If you want to brush up on current trends in Christian fiction, you might find this blog post interesting. It’s on the blog Novel Matters, and features comments by industry veteran Sally Stuart, who for the last couple of decades has compiled annual editions of The Christian Writers’ Market Guide, an invaluable resource that we will be selling at the Write! Canada conference bookstore.
According to Sally’s observations of the Christian publishing industry, one of the hottest trends is the teen/young adult genre. At Write! Canada, which will be held from June 18 to 20 in Guelph, Ontario, award-winning author Valerie Sherrard from New Brunswick will teach a six-hour continuing class on writing for children and the young adult market. Valerie is very knowledgeable about the mainstream publishing market, and Violet Nesdoly from B.C. will teach an accompanying workshop (A3) that will focus on writing for the Christian market.
If you’ve got a fiction manuscript in the works and you’d like to find out how the publishing industry works, or if you’re thinking of self-publishing your book, then sign up for Everything You Need to Know About Publishing a Book in Canada. It’s being facilitated by conference director N. J. Lindquist, and you’ll learn from five different faculty members during this class.
And don’t forget one of Sally Stuart’s most important pieces of advice — “The best thing a novelist can do is work on polishing his/her craft. Strive to be exceptional — to stand out in the crowd. Be sure the book is not only well-written, but well-edited. Publishers these days are short-handed, and they want books that will require little or no editing.”
– Wendy Nelles
