Writers, you’ll want to read this one. Or if you’re not a writer, but know and love one, this is for you, too. Do you love writing, but could use a little advice on certain aspects of the trade? Or you have material but aren’t sure which steps to take on getting it published? Perhaps you’ve love to find a quality group of writers with various resources to draw from to assist in your own writing career. Maybe you’re frustrated with the rapidly changing publishing industry. Or all of the above.

The frontier of publishing is changing rapidly with advancing technology; with the recent weakened state of the economy, publications moving into virtual territory, and practically the whole world moving into cyberspace, things sure aren’t what they used to be. And if you’re stuck and don’t know which direction to go, it’s even more frustrating.

To the rescue: The LitSisters. Based in the Phoenix, Arizona metro area, LitSisters is a group of five fabulous literary ladies who have decided to design their own destinies. Rather than fight the tide, they’re rolling with the changes. What they have in mind could open up a new and improved avenue by which writers interact, cooperate, and publish.

And they want to make it work for you, too.

They’ve created Litsisters.com, an online, all-inclusive resource for writers on topics such as time management, technical and emotional support, social media, filing taxes and getting published. They focus on the idea of being “Writerpreneurs”, seeing themselves not just as authors, but businesswomen. Their purpose, described in their mission statement, reads: “To encourage and empower writers to complete, polish and market publishable commercial print and electronic creative work. To provide technical, artistic, emotional and social support. But above all, to be kind and honest.”

All being published and experienced authors, they make up a group of unique characters with different specialties; each bringing something different to the LitSisters table. Together they collaborate and barter their services with one another in cooperative support and assistance. Currently, LitSister is:

CL Coons, the Founder, in charge of marketing and social media, whose writing specializes in the fun and the fabulous.

Audrey Wyatt, expert editor and mainstream/family fiction writer.

Terri Weeding provides expertise in research and development, and is the humor writer of the group.

Christine Bailey, travel and short story author, she is in charge of all corporate and legal areas of the group.

And, Robin Kramme (not pictured), retired from the corporate world with a broad range of writing experience, currently writing traditional romance.

The five women met about a year and a half ago when Audrey Wyatt started a writing critique group after moving to Arizona from Boston. She needed to finish her novel, so formed a writer’s critique group to help her out. One by one, the ladies came together, and the group soon became a networking group. Each woman brought her own unique strengths and resources together to help each other with their respective manuscripts.

“We were starting to get frustrated with traditional publishing, which is at a real turning point,” Wyatt explains. “It’s gotten to the point where if you’re not that top 10% of publishing authors like Stephen King or Dean Koontz, for example, then you can’t make it. They’re not looking for new voices, so they’ll publish the ones they know have an audience. Self help and romance are huge. But there’s no room anymore for new voices. So we thought [with] the way publishing is changing, we’d take our destiny into our own hands.”

CL Coons concurs, “Ebook sales are growing exponentially. We looked at that and at traditional publishing…and it’s on its way out. So we started looking at the electronic side of things.”

Hence why they created Litsisters.com, combining their respective expertise to create a virtual literary resource to assist other writers. “We thought, ‘why are we not working together?’ This isn’t a competition. So we wanted to create a place to introduce new voices and provide a way to support all of us writers together. It’s a place where writers can find all of this information, for those who don’t know about editing, marketing, filing taxes, and social media to use to their advantage,” explains Coons.

Most of the content is free, covering topics such as utilizing social media to market yourself, time management, and the how-to’s and where-to-find’s of the writing world. A media marketing kit will be offered, for a fee, to writers who want to further take control of their own destiny. “Sometimes writers find themselves a little bit lost,” says Wyatt, “so we’re going to try to fill that niche”.

A writer doesn’t become successful on creativity alone, however, and Coons strongly emphasizes the very real and inevitable business aspect of writing. “You need to market your work. We firmly believe in being “writerpreneurs” and focusing on the business aspect as much as writing for the art of it. As a writer, you need to come in from business mentality; we will not put out a product that’s not 100%.”

The resourceful website isn’t all they have planned: In January (2010), LitSisters Publishing will launch their label and for the first year extend invitation-only offers to publish new voices. “We first thought to independently publish but it occurred to us that print-on-demand and ebooks were becoming popular, so there was room for marketing new voices, and that’s what gave us the idea to go forward with independent small press,” Wyatt says. This provides an opportunity for a select group of new voices to get publishing support.

“We want to create a brand focused around getting books out there and open up to a wider distribution,” says Coons. They also will hold a writing contest in 2010 and publish the winning manuscript.

The ladies see positive things happening in the future, and have big idea about the LitSisters direction. “I want to build an empire,” Coons laughs. “I would love to see five to ten titles published per year. I’d like to get into conferences, speaking engagements, inspiring and encouraging each other and other writers to work together. I want to see this become huge; I want to make an impact, whether it’s writing or not, but the concept of working together should be at the top of everyone’s mind.”

Wyatt agrees. “I’d like to keep evolving and developing, but we think we’re kind of at an interesting time in publishing. It’s really changing, and we’d like to be a part of that, to help steer the change at least in own lives and lives of people we can help so that it becomes more about the writer and the reader.”

And for all of these women, their collaboration has been productive not only professionally, but they’ve grown personally for it. “It’s just amazing that we can all sit down and get this done,” Coons says. “I know I am stepping on such a gold mine of information and support! We come from all different walks of life, all age groups; we’re a really broad range of women. There’s just absolutely no reason why we shouldn’t share backgrounds and share information with each other. It’s wonderful.”

“I feel incredibly fortunate,” says Audrey. “People can be so competitive. We have none of that nonsense. This group is incredibly supportive. Every day I am thankful. We all have different talents and different skill sets, and everybody’s just working together. We’re not competitive with each other; we kept it out, and it’s amazing how exciting it is and how exhausted we all are, but that’s been the most amazing thing.”

Coons continued, “There’s a payback issue here: people have mentored me, and I’m a better writer for it. We all want to do the same for others. I’m very excited about where we’re going to go. We’re just thrilled.”

CL Coons has a new book available, Collide, and Audrey Wyatt and Terri Weeding both have books coming out soon. Their individual websites:

Audrey Wyatt: http://audreyrlwyatt.wordpress.com/

CL Coons: http://www.clcoons.com/

Terri Weeding: http://www.terriweeding.com/

Christine Bailey: http://christinekbailey.com/

It’s a new year, so how about trying something new, writers? Check them out a www.litsisters.com. Let’s get started designing our own destinies.