Want to Write/Publish Your First Novel?

Hopeful writers are always asking me how to go about writing their first-ever novel. The inevitable question that follows is - "How do I get it published?"

I have a very good author/friend named Julie Lessman who's devised an excellent list of suggestions that will put hopeful writers on the right path, so with her permission I post it below:

1.) Join ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers), FHL (Faith, Hope & Love, a chapter of Romance Writers of America) to get connected with other like-minded writers and to learn a lot about your craft.

2.) Take a fiction-writing class or attend a writing seminar or conference.

3.) Join a critique group (you can do that through ACFW).

4.) Purchase and study writing books such as Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King or Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maas, AND invest in a great thesaurus such as The Synonym Finder by Rodale Press (my writer’s bible!!).

5.) Enter contests for invaluable feedback, growth, confidence, networking opportunities and to get your name out there.

6.) Frequent websites/blogs that deal with writing, such as The Seekers, a group blog that I belong to whose theme is “On the road to publication. Writing, contests, publication and everything in between.”

7.) Go for an agent first, publisher second.

8.) Then pray your heart out and put it in God’s hands.

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Thank you, Julie Lessman! And one more thing, friends!!! Take a jaunt over to AMAZON(dot)COM or CHRISTIANBOOK(dot)COM and check out all her books. She is a FABULOUS, AWARD-WINNING author of several books, the latest of which is titled A Heart Revealed, second in her Winds of Change series. Here's the beautiful cover: