ACW & CWD - What's the Difference?

By Jeanette O'Hagan and Narelle Atkins | @JeanetteOHagan @NarelleAtkins

Happy New Year and welcome to 2018!

We’re looking forward to showcasing the writing from Christian writers in Australia, New Zealand and the wider Australasian region on our group blogs this year.

On the first Monday of each month we share a cross-post on the Australasian Christian Writers (ACW) and Christian Writers Downunder (CWD) group blogs.

Many of our group members have asked why we have two group blogs for Christian writers in our part of the world.

Today we’re going to answer your questions concerning ACW and CWD and let you know how you can contribute to each of the group blogs.

Question 1. What’s the goal and purpose of ACW?

Narelle: Our overall goal for ACW is to connect writers and readers who enjoy reading a wide range of genres including fiction, non-fiction and children’s books. We're planning a few changes for 2018 to engage with readers more on our blog and in our Facebook group.

Our blog members include Christian writers who are traditionally published, indie published, and aspiring to publish. Some are writing for the Christian market, while others are writing for the general market. Many are targeting the US market, as that is where most readers are based.

Although we focus on supporting writers and readers in Australasia, we welcome international writers and readers on our blog and in our ACW Facebook Group. We actively promote books on our blog and social media, including Facebook, Twitter @ACWriters and Pinterest.

Question 2. What’s the goal and purpose of CWD?

Jeanette: Christian Writers Downunder is aimed at Christians writers (and those associated with writing field, e.g. editors, illustrators, reviewers and publishers) who live in or are from Australasia. We aim to provide a safe and encouraging place for Australasian Christians who write – whether they are taking their first baby steps on their journey as a writer or have been travelling this road for some time – to ask questions, celebrate milestones (new releases, awards, or finishing a first draft), interact, pray, encourage, help and inspire each other. 

We encourage mutual support through social media and other means. We have a CWD Facebook Group, Blog and Twitter list. In the past we published an anthology with contributions from members, Glimpses of Light. Like ACW we are also an affiliate of Omega Writers.

Question 3. Who can join the CWD Facebook Group?

Jeanette: 

Christian writers – whether just starting out or veteran, whether writing non-fiction or fiction, poetry or blogs, whether published or unpublished, whether aiming for the Christian or general market or both, and also Christians associated with writing – editors, illustrators, publishers, reviewers. We encourage our members to share their milestones and new releases, but discourage spamming the page or being argumentative or disrespectful to others.

While we will accept applications from Christian writers from outside the Australasian area, if they have an active friend in CWD or a trusted recommendation, our primary focus is ‘Downunder’.

Question 4. Who can join the ACW Facebook Group?

Narelle: We welcome writers and readers from around the world in our Facebook Group.

We have group etiquette guidelines regarding self promotion by authors in our Facebook Group, particularly that we don’t allow promotion of books published by vanity presses.

Question 5. How can you contribute to the ACW blog?

Narelle: We post five days per week, Monday-Friday, and we set up our ACW blog calendar many months in advance. We will start organising the May-August 2018 blog calendar in early March.

I encourage all writers who are interested in contributing blog posts to join the ACW Facebook Group. Blogging opportunities will arise from time to time which we’ll post in the Facebook Group.

Please contact either myself, Iola Goulton or Jenny Blake if you’re interested in guest blogging on ACW.

We share new book releases on the ACW blog. In 2018 we’ll post New Releases on the second Monday each month. We collect new release book information in the ACW Facebook Group.

Question 6. How can you contribute to the CWD blog?

Jeanette: 

CWD generally posts inspirational blog posts related to writing (inspirational, craft posts, the writing and publication journey, short fiction and poems, conferences and events, and also new releases or member achievements) on Mondays and Thursdays. Our blog team are highlighted on the blogsite with images and a short bio.

In 2018, we are looking at some tweaking of this—with Mondays continuing our current content, with writing related and inspired blogs and Thursdays as a series of ‘Meet our Members’ interviews. We may also have occasional writing-craft series.

From time to time, we do have opening on our CWD blog team. If you are a CWD member and are interested in guest blogging for us, please contact myself or email. We also value comments on the blogsite as this encourages our bloggers.

Question 7. How do you see CWD and ACW as groups that complement each other and also connect with Omega Writers Inc.?

Jeanette: 

All three groups have historic connections and many members in common, with some different emphases. It’s been a delight to see the groups working together with strong connections and support between the administrative teams.

CWD aspires to provide an encouraging faith community for writers in which questions can be asked, achievements celebrated, and their books or other publications highlighted. We value interaction and mutual support between members.

Both CWD and ACW do not have a paid membership or financial backing, and are primarily active on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Blogsites).

Omega Writers’ paid membership and structure enables it to have local writing groups and to provide workshops, Book Fairs, the annual Writers Conference, and the CALEB prize. Omega Writers has made an enormous contribution of writers in the Australasian region and we would encourage you to become a paid member (it’s not exorbitant & has benefits), join a local chapter in your area, and/or one of the focused FB groups.

Narelle: ACW strives to promote and market books by Australasian authors. We want to share our love of books with readers and provide posts that will interest readers.

Our blog calendar is structured to include educational posts that support writers with relevant information on writing craft, publishing and book marketing.

We share a quarterly blog post with CWD from Omega Writers and encourage our members who live in Australasia to join Omega Writers.

Omega Writers offer many benefits for writers that aren’t available in ACW, including writing chapters with online and in-person meetings, writing contests for published and unpublished writers, critique groups, writing retreats and an annual writing conference.

We support Omega Writers in their goal to promote Australasian authors and books to the wider reading community.

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Do you have any other questions regarding CWD or ACW?

Jeanette and Narelle are more than happy to answer your questions in the blog comments on both blogs and discuss how you can become more involved in our vibrant Christian writing community in 2018.

On Genre ...

By Iola Goulton

Welcome to the first Australasian Christian Writers/Christian Writers Downunder joint post for 2017. This year, we’ve decided to theme our posts, and our theme is GENRE. Genre is important in publishing, in fiction and in non-fiction. If you’re anything like me, you have favourite genres, not-so-favourite genres, and read-on-pain-of death genres. And you can get a little upset if a book doesn't meet your expectations.

Genre is like food.

My husband and I often go out for Saturday brunch together, sampling some of the many cafes in our area. He has two go-to orders: the big breakfast, or the hash brown stack. Each café tries to make their offering a little different, so what you get with each order varies. The hash brown stack has several hash browns, and may come with bacon or eggs or sliced tomato or sliced avocado. The eggs might be fried, poached, or scrambled. But the key is that it’s a stack: there are two or three hash browns in a stack, with the other ingredients layered in between the hash browns. The clue is in the name.

Or so we thought.

We tried a new café recently, and my husband ordered the hash brown stack. But it wasn’t a stack. It was three hash browns slapped on a plate beside some fried eggs, with a bowl of slushy baked beans on the side.

Not what he’d expected.

When we visit a restaurant and order a meal, we have expectations about what we’re going to get. If I order a hash brown stack, I want hash browns. In a stack. With stuff in between them. It occurred to me there are a lot of similarities between café menus and bookstores, real or virtual.

We look around, decide what we want, and feel unhappy if our expectations aren’t met.

How many times have you finished a perfectly good book with a "meh" feeling, because it wasn't what you expected? Perhaps it had been billed as romantic suspense, but there wasn't enough romance. Or enough suspense. Perhaps you'd bought a tell-all biography and found most of the information was stuff you'd already read online. Perhaps you'd been looking for a devotional with new insights into the Bible, and got the same tried-and-true clichés as in the last three you read. Or worse, perhaps you got a "creative" interpretation of the Bible.

As authors, we need to understand our readers and what they expect. 

We need to understand our readers, and manage their expectations. Part of the way we understand and manage reader expectations is through genre. If you're not sure what genre you write, then I suggest you need to read more. I'm not the only person who suggests this. So does Nola Passmore, in her recent post at Christian Writers Downunder. And so does Stephen King, who says:

We've talked a bit about genre before at Australasian Christian Writers, including brief explanations of several major genres:

• Romance
• Mystery, Suspense and Thrillers
• Fantasy and Speculative
• New Adult

Our 2017 joint ACW/CWD posts are going to go into these genres in more detail, and investigate some lesser-known genres.

Here's another reason to consider getting your genre right: marketing.

Selling books.

Genre is vital for selling books. The recent Author Earnings report shows that 69% of all US book sales are online. That's not just ebook sales, but ALL book sales. Many of those sales are through Amazon, and the key to Amazon sales success is getting your book categorised properly. Meaning, getting your book categorised in the right genre. Last week, I read a blog post from an author who was disappointed by the sales of her first solo single title novel (she'd co-written other single title novels, and had a number of category romance novels published).


When I checked her book on Amazon, I saw her publisher had messed up her categories: they'd categorised her novel as historical ... and as contemporary. That's not going to help sales. Sure, readers might find the novel, but it's also going to confuse them—and potentially lead to critical reviews from authors expecting a contemporary mystery, and getting a historical adventure/mystery. I see this a lot. Novels categorised as non-fiction. Novels listed in the wrong category, or one that doesn't seem consistent with the book description.

In other words, a lack of understanding of genre, and the way it influences and reflects reader expectations.

Take my food example: my husband was disappointed with his hash brown stack because it didn't meet his expectations of what a hash brown stack should be. It's not that there was anything wrong with the individual components of the meal, or that the meal didn't taste good. It's just that it wasn't what he was expecting. Readers are the same. They're not browsing the Classics shelves looking for the latest Love Inspired Suspense (or vice versa). They're not cruising the romance shelves looking for poetry.

Readers know what they want, and they expect those expectations(!) to be met.

And that's why we're going to be looking at genre in our joint posts during 2017. Please join us!

About Iola Goulton

I am a freelance editor specialising in Christian fiction. Visit my website at to download a comprehensive list of publishers of Christian fiction. 

I also write contemporary Christian romance with a Kiwi twist—find out more at www.iolagoulton.com.

You can also find me on:
Facebook (Author)
Facebook (Editing)
Instagram
Pinterest
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Shoes, Bare Feet and a Christian Book Fair

by Jeanette O'Hagan

You have probably heard the story about the two shoe salesmen sent to Africa in the early 1900's to scout the territory.

      One telegraphed back: "Situation hopeless. Stop. No one wears shoes."

      The other telegraphed: "Glorious business opportunity. Stop. They have no shoes."

Now, I’ve seen a couple of interpretations of this probably apocryphal story – most laud the second salesman for seeing opportunity. Some point out that modern marketing often exploits people by creating a yearning for false and even unhealthy 'needs' (the beauty industry, for instance), while one suggested that salesman A went back to Europe to a lucrative career while salesman B struggled to sell shoes to people who didn’t want them.

Whichever way we look at the story, sometimes I feel that being an Australian or New Zealand Christian author is a little be like trying to sell shoes to barefooted people. We often struggle to interest people in our books.

Why is it so hard?

Now, partly that’s because Australian is a small market. We have a smallish population 22 million compared to 320 million in the US. And, hard as this is understand, not everyone is a reader and, if they are, not everyone reads fiction. A successful book run in Australia is 500 copies.

Then too, the percentage of people who not just vaguely identify themselves as Christian, but are actively involved in their faith in some way, is a much smaller percentage of our already small population – maybe 7-30% (depending on how the measurements are done).

But the problem goes deeper than this – I know many avid Christian readers who aren’t interested in reading ‘Christian’ fiction. They prefer the big name secular titles (yes, mostly US and British authors). Some may have read Christian Fiction in the past and not liked it (it might have been too sanitised or maybe the quality of the writing was the issue or the themes didn’t interest them).  And those who do read Christian fiction tend to read the big US names – Jeanette Oke, Francine Rivers, Dee Hendersen etc. rather than say Mary Hawkins, Meredith Resce, Paula Vince, Carol Preston or Jo-Anne Berthelsen. In part, this is because the big-chain Christian bookstores have often promoted US (& UK) authors and when they stock Aussie Christian authors, those books don’t always sell.  Why – because readers are spoiled for choice and they often don’t want to waste their time on a bad book, so they stick to the authors they know and love or follow the recommendations of friends. So you need to be popular to become popular.

And, to be frank, many of my avid reading friends don’t know about Aussie Christian authors except for the fact that I’ve mentioned them (at which point their eyes begin to roll).

So what do we do?

We can be Salesman (or Saleswoman) A

• We can give up on the Australian market and address our works to the overseas market, such as the UK or USA. But often, these readers may not interested in reading about Australian location or Australian protagonists (this is not always the case of course). And the Christian market in USA has it problems.
• We can aim for the general market in Australia or overseas – though again the gatekeepers in this market may be wary of books with obvious Christian content or may expect certain problematic content (like gratuitous explicit sex scene in some romance titles).
• We can decide that it doesn’t really matter if anyone buys our books, because it's more important that we are obedient to God in writing them.
• We can sell our books to our fellow authors, friends and family; who will enjoy reading them.

 All these can be valid and realistic responses. I’m not critiquing them (in fact, I think there are good arguments for writing 'crossover' fiction or aiming for the general market  – but what I do ask myself is, are there other opportunities we are not seeing? What would Salesman (or woman) B do?

What would Salesman B do?

In other words, how can we give Aussie & NZ Christians greater choice – so that they are aware that there are many good Aussie Christian authors and books available? Which they might enjoy if they knew about them?

I’m thankful for our pioneers – our ‘veteran’ authors who have been writing and publishing for decades, for the writing groups like Omega Writers, Christian Writers Downunder, Faithwriters and Australasian Christian Writers. For Christian publishers who often struggle to stay afloat and have a passion to have books of quality and influence published.  For efforts to get Aussie Christian writers in bookstores or to reach new readers (through Book Fairs, Light the Dark, Books in Stock etc).

One thing I’m sure of is that this is something we can do together – as we promote to our friends and fans not only our own writing, but work of our fellow Australasian authors that we read and enjoy – or think they would enjoy.

By encouraging, promoting and helping each other we ensure that our books are not lonely little pin points of light struggling against the wind of indifference – but a bonfire that is visible for kilometres around.

Here some ideas:

• Taking time to read, enjoy and review Aussie & NZ Christian books
• Give Aussie & NZ Christian books (that you enjoy) as gifts at Christmas or birthdays or as giveaways
• Participating in readers groups like book clubs, Goodreads, reading challenges etc,
• Being active on Goodreads and/or Booklikes – review books, add them to lists, recommend them to friends
• Author talks at schools, libraries, bookclubs – maybe even churches and youth groups?
• Have a book party
• Have a book fair
• Joint ventures like anthologies, boxed sets etc where fans of one author may discover another author to love reading
• Joint book launches

Perhaps you have some other wonderful ideas or stories – I’d love to hear them.

Christian Book Fair

There is one thing that Raelene Purtill and I are planning to do (under the umbrella of Omega Writers). In early September, we will be running a Christian Book Fair in Brisbane – with stalls from authors, booksellers and publishers. Others like editors, illustrators, cartoonists etc. are also welcome. The Fair will be run in conjunction with workshops run by Omega Writers. 

However, our primary focus will be on books and readers – as we aim to reach a wider audience for all our books. We (the organisers) will be promoting the event as wildly and as targeted as we can. However, I think this will be a success if we all own it. The best promotion is word of mouth.  And of course, we appreciate your prayers – for unless the Lord build the house we labour in vain.

The story about the salesmen reminds me of some other scouts - twelve to be exact; ten of whom looked at the giants in the land; two who saw the promise and had faith in God.

More information on the Book Fair coming soon. (And if you live too far away to come to the Book Fair this time round  – maybe this is something you could think of for your own local area :) )

Image source: Jeanette O'Hagan

See also What is Christian Fiction?  and Saints, Seekers and Sleepers or Cecily's Paterson's What is Christian Fiction?

 Jeanette O’Hagan enjoys writing fiction, poetry, blogging and editing. She is writing her Akrad’s Legacy Series—a Young Adult secondary world fantasy fiction with adventure, courtly intrigue and romantic elements. Her short stories and poems are published in a number of anthologies including Glimpses of Light, Another Time Another Place and Like a Girl.

Jeanette has practised medicine, studied communication, history, theology and, more recently, a Master of Arts (Writing). She loves reading, painting, travel, catching up for coffee with friends, pondering the meaning of life and communicating God’s great love. She lives in Brisbane with her husband and children.

You can find her at her Facebook Page or at Goodreads or on Amazon or on her websites  JennysThread.com or Jeanette O'Hagan Writes .

Introducing Australasian Christian Writers

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.