THE 4-letter word that will keep you from publishing your book (and impacting your world).
Writing is great. Publishing is better. For the simple fact that publishing is about the reader, not the writer.
We write for ourselves. At least we should. Don’t listen to the people who tell you to write to market, chasing trends and fads. Because one day vampire-romance fiction is all the rage.
The next, it’s…not. So like all professional writers, especially fiction writers, I write what I want to read.
Publishing, though—now that’s about the reader. You serve (and love) your reading neighbor by putting your work out into the world to delight and entertain, to inspire and incite people to faith through your stories and studies and other resources. This is where the third GospelWise Author Persona comes in, the role of a Caretaker who stewards our work, trusting Christ to bear fruit from our books.
The foundation for author success runs through this write-publish cycle. One pulp fiction writer offered 5 practical habits for author success: write, finish, don’t rewrite, publish, and keep it published.
Easier said than done. Especially the publishing part, and the keeping-it-published part.
I’ll tell ya, there’s one thing that will keep you from not moving forward with these two habits.
One thing is sure to trip you up on executing on these two habits—publishing and keeping it published. It’s the same thing that leads to falling and failing at these other habits—writing, finishing, not rewriting.
What is theeeee single thing that stands in the way of us living out our GospelWise Author calling?
F-E-A-R.
Small word.
Psht. Yeah right.
A GINORMOUS word, I know!
Publishing takes courage—and keeping your book out there takes even more. But the fruit isn’t yours to control. This week’s Monday Mo reminds you that your job is to plant the seed. God’s job is the harvest.
If we’re not careful, that four-four letter word will sneak up on us and sidetrack each area of these five practical habits for author success.
Fear keeps us from writing.
Fear keeps us from finishing what we write.
Fear keeps us in this constant rewriting rat race.
We fear that people won’t like the book, the story, the resource. Fear people won’t buy it. Fear people will think badly of it, that people will snub their nose at it. That people will, I don’t know, come to our house and shoot us or something!
The fears that arise are crazy—but also legitimate at some level. At a personal level.
We’re putting ourselves out there, we’re wearing our hearts on the page. We’re pouring our life stories into the page. Ourselves, our perspectives, our thoughts, our tastes, our emotions come out in black-stained pages that get shipped all across the world in Prime trucks or zipped and zoomed around through the intertubes into Kindles and Kobos and Nooks.
Oh my!
And some of that’s going to rankle feathers. Some of that’s going to turn people away. Some of that’s going to convict people. Some of that’s going to make people think differently about their own stories and their world—even their faith.
We’re not going to satisfy every reader. We’re not going to please every reader. We’re gonna disappoint readers. Not every story we write is going to land like the one before.
But that’s okay!
Because our identity as Christians, as children of God, are not in what we do or what we produce, what we write or how we write.
It’s in our identity is as children of the Most High God, isn’t it? The gospel is the foundation of our writing. It’s also the foundation of our identity as writers.
So, leading to these final two habits—publishing our book and leaving it published—fear is going to creep up.
When it comes to that point of hitting publish and then emailing people about it, putting it on Facebook and letting people know, “Hey, I’ve got a book, or I’ve got a new book. I’ve got a different kind of book”—no doubt about it, we’re going to worry.
And wonder: Are people going to like it? How are people going to react? Are people going to buy it? What will people think? Will I get those coveted 5-star reviews? Will I biff it and average 2.5?
Fear is going to try and stop us.
Fear is going to stop us from publishing.
Fear is going to stop us from igniting faith in our world.
Don’t let fear rob the world of your story, your perspective, your insight into the heart of God.
Ask the Lord to love you in a way that will just explode the fear out of your heart and head. Let the love of Christ guide you and compel you to take that step of faith and publish your book. Let the love of Christ and the security of Christ keep that book in the market steward your book and love your reading neighbor.
Publish, but also keep it published. Because things are going to happen after your book gets legs.
People are going to start talking. You’re going to get emails from people saying how wonderful the book is. Or how disappointed they were, how irritated they were. You’re going to see reviews on Amazon or other bookstores—either praising the book or condemning the book.
Don’t fear, friend.
All that matters is writing the best book you can, writing it with authenticity and truth, taking care to shape it up for the best reading experience possible, then putting it out into the world and into the hands of the Holy Spirit to do with it as Christ sees fit—for his glory and your neighbor’s gospel good.
I have experienced the fear from publishing and keeping a book on the market. I’ve also seen the fruit of trusting the Lord with the things I write and the things I publish.
As hard as they are to write sometimes, as simple as they are, as silly as they are, I just give them over to Christ and say, “Lord, do with this what you will. I’ve done my part, now it’s time to do your part.”
And that, I think, is the encouragement. We do our part and let Christ do his part.
All we can do is write. All we can do is finish what we write. All we can do is not rewrite unless to editorial demand, and only if we agree. All we can do is publish our book into the market, and then keep it on the market.
We’ve got to do the hard work. We’ve got to leverage the power of the pen for the cross, and plumb the depths of the gifts and experiences and perspectives the Holy Spirit has given us. We have to lean into the permission to create.
That’s our job.
From there, all we can do is give these stories and these resources over to Jesus to produce the fruit after we’ve sown the seed.
Do the hard work of a writer, and let Jesus do what he will with your passion project to magnify his name, to bring himself glory through your very good gifts that you’ve handed over to him.
Do your part. Let Christ do his.
Let’s create for Christ together 🖊️
/ jeremy
