Praise and Posts

So, what are people saying about the Conference?

Testimonials from our first website, www.cedarfallschristianwritersworkshop.org/

"The conference was great. It gets better every year. I've seen great growth over the years, not only in numbers but also in content. Thanks."

"This was my first workshop, so I sincerely benefited from each session in different ways. The presenters overall were wonderful."

"Thank you for making this for beginners, too. It was not intimidating at all."

"The speakers were knowledgeable, funny, and intimate. I have been so blessed by this conference and can't think of anything I would change." 

From Shelly Beach, Cedar Falls Christian Writers’ Workshop | Sandscribblings (wordpress.com) 

She has several posts here about the Workshop, encouraging people to register for one, and reporting on the overall results in another.

From Cherie Dargan, Ten take-aways from the Writers’ Workshop about the 2019 CWW.

1. Look for opportunities to publish “shorts,” little pieces that do not require query letters, which is also a great way to get writing. Anthologies like Chicken Soup are a good example--Mary Potter Kenyon 

2. Follow the publisher’s guidelines! Find out what they are, using the Writer’s Market and Christian Writer’s Market. Think about your marketing plan, audience, and how well your book fits the individual publisher’s mission--Tammy Clymer

3. Build your platform: this is a process, not an overnight success. Update and maintain an online presence: be consistent and selective. Your platform is measured by the numbers of people you have access to on various social media and blog platforms—Tammy Clymer.

4. Grab your audience with your first sentence! Use active voice, build in tension and drama, and use each scene to ratchet up the tension until you reach the climax of action--Shelly Beach

5. Don’t give up! She sent out one manuscript 88 times before she got it accepted: another time, she sent out a manuscript to 8 publishers and four were interested.  Support each other: review each other’s books and celebrate their successes—Mary Potter Kenyon.

6. Use pictures and video to engage your audience: see Andy Lee’s blog. She has a live broadcast each morning, using an app called Periscope. Develop a press kit with pictures, clips, and questions and answers. Many writers also speak. Develop an email list. Add discussion questions to the end of your book for book clubs—Tammy Clymer.

http://wordsbyandylee.com/you-tube/

Andy Lee’s website, with links to YouTube.  “Join Twitter, then get the Periscope app on your smart phone, and you can watch my live broadcast every morning at 8:20 ET.”

7. Use dialogue to develop your character’s backstory and draw in your reader—Shelly Beach.

8. There are three levels of editing: proofreading for errors, manuscript for content, and final, line by line editing. Intensive work: it can take 30 to 40 hours to work on a 90,000 word manuscript. Lots of things to consider, such as the title. She shared her own experience with recent book title changes. Some like to meet face to face to go over manuscripts, while others use technology like Google Chat--Jolene Philo and Anne Philo Fleck.

9. Writers who self-publish need to know the industry, the terminology, their own limits, and their audience. Get help designing covers, editing manuscript, etc. Determine best format: print or Kindle only? Recommended article by Alycia Morales, “Ten things to do before you Hire an Editor,” from her blog The Write Editing—Tammy Clymer.

10. Reality check: many books run 1,000 to 2,000 copies. Several of our authors have certainly exceeded that, but it means that publishers have to find your book a good fit to want to publish it.