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Dave Lambert

Editor – Lambert Editorial

Dave has held a variety of positions in publishing, spending eighteen years as an acquiring editor at Zondervan, most of that time as executive editor for fiction, and more recently, three years as senior fiction editor at Howard Books, a division of Simon & Schuster. David and his wife Cindy work through their own company, Lambert Editorial.

    Get To Know Dave


    David Lambert, Editorial Director, Author. David is the author of twelve published  books. He has received numerous awards for magazine articles and short stories published in such places as Virtue, Moody, Story, Christian Parenting Today, Sweet Sixteen, Decision, Montana Magazine, Campus Life, Outreach, and many other periodicals. David has an M.F.A. in fiction writing from the University of Montana. He has held a variety of positions in publishing, spending eighteen years as an acquiring editor at Zondervan, most of that time as executive editor for fiction, and more recently, three years as senior fiction editor at Howard Books, a division of Simon & Schuster. David and his wife Cindy work through their own company, Lambert Editorial.

    David Lambert

    Lambert Editorial

    Pre-Conference Session


    Book Proposal Intensive Clinic                  Dave and Cindy Lambert—Lambert Editorial

    Limit: 25 registrants

    Prerequisite: Complete and bring with you a working proposal. Once you’ve registered, you can download the template for the fiction or non-fiction book proposal.

    Length: 3 hours

    A winning book proposal is a tool that entices seven audiences (author, agent, editor, pub board, marketing, creative, and sales) to grasp a contagious vision for a book, and then equips them to successfully play their parts in placing the book into the hands of its ideal readership.

    We’ve all heard it said, “Write to your audience, not to yourself.” Good advice! Many authors, however, may know the audience of their book, but have no understanding of the true audience of their book proposal. In this three-hour intensive clinic you will be introduced to the business side of publishing decisions, discover what really happens behind the closed doors of editors’ meetings and publishing boards, and learn how to craft an enticing proposal that captures the interest of editors and publishers.

    Broken into four segments, this hands-on interactive clinic will begin with an in-depth presentation, then offer individual time to work on and refine specific proposal elements of your own, then break into small groups for fiction and nonfiction personal feedback and critique, and finally come together again for advice and guidance to launch you into the world of meeting with editors.

    General Session (45-Minutes)


    • Writers’ Track
      • Show Don’t Tell: A DemonstrationOne of the most common editorial comments an editor marks on a manuscript are those infamous words “Show! Don’t tell!” But what does that mean? How do you transform your telling into showing? And why does it matter so much? Dave and Cindy Lambert will lead you through a fun demonstration of this crucially important skill for fiction and nonfiction writers alike.

    15-Minute Appointments


    Editor – Lambert Editorial

    To thrive in today’s publishing world, you need the right set of skills, knowledge of how the industry is changing, and strong market awareness.

    Lambert Editorial can help you gain those things. My commitment with every author I work with is that I’ll make sure you’re a better writer at the end of the process than you were at the beginning, and that you’ll become even better on every book I edit for you. And although the publishing world has changed greatly in the past decade, that doesn’t worry me–the Internet and social media offer two new opportunities for every one we’ve lost in our constantly changing publishing world. Let’s talk about where you are in your writing career and how to get from here to where you want to be.

    Ready To Register?

    Don’t miss out on this amazing opportunity. Sign up now & join us at Speak Up 2023!