I recently attended the Christian Writer’s Conference in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, along with Christian Writers Downunder members. It was a great weekend, and it was great to meet so many people I “know” from Facebook, and to put full-sized faces (and bodies) to the Facebook thumbnails.
The best part about meeting face to face is the ability to
have longer conversations than are possible in a Facebook group or blog
comments, and to raise (and answer) questions. One of the questions I heard
several times was regarding the relationship between Christian Writers
Downunder and another Facebook group I’m a member of, Australasian Christian
Writers. What the similarities between the two groups, and what are the
differences?
Like Christian Writers Downunder, Australasian Christian
Writers have both a Facebook page and a blog.
Both groups target Christian writers from Australia and New Zealand, whether
they are writing for the general market or specifically for the Christian
market.
How is ACW Different?
But Australasian Christian Writers isn’t just a replica of
Christian Writer’s Downunder. We have more of an emphasis on Christian fiction
than CWD. It wasn’t necessarily planned that way, but most of our contributing
writers do write fiction (or a combination of fiction and non-fiction), and we
therefore attract Australasian and international Christian fiction readers—and
a growing number of international authors.
This emphasis means our blog posts tend to be aimed at
readers and writers of adult and young adult Christian fiction rather than
other forms of literature: non-fiction, poetry, screenwriting or books for
children.
The other main difference is that Australasian Christian
Writers post to our blog five days a week, with a theme for each day:
Monday: Writing craft
Our craft posts often run in series, and have included
contributions from Jeanette O’Hagen (preparing for and participating in
NaNoWriMo), Anne Hamilton (the opening hook) and myself (online book
reviewing).
Tuesday: New Releases, ARCBA blog tours, or guest posts
Our guest posts include regular contributions from SimonKennedy, President of Omega Writers, and Rel Mollet, reviewer extraordinaire.
ARCBA is the Australian Christian Readers Blog Alliance,
which hosts monthly blog tours aiming to raise exposure and awareness, with
preference given to Australian and New Zealand authors. If you’d like to find
out more about touring a book with ARCBA, or becoming an ARCBA reviewer, visit
the ARCBA blog: http://acrba.blogspot.co.nz/
Wednesday and Friday: General post from a member
We have a team of around twenty published and
to-be-published writers who regularly contribute blog posts on a range of
topics, mostly relating to books, reading, writing, or Christianity—the topics
we all have in common! That’s our only criteria for posts: that they be
something that will be of interest to our audience.
Thursday: Book review
We have a group of readers who review new and recent releases
they’ve read, including books from Australian and New Zealand authors. Let’s
face it: all writers should also be readers. Each reviewer selects their own
books for review, which means we get a wide range of genres and authors, and I
find myself adding far too many books to my to-read pile.
We don’t (usually) review books written for the general
market: those we have reviewed have either been books written by a Christian
author, writing craft books, or reviews intended to provoke discussion about
the nature of Christian writing. We also
don’t review books from vanity or subsidy publishers (we don’t want to
accidentally encourage authors to use an expensive vanity press), although
we’re happy to review self-published books.
Check us out and join our Facebook group. We usually arrange
our schedule each quarter, and will put out a call on our Facebook page for
people who’d like to contribute to the blog either as guest posts, or on a
regular basis.
Thank you all for inviting me to contribute today. If you
have any questions, please leave a comment
About Iola Goulton
Iola Goulton lives
with her husband, two teenagers and cat in the sunny Bay of Plenty in New
Zealand, between Hobbiton and the Kiwifruit Capital of the World. She holds a degree in marketing, has a
background in human resource consulting and freelance editing, is active in her
local church and plays in a brass band.
Iola is a
reader, reviewer and freelance editor who is currently writing her first novel,
contemporary Christian romance with a Kiwi twist, and her first non-fiction
book, which aims to help first-time authors navigate the changing world of
Christian publishing. You can find her online at Iola's Christian Reads, Christian Editing Services, and soon at her author page.
Thanks for introducing Australasian Christian Writes, Iola. We have a lot of new members, so I thought it would be good to showcase various. It's great to see that although there are some differences in emphases among the different groups, we share some common goals (also thinking of Omega Writers and FaithWriters here). Thanks for sharing and may God continue to bless the ministry of all the Christian writing groups.
ReplyDeleteA pleasure, Nola. It's good for our groups to connect in this way.
DeleteThanks sharing with us Iola. That was a comprehensive helpful post. May God continue to bless both groups (and others like Omega Writers) and use us all for His glory.
ReplyDeleteAmen!
DeleteIola, thanks for your helpful summary of ACW and outlining how the groups are both different and complementary. I think it's important that we have a number of Christian writing groups in our part of the world that cater for the diverse needs of our local writers. I hope and pray that everyone will find at least one group where they feel at home, encouraged, and inspired in their unique writing journey. We're all writing for His glory. Many blessings to CWD, and thanks again for the opportunity to share and connect with ACW :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Iola - it's great to see the different groups working together with perhaps some differences in ethos but basically the same goal and vision under the same Lord.
ReplyDelete