By Laura Christianson

Carla Williams, Editorial Director for The WinePress Group, is a finalist for the 2010 Editor of the Year award, part of the Golden Scroll Awards that recognize the editors and publishing houses that best demonstrate outstanding ministry partnerships with their authors.

Sponsored by the  Advanced Writers & Speakers Association (AWSA), the awards banquet will be June 27 at the Crowne Plaza St. Louis Downtown, prior to the opening of the International Christian Retail Show (ICRS). AWSA consists of more than 250 Christian women authors and speakers.

Other finalists for Editor of the Year include Lonnie Hull DuPont (Baker Publishing Group) and Cindy Lambert (Zondervan).

Fiction Editor of the Year finalists are Sue Brower (Zondervan), Melissa Endlich (Steeple Hill) and Barbara Scott (Abingdon Press).

Publisher of the Year finalists are Guideposts Books, Harvest House Publishers and Tyndale House Publishers.

Carla says she was “totally shocked” when she was notified of the nomination. “I never considered myself as ‘one of them’ and feel honored to stand with those I respect in the industry.”

Carla believes that her nomination reflects how hard WinePress works to ensure that their books are of the highest quality possible, both inside and out.

Carla Williams and her good friend, Cec Murphey, at the Florida Christian Writers Conference 2010.

Carla has a long history in the publishing industry, both as an author and an editor. I asked her to share her story with us:

What started out, over ten years ago, helping a friend turned into a new adventure in my publishing career. WinePress had a big gap in the editing department and needed direction. I started out consulting and soon created the Editorial Director position.

Since I had been in the industry as a freelancer and conference director for over a decade, I had connections to find information on how to set up an editorial department, and later the publicity and marketing department.

Clueless, I begged God for help—which of course he supplied abundantly.  I began hiring acquisitions editors from the major houses who had encouraged me along the way.

About five years later, my pastor husband Timothy was asked to direct the business as the Executive Publisher. He took the company, now incorporated, to an extremely high standard of organization and publishing excellence.

As the industry changes and WinePress has proven to be a superior company to work with, more professional editors asked to work with us. We also have been blessed to provide work for stay-at-home moms, which is one of Timothy’s and my strong passions.

One of my biggest challenges has been to keep our writing guidelines updated and at a level of excellence. I periodically spend hours and hours looking over our guides, talking with other editing experts in the industry about types of edits, costs, and methods to continually raise our bar of editing excellence.  Our editorial goal is to bring our authors’ writing to the highest level of quality possible.

Because of our publishing mission to craft every book–including editing and marketing–to fit each author and message, we are known in the industry as partners in “custom” publishing.  This is especially seen through the gentleness, honesty, and tact of our thirty-plus editors. All our editors are wonderful to work with and love mentoring and guiding our authors. They are a joy to work with and make my job easy.

As an AWSA member myself, I feel deeply honored to stand with some of the best in the industry, many of whom have taught and encouraged me in my own writing career.