Selected Articles from Cross & Quill

Jan White's articles have appeared in Charisma Magazine, Focus on the Family, CBA Marketplace, and the Pentecostal Evangel, as well as devotionals in Devo'Zine, Take Five and God's Word for Today. She received First Place in the 2007 Amy Writing Awards and has recently completed their Centurion program. She has served as our MarketLines Editor for seven years and has worked for three newspapers writing news and feature articles and has written a weekly religion column for her local paper for 10 years.

Jan has also worked as a ghostwriter on the publication staff of a major television ministry and has co-authored two books. She and her husband, Greg, have one daughter, Kelley, who received a Masters Degree in counseling this spring. This column opening was taken from the January/February 2009 Cross & Quill. Her email address is jwhite@alaweb.com.

MarketLines

Jan White, Andalusia, Alabama

As the New Year begins, it’s an ideal time to set writing goals for 2009 and to determine ways to achieve them.

Mark on a calendar personal deadlines for submitting a certain number of queries or manuscripts, perhaps monthly or quarterly. Use those deadlines as a challenge to write more than ever before.

Invest in a 2009 Christian Writers’ Market Guide or Writer’s Digest Market Guide. Renew your subscription to Cross & Quill and CWFI. These tools provide a wealth of resources for getting published.

Attend a Christian writers conference, especially if you’ve never been before. The educational benefits of the classes and editorial contacts far outweigh the cost of attending.

Network with other writers at the conference. The camaraderie results in lasting friendships. Meet editors and publishers face-to-face in their seminars and bring manuscripts for them to critique during one-on-one appointments.

Enter a writing contest. Research the criteria for a contest in your genre and/or age group, such as teen fiction or senior adult. Send a submission to an anthology. It’s a great way to break into print. For example, go to http://www.chickensoup.com/form.asp?cid=possible_books, where you will find information on submitting to upcoming books. Chicken Soup for the Soul is always looking for stories. Here are a just a few of their working topics listed on their Web site:

Results Stories
Have you read a particular Chicken Soup story and, after reading it, found that it changed your life? We are looking for stories on how a story made important changes in your life and what specifically happened to you after you read it. Please be sure to let us know the title of the story that touched your life.

A Book of Miracles
Everyone has experienced extraordinary events in their lives that cause wonder and astonishment. Perhaps the only explanation is divine intervention. The true stories in this multi-faith book will awe you with examples of amazing coincidences and prove to you that miracles do happen every day. The deadline date for story submissions is June 30, 2009.

Thanks Dad
We are looking for stories of thanks from “children” of all ages about their dads. These stories of innumerable joys and challenges will touch your heart, make you laugh, inspire you and remind you that it doesn’t matter how old you are, the job of a parent never ends. The deadline date for story submissions is June 30, 2009.

Join a critique group or begin one of your own in your area, possibly in your church or nearby library. Reunite a former group. Critique group members can correspond via e-mail or on the Web by joining www.wikispaces.com. These groups help hone your writing skills, increasing the possibilities that your polished manuscripts will be published. “As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend” (Proverbs 27:17 NLT).

Keep submitting, despite rejection letters. Rewrite, if necessary, or change the slant and find another market. Resolve to make 2009 your most productive and published year!

Jan's opening article is followed in each issue with the latest and most useful news from the Christian marketplace.

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