Platforms! Niches! Genres! Oh My! by Author Holly Michael

After years of working in diverse areas as a nonfiction writer—journalist, ghostwriter, newspaper features writer, editor—I dove into fiction writing without a platform. Gasp! Without a platform! 

I just thought I could write a book. Wrong! The books on how to write books spoke of platforms, niches, genres. 

As a hybrid—Fiction and Nonfiction—author, I didn’t have a niche. And worse, Crooked Lines didn’t fit into any genre. I had the general market in mind, but after publishing Crooked Lines, I’ve had reviewers on Amazon call it: Literary Fiction, Christian Fiction, Romance, and even “a book that can’t be assigned to any genre.” 

So….was I doomed? 

Hope not! 

Backing up….While writing Crooked Lines, I decided to at least try to get a platform going by starting a blog. But what kind of a blog? Everyone was doing writing blogs. Without a defined genre, I wasn’t sure what to do.  

I ended up naming my blog Holly Michael’s Writing Straight @ www.writingstraight.com Writing Straight is from the maxim: God Writes Straight with Crooked lines. Crooked Lines, of course, being the title of my first novel. Through life’s crooked lines and learning curves, people are the dots that connect. I wanted to create a website to connect people and to inspire and share about life and writing. 

Sometimes I blog about family, sometimes faith, sometimes my books, sometimes travel, and sometimes football. Yes, football. So, I have a blog, but it’s not really a platform. BUT…..maybe it is. See, here’s how I tied it all together (at least in my mind)… 

Faith, Family, Travel, Football: I have a traditionally published devotional coming out in 2015 co-authored with my son, an NFL player who is also a type 1 diabetic. My fiction is spiritually themed. My husband is an Anglican Bishop. We travel a lot and the locations we travel to become settings in my books. 

So, my point in this article is that you just need to write what you want. I understand the plusses of having a platform, niche, and genre, but if you don’t, it’s okay. The writing police won’t arrest you. First, write what you love and write it well. If you find you can write to a niche and genre, all the better. Your platform is ready made. Get your blog going, and blog away. But if you’re like me, an ADD hybrid author who’s all over the place, it’ll all work out fine. So far, it’s working for me.

I’m a kaleidoscope, twisted and turned by the hand of God through a beautiful life of writing, traveling, and other incredible opportunities. I’m the wife of Rt. Rev. Leo Michael, an Anglican Bishop in the Holy Catholic Church-Anglican Rite. Mom to three great kids: Sweet Betsy and my two #81’s: Jake Byrne (San Diego Chargers) and Nick Byrne (Ragin Cajuns). I’ve been blessed to be able to travel extensively across the United States and internationally to India, England, Scotland, and Canada.


Make sure to stop by Friday for a chance to win a free copy of Holly's novel Crooked Lines!

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What I Wish I’d Known When My First Novel Came Out

By Lisa Wingate

Writing is the ultimate learn-on-the-job career. It’s challenging. It’s demanding. It’s busy. It can be unforgiving and maddening. It can also be unbelievably rewarding and filled with moments of story and human connection that are nothing short of bliss. With my twenty-third book, The Story Keeper, hitting shelves, I can honestly say that my career has been filled with surprises. That’s probably because I knew almost nothing about the business when I started out. If I could, I’d go back and tell myself a few things:

Wingate Book Signing

1. Write because you love it.  I know everyone says that, but it’s true.  If you really want to have a long career, you must figure out how to produce book, after book, while managing promotion, production edits, multiple forms of communication, and life in general. Set a manageable daily page quota or daily writing hours, and hold yourself to it.  One of the hardest things about writing is time management. 

2. Finish your first manuscript and write another.  It’s almost impossible to sell on a partial in fiction if you’re unpublished.  Polish your manuscript and send it out, because as much as we’d like them to, editors won’t come looking in your desk drawer.  While you’re waiting for news, write another book.  If the first one sells, you’ll be set for a two-book deal.  If the first one doesn’t sell, you will have eggs in another basket.  Be tenacious, be a thick-skinned as possible, keep writing while you wait for news.  

3. Rejection stinks, but it happens. Rejection isn’t anything personal; it’s just part of the business, and it’s to be expected.  Your project isn’t bad just because it gets rejected.  It may not be that editor’s (or agent’s) cup of tea, the house might not be buying right then, they may have another author under contract whose work is similar to yours, and so on.  There are so many reasons a book can be rejected, and the real trick is to look at the rejections as a tool and then move on.  Don’t make sweeping changes based on one opinion unless there’s an imminent sale involved.  Conversely, if you receive the same criticism from several editors (or agents), consider pulling out the red pen and getting to work


          

4. You probably won’t hit the NYT immediately. In fact, few writers ever reach this coveted level. Be careful how you measure success. Setting lofty goals is a good thing… right up until you feel like a failure for not achieving them. Myriad factors determine which books get the “perfect storm” of great cover, great market timing, and heavy publisher promotion. Some of it is just luck. Write the very best book you can. Do what you can to promote. Stop obsessing. Write another book.

5. Find your creative tribe. On any given road, you’re never the only traveler.  Others walk in shoes like your own and shoes that are different.  Find them. Critique one another’s work, brainstorm together, give creative criticism, take creative criticism, and learn from one another. Give back more than you get.

6. Cheer for other people. One of the best promotional avenues available to writers today, yesterday, and tomorrow remains cooperative promotion. Find authors whose work is similar to yours. Cross-promote with one another. Cheer one another’s successes, awards, and new releases. Your readers will thank you for the tips and you’ll feel good about doing something positive for someone else. You’ll also have that warm feeling when others do the same for you.

Above all, while you’re walking the writer-road, be aware, be in the moment, don’t close your eyes even for an instant.  You never know when you’re going to turn a corner and find, right in the middle of an ordinary day, the idea for a story. Wherever you go in life, there are always nuggets of story along the trail.  Sometimes you see them coming; sometimes you stumble over them.  Pause long enough to pick them up and examine them.  Your writer's mind can take it from there. A nugget can become an entire goldmine.  That's where the joy is, that's when the magic happens, and there is no magic like the magic of story.

Lisa Wingate

Selected among BOOKLIST'S Top 10 of 2012 and Top 10 of 2013, Lisa Wingate skillfully weaves lyrical writing and unforgettable Southern settings with elements of women's fiction, history, and mystery to create stories that Publisher's Weekly calls "Masterful" and ForeWord Magazine refers to as "Filled with lyrical prose, hope, and healing.” Lisa is a journalist, an inspirational speaker, a reviewer for the New York Journal of Books, and the author of over over twenty novels and countless magazine pieces. 

Tyndale, 2014

 Her books have held positions on many bestseller lists, both in the U.S. and

internationally. She is a seven-time ACFW Carol award nominee, a Christy Award nominee, an Oklahoma Book Award finalist, a Christianity Today Book Award nominee, an Inspy Award nominee, a two-time Carol Award winner, a LORIES Best Fiction Award winner, and a Utah Library Award winner. Recently, the group Americans for More Civility, a kindness watchdog organization, selected Lisa along with Bill Ford, Camille Cosby, and six others, as recipients of the National Civies Award, which celebrates public figures who work to promote greater kindness and civility in American life. Visit Lisa at her website: www.LisaWingate.com.

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Winners!!

Good morning, BB fans! Thanks to everyone who participated in our "puzzling" Friday giveaway! Keep all those facebook and Twitter notifications, coming!

This week's winner is: 

Cindy W. (countrybear52 AT yahoo DOT com)  - All's Fair in Love and Cupcakes by Betsy St. Amant.
 
Congratulations! Thank you all so much for stopping by The Borrowed Book.

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Sunday Devotional: Beyond "I Can"

I can’t do this.

So many times over the course of my life, those words have whispered through my mind. Sometimes they’ve even crossed my lips.

During a particularly hard year in my teens, trying to navigate life, the universe, and my own too-intense nature.

The loneliness of the last semester at college, awash in delayed grieving over my dad’s death.

The difficulties which always come during marriage, with a husband who seemed so obliviously happy, I didn’t feel I could talk to him.

In childbirth, during transition, that most awful part of labor just before the glad work of pushing.

Facing the possibility of a child who would be medically fragile his whole life—and then with the reality of having to relinquish him completely.

Rearing and schooling a houseful of very strong-willed and active children, often in the midst of military separations and later, the grief of losing one of their siblings.

In the long, long journey as a writer, during the years before that first coveted contract.

Now, dealing with a husband mostly overseas, uncertainty in regards to where we might wind up living, oldest child graduating from college, oldest daughter planning a wedding, youngest child still learning how to read, and God nudging me to step forward in a handful of areas.

I can’t do this.

So many times I’ve stepped out in faith, or what I thought was faith, only to have the thing falter and fail and crumble to nothing. I don’t want my life to be a string of nothings.

At last, after many years of saying I can’t, and knowing it was truth, I stopped and asked the Lord—why did You lead me on this path if I couldn’t do it?

And He whispers to me, So you would always be reminded that you need me.

The words echo inside me. Why would I need that reminder? I already know I need Him!

But do I really? Pride is a lifelong enemy. Would I not truly become puffed with my own importance, my own capability, if I had better apparent “success” in walking this journey?

And then, the next time I’m in a crisis, I find myself saying it again.

I can’t do this.

The Lord responds, You’re right. You can’t. But—I can, through you.

In my heart of hearts, I kneel, humbled, overwhelmed that He would choose me, that He’d think I’m a fit vessel for His Spirit and His work. Oh Lord, what is mankind, that You would set Your love upon us—upon me?

And then comes the process of surrender—because for a stone-cold will like mine, it always seems to mean breaking, and crushing, and being chiseled into something I don’t even recognize, before I can finally accept that He is God, and He’s good, and His plan is so far beyond anything I could imagine, let alone see as the thing of wonder He intends it to be.

In the process, I learn that I myself am meant to be a thing of wonder as well. “You must be so strong,” someone said to me just the other day.

No. Oh, no. I lost count of the times I’ve said “I can’t.” But I’m also learning that He can. The Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead can take a soul once drowning in despair and bitterness and raise it, too, to life.

And then ... I can.

From Psalm 18, NKJV:

²⁸ For You will light my lamp;
The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.
²⁹ For by You I can run against a troop,
By my God I can leap over a wall.
³⁰ As for God, His way is perfect;
The word of the Lord is proven;
He is a shield to all who trust in Him.

³¹ For who is God, except the Lord?
And who is a rock, except our God?
³² It is God who arms me with strength,
And makes my way perfect.

(This post appeared February 3, 2013, as my first devotional here at The Borrowed Book.)

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Weekly Drawing ~ Betsy St. Amant

It's Fun Friday at The Borrowed Book! This week's prize is available to residents inside the continental US only.

To enter:

Leave the time it took you to complete the puzzles in the comments section as well as your email address for notifying you if you've won. Winners will be drawn from ALL of the times, so the person with the fastest time may not be the actual winner, but by leaving your time, you double your chances.

Want another entry? Tweet your puzzle time and mention The Borrowed Book, get another entry. RETWEET our Tweet, get two entries!

Post your puzzle time on BB's Facebook wall and...you guessed it...get another entry!

Post it on your OWN Facebook wall and you could get as many as FIVE entries.

It's all a way to spread the word about the great giveaways on BB. So c'mon! Help us spread the word, and have a little fun at the same time. Enter all weekend long! Winners will be announced Sunday night at midnight.

This week's puzzle feature is brought to you by Betsy St. Amant and her newest release, All's Fair in Love and Cupcakes.

 

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Attending a Meeting of Plotters' Anonymous with Betsy St. Amant

My name is Betsy St. Amant . . . deep breath . . . and I am a… plotter.

That’s right, I confess. I’ll admit it! I’m a plotter.

There’s two types of authors, if you weren’t already aware of this crucial concept to the writing industry. Plotters and pansters. The plotters are those who, well, plot their story in full before writing it. And the pansters are those who fly by the seat of their pants and wing it all the way through.

See, I’ve always secretly wanted to be a panster, but it was simply not meant to be for this Type A, slightly OCD girl. Sometimes I stand back at writers conferences, listening to other authors teach or just talk amongst themselves of how they have no idea what will happen next in their work-in-progress, and wow, how exciting is that? Anything could happen! The sky was the limit. They could fly!

While I stand nearby, clutching my three-to-five page, neatly typed, double-spaced synopsis. (And for the record, no, it’s not pink and scented like Elle Woods’ resume on Legally Blonde, but I have thoroughly considered the idea.)

Oh, I’ve tried to be a panster, trust me. I’ve tried to embrace that freedom and soar! But maybe my ripped-knee jeans are just too bottom-heavy, because there is definitely no flying by the seat of these pants. I just end up typing aimlessly, while my characters essentially wander aimlessly and stare at each other on the page, tapping their heels and checking their watches. Epic fail.

I think this goes back to my own personality. In real life (as in, by day, since by night I am Super Author) I like control. I like to know what is coming. I hate surprises. Spontaneity can turn right back around and hit the trail because plans make me happy. Ridiculously happy, even. I enjoy having something to look forward to, and despise the uncertainty that comes with not knowing if I do or not.

There are exceptions, of course. For example—spontaneous flowers arriving as a delivery for me at work? Wonderful! Penning an entire novel without having a clue where it will end up? Heart attack!

I say all of this with slight jest, of course, because I think even the true pansters of the industry have to write with at least some skeletal structure to their story. But they definitely leave more room for surprises and detours compared to us plotters.

But as with everything, it takes all types, and this Type A girl is quite happy with her plotted course in life. And I do believe my editors appreciate the summaries I provide early on! However, there is always room for personal growth, just like with my characters. Too much of anything is usually a bad thing, and it might be time in my life to start being open to a few more surprises. A little more spontaneity. A bit of the unknown.

Because isn’t that where God works best—outside of our plans?

As an author, I shake up my characters. They think their day is going to consist of This and That with perhaps a bit of Something Else…yet I come along, shake the snowglobe, and watch the flakes and bubbles float where they will. And while all of that swirling chaos often looks like a hot, disorganized mess, it always lands and settles into a beautiful, snowy masterpiece by the time I type The End.

How many times as an author, or as a single mom, or as an employee, have I felt like a hot, disorganized mess? Too many times to count! How many times have I thought my day, my year, my life, was going to consist of This and That and Something Else? How many times have I planned and prepared and longed for a certain outcome, just to see it shaken right out of my slippery grasp?

And yet...I always land and settle somewhere safe, secure, and more beautiful than where I began.

I’ll keep plotting my stories. I can’t help it.

But maybe I’ll loosen up a little and prepare for some shaking up from the One who holds the whole world in His hands.

It’ll be beautiful. 

Betsy St. Amant has a heart for three things – chocolate, new shoes and sharing the amazing news of God’s grace through her novels. She lives in Louisiana with her adorable story-telling young daughter, a collection of Austen novels, and an impressive stash of Pickle Pringles. A freelance journalist and fiction author, Betsy is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and is multi-published in Contemporary Romance. When she’s not reading, writing, or singing along to the Tangled soundtrack with her daughter, Betsy enjoys inspirational speaking and teaching, and can usually be found somewhere in the vicinity of a white-chocolate mocha.

www.betsystamant.com

www.writergetsreal.blogspot.com

@betsystamant

https://www.facebook.com/BetsySt.Amant

Make sure to stop by tomorrow, when you can enter to win a free copy of Betsy's latest release, All's Fair in Love and Cupcakes.

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Write What You. . .No? by Author Betsy S. Amant

As an author, I’ve attended many conferences and sat through a ton classes on the craft of writing. And while the courses taught a variety of topics, all of which were extremely enlightening and helped me grow in my craft, one theme seemed to rise throughout each one—a niggling concept or message that dug intentional talons into my heart and held on tight. 

That theme was “write what you know.”

That theme has been argued before, of course. Because, technically, that message would mean that you could never write a romantic suspense story with a policeman hero if you, yourself, were not a policeman. That message would mean that you would never be able to write about a an astronaut if you’ve never been to space, or a race-car driver, or a military vet, or a doctor, or a lawyer if you had never driven race cars, manned the front lines in combat, earned a tough degree or passed the Bar. 

And very unfortunately for me, that would mean I would have never been able to write about a female baker longing to break free of her small town, average-flavored life and make it big in the culinary world, because—ahem—I can’t bake to save my life. Oh sure, I can whip out a Pillsbury roll of cookie dough with the best of them, but when it comes to creating unique cupcake delights like my heroine Kat Varland, my expertise definitely lies more in the “taste testing” field.

So how can an author write what they know, if they don’t know all of these different careers and venues? 

I believe, while the message is taught with good intentions and is really more of a prod to thoroughly research your stories before hitting “send” to your editor, that it’s really more of a nod to the author’s heart. 

I write inspirational fiction, which means all of my stories have a subtle faith theme throughout. Therefore, my characters are filtered through my own Christ-centered worldview. And my experiences in my faith and in my walk with Christ are going to be evident, more or less, in one way or another, through my character’s faith walk in the story. 

How can I honestly write a story with a deep-rooted theme of forgiveness if I’m harboring grudges in my own life? How can I successfully pen a novel with a message of restoration if I’m fighting negativity and depression in my thoughts? How can I offer a legit source of joy and hope to my readers if I’m secretly at my keyboard, hopeless and afraid?

I can’t. I have to write what I know.

So for me, that means doing the research not just for my story’s plot, but for my character’s hearts. What internal conflict will they overcome? More than likely, it’s going to be one I’ve recently overcome or am learning to overcome right along with them. 

The characters in my new release All’s Fair in Love and Cupcakes both learn some hard-earned lessons in sacrifice. Heroine and cupcake baker Kat Varland must learn how to shake off her insecurities and fears and set free her dreams while trusting that the ultimate Dream Giver (God) has her best interest close to His heart. She has to believe that He can turn even her most average-flavored dream into one bursting with color and sweetness. And hero and high school football coach Lucas Brannen must discover that sometimes, letting go and surrendering his own perfect play gives God the opportunity to call a surprise play that lands the ultimate victory. 

While writing this story, I had to learn similar lessons. Like Kat, I had to learn to let go of my shattered dreams and the insecurities holding me back, and believe in a better future. And like Lucas, I had to learn that surrendering what I’m holding so tight actually stifles and crushes it, rather than controls it. There is freedom in sacrifice and in letting go—and there is reward to obedience. 

And that is why I will always strive to write what I know. 

Betsy St. Amant has a heart for three things – chocolate, new shoes and sharing the amazing news of God’s grace through her novels. She lives in Louisiana with her adorable story-telling young daughter, a collection of Austen novels, and an impressive stash of Pickle Pringles. A freelance journalist and fiction author, Betsy is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and is multi-published in Contemporary Romance. When she’s not reading, writing, or singing along to the Tangled soundtrack with her daughter, Betsy enjoys inspirational speaking and teaching, and can usually be found somewhere in the vicinity of a white-chocolate mocha.

www.betsystamant.com

www.writergetsreal.blogspot.com

@betsystamant

https://www.facebook.com/BetsySt.Amant

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