kristin billerbeck

For writers

Questions I get asked

As you can imagine, I hear from lots of writers who want to be published. I’m going to do my best to answer some of the common questions here.

  1. Read what’s selling

    See what publishers are putting on the shelves. Not just Christian publishers, but secular publishers as well. You want to know what’s capturing the market’s attention. Watch the bestsellers’ lists. Both the NYT and CBA’s. A book that stays on the list indicates staying power, read those books to analyze why. Don’t copy them — you don’t want to be an ‘also-ran’, but see where the writer’s passion made the book different.

  2. Read your genre

    Please don’t write romantic suspense when you’ve never read it. An author must know their genre. If you want to write women’s fiction, read lots of it. That may change as you find your place in the market, but when starting out, understand how you differ from the competition, it will help your position with publishers’ marketing departments.

  3. Read the classics

    There’s a reason these books have been around for centuries. And though, the style is much slower and most likely you couldn’t sell a book with such narration today, it’s important to see how they created such perfect conflicts that have withstood the span of time.

    Pride & Prejudice · Austen Far From the Madding Crowd · Hardy Tess of the d’Urbervilles · Hardy Great Expectations · Dickens David Copperfield · Dickens Rebecca · du Maurier Camille · Dumas fils The Count of Monte Cristo · Dumas Anna Karenina · Tolstoy

  4. Understand craft

    There is more to writing a novel than sitting down and telling a story. Personally, books on writing haven’t been all that helpful to me because my mind doesn’t work in such an analytical manner. But some I do recommend are: Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell and Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass. For basics, I recommend Self-Editing for Fiction Writers. There are some simple things you must understand like Point of View shifts, showing versus telling and it’s a great resource for the mechanics of what today’s novelist must know.

  5. To plot or not to plot

    There are those authors who can sit down to write from a perfectly constructed diagram of their plot. I cannot do that, and you may not be able to either. I start with a character, and I let her gel in my mind. Her situation is something I must get her through, but I don’t sit down to write the book until I have the first line. That sometimes takes three months. It works for me, but my point is, you must write the way you write. Don’t let anyone tell you there’s a right way.

  6. Conflict

    A novel must consist of plot. Your protagonist must have a goal, you cannot simply tell the reader your grocery list (or what you would like to wear as in the case of some chick lit). Perhaps it is internal (like she wants to be married) or maybe external: her father has cut her out of the will. Either way, it should start your character on a journey that most readers will want to know the answer to.

  7. Join a local writers’ group

    One of the hardest things about learning to write is allowing your baby to go out in public and hearing it’s ugly. Yes, it will happen. Glean what you can from critiques and move on, get better and get revenge by getting a bigger advance. : ) I still hear my babies are ugly, there’s no accounting for taste.

    AmericanChristianFictionWriters.com

  8. You do not need an agent

    If you’ve been turned down by publishers for a certain manuscript, an agent will not save you. Just this week I was critiquing five manuscripts for a contest. I kid you not, they all contained the same basic storyline. Understand that agents and editors want to be wowed. They want to see something special. Perhaps, you’ve read what’s on the shelf and think, ‘mine is better’. Put that to the test. Buy the book and give it to a friend (who will be brutally honest), along with your manuscript and ask them, why do you think this book got published and mine didn’t?

  9. Endorsements

    I’m inundated with requests for endorsements. And while I certainly don’t feel worthy of all that, I have to say, I just don’t have time for them. I can barely read my kids’ homework folder in a week so it’s very rare that I do any endorsements — which come from the publisher FYI. So please don’t be offended, I am not singling you out.

  10. Watch your words!

    Not just on paper, but with other writers. Humility goes a long way in this business and a lack of it can keep you from getting a contract. No one wants to work with difficult people…and publishers generally have a choice. Unless your name sells books in the bestselling range, there probably isn’t room for hissy fits.

  11. Anne Tyler won’t read it

    Don’t think that you need to have Francine Rivers or Anne Tyler critique your work to have it mean something. Every single reader is only one subjective reader. Yes, a published author may know what you’re missing, but an up-and-coming writer or an avid reader will know the same things. Don’t discount everyone’s opinion just because they aren’t a bestselling author. At the same time, trust your gut. Only listen to people whose critiques make sense to you.

This is not a fast business. You will learn patience.

Keep going

More on the blog

Kristin writes about the craft and the business over on Substack.

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