Before the WordSowers 2014 conference in March, we posted an interview with Lee Warren, our workshop presenter for this Thursday, April 10. Take time to read the first interview and you’ll know Lee even better.Lionhearted Kat: In the last interview you said by attending the HACWN conferences in KC you “…ended up building a relationship with an editor I met at one of those quarterly conferences and I still write for him to this day, even though he has changed publications.” We have many authors writing books. Do you recommend beginning with writing articles, a book, or building relationships?
Lee: Every writer’s journey is different, but I don’t think these three options are necessarily mutually exclusive. At the very least, writers need to be involved in building relationships while also working on articles or a book.
I started by writing articles. I landed an on online singles column with Christianity Today long before most people were online. But not much grew out of that experience because I wasn’t building relationships with other editors. I don’t even know I was supposed to, but when I received a flyer for the HACWN conference, it sparked an interest in me to know more about the publishing industry, so I attended it.
At that conference, I met the editor for Decision Magazine (published by Billy Graham’s ministry) and began to build a working relationship with him. Two years later, he published my first article.
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| Meeting with editors and publishers at a writers conference–photo by Kat |
Later that same month, I met the editor of Sharing the VICTORY Magazine (published by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes) at an HACWN quarterly conference. He’s the editor you mentioned in your question. After writing eight or nine articles for him there, he went to another publication and when he needed freelancers, he asked me to join his stable. I’ve probably written forty or fifty articles for that publication, and I continue to write for it.
Writing articles helped to build my creditability, both as a sportswriter and a journalist. As I met more editors at conferences and mentioned my article writing experience, they were open to talking to me about book ideas. My NASCAR book, Racin’ Flat Out for Christ stemmed from one such conversation with an editor.
In my case, books flowed out of articles and relationship building.
Lee Warren has more to share–on the interview page (for the rest of the story.)
Lionhearted Kat: The April workshop info is found below. See you Thursday.
April 10, 2014—Lee Warren presents: Navigating the Self-Publishing Maze
Two major shifts are occurring in the publishing world right now. Large traditional publishers are narrowing their pool of authors in favor of authors with large platforms. And at the same time, the price to self-publish is dropping dramatically as many options abound. In this informal workshop we will talk about the self-publishing process, whether or not you need to hire an editor or cover designer, and we’ll examine a number of low cost (or even free) self-publishing options.
Two major shifts are occurring in the publishing world right now. Large traditional publishers are narrowing their pool of authors in favor of authors with large platforms. And at the same time, the price to self-publish is dropping dramatically as many options abound. In this informal workshop we will talk about the self-publishing process, whether or not you need to hire an editor or cover designer, and we’ll examine a number of low cost (or even free) self-publishing options.
Lee Warren is a founding member of WordSowers. He has written six books and hundreds of articles for various magazines, newspapers, and websites. He critiques manuscripts for The Christian Communicator Service, on-staff with CLASSeminars and owns Christian Manuscript Editing Services. Follow Lee
