Terms of Service

TERMS OF SERVICE

THE LEGAL AGREEMENTS SET OUT BELOW GOVERN YOUR USE OF ALL WRITER’S EDGE SERVICES. TO AGREE TO THESE TERMS, CLICK “I AGREE TO THE TERMS OF SERVICE.” IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THESE TERMS, DO NOT CLICK “I AGREE TO THE TERMS OF SERVICE” AND DO NOT USE THESE SERVICES.

You agree that you will pay for the services you purchase through the Writer’s Edge, and that Writer’s Edge may charge your payment method for the services purchased. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE TIMELY PAYMENT OF ALL FEES AND FOR PROVIDING WRITER’S EDGE WITH A VALID PAYMENT METHOD FOR PAYMENT OF ALL FEES.

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Promotional coupons have expiration dates and if not used by the expiration date or are not properly entered at the time of subscription, refunds will not be given.

Submission of your manuscript and clicking “AGREE” indicates you have read the material at the Writer’s Edge website, including the FAQ page, and that you understand how the Writer’s Edge program works and agree to its processes and terms.

Once you submit, you will be given a password to access your account. You will be able to change or modify certain portions of your entry that include your sample chapters, your expanded outline/synopsis, and your personal contact information. However, by agreeing to these terms you are also agreeing to allow the Writer’s Edge editors to edit, modify, update, or change the Category, Manuscript Description, and Resume wording you send in order to enhance it and/or make it fit our editorial standards. This only applies to the “Brief Description” copy seen by the publishers and posted on the website. The Writer’s Edge editors will not change or alter your manuscript or outline in any way. Once you submit your material, while you can return to your account to modify your chapters and/or your outline-synopsis, you will not be able to modify the website posting or the copy sent to the publishers. If your copy is modified, you will be asked to “approve” the copy that will be sent to the publishers and posted on the website, but you will not be able to personally alter or change it.

You will receive the results of our evaluation in four to six weeks. There is no guarantee of acceptance by our evaluating editors. The Writer’s Edge serves both writers and publishers and seeks to raise the quality of Christian publishing in both.

If our reviewers find your manuscript unsuitable for publishing, you will receive a letter of counsel and suggestion. In that case your manuscript information will not appear in the Writer’s Edge listing sent to publishers, nor on the Writer’s Edge Service website. No refunds will be given for manuscripts deemed unsuitable for the Publisher’s Report. However, other resources and/or helps and options will be offered to you.

If, in our reviewers’ judgment, your manuscript passes the basic criteria of “publishing potential,” information about its content, category, and format, along with author information, will be included in the information furnished to our qualifying publishers, which is distributed at the end of each month. It is this material you are agreeing to allow our editors to edit to enhance and/or fit our standards.

Currently, about 25-30% of the submitted manuscripts are accepted for the Writer’s Edge monthly report.

All accepted entries will be reported via email to the participating publishers including all author contact information. In addition, we will post approved proposals on the Writer’s Edge website but exclude any personal contact information. By agreeing to these terms you are granting permission to Writer’s Edge Service to include your listing in the approved publisher report including your personal contact information and posting your proposal on the Writer’s Edge website excluding your personal contact information. Any interested publisher not on our current list of qualified publishers who view your listing at the website will be required to contact Writer’s Edge to get your personal contact information.

Writer’s Edge Service makes every effort to pre-qualify reputable publishers who make our “approved” list. Writer’s Edge Service attempts to screen out “self” or “vanity” publishers. However, some approved royalty-based publishers also offer reputable publishing partnerships as one part of their publishing enterprise. If an inquiring publisher is deemed qualified by Writer’s Edge Service, you agree to allow us to furnish your personal contact information. However, Writer’s Edge Service accepts no responsibility for the terms, offers, proposals, or approach any publisher may take in contacting you.

The Writer’s Edge Service is not a literary agency. Writer’s Edge Service will not send your individual manuscript to any publisher or follow up with any publisher. If publishers are interested, they will contact you directly. The publishers (listed on our website) make their own decision on what manuscripts, if any, they follow up from the reports we send them. Some “approved” manuscripts that make the report may not have any publisher follow up and some writers may not receive any offers from publishers. Writer’s Edge Service does not guarantee, nor can they predict which publishers, if any, will follow up on a given manuscript on the monthly reports.

The Writer’s Edge Service reserves the right to terminate any subscriber for use of this website if, in the opinion of the administrator, a violation has occurred. This may include, but is not limited to, any material added, modified, changed, or included by a subscriber in his or her synopsis or sample chapters. Material subject to this termination is at the sole discretion of the site administrator.

REFUNDS AND RETURNS. NO SUBMISSIONS WILL BE RETURNED AND NO MONIES WILL BE REFUNDED FOR REJECTED MANUSCRIPTS.

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DISCLOSURE: The Writer’s Edge Service is owned and operated by William and Nancie Carmichael. The Carmichaels also own and/or operate: Carmichael Publishing; HonestEditing.com; Deep River Books LLC; PartnerPublishers® Inc., VMI Publishers LLC; National Book Review, JazzEbook.com and Writer’s Breakaway.

PRIVACY: From time to time, some of these other related entities, products, or services that are owned by William and Nancie Carmichael may be advertised on the Writer’s Edge website or offered by email to the Writer’s Edge subscribers. However, your personal information will not be sold, solicited, or used by any other companies or outside services other than the publishers listed on this website, and will not be used for any other purpose other than those described above. You will have the option to opt out of any future emails, newsletters, announcements or other communications from Writer’s Edge and/or the related entities owned by William and Nancie Carmichael.

 

Think about the back cover copy of a good book. Try to describe in a few words the essence and “hooks” that will convey your book’s content in the best possible way. Here is a sample of a book that landed a publisher:
(Working Title: The Wooing of Jane Grey)
Jane Grey’s life was fine. 
Fabulous career: check. Faithful friend: check. Serving in the church nursery: check. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
And yet… Jane had promised herself she’d never let life become predictable. Now she finds herself thirty-something, feeling a bit lumpy, lonely and lost. A nagging pit in her stomach tells her she desperately needs a change. 
Proving He has a sense of humor, the Lord deposits not one, but two handsome suitors into Jane’s life – seemingly overnight!  Practical Paul Wade, a successful attorney,
seems Jane’s perfect match … on paper. Meanwhile, pro hockey hunkster Lindy Barrett 
is clearly out of her league … or is he?

To decide, Jane must finally seek out that sweet spot lying somewhere between her head and her heart. Whose woo will win the heart of Jane Grey? God knows, but He’s not telling!

Publishers want to know why you are the right person to write this book.  They also want to know what platform or connections you have or can create to help promote your book. Here is a sample:

(Working Title: Overcoming Doubts and Depression)

Dr. Rhonda Wilson is a licensed psychologist and holds two advanced degrees. She has published articles in magazines as well as a Christian women’s suspense novel she self published. She has served as director of counseling for two large churches. Her husband, David, is a pastor of a large metropolitan church inIndianapolis and a successful author. Dr. Wilson speaks at many conferences and venues where this book could be sold.

She also has a blog called “Healthy Minds, Holy Hearts” with over 20,000 followers.

 

 

Here is an example of how to show the scope of your novel so the editor has a good idea of where you are going, how the plot progresses, the conflicts involved in the story and how it ends. Basically, just give a synopsis of the story.
(Working Title: Watercolor Summer)
Kathleen waits in an airport for her flight when she sees a magazine cover that reads,
“ONE MOMENT IN TIME: WHAT IF YOU COULD RELIVE IT?”
This starts Kathleen remembering the summer she turned 13 and how that summer changed her life forever:
As the only child of a southern aristocratic father and a bohemian artist mother, Kat feels out-of-place no matter where she is; even in her own family. Her parents’ differences in background, values and interests seem to always put Kat in the middle of a veiled conflict. In her world, everyone appears to have self-serving motives. As a result, Kat becomes angry and withdrawn.
In her thirteenth summer, 1969, Kat is dragged by her mother to yet another artist colony on the beaches of Northwest Florida. There, her feelings of isolation and hopelessness unleash into a selfish rage. Self-pity overwhelms her and she contemplates every escape, including suicide.
Malcolm, a mentally challenged boy, who is living at the artist colony in Florida, tries to befriend Kat, but Malcolm’s very presence annoys her to her core. Malcolm’s caretaker, Jeanette, a simple, but lov-ing woman who runs the artist colony, becomes the bane of Kat’s existence, peppering seemingly every moment with ridiculous country wisdom and humor.
As the summer progresses, Kat finds out that Malcolm’s parents had abandoned him at the colony when he was five years old. This tugs at Kat’s heart a little, but her guard goes back up when it be-comes more and more likely that her parents are going to end their marriage.
At summer’s end, Malcolm becomes ill. It is revealed that Malcolm has a congenital heart defect that must be repaired if he is to live. Just before he is to leave for New Orleans’ Oschner’s Clinic, a storm at sea begins to brew and his surgery is in question. One afternoon, Kat goes for a swim in the gulf and gets caught in the undertow. Malcolm had been following Kat and tries to rescue her. Rescue comes for both Kat and Malcolm, but Malcolm’s weak heart is made weaker by his struggle in the water.
Malcolm is taken to the local hospital where he is in critical condition. Meanwhile, Hurricane Camille is fast approaching the Gulf Coast. Kat, Jeanette, Mary Alice, Chandler remain at the hospital to keep a vigil and to wait out the storm. Malcolm’s heart, however, is too weak. Sadly, he dies.
At Malcolm’s funeral, Kat sees a woman who she suspects is Malcolm’s biological mother. When Kat voices her suspicions to her mother, Chan tells her daughter that she also believes this was Malcolm’s mother. Mary Alice Spaulding fills in the details of the back-story on Malcolm and his abandonment at the colony. She had been in contact with Vera, Malcolm’s mother for several years. Vera, who was finally free from an abusive husband, moved back near the colony so that she could keep watch over her son from a distance. What seemed at first to be a mother’s selfish act, begins to look more like an act of mercy.
As Kathleen and her mother leave the colony at the end of the summer, Kathleen begins to see how her life is starting to make more sense.
The Epilogue is Kathleen on the flight she was about to catch during the Prologue. She reflects on how the “stains” of her life, like watercolor on paper, have come together to paint a beautiful scene that only God could have anticipated and ordained.

(Working Title: The Grace-Filled Divorce)
“Can I find God in the grief of my divorce?” is the unspoken question of clients who come to me to help them navigate a confusing and terrifying experience.  As Christians, we are told that God is in midst of suffering.  Through his incarnation, we understand that God knows the pain that we feel.  He wept at the tomb of his friend, Lazarus. He suffered and died on the cross.  But the grief and suffering that comes with divorce seems to challenge this assumption.  After all, the Bible clearly states, “God hates divorce.”  For many of my clients, the logical extension is that God must hate me.
As a result, grief in divorce is given short shrift, if it is acknowledged at all.  It is as though divorcing individuals do not have the right to grieve, let alone call upon God in the midst of their suffering.  But centuries of Christian writings and contemplative practices attest to the fact that, in the words of John Keats, this life is the “vale of Soul-making”.   Pain and suffering, whatever the cause, can be transmuted into a deeper and richer experience of God.
The words, “I want a divorce”, place people at a crossroads without markers. How the journey proceeds depends on the choice made at this intersection. One road leads to years, maybe even decades, of anger and vitriol, courtroom battles, custody fights, and, potentially, multiple failed marriages.   The other, less traveled path leads toward peace and a deeper, more nuanced spiritual life. What makes the difference between these two responses to divorce?  The willingness to enter into grief and allow it to become a process for spiritual formation.
My book, The Grace Filled Divorce: An Opportunity for Spiritual Formation is written to help readers understand the experience of grief in divorce on both an interpersonal and spiritual level, to transmute the pain of divorce into a transformative experience.  Beginning with a foreword written by pastor and author, Chuck Smith, Jr., this book interweaves the stories of Christians whose emotional, personal and spiritual life was transformed by the experience of grief in divorce, with ancient Christian spiritual practices and psychological insights and techniques that have benefited hundreds of my clients.  In my practice as a Christian psychologist specializing in relational counseling, I have witnessed the extraordinary benefits that come from consciously entering, with God, into the grief of divorce.  Divorce can be the beginning of a new phase in an individual’s spiritual walk; the benefits can bless the lives of others.
OUTLINE
Foreword by Chuck Smith, Jr.
Preface
Introduction
Chapter one.  When things fall apart: Laying the Groundwork

Chapter two.  Awakening (Candace’s Story)

Chapter three.  The Importance of Grief
Chapter four.   Becoming Myself (Karen’s Story)
Chapter five.  One divorce, two experiences
Chapter six.  New Beginning (Maureen’s Story)
Chapter seven.  Guilt and Shame: Core Issues

Chapter eight.  Letting Go (Joan’s Story)
Chapter nine.  Lessons from Marriage
Chapter ten.  An Amazing Adventure (Jeanne’s Story)
Chapter eleven. Your Ex-spouse: Your emotional workout partner
Chapter twelve.  Finding Goodness (Melissa’s Story)
Conclusion.
Appendices