Top 10 Reasons For Using a Co-Author By Linda Hanna and Deborah Dulworth

Top 10 Reasons For Using a Co-Author

By Linda Hanna and Deborah Dulworth

Have you ever wondered if collaborating with another writer is a good idea? Granted, this type of partnership isn’t for everyone, but we’ve come up with a list of the top ten reasons why it works for us.

10.  Someone to nibble cookies and sip coffee with at book signings. With a writing buddy there’s always a party waiting to happen.

9.   Someone to help you spit out the word that’s stuck on the tip of your tongue.

8.   Split the workload (research, queries, proposal, etc.) and expenses (mailings, postcards, bookmarks, etc.)

7.    Share the good, the bad, and the ugly. Co-authorship offers a built-in shoulder to cry on for a rejection . . . should you ever get one. On the flipside, it’s always more fun to celebrate with another person for victories . . . should you ever get one.

6.    Broader readership. Let’s face it, co-authors = twice the friends and relatives.

5.    Double the learning experience at writers’ conferences. You can take separate workshops or if you happen to be a notoriously bad notetaker, your writing partner has your back. (Problems may arise if said partner also has ADD, but we’ll leave that topic for another time.)

4.   Automatic backup system. With a writing partner, a computer glitch does not mean you’ve lost your latest MS changes. Oh, contraire! If your built-in buddy is on the ball, he/she has you covered.

3.   Opportunity to remind each other of the rules of writing. Unless you both struggle with the same issue, such as the comma drama. Which is why we have critique partners.

2.   Double the brain input. Hopefully, two heads are better than one! It’s more fun to bounce ideas/thoughts/experiences off a friend.

And the number one reason for having a writing partner is:

1.  Keep each other accountable. When you work alone, it’s easier to become distracted.  However, with a co-author, you feel the need to respect the other person’s time.

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The Promise of Spring

Will they walk away from love or learn to trust?

The Promise of Spring

Millie Drake’s mind drifts between hard-knock reality and starry-eyed fantasy as she tries to keep her six-month romance with Lou Blythe from her dysfunctional mother. Her mother, Penny, expects more for Millie than a shy, knuckle-cracking, computer geek with a mangy, germ-carrying dog. When the couple’s secret comes out, Penny works overtime to sabotage their odious relationship.

Along with his computer business, Lou sings with The Warble-Heirs quartet, with a voice so deep it melts the polish off your toenails. The quartet is offered a six-week contract to sing on a cruise ship. That’s when a scheming Penny rolls up her matchmaking sleeves to snag a new love interest for Millie. KAPP’s hunky news anchor is in her cross hairs.

Meanwhile, on the cruise ship, Lou has battles of his own as he wrestles with wind, waves, and women.

Will Penny finally get her comeuppance? Can Millie and Lou find their way back to each other?

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About the Authors

Linda Hanna

Deborah Dulworth

The writing team of Hanna and Dulworth deliver a story full of love and faith, and sprinkled with touches of humor that will have you wondering whether to laugh or cry. Their first novel in the Seasons of Change series, Come Next Winter, released in 2016. Linda and Debbie love to share uplifting messages of faith, family, and love. Their hope is to inspire and encourage readers on their own spiritual journey. Though their paths have unexpected twists and turns, they cling unswervingly to their faith and God continues to bless.

"10" photo credit: Pixabay

Do We Follow the Gurus? by Melinda V. Inman

Melinda V. Inman

Do We Follow the Gurus?

When I attended my first writers’ conference, I learned that authors who wanted to publish were expected to have a blog. That trend had begun years earlier with Ann Voskamp, the most famous blogger of that era. In fact, her first book was created from her blog content. I went home and began to blog.

But much has changed in the writing world, including this expectation.

About the time I began blogging, it seemed that every other new author also began blogging. The writing of words exploded, producing so much content that no one could keep up with every writer they wanted to follow. Our inboxes filled up, and we didn’t have time to read the plethora of words. I’ve always loved this verse from Ecclesiastes.

“Be warned: the writing of many books is endless, and excessive devotion to books is wearying to the body” (Ecclesiastes 12:12b NASB). Amen to that! You probably agree.

If we’re published, and we’re not in the upper echelon of authors who have people to do the rest of the work, we must balance several different tasks. We’re composing and/or editing new novels while also completing all or most of the marketing, content design, and business management of our previously published work.

We also have a life. Or, at least, we hope to have a life!

These stressors are why we encourage new writers to enjoy the relative calm of the pre-published phase of writing. When we examine the list of responsibilities that published authors have, we can easily see that we must listen carefully to God’s leading if we want to keep our lives balanced.

So, my encouragement to you is to listen to the Lord, not to the latest author guru. Yep. I actually said that. Don’t necessarily follow the advice of the latest hotshot. Don’t jump through the hoops, just because they’re being held up in front of you.

Maybe you don’t need to blog. Is it something you enjoy? Does it connect you with your readers? Examine the effectiveness of your blogging goals. Is it accomplishing what you desire? Pray about it. Not everyone blogs, and you may choose not to.

Some author gurus recommend churning out three novels a year! Really? Maybe you’d like to have a life. Maybe you’re also employed. Maybe you homeschool. Maybe your children and your husband need you. Maybe all of the above. Pray. Critically evaluate this author goal. Does the Lord want this for you? Put everything before Him and follow in His steps.

Authors are the prophets of our era. We write the words others are afraid to speak. We shine the light of truth into the dark corners. We illustrate these truths in stories. Therefore, it behooves us as Christian writers to attune ourselves to the Lord’s leading and to write as He leads. Jesus usually did exactly the opposite of what the gurus expected. Remember that.

The solution to our time-pressured scheduling conundrum is not to follow the guru and jump through the hoops, but to present to God our requests for guidance and solutions for our writing, thanking Him as we do and following His leading. And then “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7 NIV).

Pray thoughtfully. Listen to Jesus. Write as He leads, even if you’re the only one traveling on that path. To write with clarity and focus, we must begin here.

Melinda V Inman, Author of Refuge, Fallen, and No Longer Alone

Raised on the Oklahoma plains in a storytelling family, Melinda Viergever Inman now spins tales from her writer’s cave in the Midwest. Her faith-filled fiction illustrates our human story, wrestling with our brokenness and the storms that wreak havoc in our lives. Find her weekly at http://MelindaInman.com/blog/. To find her work and to be notified of future published novels, follow her at http://bit.ly/MelindasBooks/.

Connections:

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Melinda-V-Inman/189731601076470

Website: http://melindainman.com/  

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MelindaVInman  

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/melindavinman/  

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+MelindaViergeverInman/posts/p/pub

Give Thanks by Susan Tuttle

Hey all! It’s November! I can almost smell the turkey and pecan pie. My mouth is wateringJ What’s your favorite food to have on Thanksgiving day?

I absolutely adore Fall. It’s my favorite season and part of that reason is because of the holidays. Thanksgiving is right up there with my favorites, and it’s not simply because of the food—though that’s a huge part. But it’s because this entire month reminds me to pause, look around, and rediscover things I’m thankful about.

This writing world is hard, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t reasons to be thankful. So I wanted to take a moment today and give thanks for all the ways God has blessed me on this journey. And I hope you’ll chime in!

• A family who supports me even when I’m unpublished. Who cheer me on and believe in me even when I don’t always believe in myself.
• Friends both inside and outside the writing community who understand my heart and desire to share God’s Word through crafting words, and they champion me to do just that.
• An amazing agent who keeps persevering even when it’s a tough climate out there.
• My own little corner in my house to write.
• My first time published in a book was this year! I had the privilege of retelling the story of my mom’s healing in a compilation of stories from Bethany House called Gifts From Heaven.
• God’s continual provision of story and devotional ideas. None of it comes from me!

So what about you? What are your thankful for as a writer this year?

 

Susan L. Tuttle lives in Michigan where she’s happily married to her best friend and is a homeschooling mom of three. She’s firmly convinced that letters were meant for words, not math, and loves stringing them together into stories that inspire, encourage, and grow women into who God created them to be. Romance, laughter, and cookies are three of her favorite things, though not always in that order. You can connect with Susan at her blog, Steps, Facebook, or Twitter.

Hunting Your Audience by Braxton DeGarmo

(This is the second part of Braxton's post. Read "Audience? What audience? here.)

For many, finding their audience is like a novice out duck hunting. Imagine, up at the crack of dawn, sitting in a blind on a gray autumn day. You’ve thrown out some decoys, hoping they attract the right ducks, and sit—and wait. An hour later, nothing. Two hours, four hours. You rub your hands for warmth and say a quick prayer. Suddenly, you hear them. You look up and there are thousands of ducks heading your way. But then, the flock passes by overhead. They aren’t landing with your decoys. In desperation, you raise your shotgun and shoot into the middle of the flock. Two ducks fall into the water nearby . . . while the rest fly on.

Yep, as an Indie author, finding the right audience has been like that. I started out blind to all things marketing. Branding my book covers? Took three tries. The decoys? Ads aimed at people I thought would like my books. Rubbing my hands for warmth was actually wringing my hands wondering what to do next. And my attempts at advertising? Pretty much a shotgun blast that brought in a fraction of a fraction of the readers the ads went to.

I’ve learned much by doing and a lot more by failing. If only the failed attempts weren’t so expensive . . .

Not all of the failures were my fault. The market keeps changing. What worked last year isn’t

working now. As I write this, we—I and nine other authors—are about to release a box set of brand new novellas: Kill Zone: Ten Deadly Thrillers. Our goal was simple. Sell enough (at

$0.99 on pre-order) to make the USA Today bestsellers list. Jan Thompson spearheaded the effort after a box set she developed last year made the list. Despite the efforts of ten authors, we’re a week away from release and have only 20% of the numbers we need.

A year ago, advertising on Amazon held a good chance of turning a $200/month author to a $10K/month author. Then everyone and his cousin flocked to Amazon ads. Now, you’re fortunate to get your ads to show. Facebook was the same way a year before that. Bookbub, the holy grail of book advertising, accepts fewer than 20% of submissions. They’ve turned me down 15 times. Other promotional venues have shown moderate success, as long as I gave my book away for free. With over 25,000 eBooks given away, I’ve grown tired of that.

So, the bottom line is that you really do need to understand your audience because it will require thinking outside the box to be someplace where they can find you . . . as well as faith and prayer. How do you stand out from the ever-growing crowd? First and foremost, write a quality book. Then, with that knowledge of your audience, find a venue that directly targets them. Don’t go with a certain promo just because everyone else says how great it is. That might be old news. For me, I’ve got a new place to try—now that I have a fresh perspective on my audience. And with faith and maybe more than a little prayer, that effort should pay off.

Have you discovered other ways to "stand out from the crowd" to get your book into the hands of your audience?

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Braxton DeGarmo spent over 30 years in Emergency and Family Medicine, both in and out of the military, before retiring to focus on writing in 2014. He writes from a Judeo-Christian worldview, but he writes his stories to reach and entertain people of all backgrounds. Many of the incidents in his books are based on real occurrences, people, and experiences in his own life, such as learning to escape a water crash in a helicopter. Human trafficking, medical kidnapping, government corruption, and other social injustices have become the premises used for his stories. And the technologies described in his books are all current . . . and possible. His latest novel, Kidnapped Nation, was released in April of this year and is book six in his MedAir Series of suspense and thrillers. Kill Zone: Ten Deadly Thrillers will remain available for a limited time after its release October 3^rd.