The Benefits of a Writers Conference

By Doyne Phillips, Managing Editor for Southern Writers Magazine

If you don’t attend writer conferences you should definitely consider it. I recently attended and participated in a Writers Conference and Retreat sponsored by the Bartlett, TN Christian Writers Group and President Londa Hayden, The Writers Anointing, Date,Pray, Wait, and her latest children’s book Candy Moon. All of Londa’s books are available on Amazon. Londa is one of the most energetic people I have ever met. She has been successful in her career as a writer and in turn shares with others what she has done to become successful. I believe Londa took the words of Kevin Spacey to heart.

“If you're lucky enough to do well, it's your responsibility to send the elevator back down.” - Kevin Spacey

Londa had recently completed her children’s book Candy Moon with the final illustrations being completed by Illustrator Nick Nixon. Nick took us through the process of the coordination of author illustrator when completing the illustrations for the book. We got to see firsthand the beginning to finish product prior to publication. It looked fantastic and I can’t wait for my copy.

Tracy Crump, The Write Life Workshops, Chicken Soup for the Soul Workshops and author of numerous short stories and articles, including articles for Southern Writers Magazine, spoke on the challenge of finding an agent and publisher. Tracy always does a great job and is very detailed with her presentation. Many writers, including myself, have taken away information and made it a permanent part of their process. I can highly recommend Tracy and should you ever have the opportunity to hear her be sure to do so.

Gary Fearon, writer, songwriter, artist and Creative Director for Southern Writers Magazine, spoke on book covers. Gary creates the covers of Southern Writers Magazine and deals with many of the book covers our 700 plus authors have published. Gary was able to show us the amazing things that take place in the creation of book covers. Each cover design is vital in your books competition with over 1million books that are published each year. Gary let us know books are judged and bought by their covers.  

I spoke about the business side of publishing which pointed to the author turning over their “baby” to the professionals that package your book for marketing. I used several examples of the famous and yet to be famous authors and their journey to the final product. It can be painful at times but in the end people like Nick, Tracy and Gary make us all look better when the final touch is put on the product. The above picture shows from the left to right: Nick Nixon, Tracy Crump, me and Gary Fearon. 

Being able to hear professionals with the credentials of Londa, Nick, Tracy and Gary is priceless for writers. The Q&A opportunity for those in attendance gave each attendee a chance for their particular question/concern to be answered. All in all the knowledge shared will be beneficial in the writing, publishing, illustrating and graphics of each writer’s project. Again if you have yet to attend a Writer’s Conference reconsider and do so. It could be a great benefit to your writing career. 

Blog to Build Your Audience

By Londa Hayden, Staff Writer for Southern Writers Magazine

In promoting a book, one must think outside the box at times. It finally dawned on me one day that I would serve my book's intended audience far better by offering a blog by the same title at http://www.datepraywait.com. My book “Date, Pray, Wait” is a nonfiction work about my dating experiences as a young Christian woman. I share about how I came to know Christ and learned to wait on God to bring my husband into my life. But, there is so much more to my story than just my dating experiences. Every person can relate to the loneliness of being single. There are a few exceptions to the rule, but for the most part, almost everyone wants to find that one and only someone to have and to hold until death do you part. I've been married almost 26 years now, so what the heck was I thinking when I wrote this book for single people? I mean, doesn't it make more sense for single people to want to read book written by other single people? Perhaps that is true, but I do have the advantage of experience and wisdom to share with Christian singles without being their mother or teacher.

Of course, there are tons of websites out there for Christian singles who want to date, which could be considered my competition. Cyberspace can be a remarkable social networking tool, but it can also be a pretty scary place if you’re not careful. Instead of looking at all these Christian dating websites as competition, I decided to go with the flow and use my blog to compliment them instead. And once I can get the SEO and RSS feed stuff figured out, I hope to start getting a lot more traffic to my website. This is an age of social networking unlike anything the world has ever seen or experienced before. Single people especially use the Internet constantly all day long on their laptops, desktops, iPads, phones, Kindles, etc. They are always online and connected to the Internet in one capacity or another. You must learn to use this technology in order to communicate and reach your audience.

Think about who your book will attract. Now think about who is really buying and reading your book? What does your true demographic audience really look like now? Guess what? That is your audience. So work your promoting and marketing around that demographic; their wants, desires, and needs. Starting a blog is one of the easiest ways to gain internet presence and market your book. I also blog on a separate author website at http://www.londahayden.com about writing, and I have set up separate pages to promote each book I have written. I have a fan page on Facebook for just my book titled “Date, Pray, Wait.”  And of course Twitter is another authority website which really should not be ignored. All of these avenues of social media are interconnected with one another and help me target my marketing efforts to my specific audience. All I need to do is click on the Twitter or Facebook icon to get the link to my new blog article posted to every one of them. It really is just as simple as that.

If you really want to reach your audience, you must consider building a strong internet presence as a big part of your platform for marketing. Most publishers will expect at least this much from any potential author. A blog about your book is a great way to serve and build your audience, and a great way to help promote your book to thousands of people who otherwise might never hear about you or your book. There are many free website hosts where you can easily set up a blog. Here are just a few: Wordpress.com, Webs.com, GoDaddy, Weebly.com, Myspace.com, and Google offers Blogspot.com.

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Londa Hayden is the founding president of Bartlett Christian Writers and a staff writer for Southern Writers Magazine. Her debut book, Date, Pray, Wait inspired a blog by the same name at  http://datepraywait.com and encourages Christian singles to date with wisdom. To learn more about Londa and her other works, please visit her website at http://londahayden.com.