about the Storymakers Guild
Storymakers Author Guild is an author’s guild for aspiring and published authors who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. All Latter-day Saint authors who meet the membership requirements for one of our two tiers are invited to join.
OUR PURPOSE
Our purpose as an organization is three-fold:
- Encourage and support fellow writers
- Strengthen literacy in our communities
- Raise the quality of Latter-day Saint literature
For these reasons, we reach out to authors and help them improve their craft. We believe the more people become comfortable with a pen and a book, the more civilized our society will grow.
WHY A GUILD?
The guild wasn’t formed to be exclusive. The professional membership is there to provide a professional, safe place where published Latter-day Saint authors can grow in their craft by supporting each other, sharing ideas and experiences, and feeling free to discuss publishing contracts and other publishing options.
In 2023, the Storymakers Author Guild opened a new membership option for authors who don’t yet meet the professional membership requirements. The Associate Membership provides additional community and support in addition to the information shared with all in the Author Resources tab and two annual writers’ conferences (Utah and Kansas City) to provide training and networking opportunities with agents and editors.
Membership is open to all Latter-day Saint authors who meet our joining guidelines for the professional and associate memberships. We are dedicated to increasing the quality of Latter-day Saint literature and to offer support and encouragement to all Latter-day Saint authors and publishing industry professionals.
A HISTORY
Storymakers started as an e-mail group. It was the brainchild of best-selling author Rachel Ann Nunes who created the first list on October 17, 2002. Originally called LDSSmallPressWriters, our group was designed as a home for published writers who were associated with small publishers-particularly those in the Latter-day Saint market. Our members could offer help and seek advice from each other.
By February 20, 2003, thirteen members had joined, including Josi Kilpack, Tristi Pinkston, and BJ Rowley, who played an integral part of directing the course of Storymakers. We intentionally wanted to grow slowly to keep a “family” feel. On September 25, 2003, we changed our name to LDStorymakers to reflect our religious affiliation and the high ethical values we strive for in our writing. In 2019 we changed it to Storymakers after the overwhelming consent of our members. In no time at all, Storymakers had grown from a gaggle of strangers who knew very little about each other, to a gathering place for friends.
A Writers Conference was added in the spring of 2004. The event was so successful that it became a sought-after annual event. At this time, we also incorporated Storymakers, registering with the state on Dec. 29, 2003. Rachel, Josi, and BJ served as President, Vice President, and Executive Secretary/Manager respectively, forming the Executive Committee.
After our first Writers Conference, we organized a sister group to Storymakers, named after the theme of that 2004 conference: Authors Incognito. This online support group provided the same kind of support, camaraderie, and information as our main group, but was designed specifically for unpublished writers. This dynamic group (renamed to Storymakers Tribe in 2015 and Storymakers Ink in 2019) now boasts a membership of over 1,600. The only requirement for membership in the group is attendance at a Storymakers Writers Conference.
We reached our established membership cap on November 5, 2005. At this time, we changed the original list name to Charter and created a main Storymaker list to allow all LDS authors to join. The members of the Charter list functioned as the Board of Directors for a short while. To better serve our members, we created the expanded lists (Talk, Write, News).
In 2007 the Whitney Awards were founded by member Robison Wells to operate as an autonomous subsidiary of Storymakers. The Whitney Awards has rapidly become THE award to receive among novelists in the LDS community.
In the fall of 2008, we formed a Board of Directors to replace the Charter list. In August of 2010, the members of the Executive Committee stepped down, dissolving the EC and turning over the running of Storymakers to the BOD. The BOD created a new logo and developed the website to reflect our growing and changing membership.
Each of our members has a chance to serve and to help Storymakers grow.
Do you have any questions? Send us an email at communications@storymakersguild.org.