How long have you been
writing and working in the literary industry?
I have been writing
since the days of elementary journal and rainy day writings. Writing has
always been my escape in life. For some it's chocolate or shopping. For
me it's pen and paper. I used to enter writing and poetry contests all the time
when I was in school. I even won a couple and still have the certificates
to this day. Over the years, as I got older, I wrote several short
stories. It was 1998 when I decided to compile the stories and create my
first work, Please Tell Me If The Grass Is Greener, which
I self-published. A year later I self-published World On My
Shoulders, which was a book of poetry. I then went on to self-publish
my first full-length novel, The Root of All Evil, which was
eventually picked up by a major publishing house. In the past 14 years I
have self-published, published traditionally, agented authors, done freelance
editing as well as work as an editor for publishing houses. I'm the
current acquisition editor for Urban Christian, an imprint of Urban Books in
which the titles are distributed by Kensington Publishing Corp. I
instruct publishing workshops as well as children's works. I write songs and
I do ghost writing and one-on-one literary consulting.
What are the names of
your books?
I formerly wrote secular
titles under the names Joylynn M. Jossel (The Root of All Evil, When Souls
Mate, etc...) and JOY (Dollar Bill, If I Ruled the World, etc...). I
have written a children's story under the name N. Joy (The Secret Olivia
Told Me). Since writing Christian fiction, I have written nine
titles: She Who Finds a Husband, Been There Prayed That, Love Honor or
Stray, Trying to Stay Saved and I Can Do Better All By Myself (all
part of the "New Day Divas" series). I have also written And
You Call Yourself A Christian, The Perfect Christian and The
Sunday Only Christian (all part of the "Still Divas"
series). My first Christian fiction title is Me, Myself and Him.
Was it difficult to
transition from penning street literature to Christian fiction and young adult
literature? Why did you make this decision?
As far as being able to
pen entertaining, captivating and life altering projects; no, that
was not difficult at
all. It was difficult to get my readers to make the journey from secular
writings to Christian fiction with me. I knew from the moment I made a decision
to write stories that glorified God that I would lose a great hunk of the
readership that I'd worked so hard to earn over the years. A writer
always wants to please his/her readers. That's exactly what I wanted to
do, but first I had to please God. I wasn't born on the church pew, nor have I
been saved all my life, but when I finally did turn my life over to Jesus, I
couldn't do some of the things I used to do. I couldn't go some of the
places I used to go or say some of the things I used to say. Ultimately,
I couldn't write some of the things I used to write, which is why I made the decision
to deliver God's word through the written word.
What do you feel are
some of your most noteworthy accomplishments in your career?
I was ecstatic when I
learned that a book I had written with New York Times Best selling Author,
Brenda Jackson, titled An All Night Man, had received the best
selling African American romance by Borders at the Romance Writers of American
National Conference. Having my novel, Dollar Bill, appear in Newsweek and
be translated to Japanese and sold in Japan was also a wonderful
accomplishment. I must admit, though, that my children's story, The
Secret Olivia Told Me, receiving the American Library Association Coretta
Scott King honor and then be acquired by Scholastic Books has been the icing on
the cake.
As an acquisitions
editor, what is a common mistake that many aspiring authors overlook when
submitting manuscripts to you?
For me, the most common
mistake is authors sending in manuscripts to be considered for publication
without first having it edited. I know-I know; publishing houses have
editors that they use after they pick up your story. Key words:
"after they pick up your story." I understand that most manuscripts
are submitted by first time, aspiring authors. But an author who takes
the time to invest and attempts to learn and hone in on the craft of both
writing and storytelling is the one who catches the publisher's eye. Believe it
or not, some authors don't even do spell check before submitting their
manuscript while others don't write it in the correct format, which could be
eliminated by simply picking up another book to see how it's formatted when it
comes to dialogue, etc... This extra care-or lack of- that a writer
puts into their submission gives the publisher an idea of what type of author
they would be dealing with if acquiring the story.
Are there any do’s and
don’t’s, when it comes to penning Christian fiction?
Some authors who write
Christian fiction do not write for a Christian fiction imprint, therefore there
are really no guidelines for how they must pen their story. I, in fact, do
write for a Christian fiction imprint that has specific writing
guidelines. The do's and don'ts of penning Christian fiction really boils
down to the publisher. So I suggest an author wanting to submit work in that genre
do the research of the publishing house in which they are submitting their work
to. If the guidelines state "no cursing," then be mindful and
eliminate any use of curse words (even if the words do appear in the Bible).
Should submissions
always be edited first?
I strongly believe that
an author should turn in the best manuscript possible. If that means
hiring an editor, then by all means they should do so.
Do you require
submitting ideas through an agent?
Urban Christian does not
require that an author submit their work through an agent. I'll give you
a little tip though: represented manuscripts get moved to the top of the pile
to be reviewed!
What is one
important thing an experienced author without a book deal can do to grow
his or her career?
As an author who has
written under many names and many genres, I am often asked advice from both
aspiring authors and seasoned authors as well. Even as a seasoned author,
there is still always so much more to learn and it is always a blessing to be
able to engage in the quality of sharing among other authors. With that being
said, I'd like to share what I think is the most valuable advice an author
could ever receive: "KNOW AND GET YOUR AUDIENCE BEFORE YOU
EVEN FINISH THE BOOK!"
I know; sounds like
hustling backwards, right? Sounds like creating a hype for something that
doesn't even exist, right? Sounds like fraud-a scam, right? WRONG!
The most valuable thing
an author can ever do is to generate a fan base-have tons of people sitting on
the edge of their seats waiting for a book to come out. Think about it;
doesn't Hollywood do it all the time when it comes to movies? Doesn't the
Lifetime Movie Network have the
ladies setting their DVR months in advance for a movie with all those
teasing previews they show? Or the huge wrestling events have men
doing pay per view months in advance? Shouldn't the same go for the literary
world?
I say yes, and that
authors should stop selling themselves short by not considering their product
to be something so worthy that folks need to mark their calendars for its
release...pre order, etc... Hustling backwards is creating a product,
filling your warehouse, garage, dining room, etc... with it, and then trying to
figure out who would want to buy it and how to get them to buy it.
The minute a
person knows they are going to write that book and they have that
title engraved in stone, they should create a cover. Even if it's just a
mock cover with a black background and the title is in a large white
letters, create a visual to give people. Begin promoting it. Begin
teasing people with a synopsis and one liners from the book. Create
a website giving the release date. Have no idea when the book will be
done? Then just say "Coming Soon." Once there is a concrete
release date, begin taking pre-orders. Please be realistic with
that release date. There is nothing worse than having a reader sitting on
the edge of their seat waiting for a book to come out, and then the release
date comes and goes, especially if they have pre-ordered it. By that
time they have moved on to the next author and no longer trust that the
book will ever come out.
Every chance the
author gets, they should tell people about their forthcoming
title. Get all their friends and family to tell people as well.
Create a social networking page. Take out ads with literary
promotional companies like Sormag. Get book marks, postcards,
etc... Even send book stores information about the forthcoming
title. Of course the author needs to do all of this while writing
the book, but as I always say (and any author will tell you), writing the book
is the easy part. Selling it is the killer. But I strongly believe
if an author generates their audience first (and knows who their audience
is...who the book will appeal to), do some marketing and promoting before the
book is ever even written, it will make the task of selling the book once
it is released that much easier.
You can visit Joy by clicking this link.
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