If you write it, they will read, part two

Who has the disposable income to shell out $5–$10,000 to self-publish a book? (Maybe a poor choice, calling it "disposable," as if it is being thrown away!) Roma's tuition at Fork Union Military Academy for his second and final year, was $30,000. That cost PLUS a book venture in one year?  I started praying for clarity about money!

"Haven't I already given you this money," seemed to be God's reply. It was true. When we sold our house in 2007, we did so without an agent in a market where nothing was selling, and the prices were plummeting. Almost miraculously our house sold to a family with an adopted Russian child, in case we should miss God's hand in the transaction! (And a couple of other very interesting "coincidences" (as though there are such things! But that is another story.)  Without a realtor, we saved over $30,000 in realtor commissions. Then three years later, we decided to sell land in the Durham-Chapel Hill (N.C.) area that we had bought in 1980, to buy property in West Virginia. Again, we prayed, and God showed up. Instead of having to involve a realtor, a buyer contacted us! After seeing the logo on the truck, a man actually stopped the appraiser to ask what property was for sale, looked us up on the county tax assessor, sent Bruce an email, hoping it was the Bruce Michael who owned property in the area. (You can't make this stuff up.) We saved over $30,000, again, in realtor fees. Plus, the appraisal was much higher than we had hoped. And because another perspective buyer appeared, the competition allowed us to get full appraisal price. The "over $60,000" combined amount was not lost on me—it was two years of tuition at FUMA, even though, at the time we didn't know Roma was going to have such an expensive high school experience!

Yeah, God had provided money for us over the years. But since we didn't know about the Fork Union plans at the time, we hadn't set it aside in an account reserved for that. It had just reduced our loans at the time.

Then there was that amazing incident of opening the mail a few years ago, and finding a check for $20,000 from one of Bruce's generous cousins and his wife, saying that God had put it on their hearts to give us the money. We were infinitely thankful and shocked to put it mildly. We did bank that money, and Roma's first year at Fork Union was not a financial hardship because of it. But how would we pay for another year? Especially now with this crazy idea about publishing a book. There was no way. But in one of those heightened awareness kind of God moments, I said yes to my friends who were gathered in my family room one evening when the conversation  took a wild turn toward my book. The next day, after sending my unsuspecting husband an email asking if he would divorce me if I paid to self-published the book, and receiving what I loosely interpreted as a no, I called and committed a little over $5000 to a basic package at Inspiring Voices, a division of Guideposts Books.

Then there was an "offer" the additional optional fees for publicity. Another $5000 plus. Should I spend it? I hadn't expected that fee. There would be the cost of buying books on top of that. How many books would I have to sell to recoup my expenses? I remembered the agent's warning—if I self-published, I likely wouldn't sell many copies.

But I felt God's involvement, even though I was going to be spending $40,000 in 2012 on Roma's school and a book about him. I asked friends for prayers. One close friend who read the manuscript and who had lived through the adoption adventure with me, sent me an email and asked me to consider three questions: 1) Who is the main character of the book, 2) to whom does the book bring glory, and 3) whose money was I using for the book? Of course, the answer to all three questions was God. It was a leap of faith to call with the go-ahead for the publicity campaign.

I have gone way over my word count for today, so please tune in for what Paul Harvey would say is, "the rest of the story" . . .

Conclusion

If you write it, they will read, part one

My next few posts will be dedicated to telling the stories behind the publication of But the Greatest of These is Love. They are awesome details about the God who continually pursues me. I am pretty oblivious and stubborn, so He has his hands full!

Back to the book . . . Any new author's dream is to find a successful literary agent who will represent her book, otherwise publication is all but impossible. I had written a great book, I had polished, and shared, taken suggestions, edited, and polished, and repeated the process. Who wouldn't jump at the opportunity to represent my magnum opus?  After a couple of years getting form rejection letters in return email, I finally got some encouragement. I saved this one which represeted a moral victory. I have deleted a sentence here and there, for brevity, but the words are hers.

"Thank you so much for contacting ___ Literary Agency. You certainly do have a poignant story that is a beautiful tribute to God's amazing love, and the power of the human spirit. I'm sure that it could be inspiring to many.

Unfortunately, having a valuable story isn't enough to get a book published these days. Agents are faced with a big dilemma in taking on unknown authors with good books. Publishers want a "platform". Basically, they want an author who has the ability to help them move books. Begin to see yourself as an author/speaker with a message to share about the amazing ways God uses ordinary people to accomplish His mission. This way you will begin to build yourself a platform -- speaking in churches and other organizations.

Publishers want to see what the author is already doing to get their message out. If you could demonstrate, in you book proposal, that you have a strong and growing platform, I could likely make sure this got a good look at the publishing houses. If not, I would strongly recommend that you take the time and effort needed to build your platform (even if it takes a year or two). Without this, no matter how good or helpful the book is, publishers are simply not giving even good books the time of day (sorry to say). Your next option is to self publish and sell the books yourself, which many authors are doing  (but you likely won't sell many copies). 

I encourage you to work on building a platform, and continue seeking representation and/or publication. I truly hope God provides a way for you to have this project published."

I have  emboldened the words that jumped off the page at me: "a year or two." A finished, ready-to-read book had been my mother's prayer for years already. I was afraid she wouldn't live long enough for me to establish a "platform," even if I knew what a "platform" was!

Self-publishing had never been an option for me. Her letter echoed in my mind for the next year, particularly the "you won't sell many copies."

Well, what came to me one day when I was overwhelmed trying to start a blog, and learn to tweet, figure out an appealing platform, and do it in a way to gain followers, yesterday--I had a sudden and foreign thought: (I knew from experience where these "random" thoughts come from.) God is in control of this project. If He wants people to read the book, He will make a way for it to happen. He will do it, not a great agent, not my marvelous tweeting abilities (certainly not that!), not a captivating "platform." God will make it happen. Then, in Him only can I boast. He had clearly been behind, or in front of, the writing of the book. To what end? So people would read it. So, the steps toward self-publishing began.

Stay tuned. God is awesome! Continue here.