I pondered whether to make today’s post a series, but my nature to be more encouraging than discouraging took over. So, I decided to make this a single “rip off the Band-Aid” message so you can get the bad taste out of your mouth and enjoy tomorrow’s “Fun Friday” post from Steve Laube!
Question #1: What if your focus on one particular book idea getting published is the very thing holding you back from ever being published?
Often aspiring writers have a concept for a book and, despite all efforts, cannot seem to interest others in publishing it or buying it.
The key response is not to give up, but to set it aside for the time being. There are not many guarantees in life or publishing, but one is that the order in which you write is almost never the order in which books are published. Ask anyone who has achieved a measure of success as an author, and they will all say it is a journey with detours and traffic lights. Nothing happens perfectly according to your plan; but long afterward, looking back, it obviously happened according to God’s.
Question #2: What if creating a marketing platform with all its complexities and commitments is your calling?
This is related to the “book obsession” alluded to in the first question. What would happen if you stopped fighting the concept of platform development and fully applied yourself to it? Most books traditionally published sell a couple of thousand copies. Self-published books average fewer than ten. There are exceptions, of course.
Seems like a better use of time to have an ongoing ministry to a few thousand (or more) people through activities usually found on a platform, rather than a book that may or may not be published. If you need to choose between the two, the more fruitful use of your gifts and time seems a wise approach.
Maybe platform should be renamed for Christians as “Ongoing Public Ministry.” That might get you over the hump of considering it an unsavory pursuit, and you might just identify your true calling.
Question #3: What if a team approach to exercising your gifts would be better than trying to do it on your own?
The weakness of a writing ministry for a Christian author lies in its reliance on individual performance. One author is trying to make it on their own amid a sea of other authors doing the same thing.
The most significant ministries are the sum of a group’s giftedness and faithfulness. Publishers, small and large, are examples of the body of Christ with all its parts and functions. Many successful “Ongoing Public Ministries” are the same, with each person contributing their gift to the overall effort.
Rather than considering the role of the writer as a solitary endeavor, maybe work for a publisher of some sort, become a freelance editor/writer contributing to many others’ works, or start a communications effort involving others. You might find it more personally fulfilling not to go it alone. Join the choir, rather than trying to be a soloist.
Most things in life involve a good dose of perspective-shifting. It is true in this industry: Changing your perspective and asking a couple of tough questions might help push away disappointment and confusion, revealing a much better path forward.
🙏👍
Ongoing public ministry
That is golden.
Thank you, Dan Balow, for the three questions you discussed today. The first two I’ve worked through and will continue to do so.
On the third question about sharing the writing ministry with a team, I’m on about Square Zero. Here’s a request for another discussion on the sharing-the-work topic:
How do I build a writing team?
What roles might the writing team take on?
Again, thank you for this newsletter.
Rosemary B. Althoff
Rosemary, you might consider joining AWSA (the Advanced Writers and Speakers Association). If you’re unpublished, there’s a protege program. You will find lovely fellowship with other Christian women who are writing and speaking.
Dan, thank you for these thoughtful and challenging questions.
I’ve renamed platform and marketing to the word community. I use that term to label tracking progress in growing my community, to label digital and paper files, and to direct my mindset when planning and thinking about platform.
Great questions, Dan, and I believe encouraging in their own right. You’ve helped me answer #1. I’m beginning to embrace #2. And I’ve just started seriously and strategically answering #3.
Thanks!
This is so good, Dan. I’m sharing it on my Sierra Valley Writers Retreat page, as I do many of these blogs.
Perhaps “I don’t want to do social media” is actually a veil for “I don’t want to work that hard.”
We have to have a business mindset. An entrepreneurial baker with a roadside stand has to bake . . . but also get the word out about her product. Why would it be different for writers?
I hear you!
Thanks for 3 TOUGH questions.
Question 3
Encouraged me to recruit a review team for a completed manuscript, that I was reluctant to submit…. Thanks for helping me get over myself!
Excellent! Thank you.
I love your questions, Dan. I need to ponder them and consider important changes. Thank you so much.
I found this encouraging. You gave us good questions to consider. Thank you.
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