When I was interviewed for two local newspapers (The Greenbelt News Review and The Gazette) two years ago, one of the questions the interviewers asked me was my advice on how to get published. I recommended attending writers conferences. I know the annual Romance Writers of America (RWA) conference, and the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) conference, are great, but can tend to be a bit pricey once you pay for your conference fee, hotel, food, airfare, etc. If it’s not possible to attend a conference on a national level, there may be conferences, some of them only one day, that might be in your area. I do know that there are an abundance of Christian writers conferences all over the United States. It might be possible to find one in your area and attend it for a day or so, might be more economically feasible for some.

Here are a few that caught my eye when doing a google search. I have never attended either of these, but they did sound interesting. The first one is the Delaware Christian Writers Conference:
http://www.delawarechristianwritersconference.com/
I’ve received correspondence via email from John Riddle in the past, and I believe he does this conference each year? The only people listed on the faculty that I’ve personally met was Candy Abbott (met her at Philadelphia Christian Writers Conference last August, and also met her at the now extinct Mid-Atlantic Christian Writers conference), and Joyce Hart from Hartline Literary Agency (met her at Mid-Atlantic Christian Writers Conference and ACFW last September).

The other conference that sounded interesting was the Memphis Black Writers Conference. The link is below:
http://lawrence.wayne.tripod.com/vipmemphis/
Again, I’m not familiar with the faculty, with the exception of Sister Betty. I met her twice, both times at the Faith-Based Arts Conference.

I also wanted to add a little bit advice to my earlier posting about critique groups.I blogged about critique groups the other day. However, I’d like to expand upon what I already discussed. I’ve found that over the years I’ve heard bits and pieces of advice about critique groups from various writers. The writers who seem to be in a successful group are usually in a group where most of the writers are on the same level, meaning you wouldn’t have a person who just started writing yesterday in the same critique group as an author who has successfully published several books. That’s an exaggerated example, I know.

If the relationship has a multi-pubbed author, and a new writer, one who is just getting his/her feet wet in the writing world, then I’m not sure that’s called a critique group. The word mentor comes to mind, but I’ve also been told that a mentoring relationship is for encouragement and support, not to give a writing critique.

Until next time,
Cecelia Dowdy
www.ceceliadowdy.com

I was flipping through channels Sunday afternoon and I caught the last part of a great movie, Beaches. I saw this movie years ago and I recall loving it! One of the reasons I liked it so much is because of its emotional content. When Bette Midler’s best friend dies, it just makes you want to cry.

Another great movie that I absolutely love is Titanic. One of my favorite parts in that movie is when Jack holds Rose’s hand and they stand in the front of the ship, looking upon the water, Jack holding Rose in his arms, and she says it feels like flying! Oh, I love that scene!

When I write my stories, I try and create emotional scenes that’ll make my readers laugh, cry, and remember these people long after they’ve finished the book. When you watch your favorite movies, think about how you feel during certain scenes. Tap into these emotions and create stories that’ll have the same effect on your readers!

Cecelia Dowdy
www.ceceliadowdy.com

Do they really work? That’s a tough one. Maybe, maybe not. My first experience with a critique partner was lousy. She wrote Scottish historicals while I wrote contemporary romances. Although she was a good writer, and she gave me a few good pointers, we just didn’t mix. She dropped me as a partner, and that was fine with me. We were online partners.

My second critiquing experience was with a group of writers through an online critique group. All of us were at different stages in our writing careers, so some of us needed more guidance than the others. I loved the group, but in the midst of getting married (therefore, I was planning a wedding), I didn’t contribute as much as I wanted to. It just got to the point where I wasn’t contributing anything at all. I’d sold a book to Love Inspired while I was with this group, and eventually, I dropped out of the group, however, I did mention the group as a great help to me in my dedication in First Mates.

My third experience wasn’t an official group. Some of the Love Inspired authors merely wanted another set of eyes to look over a proposal, so a few of us agreed to do this. I did get some positive feedback on a book I was working on, and I was grateful for the help.

Right now, the only critique help I get is through a Christian writers group that meets locally. I’m the only one doing fiction. I’m also one of the few who is commercially published (one other woman is commercially published, however, she does not come very often due to the travel distance). I’ve gotten some great feedback from this group of people, however, I feel that I don’t contribute much when I critique their stuff since I don’t really read much poetry, short stories, or non-fiction.

So, critique groups are really hit or miss for me.

Until next time,
Cecelia Dowdy
www.ceceliadowdy.com

This is just one way to write a synopsis when the book has already been written. Read through one scene, after you have read the scene, write a sentence or so summary of that scene. Repeat this for each scene in the book. Once you have finished reading the book, you’ll have a synopsis! You’ll then need to expand/contract this synopsis in order to suit a publisher’s guidelines. If they want chapter-by-chapter synopsis, then you’ll break your synopsis up into chapters. If the publisher wants a three-page synopsis, then you’ll need to rephrase, paraphrase, cut words, etc, to suit the demands of that particular publisher. It’s a fun exercise to try once the book is done.

Until next time,
Cecelia Dowdy
www.ceceliadowdy.com

This sounds like a cool Christian writers conference. I’ve never been, but I’ve heard nothing but good things about it from other writers. Here’s the link:

http://www.mounthermon.org/writers/

Cecelia Dowdy
www.ceceliadowdy.com

I received the contract for my next book, John’s Quest, from Barbour Publishing Today!!

Life is good!!

Cecelia Dowdy
www.ceceliadowdy.com

I happened to get a hold of this link through one of my writers’ listservs. This International Women’s Fiction Festival seems like it would be fun. Of course, since it’s in Italy, and I have familial and financial obligations, I’m certainly not planning on attending. It looks like something I would have thought about attending back when I was single and working for the travel agency. I used to get free airfare and I managed to get to Europe a couple of times at a very low cost. Check out the link to see what you think about the conference. Maybe sometime in the future, I might check it out! Who knows?

http://www.womensfictionfestival.com//

Cecelia Dowdy
www.ceceliadowdy.com

I’ve read some great self-published books, and I’ve also read my share of badly-wriiten ones. On the average, I find that the self-published books are not as well written as the commercially-published books. I feel that if you want your book to be in the hands of more readers, and get His message out there, then you need to try to find a commercial publisher to publish your work. However, if you have a unique subject matter, and you can’t find a commercial publisher to publish you, then you may consider self-publishing. However, I’d recommend getting a GOOD editor to help with the process.

However, if you feel the Lord is leading you to self-publish, then my all means, let the Spirit guide you.

Trying to find a commercial publisher for your work is hard, that’s why it’s important to attend writers conferences, and if you write fiction, you might want to consider joining American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW). They have an awesome conference every September, and you can connect with other published writers as well as editors of major Christian publishing houses.

I attended my writers’ meeting last Saturday. I gave a presentation on fiction book proposals. Before the meeting started, we went around the room and introduced ourselves(the same people do not always attend.) There were a few people in attendance who were self-published authors.

One of the attendees has already sold a lot of copies of her self-published book. I suggested, since her book of devotions was so popular, that she go with a traditional publisher. She stated that she felt the spirit telling her to do it this way, and she thanked others for their publication suggestions, however, she couldn’t go against what the Spirit was telling her to do. Can’t say that I blame her, but when she told the pricetag attached to her self-published book, I nearly had a heart attack!

Another woman had her self-published titles with her. She’s a reverend, and has a large speaking platform. This enables her to sell lots of books.

I’ve learned over the years that self-publishing can work for some. I think it works for those who have a unique subject matter for their books. Also, if you have speak regularly and have a large platform, then it may work best since you’ll probably sell lots of books after the speaking engagement.

I’ll be posting part two, the down-side of self-publishing later this week.

Cecelia Dowdy
www.ceceliadowdy.com

I plan on doing my next few blog entries about self-published books. There are various reasons why authors choose to self publish. I prefer getting my books published by a commercial publisher because there is more money and exposure that comes from being published in that fashion.

However, with self-published books, the book is your own, and you can edit and do whatever you want with the book…have total control.

An author acquaintance of mine recently blogged about self-published books, which gave me the idea to blog about it since I feel so strongly about the subject.

I’ll post more on the subject over the next week.

Cecelia Dowdy
www.ceceliadowdy.com