There are few topics I love reading about more than writing. Totally fascinates me. Here’s a few things I’ve read online recently that I thought were worth sharing…

+ Donald Miller walks you through the 9 steps he takes in writing a book from start to finish. Considering how successful Don has been at creating important books, I thought it was great that he shared what his creative process looks like. If you’re a writer, or just interested in the process, I highly recommend it.

+ Mark Batterson talks about why he writes in the morning without shoes on. An interesting look at the habits of a successful author.

+ Agent Rachelle Gardner shares the story or a writer who was not ready to be published 6 years ago…but recently signed a book deal thanks to the hours she has put in honing her craft and developing her platform. Encouraging to read for those of us working hard at doing those very things.

Seems like every few months I highlight Publishing Agent Rachelle Gardner’s blog here at my site. Like I’ve said before, it’s one of the best sources of information on the publishing industry that you’ll find online. She writes openly and honestly on a daily basis about the things writers want to know about.

The past few days she’s been discussing the concept of Elevator Pitches. She describes them as such:

Imagine you’re at a writer’s conference, waiting for the elevator up to your hotel room. The agent of your dreams walks up and stands beside you. He/she smiles and says “Hi.” You manage to return a coherent “Hello” in response. “Enjoying the conference?” the agent asks. “Yes, it’s great!” you respond.

The elevator doors open and you both step in. The agent presses 15. You press 17 (even though your room is on the 5th floor).

Agent looks you squarely in the eye and asks, “So what are you writing?” You now have 15 floors to make an impression.

? What will you say?

As for the purpose of your Elevator Pitch, here is her take:

“The purpose of your elevator pitch is to get someone to want to hear more. That’s IT.”

She asked her readers to submit their Elevator Pitches in the comments section, so I spent a few minutes working one up and sent it in. Over the past few days she has critiqued a handful of them and offered insight into how they could be improved.

This morning she chose 8 submissions as examples of Elevator Pitches that were almost there, saying “These have a chance of making an agent or editor want to know more.”

I scrolled through the 8 she chose, and was excited to see that my pitch for Prayers For Blowouts was among them! Very encouraging way to start off the morning. Here’s the Elevator Pitch I submitted to her. It’s still a work in progress, but it’s a start. If we’re ever in an elevator together, feel free to ask me “What are you writing?” (and then enjoy the spectacle of me stumbling through it).

Bryan Allain: “It’s called Prayers For Blowouts – The Christian’s Guide To The Frequent Collisions of Sports and Faith. It’s a humorous book that covers everything from a biblical history of sports to a Christian’s guide to playing Fantasy Football to the athletes who love to namedrop Jesus after a big win. There’s also some great stories from my life in sports that readers will relate to – from not making my little league team to where I am now as a sports parent for my two children. It’s a book that will hopefully leave readers entertained and encouraged that sports are more than just a trivial distraction to their spirituality.”

Are elevator pitches applicable to other occupations outside of writing? I think so. If  you were stuck in an elevator with a well-respected leader in the industry you work in, and he asked “what do you do?”, do you have an elevator pitch? I’d love to hear it…

Back in October I entered a contest on Literary Agent Rachelle Garnder’s blog and earned an honorable mention. Last week she held a haiku contest, and i took a stab at it. She was looking for haikus about writing or about the holidays. (haikus are 3-line poems consisting of 5 syllables, 7 syllables, and 5 syllables.)

I wasn’t one of the 6 finalists she selected, but I did win another honorable mention. This time for the “Most Environmentally Sensitive Haiku”. Pretty funny considering what I wrote wasn’t very environmentally friendly:

Don’t cut that fir down!
Plastic trees are far better.
Somewhere Al Gore smiles.

Yeah, that’s right. I’m starting a revolution of people who think it’s better for the environment to have a plastic christmas tree! (Even though according to an article I found at Slate.com, it’s probably better for the environment that you don’t buy that fake tree because after you’re done with it in 15 years, it will just sit in a landfill.)

That was fun Rachelle, thanks for the opportunity! And while we’re on the topic of publishing blogs, here’s a list of all the writing/publishing blogs I read. If you’ve got a good suggestion to add to the list, please share…

• Agent Rachelle Gardner
• Agent Chip MacGregor
• Author/Agent Terry Whalin
• President of Thomas Nelson, Michael Hyatt
• Author Mary DeMuth

So, none of you are actually done with your Christmas shopping right? I’m headed out over lunch to pick up a few things.

I’m back at work today after a week off, which makes today feel like a Monday even though it’s not. I’m feeling a bit unorganized with my life, like there’s a handful of things I want to do, but I can’t seem to get to them because of the clutter. Hopefully I can successfully sift through everything in these next couple of weeks and come out on the other side with some clear priorities and motivation to keep things moving. In the meantime, here’s a few things of interest…

+ Agent Rachelle Gardner just helped one of her authors sign her first two-book deal, and had her share some of the things she’s learned. I liked this one: “I didn’t know how much power sales reps had. (Seems like they pretty much rule the roost these days.)” because, from what I was told, it was a sales rep who had the final say in a potential book deal with my last proposal, and it was that sales rep who ultimately killed the deal. (and in the end, i think it will turn out to be a good thing)

+ Donald Miller is endorsing The Mentoring Project.

+ Author Jim Palmer writes often about the process of “shedding religion” in search of spiritual truth. Though I feel like I’m in a different place than he is on my spiritual journey, I enjoyed his thoughts here.

+ i put up a couple pictures from our weekend in MA on the family blog. They’re here if you’re interested…

A few weeks ago I told you about Rachelle Gardner’s blog. Rachelle is an agent in the publishing business, and her blog has been a great source of good information for me over the past few months.

She recently solicited questions from her readers, and today she addressed the question I asked her, which was basically this: “With all the noise out there…all the blogs, all the media, all the people who want to be heard…how confident do you feel that all good writers will eventually be published?”

Here was her response:

Someone recently asked on my blog whether I thought that, with all the competition, will all the good writers eventually get published? With persistence and continued improvement of their work, will there be success for everyone?

I have to admit it’s one of the most difficult questions I’ve encountered, and I’ve been considering my answer for awhile. The truth: I just don’t know. But there are a few things I THINK:

1. I think there are way, way more people writing books than the market can ever support. At least this is true within traditional royalty-paying publishing. So the option of self-publishing is becoming more viable, more necessary, and can definitely represent writing success for thousands of people.

2. I think all the truly terrific storytellers will eventually be published; I think the nonfiction writers with significant platforms and winning ideas will be published. Meanwhile, countless “good” books may remain unpublished because they lack a certain spark that puts them over the top or captures the attention of the publishing community.

3. I think that in many, many cases, persistence WILL make the difference. Giving up too soon will guarantee you’ll never get published; pressing on is no guarantee, but at least it keeps the possibility alive and if you are constantly working on your craft and/or platform, your chances of publication increase considerably.

4. I think the ongoing challenge of the writer is to press on even with no guarantee of reaching your goal. This is where it’s really important to have deep reasons for writing that go far beyond financial success or notoriety. The challenge of persisting even without guarantees can be so difficult that you probably won’t persevere unless you simply can’t NOT write. It really has to go deep.

5. I also think there are many ways to define success, as I’ve written here before. There are so many ways to share your work, either with your family or maybe through your church, community or professional network, or through self publishing. Each writer has to decide for herself or himself which way to go.

Wish I could give a definite YES and declare, “Of course, all good writers will eventually get published!” I don’t personally feel confident saying that.

I think she makes some good points. It definitely encouraged me to be persistent with my goals and dreams, and to be sure to only pour myself into projects I completely believe in.

(I should also note that I did not ask this question because I am assuming I am in that group of “good writers” who are not yet published. I may be. I may not be. Either way I have a long way to go and lots of improvements to make to get better at the craft.)

Thanks for answering my question, Rachelle!