I’m writing a book. That feels weird to say. I’m the last person who should be writing a book but God called me to write it, so I’m writing it.
The first thing I’ve learned is that the publishing world is an intimidating place. There are so many rules when it comes to publishing a book.
- Signing with a publisher comes before you actually write a non-fiction book. Yes, you read that right.
- You should sign with a literary agent before you find a publisher. Agents ensure that publishers take you seriously.
- Before you can sign with an agent, you need to have a “platform.” A platform is thousands of people who follow your work, connect with you on social media and think your words that are worth paying attention to.
- In order to build a platform, you need to be writing and sharing your message with others. But be careful, don’t write the book! Remember, that comes last.
- Once you have your platform, your agent and your publisher in place, you have 6-12 months to write your book. Need more time? Too bad.
See? So many rules.
But, I’m just a humble girl in Colorado with no platform to speak of, who is writing a book that no one knows about. What’s an unknown, untrained writer with no platform to do? Should I just give up now and admit defeat because I only have 91 people who follow me on Instagram and 3 people who subscribe to this blog?
No.
I will keep writing.
Should I start growing my platform blowing up all of my social media accounts? Should I talk endlessly about my writing to anyone who will listen? Should I self-promote and hustle? Should I become someone that I’m not in the hopes that a louder voice and bigger personality will catch someone’s attention?
No. A thousand times, no.
I will trust God.
I own a photography business and for the last 11 years, I have spent a lot of time and energy developing a “platform” of people who follow my work, engage with my photos and reach out to me for their photography-related needs. I hustled. Hard. Then one day, I burned out. It’s exhausting to continually shout your own name from the rooftops. I just couldn’t stomach self-promotion anymore. So I stopped.
Do you know what happened when I stopped hustling? God brought me more clients. I currently have triple the number of photography clients today than I did when I was pouring all my energy into getting my name out there. Honestly? I think the same thing can happen with this little book of mine.
God is bigger than social media strategies.
God is bigger than the hustle and the rules and the platforms.
God is bigger than the publishing industry.
Maybe this resonates with you. Maybe you have a dream that doesn’t quite line up with the “rules” of this world. It’s hard to feel like you’re going about things all wrong (indeed, I am writing the book before I find the platform, agent and publisher). It takes a lot of guts and bravery to keep going in a direction that feels different than what everyone is doing. But, God often works in ways that are counterintuitive. You know, upside-down Kingdom stuff. The first are last. To live you must die.
Life with Christ is often pretty counterintuitive sometimes.
I realize that despite my loathing of self-promotion and platforms, it is important to talk about my book and my writing. How will hurting hearts read the words in my book if I keep them all to myself? I tend to take an “if you build it, they will come” mentality. I will write the words. I will trust God to do the rest.
God is wildly creative and strategic. If the Kingdom is behind something, can anything really stop it? God can make anything happen, rules be damned.
In the spirit of talking more about my writing, if you’re interested in hearing more about the book that I am writing, I plan to share more about that here with occasional updates like the one below.
Book update: 11% complete
Some have called it a devotional. I see it more as a survival guide. My book has reflections about suffering, grief, hope, identifying with Jesus in your pain and trusting God in darkness. My hope is that this book will be a soulful companion for someone who is walking down the long road of suffering. I have all of my ideas developed and now I’m fully immersed in the writing phase. I am working with an editor and writing coach who have been instrumental in my progress thus far!
