Writing Resources for Australasian Christian Writers (ACW):
Book Publishing
Book Marketing
- Writing Craft
- Omega Writers
One of the logistical challenges we’ve encountered in moving a five year old group blog to a new platform is how to connect the archived posts from the old site. We didn’t want to lose access to the wealth of writing resources in our blog archives.
Our Throwback Thursday series has started the process of updating older posts and transferring them to our new website. We want to create a place where writers can access the links to our new and archived writing resources.
Below is the starting point for our new list of Writing Resources. The resources fall into four categories: 1. Book Publishing, 2. Book Marketing, 3. Writing Craft and 4. Omega Writers. Australasian Christian Writers has partnership arrangements with Omega Writers and Christian Writers Downunder.
Book Publishing:
- Trade Publishing
- Small Presses
- Self-publishing (aka. indie publishing)
- Vanity publishing (not recommended)
Paths to Publishing: Trade Publishing by Iola Goulton
Trade publishing is the official term for what can also be called traditional publishing, trad publishing, or legacy publishing.
If you visit your local bookstore or library, most of the books you see on the shelves will have come through these big trade publishers, with names like HarperCollins, Penguin, Random House, or Simon & Schuster.
Most trade publishing houses have a range of imprints, each of which will target a different market. Learn more about trade publishing here.
Paths to Publishing: Small Presses by Iola Goulton
Small presses and micropresses follow the same business principles as the major traditional publishers. Small presses take on the full financial responsibility for publishing and distributing the book, although you’re less likely to see their books on the shelf at your local store, or in your library.
Few small presses pay advances, but all pay royalties. As with trade publishers, reputable small presses don’t charge you for publishing or require any compulsory book purchases (if they do, they’re a vanity press, which we’ll discuss in a later post).
Many small presses will accept direct submissions from authors. Learn more about small presses here.
Paths to Publishing: Self-Publishing by Iola Goulton
Self-publishing has soared in popularity since the release of the Amazon Kindle and competing ereaders. These, along with affordable print-on-demand (POD) services mean no author needs to get stuck with hundreds of copies of unsold paperbacks.
Self-publishing is also referred to as indie publishing, a reference to the indie film industry. As indie film-making is making and distributing a film independently of the major film studios, indie publishing is publishing and distributing a book independently of the trade publishers.
However, self-publishing is also somewhat of a misnomer, as it implies the writer is publishing alone.
This isn’t true: there are many tasks which have to be completed in order to publish a book, and the savvy self-publishing author knows they will need to outsource some of those tasks.
Learn more about self-publishing (aka. indie publishing) here.
Paths to Publishing: Vanity Publishing by Iola Goulton
Vanity Publishing is rarely a good option for the author. It goes against publishing’s most important maxim: Money flows from the publisher to the author.
If money is flowing from the author to the publisher, that’s commonly referred to as vanity publishing.
The most common vanity publishing business model is pay-to-publish—selling publishing packages to authors.
The key way to distinguish a genuine publisher from a vanity press is to consider how the publisher makes money.
- A trade publisher (large, small or micropress) or a self-published author make their money the same way: by selling books to readers.
- A vanity publisher makes money differently: by charging authors.
Learn more about the pitfalls of vanity publishing here.
Please note: Australasian Christian Writers does not promote vanity presses (or books published by vanity presses) on our blog or in our Facebook Group.
Book Marketing:
- 12 Steps to a Great Blog Post
- Do the Work (and Build Your Author Platform)
- Building an Author Platform to Share our Love of Books
12 Steps to a Great Blog Post by Iola Goulton
And if even the thought of establishing a blog or an author platform fills you with dread … I can help.
Follow Iola’s 12 Steps to learn how to write and publish great blog posts.
Do the Work (and Build Your Author Platform) by Iola Goulton
We need to turn faith into a verb—we need to be doing it, not just talking about it. But doing it isn’t always easy.
The chorus of a famous song by Queen: I want it all … and I want it now.
Many Christians have the Queen approach to life. We want it all. We want it now. We want the prize without fighting the good fight, without running the race.
But it’s not what the Bible says. The Bible talks about pushing on. Pressing in. Staying faithful. Pressing through when God seems to be silent. Carrying on when everything is against us.
Learn more about author platform here.
Building an Author Platform to Share our Love of Books by Iola Goulton
Sharing our love of books.
That’s the Australasian Christian Writers tagline. Our mission, if you prefer.
The contributors to Australasian Christian Writers are all Christians. Most of us live in Australia or New Zealand.
We’re all writers. Between us, we write fiction, non-fiction, book reviews, devotionals, articles, and blog posts. More important, we’re all readers.
Contributing to a blog like this is one way of connecting with current and potential readers. It’s part of our author platform. If you’re a writer looking to get published, that’s probably a term you’ve heard before. If you’re a fiction fan, it might be new to you.
Learn more about Building an Author Platform here.
Writing Craft:
Exploring Genre: Round Up by Jeanette O’Hagan
In 2019, we are continuing the tradition of a cross-post between Christian Writers Downunder (CWD) and Australasian Christian Writers (ACW), exploring genre.
You may wonder if, after two years, there are any more genres to explore. Well, yes, there are. In fact we haven’t come close to covering them all. But before we launch into some more examples, I will give a round up of the ground we have already covered. This post can be used as a quick reference and handy resource on different genres.
Learn more about genres here.
Omega Writers
1. Introducing the President of Omega Writers by Meredith Resce
Australasian Christian Writers, as part of our affiliation with Omega Writers as their partner Facebook group, has invited the leaders of Omega Writers to write a series on Omega Writers, who they are and how they operate. This month, President, Meredith Resce, is talking about her role in leadership with Omega Writers.
Omega Writers Australasia started out as a small gathering of like-minded Christian writers in Queensland over ten years ago. As this group grew, they planned a writers’ conference which developed over the years to become a national conference. The group went from a small casual support network to an incorporated body.
Now the management committee of Omega Writers has leaders from all states except Western Australia and Northern Territory. We even have a subcommittee leader based in New Zealand.
Learn more about Omega Writers here.
2. Introducing the CALEB Award by Iola Goulton
Last month, Meredith Resce introduced us to Omega Writers, and to her role as President. Today I’m here to share my role as the new coordinator of the CALEB Award, and to give you a little background to the award.
As many of you know, the CALEB is the brainchild of former Omega Writers President Anne Hamilton. She envisaged an annual writing award to support and inspire our Australasian Christian writers to excellence.
Appreciate you hard working ladies for keeping these great posts alive. Thank you!
Carolyn, you’re very welcome. 🙂