How StoryBrand Inspires Publishers and Writers

Donald Miller is the CEO of StoryBrand and every year helps more than 3,000 leaders clarify their message. Combined, Don's books have spent more than a year on the New York Times bestsellers list. His books include: Blue Like Jazz, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, and Scary Close. Don is widely considered one of the most entertaining and informative speakers in the world. His audiences are challenged to lean into their own story, creatively develop and execute the story of their team, and understand the story of their customers so they can serve them with passion. Don's thoughts on story have deeply influenced leaders and teams for Pantene, Ford/Lincoln, Zaxby's, Chick-fil-A, Steelcase, Intel, Prime Lending and thousands more.

About Donald Miller

Donald Miller is the CEO of StoryBrand and every year helps more than 3,000 business leaders clarify their brand message. Combined, Don's books have spent more than a year on the New York Times Bestsellers list. His books include: Blue Like Jazz, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, and Scary Close. Don is widely considered one of the most entertaining and informative speakers in the world. His audiences are challenged to lean into their own story, creatively develop and execute the story of their team, and understand the story of their customers so they can serve them with passion. Don's thoughts on story have deeply influenced leaders and teams for Pantene, Ford/Lincoln, Zaxby's, Chick-fil-A, Steelcase, Intel, Prime Lending and thousands more.

Mythbusters: Publishing Edition

With all the confusing—and sometimes conflicting—advice about writing careers and publishing, it’s sometimes hard to know what to believe. We’ve polled editorial and marketing staff at large and small Christian publishing companies to get their thoughts on ten common questions submitted by authors at all points in their career. This session will take you through the data and sort myth from fact, along with a detailed handout breaking down information about everything from publisher etiquette to sales trends to the future of the genre as a whole.

About Amy Green

Amy Green has been the Senior Fiction Publicist at Bethany House Publishers since 2013. Her typical day might involve planning book tours, handling media requests, interacting with reviewers, answering author questions about marketing, and other tasks designed to introduce readers to great books. She graduated from Taylor University with a degree in Professional Writing and was excited to find a job with a publisher whose books she’s loved since childhood. You can find her running Bethany House’s social media and blogging every Thursday at bethanyfiction.com—feel free to stop by and comment anytime!

About Dan Balow

Dan Balow has worked in Christian publishing for over 35 years, primarily with the business-side of the industry (marketing, sales, foreign and domestic rights management, audio books, digital publishing, acquisitions and as author agent). He founded Gilead Publishing (www.gileadpublishing.com), a startup traditional publisher of Christian themed fiction in 2016, serving as its CEO and publisher.

About Shannon Marchese

Shannon Marchese is a publishing professional with more than 20 years of experience in producing and promoting Christian books, including best-selling authors Cindy Woodsmall, Matthew Paul Turner, Jessica Honegger, Jo Saxton, Kim Vogel Sawyer, and many others. Her current role is Executive Editor at WaterBrook Multnomah and Convergent, the religious imprints at Penguin Random House. She originally hails from Ohio, but she and her family call Colorado Springs home.

How to Write Books That Outlast You

What if our calling is not merely to write well for our generation but also to create works that will outlast us? Sometimes to create something new but also lasting, you have to return to something old. This session will give practical tips to contemporary writers on how to take the long view by examining how classic authors structured their famous works and how those works have stood the test of time. By joining with the great Christian creatives who have gone before us, authors can add depth to their stories and celebrate where fiction is going next.

About Sarah Arthur

Sarah Arthur is the author of a dozen nonfiction books on the intersection of faith and literary classics, including A Light So Lovely (Zondervan), the recent spiritual biography of Madeleine L’Engle. She's a founding board member of the C.S. Lewis Festival, teaches writing workshops at events such as the Calvin College Festival of Faith & Writing, and serves as a preliminary fiction judge for the Christianity Today Book Awards.

Difficult Topics, Happily Ever After and Hope

This panel of authors will share their thoughts on how to connect effectively with today’s reader. Are there any topics that turn audiences away? How do you deal with negative feedback from readers…or editors? What are the best ways to include spiritual truth without seeming heavy-handed or preachy? Our panel of experts will give specific, practical advice from their varying perspectives.

About Jerry Jenkins

Jerry B. Jenkins is the author of more than 195 books with over 70 million copies sold. Most known as the writer of the Left Behind series, he has had 21 titles reach the New York Times bestseller list, 7 debuting at number one. His writing has appeared in TIME, Reader’s Digest, Parade, Guideposts, Writer’s Digest, and dozens of other magazines. Jerry has written biographies with Hank Aaron, Walter Payton, Nolan Ryan, Bill Gaither, and many others. He also assisted Billy Graham with his autobiography, Just As I Am, which Jerry considers “the privilege of a lifetime.” Jerry teaches writing through his Jerry Jenkins Writers Guild at JerryJenkins.com.

About Carla Laureano

Carla Laureano is the RITA® award-winning author of Five Days in Skye and London Tides as well as the Celtic fantasy series The Song of Seare (as C. E. Laureano). A graduate of Pepperdine University, she worked as a sales and marketing executive for nearly a decade before leaving corporate life behind to write fiction full-time. She currently lives in Denver with her husband and two sons.

About Charles Martin

Charles Martin is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of 13 novels. He and his wife, Christy, live in Jacksonville, Florida. Learn more about him at charlesmartinbooks.com. Facebook: Author.Charles.Martin Twitter: @storiedcareer

About Joanne Bischof

Joanne Bischof writes deeply layered fiction that tugs at the reader’s heartstrings. Her 2016 novel, The Lady and the Lionheart, received an extraordinary 5 Star TOP PICK! from Romantic Times Book Reviews and was the recipient of the 2017 Christy Award, Carol Award, and INSPY Award for Historical Romance. She lives in the mountains of Southern California with her three children and is currently working on a new two-book series for Thomas Nelson/HarperCollins Christian (releasing 2018). You can find her online at www.joannebischof.com.

About Beth Adams

Beth Adams acquires both fiction and non-fiction for Howard Books, an imprint of Simon and Schuster. Some of the bestsellers she’s worked on at Howard include Roma Downey’s Box of Butterflies, Karen Kingsbury’s Love Story, Allison Pataki’s The Accidental Empress, and Life is Short, by Dr. Jennifer Arnold and Bill Klein. Before joining Howard Books in 2012, she worked at Random House and Guideposts. She graduated from Princeton University and has a master’s degree in English from New York University. She is the author or co-author of more than thirty novels under various pen names, which she will reveal for the right price..