FAQ

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

I want to be a writer, can you help me?

The best thing I can do to help, is point you in the right direction. Here’s my best advice:

  1. Read. Read. Read everything that captures your interest, especially great writers. Study the sentence structure, the descriptions, the point of views chosen, chapter length, word choices, the way the writer evokes emotion … all of it.
  2. Besides novels, or books you like, you should be reading every writing how to book you can get your hands on.

    Here are a few of my favorites:

    • Elements of Style, Strunk and Wagoner
    • Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Browne & King
    • Hooked, Les Edgarton
    • Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott
    • Making a Literary Life, Carolyn See
    • Word Painting, Rebecca McClanahan
    • Writing Down the Bones, Goldberg
    • Plot & Structure, James Scott Bell
    • Zen in the Art of Writing, Bradbury
    • The Breakout Novelist, Maass
  3. Research a good writers’ conference, and get yourself to one. There are very specific ways of doing things, and you need to learn what they are, unless you relish rejection. Editors are looking not for a way to accept your manuscript, but rather to reject it as quickly as possible. These conferences will teach you how to get rejected slower at least, and eventually, God-willing, published. Besides that, you’ll learn different types of writing avenues and may find out you’re not a novelist at all, but a health writer or devotionalist, or a graphic novel writer. The best part of writers’ conferences isn’t even all you learn, it’s the people you will meet. Networking is so important in this business, and even more important than that is friendships. I am still great friends with the folks I met at my first conference. Some became mentors, writers who worked for me, editors, publishers, agents, and peers. Trust me. The money is very well-spent.


One more point. You don’t need an agent until your work is as good or better than the bestsellers you are reading. The worst thing that could happen to you as a writer is to actually get published before you’re ready.

And yet another point . . . If you are going to ask a writer for advice or help, the very least you can do is buy that writers books first and read them. A. You want to be sure this person whose advice you are requesting is actually a good writer. B. You want their time and support, so support them first. It will endear you to them.

As far as mentoring, many writers, myself included, can be hired (remember this is a job for us), to coach you. Please contact me through my contact page to inquire about these services that I will offer as time allows.

My life story would make a great book and I need someone to write it.

Here’s the thing, we all have stories. Many of our lives are interesting, but usually, just to us. Many writers start out by writing their own life-stories, but those are seldom ever published. It just seems to be that some writers need to expel a cathartic autobiography before they can get to writing the stuff that’s interesting to everyone else. As for me writing it for you, I also have an interesting life story, but I’m not writing that one either. At least not yet. You need to write your own story. It’s good practice and great therapy. Unless you’re rich, in which case, feel free to hire a ghost-writer. (See below for prices).

I have a great idea for a story, but I don’t want to write it. Can you?

Ideas are a dime a dozen. That’s the easy part. The hard part is actually laboring over the words and fashioning them into something people actually would pay to read. I have more ideas for stories than I have years of life left. If you have a great story, write it. No one can tell it like you can anyway. If you’d like to discuss me taking on writing your story, I would charge at least fifty thousand. That’s how much work it is.

How did you get started writing?

I always knew I could write (creatively), but because it came so easy for me, I thought everyone could do it. I remember writing A-earning essays for high-school English classes in the five-minutes between entering a class and the bell ringing. When my friends told me that writing was hard for them, I was honestly astonished! In college, I remember watching the delighted face of my professor as he read through one of my essays. That man seldom looked anything other than bored when reading our papers. It was at that moment that I realized I had a gift. Flash forward to adulthood, I was a stay-at-home mom for a period and wanted a way to bring in extra income I tried to get greeting cards published. They were AWFUL. Then I tried children’s stories . . . also awful. (Although I didn’t know it at the time).  Next, I tried my hand at writing articles and actually had my first taste of success when I was published in a local magazine. The problem was that it was so much work for so little money and I didn’t enjoy the work. I eventually gave up my get-rich-quick writing scheme, until . . .

I was sitting in church one day when a teenager told the congregation that she was working on her second novel. I couldn’t believe my ears! How could a kid write an entire novel? I started researching and read that if you wrote one page a day for a year, you would have a novel length manuscript at the end of that year.  Writing a novel seemed impossible, but writing one page a day? That I could do! As it turns out, writing one page, sometimes leads to writing more and I had my first full-length manuscript in four months. It was awful and I think I killed off my antagonist halfway through the book, but hey, I proved to myself that I could write an entire novel. After that, and many, many, many rejections, I finally splurged on a writer’s conference and learned that there are rules to writing and getting published.

I wrote four novels, full and partial, before finally getting my first novel published in 2011 … about seven years after completing my first novel and about ten years from the time I started writing with the purpose of publication. If I would have known how much time, work and tears that first novel would cost me, I doubt I would have done it. That novel, Crossing Oceans, went on to win a ridiculous amount of awards and was a best-seller. Those years of so-called failed attempts paid off! If that first novel had been published, as I desperately wanted and prayed for, it would have flopped and that would have been the end of my writing career (or at least a horrible embarrassment).

Would you come speak to my book club?

I love connecting to readers at book clubs, ladies’ groups, and teaching at conferences. Because this is a job, and my time is extremely limited, I must charge a nominal fee in most cases. I live in coastal NC, so if you’re not near me, we could arrange a Skype or Facetime meeting. Contact me at authorginaholmes@gmail.com  to discuss.

Can I have a free book?

This question is akin to your boss asking you to work the day without pay and sounds to others like, ‘I should get paid for my work, but you shouldn’t.’  Most writers are starving artists. I would be homeless if I wasn’t also a Registered Nurse, and I’m a best-seller!  Writers’ books are already free at libraries everywhere and re-sold without royalties going to us. Please support a writer and buy their book new. If you truly cannot afford to do that, you can still help an author out by going to your local library and asking the librarian to order the book you’re wanting to read. In many cases, they will!

How do you come up with your book ideas?

Sometimes dreams, sometimes news, or a show or movie I’ve seen that sparks an idea that later sparks another idea, overheard conversations, you name it. Ideas really come from everywhere. Some ideas, like the one for Crossing Oceans, feel God-sent. An inciting incident pops into my mind and I can’t stop thinking about it. These are the best!  For Crossing Oceans, I was lying on the couch, ready to take a nap when an idea, (seemingly out of nowhere), came to mind of ‘What if a mother learns she’s dying and never told her daughter’s father that she was pregnant and now has to ask him to raise this child he knew nothing about?’

I have dozens of book premises at any given time, but the one I can’t stop thinking about is the one I write. I feel that being a writer, a good (hopefully) writer, is a God-given gift. The ideas just come easier to us than non-writers. It’s a mystery to us too.

Are you working on anything new? If so, can you tell us about it?

Always and sadly, no. When I talk about what I’m working on, it makes the muse lazy. Besides, I have started a dozen novels I’ve chosen not to continue with. Since I’ve been on hiatus due to previous health and personal issues for such a long time, I will say, I’m in a much better place these days and I absolutely am working on a novel. Thank you for asking!

Can I interview you for my newspaper, magazine, blog, YouTube channel, etc?

Heck yes, It’s rare I turn down free publicity. Contact me at authorginaholmes@gmail.com

How can I support you as an author?

Thank you so much for those that ask this question. Obviously buy my books new, request your library carry them, talk about the ones you like to everyone who will listen, post the cover, synopsis and link to buy on your social media accounts. Write reviews and then repost those reviews on your social media accounts. I really appreciate when folks do any of these things, so, so much.