We’ve long discussed making sure you have content on a platform that you own and with all the craziness revolving around Big Tech these days, we are no longer comfortable leaving a lot of content on these platforms.
For instance, without warning or reason, Serious Writer co-owner Cyle Young was temporarily restricted from his account, including the ability to go live within our own Facebook groups.
To avoid this happening again, we’re introducing the Serious Writer Family to Discord.
The Discord platform is similar in interface to Slack and has almost endless possibilities for how we can sort and share information, including:
Smaller groups so you can interact with others within your genre
Networking opportunities for writing jobs, pitches, etc.
And more!!
We recommend downloading Discord to your phone or computer. It works for Mac, PC, iPhone, and Android. We LOVE that it has both desktop and app capabilities.
Our Family & Club Facebook groups will remain in place, so no worries there!!! We just want to have a place outside of Facebook so that no matter what, we’ll still be able to communicate and not worry about being “canceled.”
Want a Discord Tutorial Walk-Through?
Bethany Jett filmed a step-by-step walk-through video of how to utilize Discord, along with some ideas you can use for your book launches, book studies, groups, etc.
We’ll slowly be rolling out this move, along with training videos, so be sure to subscribe AND receive notifications for the Serious Writer YouTube channel and our Facebook groups.
Thanks for being part of our Serious Writer family! Leave questions in the comments!
At Serious Writer, we’re huge fans of LeadPages. They can help business owners get their businesses off the ground and authors to expand their readership.
LeadPages is now offering free classes for people who want to know how to target more customers, and in the writing world, that means more readers.
Here’s a little bit more about the classes:
As a coach or consultant, you’re an expert in what you do.
But we often hear that managing the business side of things is a bit of a headache. The reasons are almost always the same: good clients are hard to come by, programs always need tweaking, and revenue is unpredictable.
Leadpages is hosting a free event called Converted Series: Seal the deal, and we think it’s going to help you overcome some of those challenges. They’re providing on-demand training that you watch first, and then attend the live workshops (Oct 21-23) where you’ll learn how to:
– Avoid low-commitment leads and star winning high-ticket clients
– Create short programs that help you redefine your offer and build your brand
– Generate passive income by creating a digital product that serves more people, 24/7
We like this format because it’s actionable and doesn’t take up a huge chunk of time.
This past Thursday we had the privilege of announcing LIVE our Serious Writer Award winners. We had literally hundreds of entries for these contests, and all the entrants made the decisions very difficult for our judges this year. Some entries differed in scores between fractions of points.
At our awards ceremony, we announced top finalists (who will receive a certificate in the mail) and the award winners. We called out five names per contest, including the winners. In the case of one contest, this meant two winners and three top finalists.
In this blog post, in alphabetical order by author last name, we will announce the top finalists and then the winners of each contest.
Stay tuned for announcements soon about next year’s contests.
Writer of the Year Award Winners
Our only contest for unpublished writers, the Writer of the Year, by far had the most entries. Judges had to nitpick even minor details to differentiate the finalists, top finalists, and the award winners.
Below are the Top Finalists for this Category:
Tammy Kennington for Conquering the Giants: Overcoming PTSD and Child Abuse
Michele McCarthy for A Funny Thing Happened on My Way from Here to There
Kenzi Nevins for Rosewilde
Patsy Reiter for Story of the Year
Other Finalists for this Category:
Pamela Glover for Tightly Strung
Annette Griffin for Mama Mantra
Kaci Hindman for Honorable Mention Trophy Wife
Renee Hodges for Saving Dusty
Nancy Hull for A Puppet for PFC Eldon
Julie Lavender for A Gingerbread House
Seralynn Lewis for Forgiving Shannon
Patsy Reiter for An Open River
Sarah Rexford for The Convergence
Ryan Wetter for A Shopping Mall Santa and the Curious Kid
Below is Our Winner of the Writer of the Year Award:
Jennifer Daniels Neal for Elixir
Book of the Year Award Winners
This contest was for books published in 2019. We had a lot of entries for this one, including several contributed by traditional publishers. We had more publishers submit this year than in year’s past.
Below are the Top Finalists for this Category:
Tama Fortner for Easter is Coming!
Linda Evans Shepherd for When You Need to Move a Mountain: Keys to Praying with Power
Rachel C. Swanson for Refine & Restore: Revive Your Heart, Release Your Purpose
Laura Zimmerman for Keen
Other Finalists for this Category:
Karin Beery for Practically Married
Hallee Bridgeman for Valerie’s Verdict
Penny Cooke for Pursuing Prayer
Pat Jeanne Davis for When Valleys Bloom Again
Elaine McCallister for Celebrate Grandparenting: 101 Ideas to Intentionally Connect with Your Grands
W. D. McComb for The Truth that Lies Between
Caris Snider for Anxiety Elephants
Deborah Sprinkle for Deadly Guardian
Below is Our Winner of the Book of the Year Award:
Jean Petersen for Kind Soup
Book of the Decade Award Winners
Bethany and Cyle noticed a lack of contests for books published more than a year ago. Because writers need to keep promoting their books years after they get published, our co-founders wanted to create a contest where authors who have published up to ten years ago can have a chance to get another award for their book.
This year’s inaugural contest hosted entries from books published between 2008-2018. Judges had such a hard time picking that two entries tied for the winning spot.
Below are the Top Finalists for this Category:
Lee Wolfe Blum for Brave is the New Beautiful: Finding the Courage to be the Real You
Linda Evans Shepherd for When You Don’t Know What to Pray
Doug Smith for [Un]Intentional: How Screens Secretly Shape Your Desires and How You can Break Free
Other Finalists for this Category:
Dr. Michelle Bengston for Hope Prevails: Insights From a Doctor’s Personal Journey through Depression
Lee Wolfe Blum for Table in the Darkness – A Healing Journey Through an Eating Disorder
Sharron K. Cosby for Praying for Your Addicted Loved One: 90 in 90
Dena Dyer and Tina Samples for Wounded Women of the Bible: Finding Hope When Life Hurts
Jill Roman Lord for If Jesus Lived Inside My Heart
Joshua J. Masters for American Psalms: Prayers for the Christian Patriot
Deborah Raney for A Nest of Sparrows
Deborah Raney for Beneath a Southern Sky
Lori Stanley Roeleveld for Running from a Crazy Man (and other adventures traveling with Jesus)
Linda Evans Shepherd for The Stress Cure
Below are the Winners of the Book of the Decade Award:
Tez Brooks for The Single Dad Detour
Robin Currie for The Very Best Story Ever Told: The Gospel with American Sign Language by Robin Currie
Once again, we want to thank everyone who entered. You gave judges a tough time, and we cannot wait to see the entries for the awards for next year!
Now that Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is out on Disney plus, the Brew & Ink crew sat down and discussed the movie from a writer’s perspective. Enjoy this SPOILER FILLED Review!
Check it out here:
In this episode:
What did the Brew & Ink Crew like about The Rise of Skywalker?
What did they NOT like?
What can we learn as writers from the movie?
How does this fit or not fit in the Star Wars universe?
We are absolutely thrilled to announce the semi-finalists of the three contests for Serious Writer this year. Our judges had such a hard time narrowing down the semi-finalist lists, and we can only imagine it will be harder for them to pick finalists, and then winners.
Below you’ll find the lists for each contest.
Announcing this year’s Book of the Year Semi-Finalists. We had so many wonderful entries.
The Very Best Story Ever Told – Robin Currie author Easter Is Coming – Tama Fortner Books Kind Soup – Jean Petersen Willoughby Goes a Wee Bit Batty – Pam Halter I Know What Grandma Does While I’m Napping – Shelley Pierce Author Fire Dancer – Catherine Jones Payne Keen – Laura Croman Zimmerman In Search of the Beloved – Marian Rizzo Practically Married – Karin Beery – Author Off-Script Over-Caffeinated – Rhonda Rhea Deadly Guardian – Deborah Sprinkle Pocket Change – Debbie Archer Valerie’s Verdict – Hallee Bridgeman Shattered Treasure – Cindy Patterson The Watanabe Name – Sakura Nobeyama Dandelion Summer – Mary Ellen Bramwell – Author When Valleys Bloom Again – Pat Jeanne Davis Shadow of the Dagger – Anne Greene The Truth that Lies Between – W.D. McComb Restoring the Shattered – Nancy E. Head The Joy Box Journal – Adria Wilkins The Art of Hard Conversations – Lori Stanley Roeleveld Anxiety Elephants – Cari Snider The Gratitude Challenge – Stephanie Jones Celebrate Grandparenting: 101 Ideas to Intentionally Connect with your Grands – Elaine McAllister Pursuing Prayer – Penny Cooke I Am Cyrus – Dr. Craig Von Buseck Refine & Restore – Rachel C. Swanson – Author, Speaker, Life Coach When you Need to Move a mountain – Linda Shepherd Smack Dab in the Midlife zone – Leigh Ann Thomas
Because we’re judging this contest blindly, only the names will be provided of the authors who have advanced to the next round of the competition. Some authors have more than one entry going onto the next round. If this is the case, it is noted by their name in parentheses.
Several don’t exist for query letters, and entire books have been dedicating to perfecting the art of querying agents and editors. That being said, as I am a literary agent writing this blog post, I have several examples of things that would fit in that don’t category that I see most often.
We’ve already covered a post on what to DO. Let’s dive into those DON’T categories.
DON’T: Be Demanding
I was in the querying trenches a few years back, I understand. You’ve sent hundreds of submissions, and you want:
Answers as to why people have turned you down
Referrals to other agents if this one will turn you down
And most important: an agent or a book deal
But you do have to keep in mind that we get literally thousands of submissions each year. If we provide any feedback or referrals, it’s on our own unpaid time.
Don’t ask for referrals or extensive feedback. The agent or editor will provide it if they see promise in your manuscript.
(You can put Ms. Bolinger if you want, but really make sure to research someone’s preferred pronouns before putting a Mr. or Ms. It’s often simpler just to do their name).
DON’T: Be Unrealistic
Who wouldn’t love for their book to be picked up by Netflix or Disney+. But we have to be realistic. Unless you have to have connections someone who already secured a Netflix deal for you don’t say, “This is going to be the next Netflix hit.”
Be realistic with social media numbers too. I may have 30,000 followers, but let me tell you, I did not have 30,000 of my followers buy my book when I released in June 2019. Talk about platform, but don’t say that that alone will get you sales.
It won’t.
DON’T: Be Rude
This should go without saying, but you’d be surprised at how poorly people take rejections. As someone who has been rejected literally hundreds (if not thousands at this point) of times, I know how to take a punch.
Don’t ask them to reconsider. Don’t say, “Well, J.K. Rowling got rejected XYZ times, and those publishers sure were sorry.” Don’t insult their agency, their position, or their publishing house.
Simply say, “Thank you for your time,” when they reject you. Believe me, you don’t want to burn bridges in this industry. And industry members do talk.
I have rejected people previously because I’ve heard from others that they were too hard to work with or badgered them constantly on social media for updates. While we’re at it …
DON’T: Pitch Them on Social Media
There is one exception: If they are participating in a Twitter Pitch Party. But even then, they require you to submit via email or Submittable if they like your pitch.
I have a rule of thumb (especially on LinkedIn). If I connect or friend someone and they message me a pitch, I immediately unconnected or unfriend them.
When you pitch someone on social media you not only invade their personal DMs, but you tell them that you only see them as someone you can get something from.
No one likes to feel used.
What other tips have you heard when it comes to queries? We’d love to hear them in the comments.
