The sum of fiction authors is gargantuan. Those of you bookstore browsers can vouch for that. Those of you who visit CBA outlets can testify to the same fact. The amount of authors is ever increasing. The current bestseller of the diverse bunch of CBA authors is Karen Kingsbury. Whenever Karen’s latest novel debuts in stores, it usually catapults directly to the top of all kinds of lists.
Many people enjoy Karen’s stories. Why do you suppose that is? Well . . . quite honestly it has to be because those stories she writes resonate with a lot of readers. Something about them keeps readers coming back for more and new readers jump on board to keep sales flourishing.
Karen Kingsbury makes herself accessible in her marketing strategies, newsletters, and contests. Her fans are given ample opportunities to meet her all across the country at bookstores, special events, churches, even on cruises. While a lot of readers just want to read the books of authors they’ve come to know, enjoy, and trust to produce more novels to sufficiently entertain them, Karen’s fans are devoted to her. Her books are emotional and often contain stories of ordinary people involved in circumstances common to most, involving failures, successes, the mundane and the extraordinary. Her characters are viable, knowable. Imperfect. Struggling. Solid. Strong. Weak. Frail. Hurt. Vulnerable. While definitely not falling into the “literary” category, Karen is an expressive writer capable of touching the heart and eliciting tears at some point in most of her books. She’s not afraid to present the gospel, her faith obvious and blended into the individual stories. Romance is inevitable and written with feeling, spark, and a meaningful approach.
Karen Kingsbury excels in her genre, in the style that defines her. God has decided her success level, and Karen never fails to marvel at what He’s done.
So . . . as a writer of novels, who can measure what is enough? Certainly success is admirable if one maintains integrity. If success is attained, the credit goes straight to heaven. It isn’t by chance or superior writing in all cases. Even in the secular realm, “every good and perfect gift still comes down from the Father”. One might wonder why God would allow The Da Vinci Code such “success”. Maybe the accepted measure of that so-called “success” isn’t what it seems.
If, as a writer, you look on the fiction shelves of your local CBA store, there are innumerable books by new, unfamiliar, and recognizable authors filling them. Even with a bigger publisher behind a new author, how can you make yourself stand out from the increasing numbers? I’m convinced you can’t. And, for once, this isn’t my usual pessimism speaking. It’s logic. What can make one book grab a gob of readers over another?
We all support the word of mouth recommendations as Dayle mentioned yesterday in his comments. But how many people can we really reach? Without attempting to be a smart aleck, who do we think we are anyway? Fancy websites, designer blogs, custom-made postcards, bookmarks, business cards . . . most of us aren’t made of money to design and produce these kinds of things with or without help. To mail anything to a number of people is expensive with postage costs escalating.
When I stop and assess these kinds of things, it hits home how much I depend on the Lord for any and all “non-failures”. Success has become redefined and replaced with obedience. I write. I attempt to do as He leads. He continues the journey for me even when I stumble along as if I’m Saul blinded by the light. And this leading, this struggle, this realization that it’s His gig, not my own, creates the dependence He desires in me. And it forces me to see my “glory” lies in Him and what He does, not in my own astute ideas or cleverness.
And when I do it right—and that constitutes following Him—I experience satisfaction and the release to please Him, to write for Him, to continue on wherever it is He shows me to go. The rewards come as a result of truly yielding to Him. Only then is it ever enough.
Father, you hold the answers we all seek. You have ordained the steps of the righteous. You have given us all we need in you. Thank you. Jesus, I want to know you more. Holy Spirit, take me ever closer to Truth. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
*Please remember to pray for Kristy Dykes.*