Timothy's Thoughts

I was looking at future releases and I came across Watch Over Me by Christa Parrish and I thought, that sounds formiliar , but I knew I hadn’t seen it before. So I went back and I found Cry in the Night by Colleen Coble. I have read neither book, but when you read the descriptions you see similarities between both books. The premise is identical. A rescue worker takes in an abandoned baby when the parents can’t be found. It is only upon closer inspection that we find that the problems are different. What that tells me is that it is the premise that makes a story unique, not the problems the characters face. If we nobodies hope to get any notice, it isn’t going to be through presenting manuscripts with similar premises, but different problems. The development of the premise is the place where we can achieve the greatest gains in developing a good story.

W e call it the advance and it can range from $1 all the way into millions of dollars. Many are in the thousands of dollars range. With all the other changes that are taking place in the publishing industry, publishers are messing around with the advance as well. Not that long ago, Chip MacGregor was complaining about Random House wanting to pay the advance a year after the book releases Previously, I have said I don’t like the concept of the advance because it puts the author in a position of owing the publisher. If the book doesn’t earn out, the author will be unable to repay the debt. That is if you view the advance as something the publisher pays the author in order for the author to live while completing the work. We could also look at the advance more like an earnest payment. By paying an advance , the publisher is promising to publish the book, but if they don’t the author walks away with the earnest money, much like when an offer is made on a house people ...

Three sentences: The old tractor climbed the hill and disappeared down the other side. I saw ol’ Bob on that old tractor of his, just as he was going over the hill at the Abernathy place. Didn’t you see it too, when that tractor went over the hill? We talk a lot about Point of View (POV). From a technical standpoint, all three sentences have a different POV. The first sentence is Third Person POV. The second sentence is First Person POV. The third sentence is Second Person POV. But let’s ignore the technical meaning of Point of View and consider the scene and the camera angle . In each case, it wouldn’t be hard for us to imagine that the speaker stood on a hill over looking a valley, looked out and saw Bob driving his tractor over a hill on the other side. Neither the scene nor the camera angle have changed and yet the three sentences sound completely different. Lest we think Point of View is the only thing at work here, let’s add two more first person sentences: When I saw Bob ...

A few weeks ago, Jim Thomason of Thomas Nelson blogged about On-Line Streamlining , saying he would shut down his Facebook (FB) and Twitter accounts. Don’t ask me why I took so long to write about this, but the essence of his post was that he is stopping these activities because they are time consuming, take away from personal interests, most of the people on FB are an accident of geography and besides, they can follow him on his blog. His last reason is “Most days, my life’s just not that interesting to me, much less to other people.” Yeah, mine neither. For me, many of the people on FB are family members and church members. There are also those accidents of geography that I haven’t seen in several years. The rest are people somehow related to my writing and a few that just happened to show up. Jim is right; every one of these people could follow me on my blog. Some of them do. But here’s the thing. It isn’t about them keeping up with me. It’s about me keeping up with them. Many of m...

I got back home from the BMAA meeting yesterday at about 9:30 PM. To say the meeting was great doesn't give it justice. If you would like to read my thoughts about the meeting, I have posted them at http://www.fortworthbaptistchurch.org/Articles/Article.asp?ID=318 .

I don’t know if anyone has done a study of how long a blog post should be, but for me, 250 words is a good number to remember and no more than 500. At some point I signed up for the RSS feed for Randy Alcorn’s blog. He often has these 700 word monstrocities. I don’t even bother to scan his text as I scoll through it. I aught to dump the RSS feed, but I keep thinking he’ll say something that interests me. When people talk about this subject, they often say things like, people don’t have the attention span they once had . I don’t believe the evidence bears out that assumption. There are gamers who will spend days, nearly uninterupted, trying to complete all levels of a computer game. Huge attention span! I mean huge! More than once, I have read through more than 100 pages of an online PDF document because I believed it would help me with my job. The problem isn’t that people have shorter attention spans. The problem content and format . Creating...

I 'm still out of pocket and I'm continuing this week's series on blogging. One of the things Michael Hyatt said in his presentation is that openness and transparency builds trust. I want to take that in a different direction than he did. A few weeks ago, I read a blog, made a few comments about some things I didn’t think the blogger had considered when she crafted her blog and moved on. I meant no harm by the words, but the blogger didn’t see it that way and became upset. I hoped to smooth the ruffled feathers, but I didn’t want to add insult to injury by posting another comment to the blog post. I checked her profile. I checked her web site. I couldn’t find a way to contact her anywhere. Many people on the web are afraid of letting people know enough about them to even send an e-mail message saying, “sorry about the misunderstanding.” In the comments of many blogs we see Anonymous comments and profile photos of dogs, inanimate objects and children. ...

A ctually, she didn’t, but that’s beside the point. And actually, I’m spending some time with my parents this week, along with attending an associational meeting in Missouri. One of the things we hope to do is engage the readers of our blog. Some blogs do this better than others. Rachelle Gardner has done well at engaging her readers with her blog, but the idea behind the title comes from a thought I had while watching a video of Michael Hyatt talking about blogging. Don’t get me wrong, Mike is an interesting speaker, but as I watched I kept taking notes because I knew I wouldn’t remember what he said. When he got to the part about engaging readers I thought about the differences between the lecture he was giving and how I teach a Sunday school class. Mike is a better speaker than I will ever be, but I can’t help but wonder how many people walked out of that room and all they remembered was that Mike sent his Google password over Twitter. The problem...

A s you read this, I am in Branson, Missouri, catching up with some hold friends, making new friends and listening to reports of what God has been doing in the BMAA. Surrounding me are hundreds of preachers and church staff workers along with their wives. I also have some work to do while I’m here. But while I’m off enjoying myself, allow me to share my thoughts on attracting people to a blog. One of the reasons authors blog is to connect with readers and even attract more readers. When I began to blog, I had high hopes that I could write posts that would attract people who would enjoy reading my novels. I’ve seen novelist who have significant interaction with their readers, but in almost every case, the readers built the blog rather than the blog attracting the readers. I would love to spend more time telling people when my next book is coming out. Discussing the how closely  For the Love of a Devil  is based the book of Hosea or where my next book sign...

B arring any unexpected events, I’m either on my way or packing to go to the Annual Meeting of the Baptist Missionary Association of America in Branson, Missouri. I’ll have my laptop with me this year, but the meeting schedule will prevent me from spending much time online. For that reason, I am writing this post in advance. I know it’s the practice of some to repost blogs when they are away. That’s fine for them, but I don’t care for it. If people want to find read what I’ve previously written, they’ll use Google. A few years ago, I was traveling with my pastor and his wife. He turned to me from where he sat in the passenger’s seat and said, “I have my sermon prepared for next Sunday. I sometimes prepare weeks in advance. Some preachers don’t like doing that because they want to preach what the Lord lays on their heart for that week. I believe the Lord can lay a sermon on a preacher’s heart weeks in advance just as easily as he can the day before.” On other occasions, he has mentioned...

Excellent! Andy Stanley’s The Principle of the Path is about how the choices we make and our actions, not our intentions, determine where we end. We are all on a path, he says, even if we have chosen an unconventional path. The path we are on will determine where we will end up. For us to reach the best destinations, we must choose the best paths. Andy Stanley has much to say about how to do that. Prior to this, my experience with Andy Stanley was a tape of one of his sermons that I listened to one morning on the hour long trip from home to college. That was several years ago. O, I did meet one of his church members while I was in Alpharetta last year. What I remember from his sermon was his entertaining style, so when I saw that Thomas Nelson was offering his book through their review program, I was certain it would be good. I was not disappointed. Andy Stanley mixes an entertaining writing style with substance. The Principle of the Path is a book that all of us can use. At times, And...

Y esterday, I picked on some book product descriptions , pointing out some problems with them. Today, I want to discuss some ways to improve book descriptions. Who knows, maybe I’ll learn something. Lead with the Best Parts Peruse a few websites that list books and you’ll see product descriptions that have been chopped off with the words “read more” at the end. Imagine visiting such a site and the only words you see for one book are “From the author of the Sacramental Sunset Series comes the… read more .” For another book you see, “A mysterious stranger comes to a pastor’s aid, only to… read more .” On which description are you more likely to click? We have no control over how much of a description a customer reads, but they all read the first words. Describe it as a Reader Would We put a lot of stuff in our books that means a lot to us as writers, but the readers see it as just part of the story, not what the book is about. I hinted at this yesterday when I cut away so much of the d...

Yesterday, Michael Hyatt blogged about The Bestselling Christian Books of 2008 . It sort of relates to what I’ve been talking about this week, so I thought I’d go ahead and mention a couple of thoughts I had when I saw his list, as sort of a bonus post. The Disconnect Between Christian Fiction and Non-fiction In looking at the list, 15 Christian non-fiction books made the list and 1 novel. If you factor in the paperbacks, you can count four more novels. A 5:15 ratio is still a dismal showing for Christian fiction. There are many possible reasons for this, but one thing that I noticed is that the doomsday stuff is missing, with on exception. The books on the non-fiction list appear to be uplifting, as do the five successes in the novels. Now, scan the list of books from yesterday. Many of those books aren’t uplifting at all. Many of them are down right depressing—at least they are when you read the product descriptions. Is there a link? Non-Fiction is Easier to Sell Non-fiction is easie...

Product descriptions are a problem for books. As I was working on yesterday’s post, I noticed that many of the product descriptions that the publishers are putting out there aren’t very helpful. With some of them, it took me over a minute to figure out what the book was about. Considering that customers spend about eight seconds looking at the product description, that is a problem. I know I struggle with writing product descriptions, so I thought it might be good to consider how we might improve some of the product descriptions out there. Rather than pick on an author because of a horrendous product description, I have selected the books with the best premise from each of the three publishers I picked on yesterday. One week from tomorrow, at precisely 6:11 in the morning, the rapture or apocalypse or Armageddon or whatever else it is you’d prefer to call it , is going to occur. But only in Goodland, Kansas. The Hendersons are caught in the middle as the town—and the family—divides bet...

Please bear with me, this is a lengthy post, but I hope you will find it helpful. We talk about the plot and characters and all of that, but the publishing industry runs on the idea for the book, more than anything else, as I hope to show with this post. Below you will find short descriptions of various Christian novels that have either been recently released or have yet to be released. In a highly subjective decision process, I have ordered them with the best at the bottom and (shall we say) the others at the top. For all but the first, I summarized the product description, but the first one reads so much like a soap opera that I wasn’t confident that I could accurately glean the central theme from the product description and I copied what the publisher has provided. I wasn’t selective in choosing the books, but gathered them from lists, making this list representative of everything Thomas Nelson, Zondervan and Bethany house are publishing in the way of Fiction. Some of the...

Is my writing good enough? It’s a question that aspiring authors ask often. I saw it yesterday in the comments to Rachelle Gardner’s post, Don’t Take it Personally , but I’ve seen it other places as well. What unpublished authors would like is for someone to look at their work and say either, “You’ll be published some day,” or “You’re wasting your time.” Personally, I think it’s the wrong attitude. There isn’t a person out there who can do more than make an educated guess as to the eventual success of an author. Consider that Mark Twain strongly criticized James Fenimore Cooper’s writing skill while others praised him. I look at some of the work that well known authors are producing. If an aspiring author handed me the same work and asked what I thought, I would say, “It isn’t good enough.” But apparently it is or they wouldn’t be selling books. We all have different tastes and that probably has more impact on the success of a book than writing skill ever will. Me, I don’t care for ro...

Writers talk much about platform and many have learned to hate the word, but only the people who don’t have one. They look at platform as the most difficult thing in writing. Oddly enough, there are certain groups of people who have an instant platform. I’ll pick on Rachelle Gardner. When did she join Wordserve Literary? Late 2007, I think? How many people are listed as followers of her blog now? While you go check, let me point out that Rachelle has several years experience in the publishing industry and I don’t want to take away from that by mentioning her, but the fast popularity growth of her blog is largely due to instant platform in the publishing industry. Professionals with the same experience level in other fields will not see their blogs grow at the same rate. But new literary agents and publishers can put out a sign on a blog saying, “I’m an agent” or “I’m a publisher” and aspiring authors will flock to them. It helps if they have something useful to say, but it isn’t a r...

I created a living document of Publishing Industry Jargon . It was too long to post here, so I posted it on my website. If you notice anything you think should be there that isn't, feel free to let me know.

It’s the Friday before Easter. Imagine how it must have been for the disciples that first “Easter.” It’s been a bad week. Only days earlier, Jesus rode into Jerusalem like the triumphant king, albeit on a donkey, but it was prophesied, wasn’t it? But, then comes the betrayal, by one of their own, the church treasurer, a man they trusted. Then a trial, that wasn’t much of a trial at all. “Crucify him!” the crowd yelled. And yesterday, that’s exactly what they did—quickly, so his death won’t linger into the Passover. May have been thinking, as did others, he could save others, why couldn’t he save himself? But he didn’t. The sun rose this morning and brought with it that awful feeling. Jesus is dead, buried in a tomb guarded by solders. The disciples have scattered, but they’re coming back together, slowly. They don’t know what’s going to happen now. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. They are so deep in their own sorrow that they aren’t listening to the people on the street as they make...

It’s Friday and I’m going to take this opportunity, as many bloggers do, to rant. Though, to be honest, I tend to do that a lot anyway. I really dislike the covers on Christian books right now. At the Christian Book Expo (CBE), most of the publishers had their books lying on tables or stacked on the floor in such a way that potential customers could see the front covers. I walked through all the displays to see what they had made available. All of it was somewhat like this, but I remember one table in particular, a sea of pink , where I moved on quickly with the thought, someone’s going to think I’m interested in these . Yeah, I know it’s a guy thing and the covers weren’t so much pink as they were pastel, but I felt very out of place. It isn’t just the sea of pink . Many of the covers look like someone just went out and snapped a photo of some people to plaster on the cover. Enough about covers, what about content? When’s the last time you saw a Christian how to book? I don’t necessar...

Novels are like a piece of music. I’ve noticed that when I think about a novel and when I think about a piece of music I think about them the same way. A few days ago, I wrote about the Moment of Hope . I’ve noticed that when a soloist sings an arrangement that builds and builds and builds, followed by a resolution, the audience always claps, right there in the middle of the song. It’s just like the Moment of Hope , but the similarities don’t end there. Music builds to a crescendo like a novel builds to a climax. Music speeds up and slows down, as does the pace of a novel. Music may have many instruments or only a few, just as a novel may have a lot going on or very little. Music may be calm and peaceful or loud and violent. A novel may be like relaxing in a hammock on a summer day or like battling a stormy sea in the middle of winter. And as with music, we may move from one to the other and back again. Some novels are serene from start to finish. They’ll fluctuate some, but like simil...

Most writers are looking for someone to give them permission to write. Many go looking for a call from God or approval from an agent or recognition from a publisher. What writers are looking for is someone to say, “You’re good enough to be an author. Be fruitful and publish.” Publishers are looking for something else, a little thing called platform . If we consider that, publishers aren’t in the business of giving people permission to write. Publishers are looking for those people who come to them saying, “I’d don’t need your approval. I’m going to be out here doing my thing and getting my message out. If you want part of the action, come on. If not, that’s your loss.” The only successful writers are those who take the bull by the horns and do it, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pay attention to other people. My family and friends have been more enthusiastic about my writing than I have been. They think my books are better than I think they are. That’s the way it’s supposed to be, i...

Rachelle Gardner says that book ideas are a dime a dozen and that where most book proposals fall apart is in execution. If I were a literary agent, as she is, and I had thousands of queries in my inbox each month, I would probably agree. I’m not. I’m a writer and my perspective is different. Book ideas may be a dime a dozen, but good book ideas are priceless. The way I see it, if I write a book with a good premise, but poor execution, I can fix it. It may be hard work, but I can fix it. If I write a book with a poor premise and great execution, there’s no one who can fix it. From an agent’s/publisher’s perspective, there’s an over abundance of ideas. From a writer’s perspective, good ideas are few and far between. One aspiring writer commented the other day that the hardest thing for her is knowing what to write. She continued along the lines of “tell me what you want me to write and I’ll write it.” I’m sure she would gladly give someone a dime for a dozen ideas, but writers keep their...

Sex is out. At least it is in the movie industry. Films with sex aren’t doing so great right now. One of the theories on that is that economic recession causes people to stay away from excess of all kinds. Historically, there is some truth to that. There is also some biblical truth to that, since God sends hardships when he calls for people to repent. But what does this mean for Christian books? My prediction is that it means edgy is out. Okay, so edgy has been out already, but if you’re trying to push edgy Christian fiction, your life just got harder. During an economic downturn, publishers are less likely to take big risks and even if they did, readers aren’t interested. I think the trend will move away from the feel good religionists and back in the direction of “thus saith the Lord.” When people are hurting, they don’t want to hear what people imagine must be true about God. They have a hard time believing that God will solve all their problems if they’ll just send some preacher mo...

Yesterday, I wrote about the Moment of Hope . That’s my name for it and you won’t find it in a text book—that I know of. The Moment of Hope is that moment in a novel when we get a surge of hope that the protagonist will succeed. It’s like when you’re watching a young child reaching for a cookie. It’s just out of his reach. If his arms were only a centimeter longer it would be his, but then you see his mother come into the room and you know she’s going to tell him he’ll spoil his dinner. She lifts up the plate and moves it closer to him. Not ever novel has a Moment of Hope and not every novel needs one. The Moment of Hope is like a pressure release valve. We’ve strung the tension pretty tight and we’re still cranking on the strings. The reader is flipping pages like crazy, wanting to find out what happens next, but he can’t catch his breath. Page after page we build and build and keep building. Then comes the Moment of Hope , giving our reader something to get excited about. The Mome...

There are seven key emotional moments in a novel, the beginning , stasis equals death , the inciting incident , the mid-point , all is lost , the climax and the end . Of the seven, the climax is my favorite. In my own writing, I’ve noticed what I will call the moment of hope . It is the emotional climax of the novel and may occur on one side or the other of the true climax. It may occur in the A plot, but it usually occurs in the B plot. It is that moment in which the reader realizes that this thing’s going to work, whatever it is. In How to Become a Bible Character , our protagonist is in the hospital, not expected to live after taking a beating from his best friend’s father. The senior pastor’s wife is on her deathbed. Our first person narrator has called for a prayer meeting and expects just the faithful Wednesday night crowd to show up. When he and his family arrive at church, the building is filled with people, a testament to the influence our protagonist has had on the people a...

In fiction, nobody is really clear whether author marketing efforts translate to significantly greater sales or not. The prevailing wisdom is that it certainly doesn’t hurt. – Rachelle Gardner Fiction and non-fiction are two different beasts. Non-fiction is ridiculously easy to sell, compared to fiction. For one thing, you can sell it using the title alone. If I were to post a page on my website promoting the book How to Sell Novels in Twelve Easy Steps , someone would buy the book. I don’t have a twelve step program for you, but I’m confident that some of the people reading this post got here because of a search engine hit on that title. Another thing about non-fiction is that we know where to find our audience and they tend to be in clusters. If you look at the quote above, it seems like publishers are saying, “we don’t have a good way to sell fiction, but we might as well throw the author and the kitchen sink at the problem.” Even with some of the best selling books, only a small pe...