Merry Christmas to All and God Bless America!

Christmas is right around the corner. I love this time of year, although it keeps me quite busy putting up decorations, buying and wrapping gifts, and attending get-togethers. Still, as I hurry through the season, I love all the festivity that is seemingly everywhere with decorations up in stores, and Christmas music playing on the car radio and in stores.

Yesterday while substituting in a Missions class at the Christian school where I work, I saw a film published by Lifeway, about the persecuted church titled, The Insanity of God. How my heart was touched! I fought back tears many times. Along with making me more aware of what other Christians in other places around the world go through, it also made me greatly appreciate the privilege I have to worship my Lord freely! As I drove home from work yesterday and heard Christmas songs on the radio, and then walked into my decorated home with its brightly lit Christmas tree and nativities set out in a few places, I once again fought back tears. How blessed we are in the U.S!

I am a Christian writer. Almost everything I have ever written has a Christian focus--conveys a Biblical truth, or reflects on Christ or his followers in some way. To date, I have only written two pieces out of hundreds that are more secular in nature and only one of them has, or rather will, make it into print, thus far. (I sold a memoir of my high school's 1975 football championship run to a regional magazine last week--the first time I have crossed over into the secular market. I hope to do that more in the future, but Christian writing will always remain my passion and make up the bulk of my writing.)

Yesterday, as I watched the film, it resonated with me quite profoundly that I could be imprisoned. persecuted, and even killed for what I do if I lived somewhere else. So today I want to say, "Merry Christmas and my God increase religious freedom around the world and continue to bless America!”

Book News

Happy Thanksgiving! I have a lot to be thankful for this year including book-news on a couple of different fronts.

My books with Pix-N-Pens
Pix-N-Pens is the nonfiction arm of Write Integrity Press, a small press based out of Dallas Texas. We are about to undergo some changes which will result in a new name but we will still be an imprint of Write Integrity Press. There will be more updates on that coming sometime next year.

I have one book written by only me and three that I have co-written with Shirley Crowder under Pix-N-Pens. Shirley and I also have four more under contract that we are currently working on, that will be releasing over the next couple of years. The most recent release is Prayer Warrior Confessions which released on Nov. 6. It had a great release, hitting #2 in three categories of new releases. The kindle has been on sale but will soon go back to its regular price of $6.99. This is a book I am really excited about. It is a collection of true stories of prayer and lessons the writers learned through the experiences they share. This book literally made me cry and laugh while I was compiling and editing it and it will do the same to readers.

My books with Olivia Kimbrell Press
There is another small press I work with as well. Olivia Kimbrell Press is based here in KY. The editor-in-chief is Gregg Bridgeman. They publish many of his wife, best-selling author Hallee Bridgman's, books as well as other authors. OKP published my novel, The Whisper of the Palms and has agreed to publish A Stand for Truth, the book I co-wrote with my husband, John R. Michael about his time as a trustee at Southern Seminary.

A Stand for Truth has an interesting publishing history. P&R came very close to offering us a contract but in the end, they decided not to. Then the manuscript was picked up by Founders Press. However, the contract they sent us differed in some important ways with what we had discussed on the phone with them and we simply were not able to sign the contract terms that they offered. So, we pitched the book to Gregg Bridgeman and he agreed because as he said, "It's a story that needs to be told." He did a great job with my novel and we are so excited that this book is finally in the publishing stage! We don't have a release date yet but it should be sometime in 2019. I'll let you know more as I can. Stay tuned.

A Gift for You!

Everyone at Pix-N-Pens (my publisher) are so excited about the upcoming release of "Prayer Warrior Confessions." To celebrate, we are putting it on sale for just .99 on release day, November 6, and also giving away "Glimpses of Prayer" for free that day too! Don't miss it!

"Prayer Warrior Confessions" is a collection of nonfiction stories about prayer. The stories will literally make you laugh and cry. It is such a precious book. 

I think books are a bit like children. You love them all but sometimes one will particularly delight you. That's what this book feels like to me--like that adorable, somewhat unpredictable, delightful child who makes your heart feel like it's about to burst. 

I hope  your enjoy this book as much as I do. 

Cover Reveal!

My friend, Shirley Crowder and I have another book coming out next month and today we are so excited to reveal its cover. The book is titled, "Prayer Warrior Confessions". It is a nonfiction anthology full of true stories about prayer that will make readers, laugh, cry, smile, sigh, and stand amazed. I am so excited about this book! Shirley and I wrote many of the stories but we also had numerous contributors who share their experiences with prayer too. After each story, the writer gives a "confession" which is really just something he or she has learned through the experience in prayer that they shared in their story.

Without further adieu, here's the cover:

The Inside Story

I thought I'd share some information that mostly only book authors know. I'll give you an inside look at general things an author deals with and my writing life, specifically.

Author Central: If a person has books listed for sale on Amazon, he or she has access to a web page called Author Central. This page lists all books by the author and shows sales of the books (both paperback and ebook) via a graph. The author has some responsibility on setting this page up. For instance, she links all of her books to the page when she adds them to her public Amazon author page.

There are options on this page as to some books, such as anthologies to which  the author has contributed. I have contributed to three Chicken Soup for the Soul books but I do not choose to link them to my page. I have seen where other authors have. I have several reasons for not linking them: 1) their sales do not generate any additional revenue to me. (I was paid a one-time fee of $200 by Chicken Soup for the use of my story.) 2) I am one of 101 other writers in the books, and 3) I have a growing number of other books that I have either fully written or co-written with only one other author and I would rather direct traffic.

The Author Central page shows individual sales ranks of the various books, information that is also posted on the books themselves when people search for them on Amazon but it has an author rank, too, which only the author can see. For the past year I have averaged around the 200,000 rank out of millions of authors on Amazon. This rank goes up and down daily with sales or the lack of them. The highest I have ever hit was close to 15,000.

Reviews: Book Reviews posted on Amazon are so important to authors! The more reviews a book has the more exposure Amazon will give it. This is especially true if the book has 50 or more. I am always begging people to leave reviews of my books. It is such a simple thing to do but people seem to have a real resistance to it. There are ways to get reviews. Amazon does not allow a person to pay for a review but they do allow an author to pay for a blog tour where the bloggers signed up to participate agree to review the book. I have never participated in a blog tour but am scheduled for my first one in December after the prayer anthology is released. This is a book I am super excited about and am willing to pay for the blog tour in exchange for the exposure the tour will give it.

Social Media: There are numerous social media outlits that authors can participate in to help get exposure for their books. At this time, I have only a Facebook author page. My page currently has 387 "likes" but every one is what is known as an organic like, which means, again, I did not pay to get new likes on my page. Everyone who has liked it has chosen to like it. I probably will not pay to gain new likes because though it might look better to the public (as though my page is more popular than it really is) the people who really notice anything I put on that page will likely only be the organic "likes" anyway and the purpose of my page is not to impress, but to share with my readers.

And finally …
There are so many other writing related things I could share and may overtime, but to keep the blog post from being too long, I will stop with these except to tell you my best-selling book so far, a question I am often asked. Drum roll please …
My best-selling book, so far, is my first book, "Prayer: It's Not About You." This book has been sold in groups many times, however, when church groups and community groups choose to study it in their group Bible studies and I'm sure that helps in the over-all number that has been sold to date. My other books are also selling well, for which I am glad. Here's a link to my author page where my books can be found: Harriet;s Amazon Page
 

Release Day!!!

                                                 

\ couldn't be more excited!               
















It's release day for the 2nd edition of "Glimpses of Prayer" and I couldn't be more excited!

The book is an updated version of the first devotional my childhood friend, Shirley Crowder and I ever collaborated on. The original had 30 meditations in it and the updated on has 50 along with some new illustrations by my very talented daughter, Kristin Michael. It is a holiday devotional that centers around the fall and winter holidays of Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year. To use the old, worn-out cliché: it's new and improved, The cliché may be old and worn-out but the truth of it still stands. I know you will enjoy this book!

Here's the link where you can purchase Glimpses of the Savior.

Change of Plans

Well, things don't always work out the way we think. That has proven to be true with the book, "A Stand for Truth" that my husband and I co-wrote.

We did receive that long-awaited contract from Founders Press but it differed from what he had discussed on the phone, several weeks earlier, in ways that we simply could not agree with. We had discussed a royalty percentage but the contract offered an honorarium instead. Though it was significant, it was less than we would have received in a royalty percentage if all the books in the first printing sold. We preferred the royalty, but this was not a deal breaker. The deal breaker came in the way the contract dealt with the book's copyright.

Contrary to what we had agreed upon on the phone, the contract stated that we would assign the copyright over to them "completely and forever". We just could not agree to this, no matter how nice the honorarium offer. So, we declined it and are now back to square one.

We are pursuing other publishers and waiting to see what doors God opens.

In the meantime, I'm staying quite busy. My friend and co-writer in the devotional books and I have completed the 2nd manuscript of the 5-book contract and sent it off to Pix-N-Pens, our publisher. Now, on to writing the 3rd! My summer has also been filled with editing, editing, and editing. We have so many books in various stages of publishing and they all require several rounds of edits. We are mostly caught up until next spring but still have galley edits on the anthology to go.

We have two books releasing this fall. "Glimpses of the Savior" is set to be re-released Sept 4. It has been updated and will have 50 devotions instead of 30. And the anthology, "Prayer Warrior Confessions" is set to be released in late fall, probably early November.

School has started up again, so my work as a substitute will resume and my youngest child will be heading off to college again. I have enjoyed the happy summer days but am about ready for the temperatures to move down and the leaves to start showing off their fall colors.

Sitting on Go

I have been waiting to write another post because my husband and I are expecting a contract on our book, "A Stand for Truth" any day. I had thought I would just wait and post signing pictures. But since that contract has not arrived in our inbox yet, I will go ahead and bring everyone up to speed on things in my writing world.

Founders Press has picked up "A Stand for Truth" and will be sending that publishing contract any time now. They called us a few weeks ago and let us know of their decision to publish it and said they will send that (long-awaited / so happy to finally have coming) contract in a few weeks. I will post those pictures when it happens. We are excited and happy this book has found a home! They said they are hoping for a spring 2019 release. In the meantime, we are working on some edits to it and on gathering endorsements for it, so that when they are ready to receive our final manuscript, we will have it in the best shape we can. (It will still go through several rounds of edits by them, though.)

So, with regards to that book, we are sitting on go, ready and waiting to sign that contract. Meanwhile, the rest of my writing world is hopping as always. My PNP co-writer and I just finished reading and approving 1st edits on two books that will release soon, one in early fall, and the other in late fall. We have a 3rd manuscript almost ready to send to our publisher and things look good for meeting that late Aug deadline, and we have started writing on the 4th manuscript which is due to our publisher next February. This leaves us two that are not even started yet, but we have plenty of time and are actually ahead of the game right now.

And I keep busy in other adventures too … maybe too busy. I am teaching a breakout session on missions next week at Women's Advance, a large, local women's conference, and staying as busy as ever freelancing, currently under a deadline for a few articles for SEEK and have some ideas floating around in my head for a couple other magazines. And I keep mentoring, something that brings me great joy! I just had the joy of reading and tweaking a delightful short book that a friend is self-publishing through Lulu.

Who said summer was a slow time of year?

Had a Great Time!

I just got back from the KY Christian Writers Conference last night. As a friend of mine used to say, "And once again, a good time was had by all."

My class on freelancing was well attended with eager writers who seemed appreciative to learn the things I was able to share. I told them that freelancing was like fishing and I as going to teach them how to fish, and tell them where some great fishing holes were.

I have included a picture of two writers who also write for the publishing company I am contracted with. The woman on the left is Shirley Crowder, my childhood friend and co-writer on many books, and the woman in the middle is Betty Thomason Owens who writes fiction with Write Integrity Press. (Pix-N-Pens is the nonfiction arm of Write Integrity.)

The man in the back is Carlton Hughes, a humor writer, who has photobombed our pictures at this conference so many years that it is now a tradition to have a "Carlton-photobombed pic".

I'm back home, now, and looking ahead again. My husband and I have a phone call appointment with the publishing company that is currently considering our book later this week. I hope to be able to share more on that soon.

I'm still working on book #3 of our 5-book contract, and will soon start edits on book #2. But I am also just enjoying some summer days. My grandson is visiting this week and going with me and one of my kids to my parents next week. So, I'm going to enjoy some pool time and family time.  

The Kentycky Writers Confernece

The Kentucky Christian Writers Conference is just two weeks away!

I love this conference. It is the first writers conference I ever attended and the one that gave me the tools to set out on my writing journey. At my first meeting, in June of 2009, I took a workshop on freelancing small pieces such as articles, devotions, short stories, etc. I came home inspired and hopeful with new information as to how to go about doing it. I sent my first submission in July of 2009, and received my first paying contract (for an article) in November of the same year.

I now have several hundred published short pieces and will be teaching the workshop on it this year! I would love to have you join me. You can get more information about it at this link: KCWC

Hope to see you there!

Looking Ahead

In my last post, I wrote about being disappointed. Well, that is part and parcel of the writing life. Every writer has to learn to put today's rejection behind them and turn their eyes on tomorrow and I am doing just that.

The manuscript that my husband and I co-wrote is now in the hands of another traditional publisher who is showing interest. Hopefully, it will not be as long a wait before we hear this time. They sound interested, but then again, so did the previous publisher, right up to the point where they declined it, lol!

Meanwhile, I have my hands full with other writing! In recent weeks, I have received and signed numerous contracts from magazines for articles or devotions. These include "Power for Living" who bought both an article and a devotional, "SEEK" who bought three articles, and "The Secret Place." I also just received a complimentary copy of "Clubhouse" magazine for an article they bought over a year ago but just now published it in the current issue.

I also am making headway on the books I need to write for my main publisher, Pix-N-Pens (a division of Write Integrity Press). Two books co-written by my friend Shirley Crowder and myself will be coming out this year--the 1st in our devotional series in late summer / early fall, and the 4th in our prayer series in late fall / early winter. I will give you those exact dates and show you those covers when we have them. I will be very involved in final edits for both of those this summer. The 2nd manuscript in that devotional series is due to our publisher in mid-August, and I am also hoping to start mapping out and beginning to write on the 3rd in the series which will be due to our publisher next winter sometime.

And added to that are my speaking engagements. I will be teaching on freelance writing in June at the KY Christian Writer's Conference and on missions at the Women's Advance Conference in July.

Whew! I hope to get some pool time in too! Happy summer all!

Dissapointed

Well, we finally heard from P&R (Presbyterian and Reformed) Publishing—the publishing company we have been waiting to hear from regarding the book co-written by my husband and me. They turned us down. ☹ We had high hopes we would be receiving a contract from them, but now we know that we will not.

Why were we so hopeful? The manuscript has been extremely well received by those who have read it and we have significant written endorsements from major denominational leaders for it already. It’s a powerful story that has been cited by one prominent denominational leader as the best history of Southern Seminary for that time period that he has ever read. But our hopes rose for more than just those reasons. One denominational leader, who will remain unnamed since he is a public figure and I do not have his permission to name him, actually had some insight into the publication committee’s thoughts on the book.  As recently as a month ago, this man felt certain P&R would be sending us a book contract.

So, what happened? Of course, there is no way of really knowing the answer to this but coincidently in recent weeks and months, since the time we first submitted our manuscript to them for consideration, some of the leaders of the conservative resurgence of the Southern Baptist Convention have made the news for unflattering reasons. Our book is about the conservative resurgence as it played out at Southern Seminary. I think it’s quite possible, if not likely that P&R suddenly felt they did not want to be publishing and promoting a book that pertains to this movement whose leaders are currently receiving negative press.

So that, as they say, is that. We move on and wait for other doors that God may open and other avenues to tell our story. I’ll keep you posted in the journey.

Still Waiting

Today is the middle of April and here in Louisville, it is snowing outside, again. Snow! Will spring ever get here? I saw a funny post from a friend saying that this year we are experiencing spring by faith, not by sight.

And so we wait ...

We wait, fully believing that warm weather will actually arrive at some point. Gardens will grow again, people will enjoy outside activities again, and we will feel sunshine spilling over our sun-screened shoulders again.

I am also still waiting on word about the book my husband and I wrote called "A Stand for Truth", from that publishing company that does not seem to be in any hurry to communicate with us as to the status of the manuscript they have been reviewing since last November. We have heard in a round about way that they are quite interested and likely to send the long-awaited contract. If and when they do, I will post it here in a very happy, very excited post. :)

In the meantime, I keep on writing. Currently, I had a devotion that appeared in The Secret Place last Saturday, articles in SEEK in Feb, March, and again in June, a "Truth Pursuer" article in the current issue of Clubhouse Magazine, a couple of pieces in "War Cry" sometime this spring, and just received contracts from Purpose Magazine, SEEK, and Power for Living for articles that will appear in the fall and winter.

I juggle that freelancing with time spent working on the devotional books I'm co-writing with my friend. These will be released over the next couple of years.

This fall, PNP will re-release "Glimpses of the Savior" a holiday devotional, and release "Prayer Warrior Confessions" an anthology. Cover reveals for those will be coming sometime in the summer and fall. Next year they will release two of the Glimpses of God devotionals and the final two will come in 2020. These four will each have 50 devotions and will be for one of the four seasons, winter, spring, summer, and fall. So, I have plenty to keep me busy even without all that will need to be done if/ when we finally get a contract on "A Stand for Truth."

But I sure would love to hear from the publishing company. I can just picture it, I'm sitting outside in the warm sunshine checking my phone when that news comes in.

I like dreaming.

Learning Patience

George Orwell is quoted as saying, “Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.”

This quote has always made me laugh because it strikes a chord with me. As an author / freelance writer I can relate to feeling driven to write. I laugh at myself because I find I am always giving myself a writing assignment just like a teacher would require of a student. Some of these assignments are short and I can complete them quickly and reap the satisfaction of seeing them published in some form but others take much longer. 

Prayer: It's Not About You took four years to write and about another five to get published, though some of my books have taken less time to write. But one that I co-wrote with my husband, tentatively named, "A Stand for Truth", about his time as a trustee at Southern Seminary, wins the award for taking the longest! 

It took us at least seven years to write and we have yet to secure a publisher, though we are close. We submitted it to a traditional, well respected, Christian publisher, in November who seemed eager to take a look at it. But we have yet to hear anything final from them, though a few days ago, a fascinating chance encounter revealed new information that gives us reason to be very optimistic that we should hear sooner rather than later. I will certainly keep everyone posted as soon as I know anything for sure. In the meantime, I am learning yet another lesson in patience as I wake up every morning thinking, "Maybe today we will get that book contract."

...something I have done nearly every day since the first of the year. :) 

                                                

Change and Uncertainty

Today Billy Graham passed away. I can just hear the Lord telling him, "Well done, my good and faithful servant!"

In the early 60's, he visited the mission in Nigeria where I lived. I have a few pictures from that time, though I was just a preschooler. He visited the town of Ogbomoso where my parents were stationed and, according to a story I heard from Mom, he saved my sister from being disciplined by her. My sister, Alisa, only about a four or five year old, saw the table full of goodies that had been prepared for Billy Graham's reception and nudged her way closer to it. Once there, she sneakily ran her fingers around the base of a cake, getting the sweet cream icing on her little hands which she lifted to her mouth and licked. She thought no one had seen her but two people had--my mother and Billy Graham.


Mom made her way toward Alisa but Dr.Graham stepped between them. He smiled at my Mom, and said. "Don't scold her. She's just a child." He surely came between myriad others and judgement too as he preached around the world telling people how they could be forgiven of their sins because of Jesus' death and resurrection.

(Billy Graham is the tall man walking in front, my dad, Dr. Keith Edwards, is the man almost adjacent to him just behind the woman. These are some of the missionary doctors at the hospital in Ogbomoso showing Dr. Graham around the hospital.) 

Today, the world lost a great man. I am immediately reminded of Isaiah 6:1, “In the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.”
A king's death was always a time of uncertainty for the people. But in this shaky, uncertain time, what did the prophet see? He saw God still on His throne, high and lifted up. Today as we face the loss of this godly man, we can know that still too, God is on his throne. He still reigns. His plans for Dr. Graham's life are complete but He has other plans for other people still here on earth.

The Publishing Process

Last week I was snowed in as jaw-droppingly low temps, snow, and ice gripped much of the nation. This week is much better and I'm loving it. Having spent my first decade in Africa, I'm still not used to cold weather, though I do think it's beautiful. The picture is of my back yard, early in the morning as the sun came up over the snow.

In my writing world, though, things are heating up. I've had developments on two different fronts and it makes for the perfect time to share a little about the process involved in book publishing.

There are actually different ways to get a book published. An author can self-publish, also known as independent publishing, or she can be published through a traditional publisher, either via small press or larger press. If traditionally published, the author does not pay anything involved in the publishing of her books and splits the royalties with the publisher. (If indie published, they absorb all costs but do not split commissions.) If traditionally published, usually small press books do not end up on shelves in book stores while larger press books do. Both can be ordered online.

I am contracted with a small press, PixNPens, a company based in Texas. PNP is the nonfiction arm of Write Integrity Press. They have published two of my books, Prayer: It's Not About You and Glimpses of Prayer and they have plans to publish more. Several of these books are and will be co-written by my childhood friend, Shirley Crowder. In that part of my writing world, things are going well and we just sent our latest manuscript to them. They will put it on their publishing schedule, will edit it, format it, and eventually publish it sometime next fall.

I also have a manuscript I co-wrote with my husband that is currently being considered by a larger traditional company. It's hard to get in the door of larger publishing companies. Usually it takes an agent. In our case, a friend connected us with a man who had been an agent but is no longer one. Nonetheless, after reading the manuscript, he agreed to help us and made the contact with the company that is currently considering it. That company, who will remain unnamed at this point, has had our manuscript since Nov. 1. We heard from them yesterday saying they are still considering it and are currently doing some market research. They also said asked if we would willing to reduce its length if their publication committee gives a favorable response. Of course, we said yes! At this point we're still in a waiting game on that manuscript.

So, there's a snapshot of some of the many things that go into getting a book published. It involves so much--getting a contract from the traditional publishing company, whether large or small press, writing and turning in the completed manuscript, then months of work on the part of the publisher before the book is finally released and ready for sale.