Y o u r W r i t e r s G r o u p

Editor to Author: Letter to a Memoir Writer

Dearest Author,

I've been thinking about worth lately.

What's your story worth?

At a recent writers conference I taught a workshop on how I saw publishing changing. Modern publishing, the only time in history when we've had separate "markets" for books, has begun to fracture and redistribute. I've shared several times about how The Shack has shifted things. It isn't just a book, of course, it's a bridge. And those bridges are inevitable because it isn't only spiritual people or Christians who recognize God as creator.  

Blue Like Jazz came well before it and created connections between the Christian and secular markets. Lauren Winner's memoir Girl Meets God made some connection points before that, similar to how Eat, Pray, Love did more recently, from the other side of the spiritual divide. Several spiritual/worldly, secular/sacred books have become best-sellers as bridges in the long history of such books since the beginning of print, and some people have traced this line back to the best-selling book of all time: The Bible.

The Secret. The Purpose-Driven Life. The Alchemist. The Celestine Prophesy. The Late Great Planet Earth. Pilgrim's Progress. Books you've never heard of have sold over 30 million copies: Steps to Christ by Ellen White, In His Steps by Charles Sheldon, late-19th century Congregational minister and advocate of the ever-intriguing idea of "Christian socialism." Even Nikolai Tesla wrote about his life a true spiritual man and world-renouned scientist in My Inventions. The Canterbury Tales, The Odyssey, and The Divine Comedy by Dante, written in 1304, has "sold" more than anyone knows and we have no idea how it or any of these books have changed readers and the history of spiritual thought, becoming seeds for the trees of countless theologies.

But of course, we know this is what books are--seeds. And this is what they do: define life and defy death.

"So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."

So this story that's a part of you, that is you, that defines your work and all of your effort and sacrifices to share it completely (or as completely as possible) for others to use--what's it really worth?

Don't answer. You can't. Simply try to see the fullness of the question clearly. Continue on...

Do you know where your worth is really found?

Yes, in God's ownership of the life and love he's created you to embody (1 John 4:7-12). His ownership, creating, protecting, guiding and infusing of his great, unchanging spirit into us. He dies that we might live (parents always understand this principle). And we die that others might live through our sacrifices. This is the daily work of writing.

Do you know what that is really worth?

Intimately known and held, seen and heard and helped in every way, this knowledge is invaluable, isn't it? We can talk of worth and value, and shift our understanding of that from copies sold to readers influenced, but it's the knowledge a reader will have by the end of your story that makes what you're doing truly valuable. And this understanding of how God fills us and dies for us is the greatest wisdom, the most valuable in the world. And if you are practicing that, that makes what you're doing invaluable.

I want to give you, as a witness of your discovery of that unchanging love, my invaluable opinion on it, my affirmation that you've been seen and heard and that what you've written down is completely worthy. And with your assurance that it's been well established and others will see it and respond, you can continue, knowing it's incredible and invaluable. 

So do you see what your story is really worth?

Because there's no true price tag you can put on it. There's no proper estimating the value of my work, my seeing it, or others' receiving it either. It's in-valuable. We have to simply trust together that whatever comes of it is just a small piece of its fullest value as a seed for God to use, and not at all connected to the worth of what you've written, or what I've done to help. I know you've sacrificed and given for your story, and I've been brought into the processing of it, but regardless of how it will be published and the realities of our modern marketplace, you must know:

What's your story really worth?

I remain your solid co-laborer in the process of delivering these invaluable words. Never assign its worth to money, public perception, publication, or anything else. Your heart is here, and that's established and it's something you have written definitively, and just as we have agreed together at the outset here, others will when they read it.

We don't know how it will all play out. But I'm on your side and not looking for specific outcomes big or small. Don't think in terms of what's "fair," but decide you will pay with your life what's necessary to give to this project. What you give is directly proportional to what that seed will be able to produce in readers. And in terms of return and profit, I believe Cohelo is right: the universe will conspire in our favor.

So what's your story really worth?

 

Your Loving Editor,

Mick

Does Your Writers Group Provide These 3 Essentials Every Writer Needs?

Welcome back, everyone. Hope you had a fabulous Easter.

Being a book editor is such a strange job. It has enormous up sides: not requiring me to, say, buy a lot of expensive equipment or be out in extreme elements. I don't have to dig through anything too revolting. At least not physically. But still, it has its challenges.

Chief among those is the fact that everyone I meet wants to publish. And this varies in intensity, often marked by dilated pupils and shortness of breath when I mention what I do, who I've worked for, authors I've helped. In most settings, I try not to mention it because chances are if the person has thought about writing at any point in their life, a little bell labeled "My-Golden-Ticket-to-Published-Author" goes off in their heads. And its particular frequency has a way of pushing the conversation past the more important matters like writing, editing, networking, etc.

Even the best writers need a lot of help ignoring this pesky bell. Especially if they spend any time online.

But once in a while I meet someone who wants to be an editor and I always get excited because I've always wanted to help more authors than I have time for. It's no easy thing sometimes to help authors say what they mean, prove we're worth listening to and that they're not, in fact, full card-carrying citizens of crazyland.

My advice to future editors is this: 3 things. Creating great books (and authors) always starts with the same 3 things, and they all derive from the question, Will this book absolutely force people to share it?

The big challenge with being an editor is that you get to be the one to ask how exactly it will do that. It's a difficult question for authors to accept, let alone answer. But if you can get them to face the question, the rest isn't all that hard. Help an author keep answering that question through every stage of the book process, and eventually what they'll get is an exceptional book.

Will this writing compel sharing? Does this edit improve the chances of sharing? Is this a brand that fills a desperate need or want? And is there someone who would be naturally inclined to enjoy it?

And while good editors can provide help in at least two of the three essential categories, a good writers group can help in all three:

1. Motivation.

The first essential element in birthing a book that can change lives is a heart that's fully engaged. Writers who are most productive need daily encouragement and inspiration to continue the hard work of showing up, sticking with it, and continually developing the vision. This is a critical step that's missing in most of the courses I've seen. Each week, I want to send you a new motivational message to inspire you to write what matters most.

2. Education.

Writers need to engage in every step of the book process as though it's the most important step there is. From writing to editing to branding, networking and publishing, the reason a book doesn't sell is a breakdown in one of those areas. And unless authors have a strong understanding of their story and their essential difference, the book won't rise as well as it might have. First, authors need to know how to write words that work better than the rest, and like any creative endeavor, this takes training and practice over time. Each step should build on the last, with solid guidance in editing, building a brand, networking, and choosing best publishing options.

3. Connection.

The final element that's sorely missing for writers today is connection to a larger, engaged community. The trick with books is getting critical feedback on your best efforts at each step to ensure you're on the mark. And when it comes time to release your message, the best way is organically--by letting people put it to use. You don't sell great books, they sell themselves because they're so remarkable. They solve huge problems and inspire people to change. If I was a fancy marketer, I'd call this the Authentic Approach Advantage or something, but it's basically what happens naturally  when you stay focused on helping people all along the way through your own development.

To encourage authors to finish well and excel my new plan is to focus on an online writers group. I'll still help authors individually, but much of it will be through the website. For those who signed up over Easter weekend, I'm grateful for your trust, and I'd like to extend the $10-first-week offer for your entire first month. Anyone else who would like to check it out, your first month will be $10 as well. Who knows, if it gets going well, I may extend that price indefinitely.

I'm learning how to run a website as I go, but I'm still just an editor and my goals for these three categories haven't changed. So if you want to see if YWG can help you produce an exceptional book, I encourage you to come by and see the different kind of community we've just gotten going.

Thanks for reading--I'm always open to any ideas you have for making it better. See you over there!

 

 

 

Progressive Publishing Program, Part 1: Finish Your Book (for Free) with a Writing Coach

Some offers are just hard to believe, aren't they? 

The day I came up with the idea for a "progressive publishing program," I didn't believe it either.  

But here's a confession: I’ve always been something of a skeptic. As a small(er) babbler, I remember seeing the commercial for the Tootsie Roll pop and I determined to prove them wrong. I stuck with that thing until I licked the stick clean. I probably have some undiagnosed OCD, and coupled with a near-religious devotion to Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers during my newly-verbal years, my ability to persevere through difficult tasks that I enjoyed was virtually assured.

Of course, my mom would tell you, I was one headstrong little snot. I stomped my defiant foot into the deep shag carpet more than once. And as corporal punishment was something of a Christian duty in the 70s, I learned to withstand much pain. 

At school, I followed my own beat stubbornly, even learning to use my spankings to make my punishers cry. But something stuck. I learned self-discipline. And today I use it every day, to edit, write, and not coincidentally, to help authors edit and write.

Research shows that for those who want to write a book, finishing is the #1 barrier. Estimates put it that over 80% of American adults want to write a book, but it turns out life can get in the way. And I could use competition, the TV-addicted childhood, California slacker thing, or my Gen X label as excuses.

Or I could write myself a different story.

There are plenty of stories for all of us to choose from. But eventually we all need to recognize it's our choice to chose the one most worth fighting for.

Commitment isn’t all we need. But it's like, 9/10s. It may be true that obsessing gets you nothing but ulcers, but devotion is the main defense against the enemy of all great books, this enticing fruit of distraction. Greedy salesmen and barking self-publishers purport to want to help you, but do they care how good your book is? What's in it for them to help you not just publish, but sell well? The vision you initially had for your book when you imagined it finished, is that what you have? Or are you in danger of straying from your path? Opportunists have sprouted up everywhere, even in Christian corners, to prey on your flagging devotion. And they're very convincing.

"Congratulations! You finished writing! Now it's time to publish! Trust us, we're professionals."

Maybe you've noticed the decline in book quality. Or typos. Or simply what Stephen King calls "fast-food books" that bypass anything nourishing and go straight to the bowels. I think they're going straight to authors' heads, making their brains fat and slow, convincing them they can publish bestsellers as quickly and easily as, well, passing some fast food.

My theory, and it's just a theory, is that the major problem is undisciplined authors. They may not tell the lies, but they give them power by believing them. And they sell out their vision before a better book is given a chance to be born. Either too distracted, untrained, or afriad of never reaching the shelves, the majority miss their chance of connecting and selling well.

A glut of entitled sell-outs is dragging down the art and literature of publishing.

And why? Because they believe the hype. A brainless machine can publish your book. The real value is in the wisdom to know what's required to publish a best-seller. Are best-selling books always great books? No. And no one can predict success. But there are common characteristics in the authors who write well and sell well. The easiest way to make money in publishing is in selling false hope. And it costs far less to give people what they want than to commit to high quality work (what they really want, trust me).

If you've got a different kind of story, maybe it needs to be published as a great book. Maybe you are one who should choose a better way.

You can do that and make a stand. But you'll also need others around you who believe in that goal really, really stubbornly.

Look at how best-selling authors do it. My newsflash for you after having worked with many successful authors over the past decade is that the good ones committed to the idea that valuable work costs much. They sacrificed for it. They sought out professionals to ensure the highest quality and before they published, they decided they really, really wanted to learn to write and edit well. They learned to tell a story. Armed with this, they managed to wait, to learn to edit, to research the market and others' books, and put themselves through the paces to pull together a refined vision, instead of selling it for scrap.

Choosing a different story than the self-publishers' hype is a new first step to becoming a great author. And only those with the determination to finish well will ever sell a great book.

Stay tuned...part 2 tomorrow.

(Oh, and in case you're wondering how many licks it really takes, I'll tell you over in the forum at the new site...)

How Authors Get Everything They Really Want: The Death of Traditional Publishing "Success"

What is “success” as an author?

This question has more answers than Carter has pills. (My grandpa liked to say this, which always made me feel badly for whoever Carter was. Who is Carter and why does he have so many pills?)

Ah, this is great. I'm munching some popcorn Charlotte, my 5 year old, just brought me from her mid-morning snack. She’s home today for teacher’s conferences, and this is way more information than you need, but I want to set this up first, to say how glorious it is working from home, and appreciate that beauty with me, but second, how instructive it is to have a kid around who comes downstairs with her big bowl and quietly sets it near you, careful not to interrupt the typing, and say, “You can have some of my snack, if you want.”

I mean, this isn’t the way I imagined it. I had no idea. But I take a handful and she smiles and tells me to get lots of work done and leaves.

And I will. With this popcorn, I will work like a factory-assembly-line maniac. Like Carter without his pills.

Now I don’t work for her affection. She gives it to me freely. I don’t do a thing. I could even deny my affection, work so I never see her and miss out completely on a relationship with her and she’d still bring me her own food to share.

Because this is how it is with love.

And this question of how we define success has so many different answers because so many people don't feel loved. Underneath what we say we believe, "success" always has to do with whatever we're seeking most. These are words I've treasured: When you first seek to give yourself to God's way, his higher purpose, you'll be given everything you desire.

I used to think this was a cheap trick because when you do this, your desires "magically" change—and how easy is it to give me what I want when he just changes what that is first? Come on! But there's a deeper principle at work that says when you seek the higher purpose beyond yourself, you get what you really wanted all along.

It’s not different from your original desires, it's just deeper, more real. And hense, more lasting when it's fulfilled. It's always better to give than receive. It’s always better to do for another what you’d want done for you.

And I believe it. But do I? Would I act differently if I really believed? Do I give my popcorn, or do I eat it myself? What’s success: having the biggest handful or giving the most away?

Affirmation and validation are big traps for authors. Most realize it’s a fool’s errand, but the exploiters still sell it: “Are you desperate to feel appreciated and worthy? Sign with PAI-YUP Publishing today!” So many authors say they know where ultimate love is, but they don’t seem convinced. If they felt it, they’d know, and they’d figure out it’s probably dumb to try and squeeze love out of a book contract. But they don’t want to look deeper.

That’s not me. I mean, I know you can’t derive your value from a car or a job or even others’ opinions....

But we all still do it. And we close our eyes, rationalize it and make it “all right.”

Why do so many books get printed? Why do so many people work so hard when the only pay off is more attention and more work? Ask anyone “important”: more importance = more problems.

I know what I want to say with my work, and it is a way to give back, but I think I need to look harder at how what I’m writing is directly pouring into who is receiving it. This is a critical step in the process for anyone looking to share a book of true lasting value. I need to spend some more time picturing those outstretched bowls and me pouring from mine that’s been so generously filled...

So what's "success" to you, that is, what do you think is most important? Are you writing to “give back” or is it more about what you want to say?

Why Absolutely Everything Is about the Story

I had this thought yesterday:

Everyone who lives with barriers to belief who has made a conscious negative response about faith has fully misjudged God.

The realization of that stopped me. Somehow I knew it was a glimpse of God’s perspective and his true love for those he misses. And so I stopped and considered it. And no more than a moment later, a fuller picture emerged. And it shocked me:

With unbelievers, there is no other category.

No other category! To know him for who he truly is always = loving him. And that love changes anyone who encounters it. But anyone who has trouble believing or loving, it is  misunderstanding that's to blame. And it's this misunderstanding that's constantly used as our excuse, evidence that he doesn’t exist or isn’t what we want or need. The lack of evidence about God becomes our weapon to use against him.

Can you see the problem?

So what's the solution? Reconnecting. God wants to reconnect. And any writer working to write a true spiritual story has the greatest advantage: story! The method God himself has used to share this vitally relevant truth.

I'd like to humbly propose that reconnecting the disconnected is the grand story of all humanity. It's what it's all about. This is why everything is about story because we're all a part of it, his story of coming and reconnecting. Story is all about the one who overcomes unbeatable odds to achieve what seemed impossible. And it's happening every day, all around us if only we could see it.

Do you ever think about that? Maybe if there was time you would. But I'm wondering if there's time to think of anything but this.

This story thing is so powerful when you think of it as the way God's created us to reconnect. And because it's his, absolutely everything is a part of it, what he created, his world, the lives he spoke into being, the narrative he placed us in. We all want to read his words and know how he reveals himself and reconnects with us. Every true spiritual story is one more piece of the larger unfolding story of reconnection, as infinite as the universe, more evidence that one day it will all be reconnected. Can your story reconnect others with him, show him for who he is? How many need to read it to be reconnected and add their line in the bigger story. And how many of these stories can we find?

Authors of faith, you are royal daughters and sons of the great Reconnector. See your tool clearly. You must tell the story. Provide the escape. End the misunderstanding. Deliver the inspiration.

Crush the lack of evidence.

Open the eyes.

Write for one.

The All-Time Top Reasons to Pursue Big Publishing, Part 2

Great conversation about this so far. I want to get to some of the comments at the end here.

One thing that hasn't sat well with me since "coming out" here about my secret thoughts has been the people I feel I'm leaving open. There's always a repercussion. When I was taking on the quality level of Christian fiction it was the authors, editors and big publishing community who became a blunt tool of retribution, somehow hearing in my carefully chosen words a personal slam on their mission. Now, mind you, we're all on the same team, giving our lifeblood for books, choosing this path of thankless poverty, in solidarity and mutual respect, to build up the community of dedicated creatives raising the bar of Christian reading together. This is our bond and in my mind at least, it's insoluble. 

But I have a tendency of taking that for granted. I also tend to push it to extend to the lesser members of "our" community--the ones on the outside, the unwashed, unpublished authors, those unsavory individuals who find themselves wondering why Christians who all love books can be so insular and exclusive as though it's some big club you have to prove you belong in before you can pay your admission and get a cool drink.

Truth is, I've been waiting to write this post. 

I push against the velvet rope around the club because it's the same barrier that kept the Samaritan's brother in that ditch. Listen: "Who do you think you are? Don't you have any respect? You can't just open the doors to help people because they have a need!" They don't hear themselves, but they're saying the same thing. Do they see those who have needs? Or do they see the beautiful building they've occupied for so long being changed, opened up to the riff-raff, sullied by the pungent smell of ripe feet in need of washing? In fact, some will see only rocks threatening their beautiful windows. And nothing else. 

I've been silent a long time, waiting to say it and today I finally want to say what's making me so excited about being fired and being shown the door. I was inside. I saw it. It was beautiful. But it was just a building. And you've got more going on out here than they do. "They" are a phantom so it's easy to miss who we're talking about, so don't mistake me. Everyone in that big building of publishing is a good, extremely intelligent, highly-efficient machine of well-oiled skill and experience. Together, they're a powerful force and with the big building as the stronghold, you had better make friends as best you can. Don't be stupid and throw rocks. 

But don't accept this lie of inferiority. That's what I'm excited to share. You have more opportunity today than ever before. With everything before you in online marketing and instant information, if you play your cards right, you don't need to worry about getting in the building. It will happen if you want it to once you rise to the bar that's been set. If you will wait and come with me, seek the knowledge that's building out there (much of it freely available online), you'll have more readers than you can ever respond to. What I mean is, you don't need in anymore. 

Over the past year and a half, I've begun to see just how unnecessary pursuing big publishing is. Let them pursue you. It's much better that way, believe me. I've seen authors become someone they value without even trying to and I know the secrets. The affirmation thing Katherine mentioned is perfectly reasonable and absolutely right--this IS the primary reason to pursue big publishing I see. Seems perfectly valid. But what I'm saying is, it's unlikely. You won't get it and you will kill yourself trying. Of course on a personal, emotional, and spiritual level, we know where our true affirmation and validation comes from--only one place. But professionally too, it can come only from knowing you've done your very best and not sold out to a false hope of a huge readership, critical acclaim, and giant sales. 

Getting noticed as a new author is still possible. But if you're working at it just to be good enough to be published, you're missing the point. Do it and hold on to your rights while you're starting out so you can control the establishment of your own career. Then when it begins to get noticed, you can decide your terms when they come to you. But holding off a while is your best bet. This is, in essence, all I'm saying. 

Now, don't read this as license to go self-publish without editing or paying a vanity press thousands of dollars. You are likely ruining your chances of ever gaining a real audience if you do. Be patient. Research, read, contemplate, write, rewrite, edit, critique, review, learn, brand, market, build, explore, listen, watch, wait, craft, strategize. Remember another parable: if you got a talent and a call, it is your responsibility how to invest it. If you act out of fear, selfishness, or anything other than his kingdom, you already know what happens. If you invest with maturity and intelligence, you have no idea the real reward that awaits. 

Are you getting it? This is just the barest of bones--the full plan is much more detailed. But do you want to come? I could use the help. 

Why the world needs you.

Why does the world need you?

I had a thought recently that seemed out of nowhere. It's not the kind of thing I normally come up with. But it was sitting there when I went to write at my usual time, and it sounded like something I've heard for a long time but just never picked it up to look at.

Nothing is fragile. And everything is.

What kind of crazy talk is that? Not being one to let crazy deter me, I started to think about it. I've been discovering recently that there is nothing outside redemption. I've held the head knowledge of that a long time, but until this year, I've never experienced it and felt it like I have now. Nothing that can’t be made new. All life is constantly being transformed, revised. Renewed.

I know that the great power holding everything together brings all the world to life.

And yet it's also self-evident that everything we see and touch, everything we do and feel and are, all of it is unstable, constantly changing, constantly moving toward decay.

Nothing is fragile, but everything is.

Even as order and beauty and truth expand exponentially in every direction, the vast, dark wilderness of chaos is expanding too. You only have to look to see that both these things are undeniable.

But the question I'm left with as I sat down to write that day was Why does the world need you?

Because I write?

This is what we do, and it's not a small thing. If you think of words as bread that gives life, “As often as you do this,” we serve to remind by our remembering. What if every time we wrote, we remembered as well? We don't live on food alone, but by the words we’re given, taking part in the transforming work of the truth. We get to make all things new. Redeemed. The words are God’s, the Word that speaks to life is Jesus. And we are the sharers of the Word.

Think of all language as a holy expression of meaning from nothing. A calling out from chaos to ordained order. With every word, the dark marks on paper build, until the whole world is made new. From that angle, anything but awe-struck gratitude feels insufficient.

This is the great work to which we’ve been called. And through the words, we are constantly communing.

So when I write with this as my reality, I naturally start to speak God’s voice: “You are unconditionally, unfathomably loved. Just for who you are today, who I made. Who you were and who you are becoming complete the picture of the beauty you are. But today, you already are the greatest beauty you could possibly conceive of.”

And that's a voice I love to hear.

So why does the world need you?

Well, do you believe this?

Sometimes I don’t believe it. Or maybe I just get distracted from it. It’s so easy to forget. But the writing time is also space to wait and trust. As often as I do this, I sit and the words come and I remember to consider how big God is. How he knows everything. How nothing is too fragile and everything is, but the source of all things is the source of my words too. And I am one who knows and sees and so I must remember and serve the world and make it new.

Why does the world need you?

Can the world need anything more than this? Do you know this? And can you write?

Seeing Beauty, Part 3

I’m finally feeling like myself today after a full 10 days of the worst flu symptoms I’ve ever experienced—6 days of 102 temperature, complete fatigue, and every nasty thing that comes with it. We all caught it but finally have been smuggled through back to the land of the living. Charlotte never really got it and we realized she probably has natural immunity from her tendency to eat more of what comes from her nose than any other kind of food. Apologies to any other OCD types; it’s generally enough to make my wife gag just thinking about it.

 

But I promised some reflections on story and structure and I’ve been thinking about it from my drug-addled haze...

 

We long for story to help explain our lives’ meaning. Stories help us define our experience, validate it and give us comparisons, like juxtaposing contrasting colors. Personalities can clash and reveal countless mysteries to ponder. We thrill in those alternations between confusion and discovery. And this is beauty.

 

There’s a hint here of the deeper order at work beneath the workings. We didn’t invent stories, just like we didn’t invent language or words or the ability to understand them. We’ve developed them, adapted and changed and manipulated them, but just like we didn’t create the materials we use to create with, we didn’t create the words. The great order did. The deeper order. Even when we don’t see the structure, it’s there always at work underneath.

 

And the deep romance in this is what we’re ultimately after. How unthinkable it is that God would do all this, create all this, for what reason? We’re not told, and it’s they kind of mystery that’s needed for the romance to thrive. The greater the mystery, the greater the thrill when the answer is revealed. Just like the greater the dissimilarity between the players, the greater the thrill when peace is finally reconciled. This is the story going on and when redemption finds its way to the unlikeliest of characters, we shake our heads and remember how amazing it all is and how little we really know of it. How small we really are. And how grateful must we be….

 

To see this and explore its supernatural reality through the evidence we have—nature and metaphors and the Bible and prayer—this is the fuel for the journey. Is seeing it something we can choose? Of course, and it starts with as simple an act as recognizing that it’s there for us to choose to see. And it does become easier with practice. When life is hard, sometimes it’s harder to recognize, harder to pry our eyes open. We can never assume it’s truly easy.

 

But that’s why I want to make it as easy as possible to find for others and to share my amazement. To remind myself and whoever else wants it that just beyond this ordinary, familiar 3D world (the one they’re so excited about recreating for us through technology these days) is a far more interesting one with more unbelievable wonders than you could ever dream up.

 

And it’s there I want to be deeply exploring, constantly waking myself up to the beauty, order, and romance behind everything we see, feel, smell, hear, taste, and experience.

 

These are the clues. What’s really behind them?

Seeing Beauty, Part 2

The current state of publishing has me thinking about the future.

 

It’s hard not to these days. Everywhere you look there’s another announcement of the electronic squashing print. I imagine this big trash-can-head robot stomping books into the mud and I have to set down my quill and cry a little into my ink-stained tea mug.

 

But soon I regather my strength and then I start thinking of all the cool things to come. Futurists and other people who are paid to think about such things say that in 2020 you will be able to talk to anyone with auto-translator apps in your primary devices. But that’s just the start. Computers will be inside things and inside us and not on the desk. We’ll be able to enter full-immersion VR with images downloaded directly to our retinas, augmenting and even replacing reality in various ways. We’ll be interacting with virtual personalities and relying on them for several things—news and information, entertainment and companionship.

 

And according to one cyborg brainiac currently known as Ray Kurzweil, by 2029, the fastest computers ever heard of today will be affordable for virtually everyone on the planet. Many of us will be bio-engineered in several senses, both through implants and through computer-enhanced mental and physical capabilities in the computers embedded into our everyday objects. Cellular robots will be programable to repair anything at the molecular level, reversing aging, global problems, economic vulnerabilities, climate disruptions, and every manner of decline and decay. These robots will improve our brains and body functions and also make it possible to experience others’ emotional states and their attendant physical experiences. Organs will be created and recreated from tissue within and outside the body. Human life expectancy will increase and several common diseases will disappear. New ones, especially psychological disorders will continue to proliferate. (Much of this was mentioned by Ray here, toward the end of his talk:

And all of this makes me struggle to believe there will be much more beauty and sane people around to appreciate it in the coming decades. Sure, there will be advances and technologies never before seen and they will be widely appreciated and then mostly taken for granted as usual. But will much of the real beauty beneath, behind, and all around it be missed and inadvertently destroyed, as much or more than is happening today?

 

When I think about my kids growing up in this ever-more identity-variable landscape, I easily become overwhelmed. It’s bad enough thinking how Facebook and Twitter are making our boundaries more permeable and unreliable, but it’s a plink of acid rain to the sheer suffocating volume of inescapable existential asteroids hurtling toward us just beyond our perception.

 

(Imagine people wanting to move to the space station on Mars just to get away from the disturbing technological society we’ve created on Earth. It isn’t so far fetched to consider--the sci-fi writers are all wondering why I’d even bring it up.)

 

Normally all the unknown out there would be enough to make me want to move into a well-ventilated cave and take up the piccolo, but thanks to the current publishing environment, I’m about all out of freak-out these days.

 

Where will beauty be if we can’t even find it in our current world? More than ever, we need a different kind of futurist who sees where we’re heading and is holding us to the solid source of truth, love, and beauty. So often writers get frustrated that they aren’t getting the attention they think they deserve, but the hard truth is that they haven’t really found what deserves our attention. It’s easy to look around and excuse ourselves from responsibility—plenty of garbage gets published, why not this? We can dodge and remain stubbornly focused on what we want to say.

 

But what if there’s something higher, something more universal you haven’t considered? Even in your own small story the particulars point to a bigger, broader picture. And that picture has implications for all of us. What meaning are you making of your experience for others to glean? What fuller awareness are you making possible through sharing your discoveries?

 

And what transcendent beauty are you illuminating by the light of your simple words?

Crossing Over: Who Is Your Audience?

In the closing month of 2008, Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion released these findings:

• 20% of Americans said they have “heard God’s voice”
• 55% feel they are protected by a guardian angel
• 23% say they have witnessed a miraculous physical healing

In a similar survey in 2005, 67% of Americans were convinced heaven exists. Dick Staub made an interesting related commentary recently about all these spiritual seekers (estimates say it’s commonly around 82% of Americans) who perpetually come up empty in their spiritual search. This is not a new audience.

 

But the “spiritually interested” audience is this group. Among their primary interests are a spiritual reality that isn’t immediately apparent to the five senses. They are not necessarily looking for doctrine, Bible studies, or tips on successful living. They are not even necessarily looking for verifiable proof, tangible evidence, or practical application of this spiritual reality. Their interest is more elemental—tracking closely with universal human curiosity. To wit, the spiritually interested are:

• Open to new ideas and possibilities
• Eager to consider new ways of looking at life and reality and the universe
• Concerned about issues such as personal freedom, self-realization, destiny, fulfillment
• Not geared to motivators such as paranoia, shame, legalism, and fear. In contrast to many evangelicals, these motivators are off-putting to the spiritually interested.
• If God exists, they want to know that he/she/it loves them  
• Tuned into invisible reality, which includes spiritual reality, parallel reality, mystical reality, supernatural phenomena, mystery, spiritual power, intersections between the physical realm and the spiritual realm, and direct experience of these things
• Tuned into spiritual power, especially as it helps them live everyday life and achieve their goals/desires/aspirations
• Interested in exerting control over external circumstances through spiritual means
• Driven by direct experience over theory, logic, or arguments
• Open to new possibilities, not bound to dogma, religious systems, schools of thought or worldviews.

This “cafeteria-style” approach to belief, religion, and spirituality is exhibited in the self-improvement fields, which lends itself very nicely to current CBA and ABA nonfiction focused on self-help and a humanistic worldview. In fiction, this is harder to quantify, but redemptive stories that illuminate a benevolent, engaged, and beneficial spiritual reality are aiming at this broad audience. But in fiction and in nonfiction, this audience is interested in information that illuminates:

• Natural laws of the universe and how one can live in harmony with it
• Special wisdom and/or knowledge about those laws, power within them, and often control over them for personal gain and making sense of chaotic life
• The future and what lies ahead
• The other side, heaven, the afterlife, angels, the parallel spiritual realm, non-corporeal experience

In general, the types, genres and categories for these books is broad. They can be fiction or non, straight-forward or deceptive, traditional or quirky, literary or crassly commercial. They may have direct discussion of spiritual reality or opt for organic discussion of spiritual reality woven in. They may speak of Christianity as a supernatural faith, of meeting God & the devil on Haight-Asbury, or finding Heaven in an oil-slicked parking lot. They may be tame or surprisingly wild, serious or funny, artless or crafted, emotional or intellectual, scientific or not. Most will engage with experimental elements that break assumptions and illuminate a supernatural theme (which can include everything from vampires to superheroes to commercial thrillers to literary magical realism).

 

Some comparative titles to this audience:

The Shack, William Young (Windblown Media)

Dinner with a Perfect Stranger, David Gregory (WaterBrook)

The Secret, Rhonda Byrne (Atria)

A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle (Plume)

The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle (New World Library).

90 Minutes in Heaven, Don Piper with Cecil Murphey (Revell/Baker)

The Year of Living Biblically, A.J. Jacobs (S&S)

Walking the Bible, Bruce Feiler (Harper)

Journey of Desire, John Eldredge (Nelson)

The Faith Club, Idliby, Oliver, Warner (Free Press)

What Jesus Meant, Garry Willis (Viking)

The Traveler’s Gift, Andy Andrews (Nelson)

Closer Than Your Skin, Susan Hill (WaterBrook)

 

Dean Koontz and Stephen King. Francis Collins and Timothy Keller. This audience is not a new one. Obviously, this creates something of a “supercategory” that quickly becomes unwieldy. But for readers of this blog, I hope you see how it may include books that present an indirect gospel essence to those not yet convinced. Books of this nature don’t sound like a typical Evangelical Christian book, largely because they aren’t written by your typical Evangelical Christian. Yet these books can still be completely orthodox and in line with the biblical account while connecting with an audience most Christian books will never reach. This is why publishing to the “spiritually interested” is a significant growth area and we need to find out how best to position ourselves to intentionally and strategically target this market.

 

That is the million dollar question. If your book with spiritual themes can invite anybody in no matter what they believe, and put them on an equal footing, without teaching or preaching, that’s the first step. If you allow readers to draw their own conclusions, if you are comfortable asking “What if ….?,” and allownig your curiosity to guide you, you can write for this audience. If you acknowledge that there is still much to be discovered about the universe, the challenges of life, God, spiritual reality, etc., and you are someone who asks Why me? instead of feeling grand or entitled to your opinions, you have the voice. This makes you valueable to this type of reader. Because these readers are looking for authenticity, an author who knows enough to ask that question and not expect an answer is someone different than those the establishment likes to hype. Nine times out of 10, they’re more real. And readers want their books for that reason.

 

This is how you will open the door wide to the "emerging" readership.