So, the first 5 weeks of selling books, listening to people's story, and enjoying the newness of being an author, has passed. I sensed it earlier this week - the changing, the moving on to the next level, and it's perfectly fine. When I was younger, I used to get depressed when the hype of something would settle down, when things got quiet and the hubbub was finished. But that is just how life is in anything. With anyone.
Loud cannot stay loud forever. Bright cannot burn perpetually without exhausting itself. Change has to happen just as anything living will at some point decay. Now, least you think it is my intention to paint a morbid picture here, let me say that is not at all how I feel! I choose to embrace every single day of being an author and learning what that means. Even the highs and lows, the subtle and the obvious changes.
At the beginning of this past week, I felt the shift. It was quieter on the personal sales side (as in, people that I know emailing me to send them books). I had an undeniable sense that I had to do "the next thing." But, to a new author with no agent and no desire to be "owned" for the sake of a dollar bill, there isn't much creativity in me. I am a writer, not a publicist.
So I prayed. Silently. Out loud. Earnestly. Without ceasing. "God, You are the marketer of this book that YOU asked me to write. What next? I don't know. There's quite a few books left (though I have sold almost half of what I ordered) and I believe there are still people who need the story, need the reminder of WHO YOU ARE and what YOU WANT TO BE ABOUT in our lives. So, what next?"
Within 24 hours a close friend who has the makings of an amazing publicist called me with a plan, a rather large senior adult center booked me for an event in June. A local Charlotte bookstore booked me for a book signing in June. And then a bookstore in Wilmington called me to say they wanted to put my books in their store.
God was marketing. Orchestrating. Conducting. Working. In His Time. God is still in control. He knows what He is doing. Though change is certain, it is even more certain that God does not. My bulwark through all the phases of my life. How have you seen Him sustain you through the changes in your life?
