Who are THEY???

Well, I know I'm in the right place.

When I posted last week two of you also admitted to phone fear and other such things. Looks like I'm with the right group of writers.

Okay, first I'll give you a bit of my philosophy on writing and then, as promised, I'll share a bit about me.

For those of you who have read my daily blog since the beginning of the year you know that my husband is a two year Cancer survivor. During his treatment there was every indication that he would never be able to return to his full-time job as a paramedic. So the two of us began reading every book we could get our hands on about business, marketing and leadership.

Just before this time God had told me to put my writing aside. Which I did. However, during the course of Chris' treatment God gave me my stories back. People were chatting away in my mind. I was super excited and wrote my second novel in under six weeks [I wasn't even writing every day!] then about two months later I began work on my third. I went to ACFW's 2006 writer's conference and suddenly the business aspect of writing burst in my mind.

SO.....

All of that to say that I firmly believe that many writers feel that they are in some way "Selling Out" if they try to appeal to the market. They also believe if they write God will suddenly FLOOD their wallets with money and their book will zoom to the top of the best seller list

OR

They say "I don't want to ever make a penny on this book. I just want to bless others."

I agree with NONE OF THE ABOVE

I believe in stewardship. God has blessed me with four wonderful girls. I would never dream of spending the day in my bedroom saying "God, make them wise." and then never teach them anything! Nor would I combine the ingredients for dinner, stick them in a cold over and bed God "Lord, cook that food."

That seems silly here but, in fact, many writers do that when they say "God, help me to write a great book!" then they never learn craft. Or they Get a book deal, write it, watch it get set on the shelf and say "Lord, sell my book for me!!"

If we truly believe our stories are gifts from God, something He's entrusted to us, we have a RESPONSIBILITY to distribute the story He put in our heart. There are so many books that have changed my life that I wouldn't have EVER noticed if someone hadn't pointed them out to me.

Over the next few weeks and months we will look at how exactly you do this. And it TRULY begins before you're published....even before you have your first book contract. It starts when you finish that story and you say:

"Who would be blessed by this story! What do THEY like to do? Where are THEY? How can I find THEM?"

Think about that and we'll talk more next week.

Now quickly, a bit about myself.

I write for the Toledo Business Journal as well as the ACFW Afictionado E-Zine. I've written stories for Charisma and Today's Christian as well as doing regular assignments for two years for the Christian Reporter.

In full length Fiction, I was a finalist in Operation First Novel in 2004 and I won the Daphne du Maurier award in unpubbed Inspirational in 2007. I've written 4 full length manuscripts and I'm working on revisions for one now in addition to working on two non-Fiction collaborations.

I'm a home school mom, part-time ACT/SAT tutor and I run the Writing Career Coach website where I mentor aspiring writers. That is TRULY my passion. I have a daily blog at that same website and I love it. Helping other writers build is very exciting.

Well, if you've stuck with me this long, what kinds of things would you like to know about. I'll be happy to answer specific questions as they come in!!

Your Coach for the Journey, Tiffany Colter