Christian Fiction|TMA: Whe a Good Excuse to be Angry Is Not Enough

TThis past Friday someone(s) robbed our home.

We were not home; so we weren't harmed. Yet, I feel broken. Not because of the items stolen, not because our back door was damaged, not because someone uninvited themselves into our home. But because my daughter couldn't sleep, she's afraid to leave the home, she's afraid to play in her pool. Someone robbed my child of her happiness and peace. As a parent, that feeling is worse than anything.

That thief did that to us and I'm past angry. I'm so angry I don't want to talk to my friends or my family. I'm that angry. However, the Holy Spirit want let my anger fester and grow into something sinister. Instead it keeps forcing me to take control. It reminds me of who I am and whom I belong to. Continue reading...

Dee Recommends:

• Kindle Wireless Reading Device, Free 3G, 6" Display, White, 3G Works Globally - Latest Generation 
• The Heir 
• Christian Fiction

Finding Your Ideal Reader #LiterarySoapbox

Today on Literary Soapbox we’re sharing tips and discussing how authors need to reach Thelma, a marketing ideal for Contemporary African American book byers.

Here is my condensed response:

IMO, the Thelma you describe is a group of women, not one person…

gist we have to move away from reaching authors based on demographics, but psychographics. How people shop? The psychology of buying and decision making.
Reaching these groups will not work with cookie cutter book marketing efforts. You can't duplicate what another author does. You have to build a campaign that does its best to reach your ideal reader.

Visit the blog for my entire response and my breakdown of two different types of Thelmas here, then respond there or on my blog your thoughts. You can also respond on Twitter use the hashtag #literarysoapbox

Photo: Thelmas buying books at the 2010 Faith & Fiction Retreat

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Christian Fiction TPT: Maid of Murder

This week's Christian Fiction Trailer Park Tuesday spotlight is Amanda Flower’s Maid of Murder.
About Maid of Murder:
India Hayes is a lot of things . . . starving artist who pays the rent as a college librarian, daughter of liberal activists, sister of an emotional mathematician, tenant of a landlady who has kissed the Blarney Stone one too many times, and a bridesmaid six times over. But she’s about to step into the most challenging role of her life: amateur sleuth. Childhood friend and now knockout beauty, Olivia Blocken is back in town to wed her bodybuilder fiancé with India a reluctant attendant . . . not just because the bridesmaid’s dress is a hideous mess, but because she’s betraying her brother. Mark still carries a torch for the bride who once broke his heart and sent his life into a tailspin. When Olivia turns up dead in the Martin College fountain and the evidence points to Mark, India must unmask the real culprit while juggling a furious and grieving Mother of the Bride, an annoyingly beautiful Maid of Honor, a set of hippie-generation parents, the police detective who once dated her sister and is showing a marked liking for her, and a provost itching to fire someone, anyone—maybe even a smart-mouthed librarian. India’s investigation leads her on a journey through childhood memories that she’d much rather have left in the schoolyard, but to avoid becoming the next victim, it is a path she must follow. Maid of Murder is a fast-paced, laugh-out-loud mystery set in an amusing world of academia. Readers will fall in love with India Hayes’s fierce loyalty and wit.

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When I began this blog I used to refer great blogs to our readers.  Yesterday I realized that I hadn’t done that in a while. What makes blogging the most fun is sharing and fellowshipping with other bloggers. Today I want to share a great blog with you: Carman’s Christian Book Giveaways Blog.

This blog shares Christian book giveaways throughout the blogosphere. So if you’re giving away books, please let her know.

Dee

Christian Fiction: Shana Burton Flaws and All

Monday Christian Fiction in the ABA Spotlight

• Title: Flaws and All

• Author: Shana Burton

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Urban Trade Paper (July 27, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1601628528
• ISBN-13: 978-1601628527

Flaws and All synopsis:

Faith, family, and friendship have always been top priority to lifelong friends Lawson, Reginell, Sullivan, Angel, and Kina, but each one is about to be put to the test during one turbulent year.

Lawson Kerry is a struggling single mother who has finally gotten her life together. Now, a fierce custody battle with her ex threatens to the tear apart everything she’s built.

Reginell Kerry is a starry-eyed singer determined to make it to the top of the charts, but will she change her tune when a chance at fame means shedding her clothes and her self-respect?

Sullivan Webb is the pampered wife of a charismatic pastor with political aspirations, but she just might destroy her husband’s campaign and their marriage if she can’t control her wandering eye.

Angel King has dedicated her life to nursing following the destruction of her marriage. Can she maintain her professionalism when she discovers that her newest patient is the woman who stole her husband?

Kina Battle has had enough of her husband’s verbal and physical abuse. When she’s pushed to the edge, the situation heads in a deadly direction, and there’s no turning back.

Nothing is sacred, all bets are off, and the lives of these ladies will never be the same. Will they have the strength to hold on to their friendships and put their trust in God?

Defining Failure in Publishing

Image of Digital Book World

Leaders need to let go, to accept that we don’t know best. Our role is to create the environment in which a sense of urgency around experiments is engendered, to accept and allow failure, to encourage iterative improvement and speedy adaptation, to facilitate information flow throughout the organisation: to orchestrate a process of improvisation, a dance in which the aim is to fail better, cheaper and faster so that we can all work out what will succeed.- Rebecca Smart President and Managing Director of Osprey Publishing on: Publishers Need to Fail Better, Cheaper, Faster | Digital Book World
Yesterday’s DigibookWorld Round Table discussed Defining Failure. The gist of the chat focused on assessment and experimentation. With new and faster reporting technology will publishers, bookstores, and authors do more to fail, in order to succeed in this changing reading cultural landscape? Like tech companies who assess new product launches, will publishers began to assess why certain books introduced into the marketplace fail instead of just leaving the book out to die like a thirsty turtle in the middle of a dessert?

A few interesting questions were raised:

• Have  bookstores become literary showrooms?
• Are there things bookstores can do more to fail?
• Bookstores are currently serving as show rooms, whether they want to or not. Are book buyers going into bookstores looking at books, then buying them online?

Some even better tweets

•  @MatthewDiener: $500K advance for book that will be lucky to earn back vs. $500K for MarkLogic server and an end-to-end XML workflow #dbw
• @kratlee: literary fiction is the old spice of publishing - @glecharles
• @bakersmark: One thing we don't do in this industry is postmortems to discover why a book failed and what we could have done better
• @deegospel: Why aren’t bookstores cultural centers anymore? Where are the cultural centers & do they accommodate readers?
• @MatthewDiener: "We are great at failing with books everyday." @donlinn Grt pt; an industry surviving on 10% success rate w/ print.
• @deegospel: that is the great question: did the Old Spice social media blitz push sales?
• RT @TomThompson: Remember the Old Spice guy took off with HUGE ad spend. Social media wouldn't have worked without it

Now your thoughts…

Christian Fiction

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RSJ 2011 Aspiring Author Contest

This contest helped me get my three book deal with Dafina. The doors are now opened for your chance. Learn more below…

RSJ 2011 Aspiring Author Contest

(Contest Registration Opens 1 Aug)

Each year aspiring fiction authors take a step closer to having their dreams come true by entering the Romance Slam Jam Aspiring Author Contest. The winners' manuscripts are read by an editor or agent with a chance at publication or representation.

Previous winners and prizes. ( I won 3rd)

Genre: Black Romance/Women's Fiction

Prizes:

1st Place: Manuscript reviewed by Editor Latoya Smith from Grand Central Publishing for possible publication.

2nd Place: Manuscript reviewed by Editor Selena James from Kensington Books for possible publication.

3rd Place: TBA

Submission Package:
To help prepare contestants for submitting to publishing houses and agents, the entries will resemble a submission package sent to agents and publishers except remove your name from the query, synopsis and sample pages. You can call yourself Contestant. Submissions are electronic (sent via email). The file should be a Microsoft Word document. In the body of the email, be sure to give the name you registered in the contest under and the title of your novel.
Format:
• 1 inch margins all around
• Font Times New Roman, 12pt

Include (one email, 3-4 attachments):
• 1 page query letter single spaced addressed to:

Ms. C. Judge

2 Busy St.

New York, NY, 10101

Sign it Contestant.

Your query letter may be in the body of the email.

• Synopsis double spaced (3 page max).

• 15 sample pages double spaced.

• Cover page (this page does not count toward your 15 sample pages)
• In the manuscript header, place the Novel Title / Author and Page Number
• If you need an extra page or two to complete a scene, that’s okay.

• Contest registration form if you have not already submitted it.

Note on Eligibility: If you have not had a full-length novel published by a traditional publisher, you are eligible for this contest. Therefore, if your publishing credits are, short stories, novellas, poetry, non-fiction and or you are self-published, you are eligible.

Important Dates: All submissions must be received by 28 February 2011. The winners will be announced at the Emma Awards Banquet during RSJ 2011. Winners not in attendance at the the Emma Awards will be notified by email the first week of May 2011.
Contest Fee:
Please make a $30 money order or cashiers check payable to: Romance Slam Jam
Mail payment and Contest Registration Form to:
Romance Slam Jam
c/o Deatri King-Bey
P.O. Box 822
Tolleson, AZ 85353
If you'd like to pay using PayPal, the fee is $35. Email payment and registration form to deatri@romanceslamjam.org

Once payment and the Contest Registration Form have been received, instructions will be emailed to you on where to send the submission. Please note, registration fee is non-refundable.
Refer any questions regarding the Romance Slam Jam Aspiring Authors contest todeatri@romanceslamjam.org

Good Luck!