Mike Parker is the publisher and acquiring editor for WordCrafts Press.

An award-winning freelance writer, actor, director, novelist, playwright & screenwriter, Mike earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Bible and Philosophy, served as an officer with the US Army Special Forces (Green Berets), and pursued a career as a stock broker during the great bull market of the 1980s before launching into the uncertain world of music, television, theatre, film and publishing. He previously served as managing editor for Grassroots Music Magazine and TrueTunes Magazine before founding WordCrafts Press and its sister companies, WordCrafts Theatrical Press and Rule 14 Pictures.

WordCrafts publishes fiction, nonfiction and stage plays for both the Christian and general markets.

Mike is actively seeking adult and young adult fiction in the following genres:

Historical (including Biblical)
Contemporary
Women’s fiction
Fantasy
SciFi
Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Horror
Romance
Young Adult
Middle Grade

Mike is actively seeking nonfiction titles in the following categories:

Memoir
Biography
Self-help
Humor
Travel
Business
Motivation
Mentoring

Mike is actively seeking stage plays in any genre, but is particularly interested in scripts offering strong roles for females.

If you are coming to the in-person 2024 Tennessee Writing Workshop, you may be thinking about pitching our agent-in-attendance or editor-in-attendance. An in-person pitch is an excellent way to get an agent excited about both you and your work. Here are some tips (from a previous year’s instructor, Chuck Sambuchino) that will help you pitch your work effectively at the event during a 10-minute consultation. Chuck advises that you should:

• Try to keep your pitch to 90 seconds. Keeping your pitch concise and short is beneficial because 1) it shows you are in command of the story and what your book is about; and 2) it allows plenty of time for back-and-forth discussion between you and the agent. Note: If you’re writing nonfiction, and therefore have to speak plenty about yourself and your platform, then your pitch can certainly run longer.
• Practice before you get to the event. Say your pitch out loud, and even try it out on fellow writers. Feedback from peers will help you figure out if your pitch is confusing, or missing critical elements. Remember to focus on what makes your story unique. Mystery novels, for example, all follow a similar formula — so the elements that make yours unique and interesting will need to shine during the pitch to make your book stand out.
• Do not give away the ending. If you pick up a DVD for Die Hard, does it say “John McClane wins at the end”? No. Because if it did, you wouldn’t buy the movie. Pitches are designed to leave the ending unanswered, much like the back of any DVD box you read.
• Have some questions ready. 10 minutes is plenty of time to pitch and discuss your book, so there is a good chance you will be done pitching early. At that point, you are free to ask the agent questions about writing, publishing or craft. The meeting is both a pitch session and a consultation, so feel free to ask whatever you like as long as it pertains to writing.
• Remember to hit the big beats of a pitch. Everyone’s pitch will be different, but the main elements to hit are 1) introducing the main character(s) and telling us about them, 2) saying what goes wrong that sets the story into motion, 3) explaining how the main character sets off to make things right and solve the problem, 4) explaining the stakes — i.e., what happens if the main character fails, and 5) ending with an unclear wrap-up.