Wednesday, September 10, 2008

CONTEST TIME!

Meet my friends, Christina Berry and Sherrie Ashcraft.

They are a mother-daughter writing team who put out an infrequent, humorous newsletter. Here's a taste of what you might get, should you choose to sign up: For the first time in the long, illustrious history of our careers we are going to committee!

Crash course in publication terminology for you normal, sane subscribers who haven't crossed over to the dark side of humanity by deciding to write a book. The process of publishing goes a little something like this:

~Write a stunning, brilliant book

~Discover you know nothing and revise for nearly a decade

~Land an agent who believes in your work and can magically penetrate the force field surrounding publishing houses OR attend conferences that temporarily allow you to stand in the blinding presence of editors from said publishing houses

~Pitch--as in try to sell your story, not throw an inside fastball--for one week to twenty years

~Get an editor interested in the book

~Be rejected

~Repeat the last two steps for an indefinite period of time

~Finally, have multiple editors from the same house express interest and tell you they're taking the project to committee

The committee consists of the editors, vice presidents of the company, the marketing department, and other publishing bigwigs. The committee meets and exists for the purpose of saying "no." The goal is to make it IMPOSSIBLE for them to reject the book.

And so we sit, on the cusp of having all our dreams come true, of total validation of our worth as people ... um, okay, that might be expecting a bit much from getting published. Anyway, the house that's interested in our joint book is meeting tomorrow (Wednesday, August 20). Please, please pray for the Lord's will to be done. (Your prayers will not earn you an extra entry in our contest, but we think some of you will pray for us anyway.)

Here's the funny part about this newsletter: they ended up not going to committee that day because the company's fiscal year starts in October, so the decision has been postponed until then! Guess they need to add another step to the process ...

To help them out, I'm running a contest. If you sign up using this link to the Ashberry Lane Newsletter and designate me as the one who referred you, you'll be entered into a drawing for a free book. The best part is we won't have only 1 winner, but 3.

October Song by Beverly Lewis

Land of My Heart (Heirs of Montana #1) by Tracie Peterson

The Coming Storm (Heirs of Montana #2) by Tracie Peterson

And that's just from me!

You'll also be entered to win an MP3 player or free autographed books for the life of their writing career, should it ever occur. The Christian Writer/Reader Connection contest will end on September 30, Christina's birthday. The Ashberry Lane giveaway will occur when they have 1,000 subscribers. Hey, they're already more than halfway there! The more people you have sign up, the more chances you have to win.

**This post written by Susan as told to Christina.

Christina Berry

www.ashberrylane.net www.authorchristinaberry.blogspot.com www.shoutlife.com/christinaberry

4 comments:

Christina Tarabochia said...

Thanks, Susan! This should be a great contest ... and you already have subscribers signing up. :-)

Susan J. Reinhardt said...

Hi Christina -

What fun working together on this contest! It's a win-win for everyone - newsletter subscribers for you, a chance to win great prizes for those who enter, and the pleasure of getting to know you for me.

Blessings,
Susan :)

Sarah said...

I just signed up and put you as the referral. I love contests!

I also checked out their site, and it was great! Thanks!

Susan J. Reinhardt said...

Hi Sarah -

Wonderful! Christina and her mom are such nice, talented folks. I know you'll enjoy their newsletter.

Who knows? When they hit 1,000 subscribers, you might even win their contest. :)

Blessings,
Susan