Great is His Faithfulness By Patty Smith Hall

This week was supposed to be our yearly vacation to the beach. It’s that one time throughout the year that my husband and I would completely disconnect from our phones and computers and enjoy some much-needed downtime. I’d take morning walks along the shoreline as I listened to my devotions, then join Danny in the pool for an hour before going back upstairs. While he settled into his game, I’d grab my book and a cold drink, and hunker down on the balcony for a long stretch of uninterrupted reading.

But the rise in COVID cases as well numerous doctor’s appointments for Danny pushed us to stay home this year.

Bummer.

Never Give Up! By Elva Cobb Martin

Have you ever thought of giving up on getting your book finished and published? Well, I want to encourage you. Never give up that dream. God is in the business of helping you finish what He has begun in your heart, according to Philippians 1:7 “Being confident of this very thing that he which has begun a good work in your will perform it...”

I wrote my first novel, Summer of Deception, after attending a writers' conference. Once I started submitting it to publishers and agents, it was rejected 26 times. But I kept revising and rewriting. Meantime, my husband and I were called into full-time ministry, and the manuscript went into my attic for the next 20 years. End of story. Right? 

Nope. Summer of Deception, an inspirational romantic suspense, was contracted and published in 2017, thirty years after that first draft. It has spent time on Amazon’s 100 Best Sellers’ List for Women’s Religious Fiction. A prequel, In a Pirate’s Debt, the story of the pirate ancestor of the hero in Summer, soon followed. November 12, Marisol, a heroine who would not give up, was released.

My Five Steps to a Book Contract

Step 1 – Keep God’s Confidence in Yourself and Never Give Up

Many may reject your manuscript, but someone will love it, if you don’t give up.

Step 2 – Hone Your Craft (Planning Your Novel blog series  http://bit.ly/2HbB5qM)

Carve out praying time, writing time, sharpening craft time, and reading time in your genre.

Step 3 – Find Writing Workshops and Critique Groups

How about your local American Christian Fiction Writers’ Chapter?

Step 4 – Help Other Writers

This is a spiritual principle. You will reap help you need when you sow into others.

Step 5 – Learn how to Submit to Editors and Agents

 Follow their submission guidelines.

Can you add to my list? What helped you not give up?

Never give up that dream. via @ElvaCobbMartin #SeriouslyWrite #amwriting

~~~~~~

Elva Cobb Martin,  a mother and grandmother, lives in South Carolina with her husband and a senior mini-dachshund named Lucy, and a sea green bird named Atticus. She is the upcoming president of her state chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers, a retired teacher, minister, and now calls herself a full-time writer. Better make that rewriter. A life-long student of history, her favorite city, Charleston, inspires her stories of romance and adventure. She desires to share exciting love stories of courageous characters and communicate truths of the Christian faith to bring hope and encouragement.

http://www.elvamartin.com

http://carolinaromancewithelvamartin.blogspot.com

http://www.facebook.com/elvacobbmartin 

http://twitter.com/ElvaCobbMartin

https://www.pinterest.com/elvacobbmartin/ 

When You Feel Like Quitting by Heather Day Gilbert

Ask any author who's been at it for several years (well, except someone like J. K. Rowling or Stephen King), and they'll probably tell you they reached a point where they thought about throwing in the towel. Writing books is hard, and marketing them is unavoidable and time-consuming.

There are so many ways authors can become discouraged. 

Here are a few that might resonate with you today: 

• Seeing other authors placing and winning in contests where you were sure you had a shot
• Seeing other authors signing multiple-book contracts with big-name publishers while you're struggling to get one book picked up

• Experiencing a lackluster book release after tremendous time and effort went into it

• Putting in full-time hours on this writing job that barely pays like a part-time job (particularly true for indie authors, who handle everything about book production themselves, so there is far more time invested from the get-go)

• Getting a string of low reviews that might be completely off-base, but they feel like a barrage of hatred for all your hard work

• Not hearing back from agents, editors, early readers...whoever it is you've pinned your hopes on to encourage you as an author

• Dealing with a lack of moral support from significant others/family

I can't say I've experienced all these discouraging things, but I have experienced nearly all of them. And sometimes these discouragements turn into the perfect storm and you just want to Q.U.I.T.

I reached one of those points recently—and the timing is so dumb, because I'm poised on the brink of another book release, with three books contracted in the future. But discouragement is no respecter of book release plans.

So what's the remedy? I can't tell you how many times my husband, my critique partner, my parents, or my readers, have pep-talked me when I was in a pit of despair about my author career. If I hadn't had their support, I know I wouldn't have stayed the course this long.

And to look at the bright side, accolades and awards do come along, and sometimes readers send emails that make your entire month, and sometimes you get a string of GOOD reviews, and you feel, for one beaming moment of glory, like your work is appreciated.

But when discouragement knocks you flat, there's only one way to keep moving forward (and it only works if you know you're supposed to be writing): you have to DIG DEEP AND KEEP GOING. You begin to laugh at discouragement—verily, you even come to EXPECT it—and you sit down in that chair and you write ANYWAY.

Because we know what happens if we don't—our books will slide right off the readers' radar. Sure, we can market and advertise our previous releases, but readers always want NEW and shiny books, and if we're not producing them, mostly likely our income will continue to decrease. And quite possibly our happiness will decrease, too, if we find joy in creating stories for people to read, which I think most of us do.

Please note that I'm not saying we have to write 24-7 and market like maniacs. There are definite times and seasons in life when we have to step back and take extended breaks from writing and marketing. But if we don't come back and stay in the game, we are likely torpedoing our careers, no matter our previous successes.

For me personally, I've put in too many hours and worked too hard to throw my career over just yet. Maybe there will come a day when I do, but today isn't that day. If you've been feeling discouraged about writing, but you know it's what you want to do most of all, don't rely on others to keep lifting you up. Dig deep and find the motivation in yourself to keep producing new books for your readers. I know they will thank you!

And if this post felt a bit harsh, please know that this entire article was really written as one gigantic, personal pep talk to myself. As for me, I've determined I'm going to keep writing. 

How about you? Has there been a time when you've considered giving up your writing career?

~~~~~~

HEATHER DAY GILBERT, a Grace Award winner and bestselling author, writes novels that capture life in all its messy, bittersweet, hope-filled glory. Born and raised in the West Virginia mountains, generational story-telling runs in her blood. Heather writes Viking historicals and contemporary mystery/suspense. Publisher's Weekly gave Heather's Viking historical Forest Child a starred review, saying it is "an engaging story depicting timeless human struggles with faith, love, loyalty, and leadership." Find out more on heatherdaygilbert.com.