Good morning Christian writers! Less of a writing tip this week . . . this is more of an encouragement to get your stories out there, and some ideas how you can do just that:
You do not have to be published by a traditional publisher to be successful. This might sound negative, but it’s not!
Consider this: what is your reason for writing? Is it so you can see your book in print, with your name on the cover . . . or is it to touch young people’s lives with the good news of Jesus?
What would success look like for you?
Being a published author is the aim of many writers, but you don’t have to go down that route to get your book into the hands of the children you love. You can have the book printed yourself, print it off your own printer and have it spiral-bound, make it into an ebook/kindle book, put it on audio, have it serialised in your church magazine, give your children the story printed out on A4 sheets of paper (don’t forget to number the pages!), or just read it to your children yourself. You can even use Skype, if they’re not local!
More than one writer has told me, “The Lord told me to write this story.” That’s great! Maybe the Lord told you to write this one (and the next few) for practice, so you can get better at what you do? Or maybe you need to think creatively about how to get your story into the hands of the young people you wrote it for?
Many excellent stories may never be published by a traditional publisher. Every publisher I know receives a lot more manuscripts than they could hope to publish. But every child is precious, and if your story reaches just one or two, ten or twenty, all that time you spent on it will have been worth it. Suppose just one young person is encouraged to seek Jesus through your story?
There’s nothing wrong with small beginnings, so don’t be discouraged, even if your story has been turned down by a publisher or two.
We are called to be faithful with the gifts we have been given. Fame and fortune may not be part of it!
So don’t bury your story. Get it finished and out to at least one child, then decide who you are going to write your next story for. A nephew or niece? Your Sunday School class? Your godchildren? Your neighbours’ children?
Do they love football? Write about their favourite team! Are they interested in dinosaurs? Go back in time! Do they love horses? Set your story at a stables! What do they most need to know? That they have a Father in heaven who cares for them? That the Lord answers prayer? That it’s good to be a Christian? Make that your theme.
Don’t forget to pray! You never know where you stories might end up, or the fruit they will produce, so if you feel called to write, don’t ever give up. Success doesn’t come without perseverance. 🙂
As always, if you have any questions, or would like to discuss the way forward, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Grace and peace to you,
Janet