Three publishing industry insiders have been working behind the scenes for the past several months in a secret author lab. Well, not really, but they’ve kept the secret since December. Thomas Umstattd, Jeff Gerke and Mary DeMuth have created The Bestseller Society, and they’re really excited about it.

Why did they create this site? Because they got a lot of folks asking how to write better, get published, and get noticed. The Bestseller Society helps you with all those things, for one monthly price. For less than you’d spend on a yearly writers conference, you can get coaching and instruction all year round. It’s pretty fun. Check out our main page.

The Society is made up of three academies: the Marketing Academy led by Thomas, The Fiction Academy led by Jeff, and the Nonfiction Academy led by Mary. Each academy is $37 a month, but you can become a Mastermind by joining all three for $55.

Here’s a bit about us:

Thomas Umstattd runs the Marketing Academy. He’s uniquely qualified because:

1. Thomas is still in his twenties (oh the energy!), Thomas has pioneered several successful companies.
2. Thomas has a passion not only for social media and web presence, but he understands the needs of authors. Check out his site, Author Media.
3. He’s a real-time thinker and strategist, constantly keeping up with the next new thing. He knows how to sift through what is fluff and what marketing efforts bring true success to authors.

Jeff Gerke runs the Fiction Academy. He’s uniquely qualified because:

1. Jeff has published several books, including novels and books for Writer’s Digest on how to write novels. He also is a nationally known editor for several publishing houses.
2. He’s a prolific speaker, sharing his seminars and proven techniques for both character and plot development around the country.
3. Jeff inaugurated Marcher Lord Press, a publishing house for speculative fiction. As its founder, publisher and chief editor, he knows how to shepherd writers through the publication process.

Mary DeMuth runs the Nonfiction Academy. She’s uniquely qualified because:

1. She’s traditionally published twelve books, and has also learned the art and craft of e-publishing and Print on Demand.
2. She understands the importance of platform. She’s learned the power of marketing, tribe creation, and social media engagement. Follow her on twitter!
3. She is passionate about helping other writers. She wrote a book about it. And I’ve mentored writers for years on my successful and well-visited writing website. She also has a teacher’s heart, mentoring and teaching writers all over the world.

Cool side note: If you sign up for the Nonfiction Academy, you get Mary’s nonfiction proposal tutorial (100+ pages, $25 value) free with sign up.

The Bestseller Society folks had a lot of fun setting this site up. They laugh a lot, learn a lot, and give a lot. What you get with membership:

• Hours and hours of un-boring, super exciting video instruction (and we introduce new content often).
• Upcoming podcasts on trends, craft, and marketing
• Printable resources
• A mastermind forum where we coach you, and you learn from other writers on the journey
• Freebies on proposals, queries, marketing plans, and character sheets
• Access to guest teachers–particularly top agents, editors and publishers
• Heavy discounts on products and tutorials created by industry insiders
• Curation of content. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out the best information and what will really help you get published and get noticed. We find the best, most success-producing content and deliver it to you.

You want to publish a book. We want to help you get there. Join the Bestseller Society and watch your publishing dreams come true.

Free ways to connect:

• Follow the Bestseller Society on Twitter
• Like the Bestseller Society on Facebook

CC Image • Linda Cronin on Flickr

Yesterday morning at church, a young woman shared her tragic yet ultimately redemptive story, one that entailed abuse from two family members, alcoholism, self-mutilation, and constant thoughts of suicide. To see her on video, especially to hear her tell such intimate, horrific details, was to see the awe-inspiring, transformative work of Christ in her life.

Of the many thoughts coursing through my mind as I heard her story, none stood out more than the fact that everyone has a story and I’m all too often involved in writing and editing my own that I fail to extend even the simplest of graces to others. If I’d have met that young woman without having heard her story, I would never have known she’d suffered so greatly. I would have thought she was just another stranger at church.

And it’s not that only those who have suffered greatly need grace from others; everyone needs grace. Living is hard; suffering is inevitable. It can take a 1,000 different forms, but at its core, it’s still suffering and pain and hurt. It’s what we all have in common, but we’re all too often unwilling to share such heavy burdens with each other, even within Christian circles.

How soon we forget our other commonality too:

“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship.” - C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

Because of that young woman’s pain, her humility, and God’s gracious work—the story of her life thus far—she is being transformed. In one way or another, we’re all characters still in development.

Let’s you and I make a pact. The next time you want to be terse with a co-worker, short with a friend, or angry with a family member, take a breath and find out more about their story before making them ancillary characters in your own.

So, what’s your story?

CC Image • Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Much of my job entails poring over vast numbers of blogs. There are many worthwhile bloggers you should be reading, but this post isn’t about them. Given a birds-eye view of the blogging landscape, you start to notice certain similarities. For instance:

1. To cover up your lackadaisical grasp of the English language, randomly bold or italicize different words in order to make your point more pointed.
2. Use . . . ellipses . . . in order to . . . create . . . tension . . . or to . . . cover up . . . your lackadaisical grasp of proper sentence structure.
3. Use your and you’re interchangeably. No one’s really reading anything that closeely these days anyways. Your welcome.
4. Write a post for the sole sake of having something new on your blog. Quantity over quality they always say. In this instance, “they” is your insecurity that you’ll be forgotten about if you don’t update every day.
5. Flame out at the end of your post. Once you’ve reached 500 words or so, just call it good enough. It’s OK if you never actually get to your point. We all have things to do.
6. Don’t re-read your post. God knows you’ve already given too much time to this frivolous pursuit. Why would you want to spend time proofreading your own work? Don’t your readers know that blogging isn’t like real writing?
7. Incorporate some kind of number in your blog title and be sure to include a vague word like “ways,” “things,” “ideas,” or “steps.”
8. Never spend more than two seconds on your title. It’s not like Google needs that to help people find what they’re looking for, or that real human beings want to know what they’re about to read.
9. Don’t spend any time whatsoever on your blog design. It’s OK if I think your site’s been around since the 90s. It’s retro-chic, right?
10. Apologize for not blogging regularly. Saying “I’m sorry” is one of the ways I know you care for me.
11. Don’t provide an easy way for me to contact you. I may be interested in what you have to say, but only insofar as I don’t actually have to communicate with you.
12. Don’t use images. We came to your site to read your words, not look at pretty pictures. If a picture is worth a thousand words, you don’t want to go over your self-imposed word limit before you even start writing.
13. Use long paragraphs. Don’t break them up by using bullet points or subtitles. Your readers love your verbose prose. They have very little else to do.
14. Take a quote, idea, or image, slightly tweak it, then fail to reference where or who you stole got it from.

Let’s recap (so I can get to my word quota). So long as you have:

• bold words and italic words and italic bold words
• at least four improper uses of ellipses and/or misplaced apostrophes
• homophonic tendencies
• an insatiable desire to update instead of elucidate
• an inability to complete a post
• a serious lack of respect for the editorial process
• a vast knowledge of numbers and insubstantial words
• the ability to write headlines that no one cares about
• delusions of graphical artistry
• an astounding array of alternative apologies
• virtual agoraphobia
• no time to find images, or just enough time to find horrible images
• ignorance of the word “scannability.”
• a propensity to break the eighth commandment

You too can become . . . a blogger.

But first, get my free ebook, follow me on Twitter, sign up for my email newsletter, friend me on Facebook, and leave a comment.

CC Image • Robert S. Donovan on Flickr

A few days ago my apartment complex hosted an Easter egg hunt. As an adult (supposedly) without children, I wasn’t interested in attending, until, that is, I read the rest of the flyer announcing the hunt. In addition to traditional eggs containing candy, there would be three special eggs with either $200, $150, or $100 off of next month’s rent.

Game on.

If they would have asked me to wear a bunny suit for three hours while donning a sandwich board advertising the complex in the midst of the busiest road around here, I would have done as much for that much off my rent.

Approximately 30 people and some of their children showed up. We were given the boundaries of our search around a small man-made lake nearby. We set off. I may have pushed a kid or two out of the way, but you can’t prove it.

While the children grabbed every egg hidden in plain sight, the adults had larger concerns on their minds, bypassing the small eggs, desperately searching for the larger eggs containing pearls of great price. Since the lake is a favored walking area for many in this vicinity, I’m sure the sight was amusing to others in the area—dozens of adults crawling through bushes, peering intently into trees, gently brushing small children aside and almost into the pond itself.

One woman even confided to no one in particular that she’d just lost her job. You could see equal degrees of hope and desperation in her eyes as she scurried around.

I did not win the search. I was disheartened for a few seconds. Maybe I should have picked up a few candy-containing eggs so at least I’d have something to show for my efforts, or to give to one of the small children who accidentally fell into the lake. But those small tokens of Easters past held small meaning to me given the value of those three special eggs.

Then it hit me: I had just lived a parable.

” . . . the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”
- Matthew 13:45-46

To be honest, in my daily life I do not often live as if I truly believe that the “kingdom of heaven” is worth more to me than anything else this world offers. My actions betray me. I’m too often too content with candy when something much more valuable awaits. I seldom search for God as determinedly as I did for those three eggs, allowing myself to get scratched, to get dirty, to go where few others have walked.

But I try and I’d like to believe that in the trying lies a seed of faith.

Maybe I didn’t win a substantial discount off of my rent for next month, but maybe I learned something much more valuable.

On this Easter Sunday, recall the depth of Christ’s love for you.
How he values you far beyond any other.
How he searched for you like a pearl of great price.
How he eschewed the things of this world to do for you what you could never do for yourself.
Then search for him with all you’re worth and all your worth.
He’s not that hard to find either.
Just look outside the empty tomb.

Daniel’s voice has a dash of rasp, evidence that his love song “Irish Whiskey” isn’t just a fictional ode to the drink. It’s the kind of voice that’s subtly powerful, like scotch that scratches your throat but warms your insides.

Private Wars is a quiet album, a rumination on relationships, whether broken, mending, fulfilling, or failing, set to pedal-steel and acoustic guitar. While the album goes down well anywhere (like the focus of “Talulah”), if you’re ever driving through Texas for more than an hour, this is the album you should play. The rolling hills of central Texas, the red dirt and far-reaching vistas of west Texas, the endless roads throughout the state—this is what you’ll be visualizing anyway if you’re listening to Private Wars.

Standout tracks for me include “Skin and Blood,” a cover of Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison,” “You Can Save Me,” and “Talulah.”

The album title comes from a searing lyric in “Skin and Blood,” one of many found throughout the 12-song album:

I never thought that we would be a line drawn in the sand
We took our sides and fought with pride till it all caved in
Every piece of armor and every broken sword
Are testaments to broken bones
In our private war

The lineup of artists who sing and play on the album is impressive: Jaimee Harris, Brian Douglas Phillips, Emily Gimble, Dick Gimble, and John Beland, to name but a few. These are notable names and rising stars in Texas roots rock.

Do yourself a favor and pick up this album, whether at his BandCamp page, on Amazon, or on iTunes.

Lastly, if you’re in the DFW area this weekend, Daniel will be playing a free show at 8pm on Saturday, March 24 at Lone Star Wine Cellars in McKinney.