HOW TO BE PUBLISHED (SORT OF) -- by Tamara Leigh

Week Two of:

Tips from those who have gone before us

HOW TO BE PUBLISHED (Sort of...)

By: Tamara Leigh

When my first book, Warrior Bride, was published in the secular market in 1994, I had no formal background in writing. I didn’t belong to a writer’s organization (was only vaguely aware of their existence), wasn’t in a critique group (what’s that?), hadn’t read any writing-related books (well, there was the hair-pulling one on how to properly format my master’s thesis in Speech and Language Pathology), and didn’t have a mentor (other than my husband who loved everything I wrote). So how was I published without workshops, critique partners, writing craft books, and mentors? Here are the basics:

1) Read—a lot!
2) Write—a lot!
3) Complete a manuscript
4) Submit manuscript to an agent
5) (to be continued)

Am I saying the things I missed out on early in my writing career are unnecessary? Absolutely not. I won’t go into detail about what led up to signing my name to a four-book contract with Bantam Books, but here is the last item on my “basics” list:

5) Be in the right place at the right time (a cliché—forbid!)

Obviously, that last one doesn’t really belong on the “basic” list since it can’t be counted on. Thus, in addition to basics #1-4, I advise aspiring writers to add those things I overlooked on the road to publication:

• Join a writer’s organization, such as American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) at: www.acfw.com or Romance Writer’s of America (RWA) at www.rwanational.org
• Join a local writer’s group (ACFW and RWA have local chapters all over the U.S.)
• Be on the lookout for a mentor and, should you connect with one, be respectful of their time and input
• Read writing craft books. Some of my favorites:
  -The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Writing Christian Fiction by Ron Benry
  -Getting Into Character: Seven Secrets a Novelist Can Learn from Actors by
  Brandilyn Collins
  -Goal, Motivation, and Conflict: The Building Blocks of Good Fiction by Debra Dixon -On Becoming a Novelist by John Gardner
  -Plot and Structure: Techniques and Exercises for Crafting a Plot that Grips
  Readers from Start to Finish by James Scott Bell
  -Revision and Self-Editing by James Scott Bell
  -Stein on Writing by Sol Stein
  -The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Storytellers and Screenwriters by Christopher Vogler
  -Writing for the Soul: Instruction and Advice from an Extraordinary Writing Life by Jerry B. Jenkins.
  -Writing the Christian Romance by Gail Gaymer Martin
  -The Dimwit’s Dictionary by Robert Hartwell Fiske

There you go, the basics and then some! Actually, there is one more “item” that ought to be on every writer’s list. In fact, it should be placed prominently at the top. Here are the verses I have aspired—and at times failed—to live by since I left the secular market and began writing Christian fiction. I hope they will be as inspiring to you as they are to me:

“Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.”

Galatians 6:4-5 (The Message)

Tamara Leigh is the best-selling author of twelve novels, including Perfecting Kate, award-winning Splitting Harriet, and RITA-award-finalist Faking Grace. A former speech and language pathologist, Tamara lives with her husband and their sons in Tennessee.

Check out Tamara's latest novel, Nowhere, Carolina, the sequel to her FAB book in the Southern Discomfort Series, Leaving Carolina .