Whitney Award Finalists Announced!

This year’s Whitney Award Finalists are listed below in alphabetical order by author. Congrats to all nominated authors.

Who do you think should win? ;)

BEST ROMANCE:
Counting the Cost, by Liz Adair; Illuminations of the Heart, by Joyce DiPastena; All the Stars in Heaven, by Michele Paige Holmes; Santa Maybe, by Aubrey Mace; Previously Engaged, by Elodia Strain.

MYSTERY/SUSPENSE:
Lockdown, by Traci Hunter Abramson; Methods of Madness, by Stephanie Black; Murder by the Book, by Betsy Brannon Green; Lemon Tart, by Josi Kilpack; Altered State, by Gregg Luke.

YOUTH FICTION:
Princess of the Midnight Ball, by Jessica Day George; Fablehaven IV: Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary, by Brandon Mull; My Fair Godmother, by Janette Rallison; Bright Blue Miracle, by Becca Wilhite; The Chosen One, by Carol Lynch Williams.

SPECULATIVE:
Servant of a Dark God, by John Brown; The Maze Runner, by James Dashner; Wings, by Aprilynne Pike; Warbreaker, by Brandon Sanderson; I Am Not A Serial Killer, by Dan Wells.

HISTORICAL:
Tribunal, by Sandra Grey; The Undaunted, by Gerald Lund; Alma, by H.B. Moore; The Last Waltz, by G.G. Vandagriff; In the Company of Angels, by Dave Wolverton.

GENERAL FICTION:
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, by Jamie Ford; No Going Back, by Jonathon Langford; Gravity vs. The Girl, by Riley Noehren; The Route, by Gale Sears; Eyes Like Mine, by Julie Wright.

This ballot now goes out to members of the voting academy, a select group of LDS publishers; bookstore owners, managers, and employees; LDS authors; print and online magazine publishers; reviewers; and others working in the field of LDS literature.
Unlike previous voting, this year the academy can choose from any of the thirty finalists for the overall award, Best Novel by a New Author, and from any of the eligible finalists for Best Novel by a New Author.

Winners will be announced at a gala banquet on Saturday, April 24 at the Marriott
hotel in Provo, Utah. Tickets are now on sale at www.WhitneyAwards.com.

Special awards will also be presented that night to two persons whose bodies of works and tireless efforts have made a significant impact on the field of LDS popular fiction. Gerald Lund will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award, and Dave Wolverton will receive an Outstanding Achievement Award.

For more information on the Whitney Awards, visit www.whitneyawards.com.

South Towne AUTHORPALOOZA!!!

For those of you in the Salt Lake Valley looking for a great store to stop by tomorrow (Saturday), check out the South Towne Barnes & Noble's Authorpalooza where 40 authors will be signing from 1:00-4:00 pm.

Yes, you read right: 40! It's inevitable that you will find a book or an author there that will make the trip worthwhile :)

Need directions?

If you're an author, be sure to introduce yourself to Michelle and let her know what a great job she is doing and how much you would like to be part of the event next year!

Titles in DB's Mother's Day Catalog

Hello All!

Just got word of which titles have been accepted into the Deseret Book Mother's Day catalog. They are as follows:

Life's Alphabet Soup
Mother's Daze
Diet Rebel's Cookbook
101 Gourmet Cupcakes
Always Remember Him
The Mark
Wrong Number
Tombs of Terror
Taming the Wind
Canticle Kingdom
He Knows You

Congrats! This is great exposure and, consequently, a great time to bust a move with any personal marketing efforts and signings.

This is going to be a great year!

Got Articles?

Writing articles for publications is one great way to expand the readership of your books. It allows you to provide valuable information you specialize in to a magazine or other publication. In return, you nearly always get to mention your book in your bio and you might even get paid!

There are some great online magazines that would be a great fit for many cfi authors. A few include:

www.ldsmag.com
http://desertsaintsmagazine.com/call-for-writers/
http://www.jenmagazine.com/contents.php
http://ldslivingmagazine.com/
http://www.mormonchic.com/

This, of course, is just a start of online magazines targeted towards an LDS audience, but each is a valid communitee that may be where your target audience is gathering.

Research online magazines you think would be interested in what you have to offer and see what they're looking for. The Desert Saints Magazine tells you the theme of each month so you can better craft your content for them. Maybe you can let them print a chapter or reapproach a chapter in your book to make it a stand alone article that will be exactly what the magazine is praying for. If you do that a couple times in a row, you may jut find yourself with a fun, easy part-time job that continuously exposes readers to your book.

This week's challenge is to find a magazine that needs your content and send them an article (finding a few images they can print, as well). Good things start with small steps!

If you have questions about article writing, a CFI author has recommeded "An Idiot's Guide to Writing Magazine Articles." It helped her and it could help you, too!

Ebooks and Catalogs

Okay, first off: news that is relevant to EVERYONE:

Ebooks have been on the rise for several years now. Kindle brought them to to forefront and now they're all but mainstream. Old school people like me will always buy the book because I like the heft, turning the pages and being able to tell at a glance how much I have left before I'm finished. Plus, I have the gift of destroying any electronic device that gets too close.

I'll stick to books.

But for those of you who are all over the new e-readers, HEAR YE, HEAR YE! Cedar Fort has signed an exclusive contract with Barnes & Noble's new NOOK.

Now, if I were going to buy an e-reader, I would definitely choose the Nook, because the marketing and perks beat Kindle hands down in my mind. All the pre-orders have sold out on the product and the demand is huge.

That is where your book will be sold exclusively. Why exclusively? Because that gives you, the author, a much bigger royalty. And when I say much bigger, I mean MUCH bigger.

So look for your book when Nook starts hitting the street!

Second, I promised to update you all as to which books made it into Books & Things. Here they are (in order by page):

I Know My Saviour Lives (cover)

101 Gourmet Cupcakes in 10 Minutes

They Walked With God

OTME series

Nephi in the Promised Land

65 Signs of the Times

Agent Bishop

Temple Worship Simplified

Where the Sun Rises

The Dragon War Relic

Mario's Conviction

In Love Again and Always

Soul Searching

Completely Breakfast

Go-Spell

Spice Up Your Life

Adventures with the Word of God

FHE Adventures

Monday Nights in Jerusalem

The Old Testament Puzzle Book

Centsible Meals

Fearless Dating

Prophets Game

Simply Singing Time

Primarily for Cub Scouts

Ready Resource for Relief Society

Tiny Talks

That is a serious list and they're all big ads, so congrats and have a great week!

Books in Catalog

I know many of you wonder what catalogs your books have been accepted into. The 3 main catalogs CFI submits to in the LDS market are Deseret Book, Seagull and Books & Things (Independent store catalog). In upcoming issues the following books have been confirmed to be featured:

Deseret Book Spring Conference Catalog features are:

He Knows You
Where the Sun Rises
Devinely Designed
Hashbrown Winters and the Mashimoto Madness

Titles featured in the January Seagull Catalog are:

Agent Bishop
65 Signs of the Times
Old Testament Made Easier
I Know My Savior Lives
Ready Resource for Relief Society
Tiny Talks

I don't have the nxt Books & Things titles yet, but I will le tyou know when I do!

Have a great 2010 :)

Hashbrown Winters Create-A-Character Contest Winner Revealed

Congratualtions to Kaitlyn Larkin of Sunrise Elementary, winner of the Hashbrown Winters Create-A-Character Contest!!! Her character, Nathaniel "Nugget" Nottingham will appear in the third Hashbrown adventure due out this fall!

Thanks to everyone who attended and made the event a success!