy, mighty, Lamb of God of the Bible. To welcome the stranger, it is my creative challenge to pull back the curtain on the real Jesus to my readers.

And yes, I have some naked readers in need of clothes, but how do I clothe anyone with words? Perhaps this is giving readers a chance through the protagonist's experiences to put on faith, see how it fits, works, and grows.

Some of my readers are heart sick. To look after them as Jesus requires, I can't be afraid of getting too close to their experience, fearing that I'll catch something. That means my stories must be authentic, populated by characters experiencing full-frontal life.

When my stories speak to the imprisoned reader, they should hear: I'm here because I care. There's hope for you. I see it plainly. There are people--lots of people--in the world just like you.

Now, I've never purposely written to these goals, but they seem to emerge organically from a story that is written for the Audience of One who is Jesus.

How do you measure yourself as successful?

Dream Resources for Writers

Perhaps you noticed yesterday, cunningly concealed within Latayne's post (you had to follow the link to her presentation video, and then follow the link to the handout) , an excellent resource list for writers. I was particularly happy to find it, because just the night before, I'd had coffee with a hopeful author struggling with his first novel.

Get yourself to a writers conference, I'd told him, and then wondered where I could find a list of conferences he could refer to.

A writers group would be a great idea, I'd said, and then wondered where he could find information about finding or starting one of his own.

"But how do I format the manuscript?" he asked. Visit Novel Matters, I answered. Then made a mental note to make sure all this information could be found on our site.

And what did I find the very next morning, but Latayne's list. Easy Peasy. All I had to do was insert all her handout goodness into our resource list.

So I did. Today I think I'll beef it up even more, by adding to her excellent list of books some of the titles we mention again and again on Novel Matters. Like Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury - the best, in my opinion, on how to write. Walking on Water by Madeleine L'Engle - the best, again in my opinion, about why to write.

Then, of course:

• On Writing by Stephen King
• Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
• Write Away by Elizabeth George
• Write Tight by William Brohaugh
• From Where You Dream by Robert Olen Butler

To these, I'm going to add one we may not have mentioned: The Writers Book of Hope, by Ralph Keyes. Every writer needs a boost from time to time if he's to spit in the face of despair. It helps to know the setbacks and frustrations he faces are common and expected.

When we ladies at Novel Matters began our blog, we had plans for the resource list. We wanted to find the really cool stuff, the stuff you couldn't find anyplace else. We have some fantastic links on our list, but we need ideas. That's where you come in, all you writers out there. Let us know, please, what sorts of resources you would you like to find. What would really help you? Tell us, and we will do our best to make your dream list.

Because we love you so much.

Mwah!

Plot Improbabilities

Recently a secular organization asked me to address their annual conference, on how to write effectively. (You can see the link to the video of the presentation – and the handout I provided to the participants -- here. Small enticement: The handout is a kind of resource list/crash course for effective writing and publishing.)

My two latest books are controversial, and that’s why this organization wanted to hear what I had to say about handling touchy subject matter. In addressing others who might want to write on something controversial, I shared with them the most important element of persuasive writing.

It is this: The first task of a persuasive writer is to anticipate, and address, the objections of the reader – before those objections arise in the reader’s mind.

What does that have to do with writing fiction, you may ask?

Everything. Because, more than any other kind of writer, the fiction writer must convince the reader to care about people who don’t actually exist, in predicaments wholly invented by the writer. Now, that’s persuasive writing!

Here’s an exercise to help you do that.

Choose either the plot of your WIP or an extended section of it. Now, imagine three people you know who just won’t put up with illogical or unbelievable plots. (We’re not talking about the writing, just the plot at this point.) Ah, there’s your snotty Aunt Eunice who points out plot holes in Murder She Wrote reruns. And your teenage son who rolls his eyes when something improbable happens at a movie and groans so loudly that you duck down in your theater seat. And don’t forget your spouse who throws across the room any book with too many coincidences.

Imagine them at their worst. Allow them to morph into avatars. Let them hold court on the plot of your novel. Let them be ruthless. Reason out what they would object to.

Then fix it. Every plot hole, improbable coincidence, silly sequence, gratuitous artifice.

Then ship those three avatar plot critics off to a Siberian prison that swirls in the middle of a perpetual ice storm forever, because they have nothing more to say.

Then take lung-deep, ah!-bright-wings breaths.

And write.

Lavishly, recklessly, write.

Nourish Your Dreams

I'm excited to announce that our giveaway this month is Hot Apple Cider, an anthology that contains Bonnie Grove's short story, The Stuckville Cafe. The title alone makes my mouth water. Leave a comment to be entered in the drawing.

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I recently read Home Safe by Elizabeth Berg, an excellent story by this best-selling author. It deals with the ticklish relationship between a mother and her grown daughter, which is a topic I love to both read and write about.

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I'm not a reader who typically marks in the margins of a novel or underlines text. I don't dog-ear the pages, or bend back the spine. I leave as little physical evidence that I've traveled through the pages of a novel as I possibly can. The tracks of the novel journey for me are impressed on my mind, and when it's really good, on my heart. I love to leave a book looking as new as possible when I'm through with it for the next person I pass it on to, or for my library if it's one I choose to keep. And prepare yourself: I'm not a fan of used books stores either. I know, that's sacrilege for an author, but it's newness I love. Give me a Barnes and Noble any day.

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But on page 68 of Home Safe there's a little asterisk in blue ink next to the lengthy paragraph in the middle of the page. It's from the point of view of Helen Ames, a woman newly widowed, an author whose career has stalled, and a mother who's depending far too heavily on her grown daughter. In the scene I marked, Helen has just concluded a less-than-stellar presentaton at a local library, a presentation she didn't want to make in the first place. This is how the passage reads, in part: "You know, I wonder if---Maybe I could try again another time." She'll share with them the story about telling her father as a little girl that she was going to be a writer someday and how at first he had laughed but then had said, "I believe you." She'll explain how important it is to have someone believe in you, how important it is to nourish dreams, especially your own."

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Those few simple words went straight to my heart. I not only stopped to re-read them a half dozen times, I went looking for a pen and marked the margin.

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From my earliest memory, my free time was spent with a pencil and drawing pad sketching faces, always faces. Later I dabbled in oils, but drawing in pencil was what I loved best. I thought if I ever accomplished anything artistically, it would be in that art form. Then I got married, started having babies, and somewhere along the line I forgot how to draw. But like many people, I often thought--secretly of course--I'd love to write a book someday. It never occurred to me that one day I might actually try, let alone do it.

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I was a shy person, and even more shy about showing my drawings to anyone, never quite comfortable with praise from my family and friends, because my eye invariably accented the flaws. I was sure theirs did too, and that their praise was false and obligatory. So when I began to write my first novel, I did it in secret, sure that everyone--like Helen Ames' father--would laugh at such a silly idea. I'd written 100 pages over the course of a summer before I revealed to anyone what I was doing. Then one night I handed the pages to my husband, and went to hide while he read them. To my amazement he not only didn't laugh; he praised and encouraged. He nourished my dream. Twenty years later he's still doing that.

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There's not a doubt in my mind that his encouragement, and that of our son and daughters, is what helped me stay the course on my long path to publication. Hopes were dashed many times along the way, but always I could hear them say, "I believe in you," and it was enough to make me believe in myself.

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I'm remarkably blessed to be in the community of Christian writers, where support and encouragment is the norm, where fellow authors rejoice when you rejoice. And of my friends and colleagues here at NovelMatters I simply have to say, it doesn't get any better than this. We truly are a support group, cheering each other on when good things happen and praying when they don't. I respect and appreciate them more than I can say.

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So who has nourished your dreams? And whose dreams are you nourishing? Because we're in this together, you know. Your success lends to our success, which lends to another's success, and on it goes. And where would we be without readers? You too nourish our dreams. More than you know. Thank you and God bless.

Movie Night, Featuring Lying On Sunday

Welcome to Movie Night on NovelMatters. Today's feature is Sharon K. Souza's Lying on Sunday. Leave a comment to be entered into the NovelMatters movie-night giveaway. And have a fun and safe All Hallow's Eve.

Nightmare on Creative Street

Congratulations to Connie Reece, the winner of our book giveaway this month! Connie, you have won a copy of Patti Hill's latest release Seeing Things, so shoot us an email with your address please and we'll get it in the mail to you.

Since Halloween is Saturday, I thought I'd blog about the things that go bump in the writer's night. Things that kill creativity. Kill it dead.

How do we create life from lifeless tissue? The fact that I had to ask for my husband's help to think of a title for this post only confirmed my urgent need to figure this out. (Thanks, honey) Most writers experience dry times when the ideas just won't come. What are the causes and what are the cures? Let's button up our lab coats and pull the third switch!

I brainstormed a list of causes for lack of creativity and came up with: fear of failure, fear of transparency, feeling restricted by guidelines/formulas/word counts, burnout, real or imagined criticism, anxiety over deadlines, worry, feeling overwhelmed and stress about life in general. I'll admit that for me, stress is the worst culprit and maybe yours is listed, too. Maybe recognizing it is the first step toward overcoming.

The good news is that we swim in a rich gene pool. Our Creator gave us the desire to write and it's part of what makes us tick. We don't create alone. Here are some ideas for cures:

• Read widely. Feeding your mind with interesting and thought-provoking material results in interesting and thought-provoking writing. These new ideas can blossom into a story idea or influence the direction of your WIP.
  
• Write at the same time every day. This creates memory triggers that can flip on the power switch.
• Enjoy beauty. Find a quiet place that you love and take time to meditate. Don't write or think about your WIP. Take your lunch to the cemetery. It's quiet and peaceful, and no one knows you're there but God. Or listen to your favorite music without distractions, or take a scenic detour home from the grocery store and listen on your car stereo. It can help you get perspective.
  
• Practice ten or fifteen minutes of free style writing. Write about whatever comes into your mind. It's okay to write with abandon and flourish. That's how I picture the Lord pitching armfuls of stars into the galaxy at creation. Or choose a topic like your favorite childhood vacation or your favorite Christmas. The point is, do not stop to rewrite! No one else will read it but you.
  
• Write someplace new. Sometimes the same old ideas sit in my office, fish-eyed and lifeless. Taking my laptop to a different environment helps me get away from them and makes room for new ideas.
• Read about the lives of famous authors. They, too, suffered from periods of dryness and thought their writing was lifeless at times, and they overcame. You will, too.
  
• Get out and do something. If you spend all your time in your office bent over your laptop, you will not gather rich experiences that your characters can share. They don't want to be dull.
• Ask God to refresh you. Ask fellow authors, family and friends to pray. If God calls us to a ministry, He will equip us for the task.

This is just a short list of suggestions. What robs you of your creativity and what have you found helpful? Please share it with us!

Behind the Stacks - Judy Gann Explains Marketing to Libraries

Novel Matters is thrilled to host Judy Gann, a librarian with over twenty-five years experience, Judy Gann selects Christian fiction for a large library system in Washington state. She has presented "Behind the Stacks" library marketing workshops at writers conferences throughout the United States, including the Oregon Christian Writers Conference, Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference, and the annual ACFW Conference. Judy is the author of The God of All Comfort: Devotions of Hope for Those Who Chronically Suffer (AMG Publishers). Visit Judy at her website.

Judy is here to talk books - library books. She knows the ins and outs, the dos and don'ts of marketing your book to the library system. She's here today, answering frequently asked questions about the nuts and bolts of marketing Christian fiction to libraries.

Behind the Stacks: Marketing to Public Libraries

Why should a writer even consider marketing to libraries? After all, if people borrow our books from the library, they won't buy them at a bookstore.

This is the number one misconception authors have about marketing to public libraries. To me, the key is to think of libraries as an additional market, not instead of bookstores, but as another piece of your marketing plan. As independent bookstores close at an alarming rate and chains stock mostly bestsellers, we need to find new venues for connecting with the audiences for our books.

The public library serves an entire population that doesn't frequent bookstores, reaching a new audience for your books. This is especially true during tough economic times. Library use has skyrocketed during the current recession. Library users are also great word-of-mouth promoters. They'll check out a book and tell a friend about it, possibly resulting in an additional sale. Many people borrow a book from the library, discover a new author, and then purchase the author's other titles.

For those of you who like statistics, a 2008 U.S. News/CNN Poll revealed Americans make 3.6 billion visits to libraries per year; 57% of adults visited the library in the previous year; and 80% borrow from the library. In addition, libraries spent $1.9 billion on books in 2007, and 60% of midlist book sales go to libraries.

There are a lot of libraries out there, Judy. Where should we begin?

There's no place like home. Begin with your local library. I recommend becoming acquainted with your library and staff while writing your book. The library has fabulous new online databases for writers doing research for their novels - far beyond what you'll find through general internet searching - and far more accurate. Introduce yourself to the staff. We love to help local authors, and take a vested interest in their book projects.

After you sign a contract, work with your publisher to submit your novel to the key reviewing journals used by library acquisitions librarians. These include Publisher's Weekly, Booklist, and Library Journal. These journals require ARCs well in advance of publication date. Partner with your publisher. See what they are doing to market to libraries and build on their efforts.

When your book releases ask your local library to consider purchasing your book. (See additional information about how to approach libraries below.) Libraries are supportive of local authors. Partner with your library to do a reading or event, or offer to teach writing workshops for the public.

How should an author select the libraries to market to?

Begin with your home state. If your book is set in a particular state, also target libraries in that state. Virginia Smith has successfully targeted libraries in Kentucky - the setting for several of her novels.

There are approximately 16,000 public libraries in the United States. Obvioiusly, you can't target all of them. Use public library locators - online databases of public libraries in the United States. I recommend Library Technology Guides (http://www.librarytechnology.org/USPublicLibraries.pl) and State Library Web Sites (http://dpi.wi.gov/pld/statelib.html).

Beyond your local library, you want to target library systems rather than independent libraries. Library systems are made up of branches, and their book purchasing is done at a central location. They may include as few as one or two, or as many as eighteen to twenty or more branches, with the potential for purchasing multiple copies of your book. Independent libraries are their own entity with small budgets. They may purchase one copy of your book. This is a general rule and there are exceptions, depending on the topic of your book, reviews, etc.

What I like about the Library Technology Guide site is that it lists library systems and branches. For example, under "Texas," you'll find an alphabetical list of libraries by city and county. If the library is a system, branches are listed. A word of warning: this site hasn't been updated in a while. Check the State Library Web Sites guide for updated information about a particular library system or library.

Your own Sharon Souza is becoming a pro at using these locators to target public libraries with good success.

Who do you target at the library and what do you say to them?

Target the purchasing decision makers. These librarians are usually called acquisitions librarians or collection development librarians. In a large libary system they work at the main library or administration building.

Watch your wording when you approach staff with a copy of your book. Never use the word "donation." Donated books end up in our Friends of the Library book sales. Tell the staff you'd like them to "consider this book for purchase." Ask the staff to send your book to the librarian who makes the purchasing decisions for the library.

Before my last "Behind the Stacks" presentation I surveyed acquisitions librarians to see whether they prefer receiving e-mails or snail-mails. They overwhelmingly preferred snail-mail. Acquisitions librarians are inundated with e-mails from publishers and authors. A well-designed, professional flyer sent through the mail will stand out in the crowd.

Is there a particularly good time of year to approach libraries?

A library's purchasing of materials is tied to its budget year. If the library's budget year is from January-December, key buying seasons are late January to March - when we have new monies - and September to November - when all funds must be spent before the end of the budget year (usually money must be spent by Nov. 30).

What other thoughts would you like to share with us about marketing to public libraries?

A word of caution. Like other public agencies, public libraries are facing budget cuts. Yes, libraries continue to purchase books. But they are being far more selective. Sound like publishers and bookstores? We as authors must write the best books possible, work with our publishers to garner reviews from the key library review journals, and carefully target libraries, beginning with those in our local area.

On a more positive note, CBA fiction is "hot" in public libraries right now. Just as Christian fiction maintains a growing presence in general market bookstores such as Barnes & Noble, it's also gaining in popularity in public libraries. Librarians realize the quality of Christian fiction has improved greatly in recent years. Our library patrons, like bookstore shoppers, are searching for books that offer a good read coupled with hope. Where better to find this than in Christian fiction?

Ladies, thank you! It has been a joy to visit with you and your Novel Matters audience.

Thank YOU, Judy, for your wisdom and generosity. It is a rare thing to find someone so willing to share her knowledge and experience with others. You are a treasure!