Teaching Services

Are you looking for an experienced teacher for your next writers conference, seminar, group meeting, or college writing class?

Lin Johnson consistently garners praise for her classes. She has taught at dozens of conferences across the country and internationally, in addition to teaching college classes in writing and Christian education. She especially likes to get beginning writers started right, and they appreciate her perspectives from both sides of the desk—in-house and freelance.

Interested in having Lin on faculty?

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Lin Johnson speaking at Montrose

Lin Johnson’s Classes

CONTINUING CLASSES (3-6 or more hours)

Do you like to write but don’t know how to get your words published? Are you tired of receiving rejection letters instead of checks? Do you long to see your name in print? Learn the nuts and bolts of getting published in this class. Topics include focusing your ideas for publication, targeting the right markets for your ideas, writing articles, manuscript format, rights and copyright, query letters, keeping records, dealing with rejection, and basic resources you’ll need.

If you want to get your message to the widest audience, write for magazines. This class will help you focus, research, and structure articles in general. Plus you’ll learn how to write a variety of types of articles.

If you want to get published, you need to know how to market your manuscripts. Learn how to find the right markets for them, submit them so editors will read them, and write irresistible query letters and proposals. Plus tips for multiplying your sales. 

If you like to study the Bible and have teaching experience, you have two basics for becoming a curriculum writer. Learn the types of curricula editors are looking for, how to get assignments, and current markets. Discover how to write to meet teachers’ and learners’ needs, including an understanding of the teaching/learning process and details of writing lesson plans and Bible study guides. Lin is a curriculum specialist who has written for a number of curriculum publishers.

If you have a book idea, find out how to develop it into a salable manuscript, find the right market, write a proposal, and negotiate a fair contract. This class is not genre specific, so no matter what kind of book you’re writing, it will help you sell it to an editor or agent.

Writing involves more than putting words on screen or page; there’s a whole world of lifestyle/business aspects to deal with as well. Learn to gather ideas, find time to write, deal with rejections, develop positive relationships with editors, organize your resources and records, deal with income/expenses, and set goals. [combination of several workshops listed below]

ELECTIVES (45-60 minutes)

If you want to get published, you need to know how to market your manuscripts. Learn 10 commandments for selling your manuscripts plus tips for multiplying your sales. 

Writers who make sales and get assignments not only have good content but also clean copy. Learn how to think like an editor to clean up your manuscripts before sending them.

Contrary to popular opinion, writing is more than writing. It’s also a business. What kinds of records do you need to keep? How do you report your income to the IRS? What expenses can you deduct to lower your taxes? What licenses do you need? Get answers to these questions and more to stay in business while you write.

If you wish you had more time to write, these practical tips and an application exercise will help you make the time to start or expand your writing ministry.

If you like to read and hate rejection slips, writing book reviews may be an option for you. Find out how to review a book, get assignments, and keep editors happy from someone who has written hundreds of book reviews and who formerly edited a magazine that was primarily reviews.

If you like to study the Bible and have teaching experience, you have the basics for being a curriculum writer. Learn the types of curricula editors are looking for, how to get assignments, markets, and how to write to meet teachers’ and learners’ needs. 

Tap into the small group and personal study market with Bible study guides, or learn to write effective ones for your church or organization. Learn key principles for studying the Bible and how to translate them into effective discussion questions.

Ideas are all around us, but sometimes we don’t recognize them or we need to fine-tune our ability to find them in new sources. You will explore areas from your own experiences that you can write about, as well as learn how to find ideas from other sources. 

Many magazines have adopted a query-only policy, and book houses want to see queries and proposals instead of full manuscripts. Learn how to write queries and proposals that will grab an editor’s attention and help sell your manuscript. 

If you want editors—and readers—to read your articles, you need to grab them in the first couple of sentences. Learn how to do so in this class, then explore ways to develop your content and bring your article to a satisfying conclusion. Plus overview the most popular types of articles editors are buying.

The secret to selling articles is a thorough understanding of individual magazines. Learn how to analyze a magazine and its articles to increase your sales.

A story is a great way to capture people’s attentions and teach them biblical truths in an easy-to-swallow fashion. Most people like stories, but not all stories are fiction. Some are true personal experiences—yours or someone else’s—that will help readers see God in action and learn to trust Him more. There’s a big market for them in both Christian and general-market magazines, in print and online.

If you want to sell your book, you need to know how to write a proposal to catch the attention of an editor or agent and a host of other personnel in the publishing house. Learn what to include, what questions marketing asks that you should address, and how to format it.

Do you want more from your next book contract, or are you looking forward to your first one? If so, learn how to understand and negotiate a contract from a writer who has negotiated with a number of publishers. Discover what you can change and what to watch for. 

Whether you want to write profiles, add life to your nonfiction, do firsthand research for your novel, or include expert opinions and knowledge in your manuscripts, you will want to develop good interviewing skills. Learn how to get an interview, prepare for it, conduct it, and write it up.

Whether you want to earn a living by freelancing or supplement your income, here are steps to help you build your freelance career. 

If you would like to help thousands of people grow in the Lord, consider writing devotions. Learn the types editors are purchasing, how to write them, and available markets.

A wide variety of markets for freelance writers exists outside of periodicals and books. These include curriculum, Bible study guides, drama, puzzles, games, crafts, tracts, devotions, and greeting cards. In this workshop, you’ll gain an introduction to these genres, learn about any special qualifications for writing them, and become acquainted with potential markets for your manuscripts.

Editors are the necessary links between you and your readers. They are your allies, not your enemies. Find out how to make the author/editor relationship work smoothly, so you can get published (and continue to do so) and be the kind of writer editors like to work with and give assignments to. Taught by someone who works on both sides of the desk.

We don’t all learn—and read—in the same way. So if you’re writing for only your learning style, you’re missing sales and readers. Find out what the four learning styles are and how to write for all of them.

Learn how to organize your resource materials, manuscripts, writers guidelines, and expenses. Plus walk through practical steps for setting goals to accomplish what you want to with your writing.

Question-and-answer session on anything related to writing, marketing, and freelancing. I don’t guarantee an answer to every question, but I can direct you to resources if I don’t know something. [I’ve done this session in conferences as well as on live call-in radio shows.] 

GENERAL SESSION/BANQUET SPEECHES

  • Write So Heaven Will Be Different (15-20 minutes)
  • Write With Excellence (20-25 minutes)

COLLEGE CLASSES (1-3 weeks)

  • Writing for Specialty Markets 
  • How to Get Published
  • Writing and Publishing Articles
  • Writing Bible Curriculum

What People Are Saying

“Lin Johnson is one of our best and most popular teachers. Her teaching is always clear, easy to follow, and organized. As a conference director, it is such a pleasure to have teachers on faculty as easy to work with as Lin. It is not easy to find a more able and knowledgeable instructor as Lin.”

Reg A. Forder

Retired owner of American Christian Writers

“It is always a joy to have Lin Johnson teach at my conference or in my classroom. She is extremely knowledgeable of the publishing industry and has anecdotal experience to share that helps to bring her teaching to life. I especially appreciate her hands-on approach to her sessions, with an emphasis on skills that listeners and students can take away and use immediately. Writers are always encouraged by her openness to share her editing and writing skills. Lin will continue to be an essential part of my conference schedule.”

Linda K. Taylor

Assistant Professor of Professional Writing, Taylor University and Director, Taylor University Professional Writers Conference

“Ms. Johnson is good about grounding her content in the eternal significance of the writer’s role and how God can and will work through the written word. I also appreciate her concrete and methodical approach to teaching. The conferees attending (including me) were encouraged to receive tangible steps and actions to take home, consider, and execute.”

Conferee

Montrose Christian Writers Conference

“I found your seminar to be the most informative I’ve ever attended. You’re a born teacher. The pace was good and what you had to say very practical. Thank you for being so well organized and giving so much.”

Mary Lou Mickiewicz

Conferee, ACW Conference