The Anticlimax of Being Published

So. True.

... During the entire process of producing a book, the writer becomes a swirling vortex of neediness. First you’re begging for time to write, then you’re asking people to read and edit, then you’re querying agents, then you’re asking (oh god) for blurbs, then you’re contacting reviewers, then you’re emailing everyone you’ve ever met, then you’re posting on Facebook (again and again), and then you’re asking people to show up to some bookstore on a Wednesday night to listen to you read words at them. Later, you’ll ask them to write reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. Every day, you are making demands on people’s time and money. It’s terrible. ...

People will read your book. Almost certainly not as many people as you wish. But sometimes a friend from high school or a former teacher will surprise you by showing up to a reading, or posting a review online. Sometimes a stranger will email you out of the blue and say they loved it, and in those moments it will feel like you’ve accomplished something impossible. It will feel better than you ever thought it could. ...

As a writer, you need to approach every project with the understanding that you’re doing this work for yourself, and everything that happens once it’s in the world is out of your control. Whatever project you’re working on now doesn’t derive value from your friends’ approval, but rather from the love and energy you pour into it. You can do the work, and you can keep showing up, and that’s all you’ve got. Most of the time, it’s all you need.

I'd nuance that last bit by saying--if God is calling you to write, that doesn't include a guarantee that it'll be good; that it'll be published; or that it'll be read by anyone on earth. God may well be asking for fidelity, not success, as Mother Teresa pointed out. God has called you to write. He may want you to do it for an audience of One/Three/the Communion of Saints.

Or He may make you the next J.K. Rowling.

Whichever it is, it needs to be enough for you that He has called and you have obeyed.

If you feel a further call to publish/see your work on stage or the screen, then you also have a further call to work very hard on your craft.

But simply the call to write? One thing I needed to come to grips with was that a call to write is not necessarily the same thing as a call to have it go anywhere.

I've been blessed further. I've been published, and have screen credits for Franciscan University Presents. But none of that would have happened without the simple acceptance that I needed to write and just keep writing with no guarantee that I'd have any other audience than God. And I needed to find that enough.