Getting to Know: Scribblers Christian Writers Club

By Tana Poncsak

Are you a reader looking for some great books or a writer looking for a great writing community and resources to help get your works published? Either way, Scribblers Christian Writers Club may be a place for you.

Charles de Andrade started the community in 2015 when he and two other writers got together to swap ideas about writing and publishing. The other two writers have since moved on from the group, but de Andrade has not only stayed the course, but he also continues to lead the community that now has thirty-two published authors with about ninety-five published titles as of December 2022, and overall, around fifty committed members. Another 250 people have signed up for the community’s newsletter.

“It was amazing how many Christian writers there were either thinking about being published or had been published and needed a group of folks of like minds to talk to,” de Andrade said.

For de Andrade, the community is a ministry.

“It’s a nonprofit, but it’s where I pour my spare time,” he said. “It’s neat to give a place where Christian authors have a voice.”

While some, including de Andrade, are overtly Christian writers, he said the rule is you don’t have to be an overtly Christian writer to join the community. You just can’t be anti-Christian.

Over time, Scribblers has evolved from being a place where authors could just talk with a group of other writers to a community that also offers several resources such as editors, narrators, illustrators, and more to help both novice and professional writers on their publishing journey. And there are other benefits, too – like attending events as a group to split the cost, making events such as book festivals more cost effective for the individuals.

For readers there’s an online bookstore offering many titles in different genres from children’s books, historical books, and more.

One of the group’s biggest challenge is spreading the word about community and making people aware of the selection of books they have to offer on the Scribbler’s website.

“It’s turned into a real group of folks that help one another get their works published,” de Andrade said. “And we have an amazing collection of genres, especially if people are looking for children’s books and historical books, some with local relevance. We also have crime and murder mysteries. It’s such a broad base of different types of writing.”

For writers today, de Andrade said the barrier to entry into publishing is the lowest it’s been.

“If you have a story to tell, you can get it out there and at a relatively low investment,” he said.

But with the ease of publishing comes the challenge of marketing.

“Marketing is the most difficult part of being a writer,” de Andrade said. “It’s time consuming and can be costly. Everyone would like to take your money, so you have to be very careful with what you do.”

His advice is to figure out what you can afford and make sure you don’t put your book out there until it’s ready.

Tying all the pieces together to help writers get their books out is an important part of what Scribblers is all about, and de Andrade said

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