Deep down, I always thought getting the contract for my
first novel was too easy. I spent five years learning to write fiction. When I
was ready to seek publication, I found an agent and had an offer from a
publisher within less than a year. A year and a half later, my young adult,
dystopian novel was released and went on to final in a major award.
But sales were low, and my publisher refused to buy the sequels.
My agency purged its client list, and I didn’t survive the cut. The career
that’d once seemed so promising was dying before it’d had a chance to live.
As I walked this difficult road, I concluded that God was
using this painful experience to prune away attitudes and junk in my life. The
good news is that when God prunes, it’s to make us more fruitful (John 15:2).
I learned I should never compare my season of pruning to
someone else’s season of fruitfulness. Comparisons are easy when we meet and
become friends with other writers. As we celebrate our friends’ successes, we
secretly wonder why contracts or massive amounts of sales aren’t happening for
us.
God showed me all authors write one word at a time, and
those words matter to him. Just because he chooses to bless someone else with
more talent, more contracts, more money, more awards, and a bigger platform,
doesn’t mean that what we’re writing isn’t important. It’s humbling when expectations don’t
match reality, and when God’s plan isn’t what we expected.
Though this
experience was difficult for me, God has been faithful and has provided a way
for me to share my stories. I’ve indie published the sequels to my debut novel
and have moved on to writing cozy mysteries.
Though I’m
excited by the new possibilities, I remind myself daily that my novels will be
what God wants them to be. He’ll take my books where he wants them to go, and
he’ll do the same with your work as well.
~~~~~~
Marissa Shrock loves to read a variety of genres, so her own
work includes dystopian thrillers and cozy mysteries. She’s the author of the
Emancipation Warriors Series and the Georgia Rae Winston Mystery Series. Her
debut novel, The First Principle, was
a Carol Award Finalist. Marissa enjoys playing golf and traveling to new places,
and her home is in Indiana.
