When Good News Comes

Sometimes this writing gig is hard work, isn't it? It's hard work if you're a hobbyist, it's hard work if you're doing it around your regular day job, and it's hard work if it is your day job. There are no guarantees. Some days and weeks go by swimmingly, and other times sales tank, and you have no idea why.

I've had a season of lower sales and, I'll admit it, discouragement. Not discouragement to the point of giving up, but definitely to the point of wondering if it really was all going to pay off in the end. 2015 was a great year. I wrote and released seven titles (five of them novellas) and made a decent income.

But 2016 has been slow out of the gate for me. I released one book in February, wrapping up my Farm Fresh Romance series, and wrote the first two in my new Urban Farm Fresh Romance series. Due to putting the first into a multi-author box set — I've blogged about those here at ICFW before — that didn't release until the end of June, I had a long gap in my publishing schedule: four months! I know. It seems crazy. But in the current digital publishing realm, four months is a long time without a new release.

The timing of the box set, Whispers of Love, was such that I very nearly chose not to participate. I'd intended to release Secrets of Sunbeams in May, and all the files were ready to go. But something special just might happen, and I wanted to be on board, just in case.

Meanwhile, I discovered that Dandelions for Dinner, the fourth Farm Fresh Romance had finaled in the Word Awards (The Word Guild is a Canadian organization for Christian authors). On June 24 I got a text from Janet Sketchley from the Word Award Gala in Toronto saying my title was the winner in the contemporary category! And there was much rejoicing in the Comer household. (Thanks, Janet, for reading my acceptance speech!)

But as cool as that win was — and I'm not downplaying it at all — my eyes were nervously fixed on June 28 and the release of the Whispers of Love box set. We 12 authors had set an ambitious goal: the USA Today best-sellers list, which consists of the top 150 books per week, counted by number of sales across multiple platforms.

There were many unknowns. How many sales would it take this particular week to break into the top 150? As you can imagine, that number varies depending on what else is launching and which older titles are hot. There's nothing controllable about either! Still, we agreed that the more pre-orders we had going into release week, the better our chances would be.

The second question we had is one all authors have. How can we reach beyond our known readers to find new ones that would like us if they only were aware we and our books existed? We had a great start to our 90-day pre-order period. If only we could keep up that momentum, we'd surely land a good spot. But campaigns, like books and authors, tend toward saggy middles. Once our keen fans and followers had reserved their sets, reality set in and the hard work began.

We blogged and guest blogged. We bought Facebook ads. We tweeted. We shared memes in Facebook groups and on our pages. We bought ads on various promotional sites. We shared excerpts. We had a Facebook party.

Frankly, our author friends were beginning to think the set should be named Shouts of Annoyance instead of Whispers of Love.

At the end of the week, we gathered in our corner and waited, (almost) silently. No longer did we wonder what day the USA Today list updated. We knew. Now we wondered what hour. What minute. And we hoped against hope that we'd find ourselves there, somewhere above #150, hanging on by our fingertips.

Instead, God blessed us with a solid landing at #79. All those pre-orders? Enough. All that hustling? Enough. All those prayers? Enough.

Now that the fever pitch is wearing off two weeks later, our author friends are starting to speak to us again. They've forgiven us. They're even happy for us, because a win for twelve indie authors is a win for all authors and readers alike.

Thank you, Jesus. May this bring glory to your name.

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Valerie Comer's life on a small farm in western Canada provides the seed for stories of contemporary inspirational romance. Like many of her characters, Valerie and her family grow much of their own food and are active in the local foods movement as well as their church. She only hopes her creations enjoy their happily-ever-afters as much as she does hers, shared with her husband, adult kids, and adorable granddaughters.

Valerie is a USA Today bestselling author and a two-time Word Award winner. She has been called “a stellar storyteller” as she injects experience laced with humor into her green clean romances. Visit her at ValerieComer.com.

Creating those treasures

Recently, while at a meeting in someone’s home, one of the women present pointed at a bookshelf nearby and smiled at me. At first, I wondered what she was doing—I couldn’t see anything there that stood out to me.

‘Look, Jo-Anne—there are two of your books! I’ve got them at home too.’

I looked again then and finally saw my first two novels at one end of the shelf. Then someone else chimed in.

‘I have all of your books lined up in my bookcase,’ another commented, much to my embarrassment.

‘I have too, another person added. ‘See—you’re famous!’

I laughed and the conversation soon changed direction. But later, as I reflected on what had been said, I felt so thankful and humbled. How blessed am I to have had seven books published at this stage of my life—and what a privilege to have been able to enrich the lives of others even in some small way through what I have written! No, my books may not have been classics or best sellers or winners of great awards. But at least some people have been blessed through reading them and still treasure my books on their shelves.

Recently, I have been thinking about the treasures books in general are to us, as I have been asked to speak somewhere on that topic later in the year. So far, I have come up with the following ideas—and please feel free to share any of your own with me! Books enlarge our knowledge and understanding of the world around us, giving us insights into the way others live their lives and how the world functions in general. Books enable us to take in the wisdom of past generations and to experience situations way beyond our own space and time. Books give us the opportunity to walk in another’s shoes and hopefully develop greater understanding of and empathy for others. Books may help us understand spiritual things better too and be drawn closer to God in the process. And books may comfort or encourage us as we relate closely to what we read and realise we are not alone. Someone else out there understands where we are at and their voice reaches out to us through those words they have written.

On a somewhat more mundane level, books increase our vocabulary and our ability to communicate well via the written word. Books entertain us, perhaps even providing a way to rest or relax and escape for a while into another whole world. On the other hand, books can keep our minds alert, intriguing us with tricky plot twists or challenging us with new and deep thoughts that cause us to grow and become better people in some way.

Books can contain so many rich treasures, waiting for us to discover—precious and semi-precious gems of infinite variety and value. What a privilege as writers to be able to add our own unique creations to this literary treasure trove and to be given the opportunity to touch someone else’s life through our words, be they many or few. May we never take our writing for granted but stay close to God each day, receiving that true inspiration we all need as we apply ourselves to those works in progress.

Jo-Anne Berthelsen lives in Sydney, Australia. She holds degrees in Arts and Theology and has worked as a high school teacher, editor and secretary, as well as in local church ministry. Jo-Anne is passionate about touching hearts and lives through both the written and spoken word. She is the author of six published novels and one non-fiction work, Soul Friend: the story of a shared spiritual journey. Jo-Anne is married to a retired minister and has three grown-up children and four grandchildren. For more information, please visit www.jo-anneberthelsen.com.