What your Novel Beginning Must Hide

For the past month I've participated in #writechat. It is a live chat between writers on Twitter that happens between 1-3pm PST. Since I have hung out there I've learned from some of my writechat tweeps that the newbie writers aren't using a basic plot structure to guide them through writing the novel and they need one. For the summer --I'm here every 2nd and 4th Monday I believe--I will be sharing the 8 point plot structure skeleton I use with you. Let me confess I got it from J. Mark. Mine has been tweaked to fit me. You will more than likely do the same. In any case, let's begin...

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Condolences: David Pop Winans

By Associated Press

6:22 PM MDT, April 8, 2009

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — David (Pop) Winans Sr., the Grammy-nominated patriarch of the award-winning gospel music family, died Wednesday. He was 76.

A statement from a Los Angeles public relations company representing the family said he died at a Nashville hospice, where he had been since January after suffering a heart attack and stroke last October.

"The Winans family wishes to thank everyone for their prayers and continued support, but would appreciate privacy at this time," the statement said.

Is the Economy Keeping you From a Writer's Workshop?

Taking It To The Next Level In 2009

"Coming to a computer and telephone near you!"

Virtual Workshops to Help You Take Your Skills to the Next Level

Thursday, April 16 -- 18, 2009 - $50 Registration Fee Includes All Sessions!

Faith Based Fiction Writers of Atlanta, formerly Visions in Print Writers Group is raising money to award a college scholarship to a Class of 2009 high school graduate. We invite you to attend an online writer's conference. We're offering seven workshops and teleconference sessions with national bestselling authors and top industry professionals that will help you improve your writing and/or market your current project.

Workhop Sessions

Writing and Selling the Bestselling Novel -- ReShonda Tate Billingsley

Independent Publishing: The Whys and more importantly How to Get it Done -- Vanessa Miller

Pacing - How to Keep Readers Turning the Page - Pamela Samuels Young

Sentence CPR: Resucitating Your Writing -- Tia McCollors

Description: Adding Texture to Your Prose-- Linda Leigh Hargrove

Writing for the Young Adult Market -- Tiffany Warren (Nikki Carter)

The Business of Book Events: Booking Promotional, Sales & Speaking Events -- Dee Stewart

Conference Host - Dana Pittman/www.niapromotions.com

How a Virtual Conference Works: A virtual conference is a conference hosted on the Internet or by telephone or through technology that does not require a particiapte to come to brick and mortor location. Participants can attend without leaving the comfort of their home.

Who it is for: This conference is for anyone who is writing fiction, particularly those who have an understanding of basic writing and want to take their craft and marketing/promotion to the next level.

How You Will Participate: You register for the conference at http://fbfwritersofatlanta.eventbrite.com

A few days before the conference you'll receive instructions on how to enter the main site for the conference. On the day of the conference, the workshops are presented in the forms of articles that are posted on the conference site by the presenter. Participants will review the material and post questions or comments in a threaded discussion format. At some point in the afternoon or perhaps several times during the day, the presenter will come into the forum and answer all the questions. Additionally, each workshop presenter will hold a live teleconference.

Door prize: Book giveaways and all registered participants who are interested will be entered in a raffle to win a 5 page critique from Legacy Editing Service. Or a copy of my ebook. The Book Marketing Plan Workbook

Don't miss out on the learning or the fun!

Contact us at fbfwriters@yahoo.com or visit http://fbfwritersofatlanta.blogspot.com for more information.

God Only Knows. Christian Fiction Blog Reviewed

by Xavier Knight

Part mystery/part class reunion novel, Knight weaves an interesting story.

School Superintendent, Julia Turner returns home to Dayton, Ohio to take charge of a private Christian and pay some kind of penance for a tragedy she caused when she was thirteen-years-old. But when she learns that a detective is still investigating the matter, will her faith lead her to a confession?

Cassandra Gilette was excited and tense about her friend, Julia Turners return to Dayton. For the past twenty years she's been the target of an unsolved mystery. Julia's return resurfaces the events that happened that night and add more clues to the puzzle. Will the ladies remember what happened that night before they lose their mates, their professional lives and their souls? (Grand Central, 273pp, $13.995)

Three Things Book Store Chains Must Do Right Now

Many friends and clients of mine are gearing up for book events season. That is the time of year usually from spring to fall where authors are on book tours, at festivals, participating in in-store events, and cooling out on cruises.

For those of you who will be visiting your local bookstore for an In Store event here are three pieces of advice for you to consider. For those of you who manage or work for a bookstore here are three pieces of advice for you to consider as well.

1. Bring your own books.

It's customary for bookstores to stock a small supply of books for instore events. Unless you are a NYT bestseller with the full weight and pocketbook of your publishing house behind you, prepare yourself now that the store may have for purchase anywhere from 15 to one case of books(about 25-30) to sell.

Don't exhale, because you think that's a small amount of books to sale and that it should be a piece of cake. Bookstores bring in that amount of books for a reason:

1. You haven't proven to them you can sell books yet. Don't take it personal. It's just business.
2. They don't know you well enough to know if you're worth the investment to order more books. Look these stores make money selling books not storing them.
   
3. Your pre-order sales for your book in that store is low, which could be an indicator that those fifteen books maybe harder to sell than you realize.
4. There may be a more popular book in the store releasing that week or pushing far more books than expected and they fear most of their patrons will be coming for that book. (i.e. Steve Harvey's Act like a Lady Think Like a Man.)
   

So what should you do? Bring your own books. When you sell out inside the store and you have readers prepared to buy let them know you have more books available for purchase. Most store chains have independent seller agreements for books that they don't have stocked, but will allow you to sell in the store. It may be wise to come early and ask to complete to complete that agreement just in case the store runs out of books. In some cases you may not have to sign agreement that may allow you to sale after you sell out, but if you want to have a great relationship with the bookstore communicate with them your plans to continue selling past their stock. Else you can alsways host a tweetup immediately after your instore event at a nearby coffee house to keep the sales conversation going.

2. Arrive early.

I'm not talking a few minutes before. I'm talking a few days before, particularly when the store manager or community events manager is present. Have a face to face conversation with the person hosting your instore event. You need to learn two things from this person before your short meeting is over:

1. Where will your author's table be located in the store?
2. Who that is present on staff in the store while you're there will be present on the day and during your instore event?
3. Can the store provide an extra register at the author's table or an open register at the cashier's station just for the event? I've witnessed patrons leave the store after they expressed they wanted to buy the book, because they didn't have time to wait in the long line.
4. Can you leave bookmarks for the cashier's station to include in every patron's bag the day of the event?
5. Does your staff know that I'm coming? Is your staff prepared to deal with phone queries regarding my coming? Will there be a staff member there who can assist me?
   

3. Introduce yourself to the staff.

I've lost count of the amount of times I've called a bookstore the day before or the morning of and have been told from a customer service person that my client didn't have an instore scheduled. I don't know why there is such miscommunication between the events person and the store staff, but there is. No need to argue about it, let's just work our way around it. The best technique that has worked for me is to simply arrive early locate the sales manager and introduce yourself to the staff. Sure they may look at you like you're crazy, but we know you're not. You just need to make sure that when one of your bookclub fans call to the store to ask whether you will be there at noon or two pm, they want respond with a "Who? We don't have her scheduled to be here. Meanwhile you're over in a corner behind the Twilight rack wondering where your book fans are. Let them know you're here and get at least one staff member's name, so that you can call on when you need help.

Hope this helps. If you have more questions about book marketing, there are many ways to contact me. The best way is to drop a question in my Facebook help desk. Or you can register for any of my upcoming teleseminars and workshops. This month I will be sharing more book events series at the Virtual Writers' Workshop. Learn more here.

Christian Fiction News: Bishop Jakes DVD & Oprah's Condition

Bishop T. Jakes Not Easily Broken based on the bestselling novel and movie hits DVD Store shelves on Tuesday, April, 2, 2009.

Oprah Summer Picks The Condition

Received my summer picks list from O magazine this month and to my surprise noticed a book on the list I've been wanting to read this book, so I'm inviting you to read it with me as well. It is called The Condition. It is the story of family responsibility, adult freedom & acceptance. This is not a Christian Fiction title. There are themes in here (homosexuality, chronic childhood illnesses, unhappy marriages) that are sort of glossed over in Christian publishing for valid reasons. I think this story is important to read, because it cuts a slice of the moral dilemmas that plague American society today, or at least my family.

Read an Excerpt of The Condition...

1976

The Captain's House

Summer comes late to Massachusetts. The gray spring is frosty, unhurried: wet snow on the early plantings, a cold lesson for optimistic gardeners, for those who have not learned. Chimneys smoke until Memorial Day. Then, all at once, the ceiling lifts. The sun fires, scorching the muddy ground.

At Cape Cod the rhythm is eternal, unchanging. Icy tides smash the beaches. Then cold ones. Then cool. The bay lies warming in the long days. Blue-lipped children brave the surf. They opened the house the third week in June, the summer of the bicentennial, and of Paulette's thirty-fifth birthday. She drove from Concord to the train station in Boston, where her sister was waiting, then happily surrendered the wheel. Martine was better in traffic. She'd been better in school, on the tennis court; for two years straight she'd been the top-ranked singles player at Wellesley. Now, at thirty-eight, Martine was a career girl, still a curiosity in those days, at least in her family. She worked for an advertising agency on Madison Avenue—doing what, precisely, Paulette was not certain. Her sister lived alone in New York City, a prospect she found terrifying. But Martine had always been fearless.

Click here for more info... (note this is not a Christian fiction title.)

Sibella Giorello Interview by C.J. Darlington

"I prefer for those [spiritual] themes to come organically. Otherwise it's a sermon. I love sermons, just not in novels."

Award-winning author Sibella Giorello, a former newspaper reporter and Pulitzer Prize nominee, talks about her latest novel The Rivers Run Dry (featuring an FBI agent specializing in forensic geology), the challenges of writing a series character, how she beats stress, and much more.

Read Interview here.