Writer’s Edge: An alternative for Christian authors

Writer’s Edge: An alternative for Christian authors

writer's edge logoI discovered Writer’s Edge through a little bit of providence. I was flying back home from Arkansas for an Army conference, so I was travelling in uniform. The first flight stopped at the Dallas Fort Worth airport. On that tiny little plane, I sat next to two former military chaplains. Because I was in uniform, we chatted a bit on the plane, and then I ran off once we landed because I had a tight connection to make.

As it turned out, my flight was delayed. Three hours.

Fortunately, the Dallas airport has a great USO where service members can stop in, relax, eat some free food and watch some TV.

At the USO, I met up with the two former chaplains who had flown with me on the plane.

So we chatted some more. I told them I was a public affairs journalist for the Army and what my job entailed, and they shared some of their stories and run-ins with media when they were still serving.

Then, as I usually do, I told the one chaplain, Jim, about my book and how it was a collection of short stories with Christian themes.

He told me about his own book project, which had just been accepted for publication.

My immediate thought was, “Uh-oh. I hope he’s not getting scammed by a vanity press posing itself as a legit publishing company.”

But that wasn’t the case. The publisher had offered him a contract and an advance payment. Everything looked legit.

I asked him how he did it, and he told me that he had submitted his manuscript to Writer’s Edge Services, which works a bit like a literary agency but isn’t a traditional agent.

 

The way it works:

The author pays Writer’s Edge $99.00 to review his book manuscript. No promises are made. The Writer’s Edge assigns the manuscript to an editor to review for quality, and if they deem the book worthy of representation and publishing, they pitch the manuscript to a group of legitimate, traditional publishers.

You can find the list of the publishers they work with here, which includes pressse owned by names like New Leaf, Thomas Nelson and even Random House.

If a publisher accepts the book, Writer’s Edge doesn’t take any money from the contract.

So I gave them a try. Considering how much money I had already spent on promoting Amidst Traffic, I didn’t think $99.00 was a big investment, and I felt confident that the book would be viewed positively.

As it turns out, Writer’s Edge accepted the manuscript! And I even received a human, personalized response based on my book!

I think Writer’s Edge is a great option for Christian Authors who are willing to pay a small fee to have their work evaluated fairly and objectively and see where they stand in terms of quality and marketability. The unfortunate alternative (of submitting a book to a literary agent) can result in rejection letters without any feedback of where your work stands.

Here, at least, you’re guaranteed a response, if nothing else.

But honestly, if I had found out about Writer’s Edge online, I would have been very skeptical. It was much more encouraging having met someone in person who had used their services.

 

What about you?

Have you discovered any literary services that help authors find publishers, but are not exactly Literary Agents?

About Michel Sauret

I'm a independent and literary fiction author and Pittsburgh-based photographer

9 comments

  1. I had also wanted to comment on your Kirkus review post, thank you for that info. I have just self published my first book, and beginning to recognize the magnitude of the self promotions. Also wondering where to put my advertising monies, while not generating much from book sales, yet. Thanks and good luck with the book sales. Sounds interesting!

    • Figuring out exactly where to put the advertising money has been a struggle for me. I’m trying something pretty aggressive right now for a marketing blitz going on in mid-August. If it goes well, I’ll write a post about it with the results.

  2. Thanks for this informative positive. Who to approach to publish your book leaves the writer in a quandary usually. And with all the scams we’ve heard about often we’re afraid to just jump in and choose someone. This sounds like a great way to find out just what you need to know. Do appreciate your sharing your experience with us.

  3. I received a review for my manuscript, but the Writer’s Edge site stated I could update the chapters at any time – so I tried to edit my sample as I new they would not read it until the end of the 6 week timeframe they gave, but was unable to even see the sample, let alone edit it.
    On emailing them multiple times now, I have not received any in reply to this question. Yet I did receive the review a few days later stating I needed too work more on the editing and try again. Only one person reivews the script by the way. ONE PERSONS OPINION. I have had completely different and varied opinions from other companies but this one liked to use all the common suggestions with out much else of note. Not worth $100 for sure. And still I await a response from them.

    • It’s hard exactly to evaluate whether a $100 investment is worth the money or not. It really depends on what kind of response an author receives. I think some authors will receive really positive, encouraging or even fruitful responses, while others may not be received as well, therefore finding the $100 spent to be a waste. I didn’t get picked up by any publishers as a result of my Writer’s Edge investment, but I think that the personal response and feedback I received from them was very encouraging. It validated my view of the publishing world and encouraged me to keep going.

    • Also, take whatever advice you did receive with humility and respect. They may have several valid points in what they said even if you don’t like their general opinion.

      • Thanks. I take back all I said last year. Writer’s Edge did encourage me to strive harder, and on another attempt recently they accepted the submission and provided very personal and delightful comments on the book. They even offered a free submission due to the website issue with not being able to edit my entry. Absolutely happy now!

  4. You stated in the previous comments that, “I didn’t get picked up by any publishers as a result of my Writer’s Edge investment…”
    Why do you think that is?
    And why then do you think your investment was “worth it”, if you did not publish as a result of their services?
    Just the encouragement was enough for the $100 to be worth while?
    Thanks,
    EA

    • Hey Emily,

      Thank you for the comments. In looking back at my comments that you were referring to, I didn’t exactly say that.

      What I mentioned is that it was hard to determine whether this investment was worth it given the no publishing pick-up, but I did find my book review encouraging.

      I don’t know whether I would sign up with Writer’s Edge again or not, to be honest. I think in my case I didn’t get picked up by a publisher because even though my book’s writing quality was high (it’s won several awards), the genre simply doesn’t mix well with most Christian book publishers.

      Having my book reviewed at least validated my book’s quality.

      Also, here is something else to consider. Most paid book reviewers charge between $100-$150 for a review alone.

      I paid $100, hoping to get a publisher but got at least a review I could use for marketing material, so it wasn’t a total loss.

      God bless!

      Michel

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