At the end of last year, God began speaking to me about the
next step for my writing career. I had been praying for months for God to give
me some direction. Last year, I found my writing at a standstill. I’d gone to
the ACFW conference last year and got some interest in my manuscript. Unfortunately, I got rejections from most of the
proposals I sent out. Nice rejections. The “You’re a great, funny, creative
(add your own positive adjective) writer but this is not the direction we want
to go with our fiction.”
It seemed like all doors were closed and I was feeling like
they would ever be opened. I know all writers come to this stage, but it seems
like I’d been camped out there a few years. Actually, I have been stuck for a
few years. I decided to seriously peruse publishing in 2005, so that makes
seven years.
I’ve completed two manuscripts and a third that is within
10,000 words of being finished. I’ve had multiple non-fiction pieces published
and earned a spot as a regular columnist on an online magazine. I’d been to
four writers conferences and was even a finalist in Genesis in 2010. Despite
all that, I felt like I’d come to the end of my rope and running out of options
of seeing my writings in print.
And then God started talking. (Isn’t it interesting that He
started talking when I came to the end of myself?) He started taking about…wait
for it…self-publishing. And what a
conversation it was! Please forgive this non-linear thinkers attempt at
chronicling how that conversation went, but I’ll do my best.
First, it started with knitting. I’m a graphic designer and
wondered if that skill could translate into knitting patterns. For months, I’ve
been dreaming about designing my own patterns. Once it is perfected, I will
sell it on a website for knitters called Raverly, basically self-publishing it.
That was the first hint and there were many more to follow.
That’s how God talks to me about me. He speaks in repeating circumstances. The
next repeating circumstance was a deluge of articles on self-publishing. As an
author who wants someday to be published, I try to keep abreast of all that’s
going on in the industry. I read several agent blogs, Publisher’s Weekly, and Writer’s
Digest (online and in print) and the Yahoo! entertainment page for books.
And for a span of two weeks, seems like all of them were discussing
self-publishing, some of it positive and some of it negative.
And then there were successful self-published artists. Notice
I said artists. They weren’t just writers. A friend of mine released her first indie CD
and a well-known Christian rock group left their label and solicited donations
to fund their new project. And who can
forget Amanda Hocking. Everywhere I looked, there she was.
After all of this kept swirling in my mind, it finally
dawned on me that God might be trying to talk to me. That He might be telling
me to self-publish. Of course, the revelation brought me distress. Even with
all the successes, self-publishing still hasn’t lost its negative stigmatism.
Some people feel that self-published books aren’t as good as traditionally
published books, other feel that it’s a cop-out, a way to avoid going through
the rigors of traditional publishing. I actually thought some of the same
thoughts before now. Needless to say, God had to work on me.
And that He did through the next set of recurring
circumstances. My pastor began a series during our New Year’s Eve service. It
was entitled, A Year of Expectation. He
preached about Moses. He preached about God spoke to Moses, told him to do
something totally uncomfortable and how Moses argued with God about his
perceived shortcoming. In short, the point of the sermon was to do what God
told me to do and stop worrying about whether or not it’s going to succeed.
Ouch.
So after all this, I am going to self-publish some of my
writings. Some is the operative word
in that statement. I have so many partial manuscripts on my hard drive and
several notebooks full of story ideas. Most of them, sadly, don’t fit into CBA.
I do have some manuscripts that will fit, but my self-publishing will focus on
the ones I don’t think will.
And that’s another thing about God’s instructions. I have no
plans to abandon getting published by a traditional publisher. For me, it isn’t
either/or. It’s both. I have put as much prayer and consideration into my
traditional career as I have my self-publishing career.
One more thing about God’s instructions. He told me to
chronicle my entire journey on my blog. This will become a new feature on my
blog called The Next Step (I’ll explain the name in subsequent posts).
So this is the first step of my big adventure. And most
adventures are better when shared. Won’t you join in my journey with me? You
can start by praying for me as I set out. Also, you can follow my journey by
following my blog (in the right sidebar). I thank you in advance for your
support and may God bless you on your journey this year.
