A Call to Write

I was a young mother – in my 30’s – of five children. I was active and  involved in church with a life filled with crises. My marriage had hit bottom, my oldest child – a fifteen-year-old daughter – was pregnant, there was never enough money to meet our needs. The list could go on, but you get the idea. 


Leola Ogle
CWOW Secretary

I loved Jesus. When plagued with despair and depression, my faith in God was never shaken. I remember standing in the church kitchen on a Sunday after our ladies had served food, set up and took down the fellowship hall. As president over our women’s group, I had been busy. In a quiet lull, my shoulders slumped with the enormity of the problems I was facing. 

One of the church ladies walked into the kitchen. I pasted a smile on my face and engaged in small talk. Few people knew everything, but most knew some  of my struggles. Mary gazed at me with compassion. “You are such an inspiration, Leola. No matter what you’re going through, you never miss church. You stay strong in your faith.”

I thanked her. She left the room. I gritted my teeth, fought back tears, and mumbled, “I don’t want to be an inspiration anymore, God. I just want the pain to go away. I want to not hurt anymore. I want my life to be okay. Why? Why is all this happening to me?”

There have been a few times in my life when the spirit of God has spoken clearly to my spirit. He did then. He simply said, “Because of what I’ve called you to do.”

For years, I thought God was referring to this thing or that thing. I’ve always been involved in ministry in the church. Years after God spoke that to me, I worked nineteen years in the ministry of Teen Challenge. Maybe that’s what God meant.

Do you feel called by God to be a writer? It was a dream rebirthed in me before I retired from Teen Challenge. I can truthfully say it’s what God has called me to do at this stage of my life. So why hasn’t my writing journey been what I anticipated it would be? Especially since God reminded me, “Because of what I’ve called you to do.” I know now that all those experiences have set the groundwork for my writing. 

The voice of our writing is usually an extension of our life experiences. I write/want to write about real life issues Christians face. As my own experiences weave in and out of what I write, I understand that although God isn’t responsible for the things that ripped my heart out, He has used it to bring depth to my writing that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. 

I’m truly convince God has called me to write. So why do I have so many days where I just flat out don’t want to write? Days I ask myself what’s the use? Who’s going to read my stories/books? 

You know what? The enemy of my soul tells me those things. I’m responsible to write. God gets it to whoever it’s meant for. 

God, I pray for those who are struggling right now. Whether it’s in their personal life or in their writing journey. Remind us of Your faithfulness. Remind us that what You have birthed in us will accomplish Your purpose if we stay true to the calling. Your love, Your mercy and grace are sufficient. You reign over our lives in splendor and majesty. Thank you, father God. 
     
                                                 - Leola Ogle

 

A reflection . . . by Dee Kincade

Dee Kincade
CWOW VP

Last Saturday, January 30, Karen Ball, from Steve Laube Agency, spoke at CWOW Mini-Conference. First, I must say I was impressed by how down-to-earth Karen was, then by her knowledge, energy, and her humor. But, more importantly, her love for the Lord.

 

At the conference, Karen shared information about POV characters and show not tell. We also completed a character building chart to help us “get to know” about our characters better. As authors, we need to know every aspect so our characters will act and respond true to who we made them be. 

 

In my opinion, Karen saved the best information for the end of the day.

 

I’m sure that I’m not the only one who has been disappointed at some point in our writing career. Many have received negative comments from a reader or an editor, or maybe no response from a publisher, it might be a lot fewer sales than you hoped or possibly unfavorable responses from beta readers or critique groups. It is, sadly, part of being a writer. 

 

I’ve read articles suggesting writers to toughen up. Some advise us to ignore uncomplimentary comments from readers; others tell us not to read reviews. But, how do we get our hopes up when we are already in that place? 

 

At the conference, Karen reminded us that we are NOT writing for ourselves, our agent, publisher, or even our readers. We are writing because God wants us to write. He has given each of us something to share with others. 

 

I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that I needed to hear that. God places people, websites, and articles in our lives to help us navigate through those things that drag us down. However, ultimately, and hopefully first, we turn to God for help. When we are right with Him, He will lead us down the right path of “our writing career.”

Happy writing!

               Dee Kincade

P.S. Go to www.writefromthedeep.com

 

 

Bringing in the New Year with Brenda



Brenda Poulos
CWOW President

Well, here it is. The start of a brand new year. It’s hard for me to believe I have held the office of President for twelve months, already!

As my mother always says, “Time flies when you’re having fun.” Truth is, it has been a lot of fun. The CWOW members are a great group of people.

I have enjoyed meeting and getting to know a lot of them. I have learned a lot about writing this past year.  If you’ve been coming to our meetings, I know you have, too.

Due to the illness of our keynote speaker, Karen Ball, we cancelled our January 2015 mini-conference at the last minute. However, we heard from some interesting speakers throughout the year, as well as hosted five workshops at the Tempe library.

Five of us flew to Dallas in September for the ACFW Conference. We had a great time at the workshops, learning from “big name” authors and agents. We were able to put names with faces as we had ample opportunities to network. I came home with a suitcase full of book giveaways. Great stuff.

We have asked Karen Ball to come back on January 30^th to speak at our 2016 mini-conference. We look forward to hearing the presentation that she had planned to give last year: “Taming the Fiction Dragons” and “Know Your Characters.” You won’t want to miss it. (Click HERE to go to the CWOW web page for conference information and RSVP.)

We are planning to keep our same schedule of events for 2016. This means you can count on lunch meetings and guest speakers in odd-numbered months; workshops in even-numbered months. Meetings are always on the last Saturday of the month.

Our workshops will continue to be held at the Tempe Library from 1-3 p.m. Since Coco’s closed, we have tried having our luncheon meetings at various places, so please check the website or email me at mtnst14@gmail.com to find out where we will be in March. (If you are a member, you will get a personal email each month with this information).

We welcome your feedback and your suggestions for workshops. Let us hear from you!  We are committed to the growth and future success of every CWOW member!

If you are serious about your craft, make it your New Year’s Resolution to be at all of the meetings. It is essential that we continue to hone our skills. What better way to do that than among dedicated and knowledgeable fellow writers at CWOW?

Blessings for 2016,

Brenda Poulos, CWOW President 2016

Check out more on Brenda including her books and blog at www.brendapoulos.org

Crowd Funding for Indie Authors

                                                                         By Rebecca Bruner

Independently published authors face two major hurdles to success: financing and book promotion. Professional quality publishing packages for print books can cost thousands of dollars, and without a marketing plan, your book is still likely to become just another title floating through cyberspace on the endless tides of Amazon.com. Crowd funding provides authors with the means to both raise capital to underwrite the costs of publishing, and at the same time, build an audience by raising awareness for their book projects.

What is Crowd Funding?

Crowd funding is a way for groups of people to sponsor projects and products that they feel strongly about. In exchange for their pledges of financial support, crowd funding investors are offered “Perks.” A perk is any product, service, or benefit that the supporter will receive in exchange for the money they pledge.

If you stop to think about it, non-profit organizations, including local churches, have always been subsidized by the donations of people who feel strongly about their mission. The same basic principle operates in crowd funding, except that the donors receive tangible perks in exchange for the money they invest in a project.

Kickstarter and Indigogo

Two of the most widely known crowd funding platforms are Kickstarter (www.kickstarter.com) and Indiegogo (www.indigogo.com). These platforms have slightly different emphases. Kickstarter focuses on raising money for creative projects. Indiegogo has a broader focus and is therefore less exclusive about what kinds of projects they will take on.

If you are a fiction writer, and you have no plans to crowd fund anything other than fiction, Kickstarter may be right for you. If you plan on crowd funding any non-fiction projects, Indiegogo may be the better choice.

With both Kickstarter and Indiegogo, setting up a campaign is free. However, these sites obviously have to make money to stay in business. They do that by taking a percentage of the money raised through the crowd funding campaigns hosted on their websites (this can be anywhere from 4-10%). It costs nothing to set up a campaign, but once the money comes in, the host site will collect their share of the donations. Learn more about the specific costs associated with Kickstarter and Indiegogo by visiting their websites.

Fixed Funding vs. Flexible Funding

Another significant difference between these two major crowd funding platforms is that Kickstarter only allows for fixed funding campaigns, while Indiegogo also allows for flexible funding campaigns. A fixed funding campaign is an all or nothing proposition. Your supporters pledge money toward your project, but if you do not meet your goal, you don’t receive any of that money. Your supporters pay nothing, and you get nothing. End of story.

With a flexible funding campaign, you receive all the money pledged toward your project, whether or not you meet your funding goal. However, for campaigns that fall short of their funding targets, Indigogo charges higher fees.

The main advantage of a fixed funding campaign is the motivation it gives your supporters. If they want your book and they understand that it won’t be published unless you get enough pledges to reach your goal, they will feel a greater sense of urgency about getting their friends to support the project too. This may be a little easier if you are writing non-fiction, because people may be quite passionate about your topic, even if they have not yet read your book. It’s somewhat more difficult to inspire the same kind of passion in fans who haven’t yet read your fiction.

Resources for Learning More

I learned about crowd funding for authors when I attended an evening session presented by Thomas Umstadt Jr. from Author Media at the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference last spring. He explained the basics of how to use crowd funding platforms like Kickstarter or Indiegogo to finance independent publishing projects.

Since then, Author Media has produced “The Ultimate Crowd Funding Course for Authors” http://www.authormedia.com/products/ultimate-crowdfunding-course-authors/. In this course, Thomas Umstadt Jr. and author Mary Demuth discuss all the phases of a crowd funding campaign, drawing heavily on the lessons they learned through Mary’s highly successful campaign for her book, Not Marked: Finding Hope and Healing after Sexual Abuse. Mary raised about 250% of her original $10,000 goal and pre-sold approximately seven hundred copies of her book in the course of her crowd funding campaign. I highly recommend this very helpful and comprehensive resource. After listening to it, I felt very well prepared to design a crowd funding campaign of my own.

My Own Experience

Right now, I am working to set up a crowd funding campaign for Welcome, Earthborn Brother, my science fiction novel for young readers. I’m planning to launch this campaign on Indiegogo by the end of March. I made the decision to do this for two principle reasons:

      1.  To raise money— Writing is my day job. Publishing independently puts all the costs of book production on the author’s shoulders. I simply don’t have the money for all those essential up-front expenses, like professional editing, layout, and cover design. I can’t afford to spend so much getting Welcome, Earthborn Brother published that I have to sell thousands of copies just to recoup my initial investment.

      2.  To promote my book—I see crowd funding as a great marketing tool. Unlike independent film makers or visual artists, authors have it pretty easy when it comes to figuring out what perks to offer our supporters. We can offer them copies of our books! In exchange for different donation levels, I plan to offer copies of my ebook, my print book, and autographed copies of my book. Because nearly everyone who invests in the crowd funding campaign will receive the novel in exchange for their support, I will be enlarging my reader base automatically. I’m hoping people will get so excited about Welcome, Earthborn Brother that they will spread the word to their own friends and social networks, encouraging them to invest in this campaign, too. I think it’s a fantastic promotional strategy.

Why Indiegogo?

I decided to use Indiegogo for two main reasons:

      1.  The first reason is that I also write non-fiction. If I should decide down the road to crowd fund a non-fiction book, I know that Kickstarter is not open to projects of that kind. In some ways, this campaign will be an opportunity for me to learn the ropes of crowd funding through Indiegogo so that if I need to create a bigger campaign in the future, I will understand how it all works.

       2.  The second reason is that Indiegogo allows for both fixed funding and flexible funding campaigns. Since this will be my first experience with crowd funding a book, I’m not completely certain what to expect. That’s why I wanted the option of creating a flexible funding campaign.

 I’m quite excited to see how all of this will work out. I’m planning to run this campaign throughout April, 2015. If you are interested in following the progress of this venture as it unfolds, please check out my blog at www.rebeccabrunerauthor.com.