Release Date Changed to January 2013
. . . And a Chat about Discouragement
Questions. Were you born with them the same way I was? Why does such and such happen? Why is life seemingly so much tougher for me than for ______ ? Why is life so hard?
Recently I grappled with more questions when my publisher’s publicist e-mailed me. Due to circumstances beyond his control, the release of The Tenth Plague has been moved from the end of this September to January 15, 2013.
Pardon Me While I Vent
I could be very discouraged by this news. Why? The process of getting this second novel to any semblance of the printed page for readers has been one of the most frustrating and time-consuming trials in recent memory. I won’t bore you with the details.
Suffice it to say, I’ve faced seemingly endless delays, constant rejection, false hopes, discouragement, lack of affirmation, the death of my father, financial/work pressures, and even a switch of publishers.
I could easily point fingers (“Satan must be attacking me” or “that publisher must be out of his mind”), but I’m not going to. I’ve decided not to be discouraged. Because ultimately, if God is in control of My life (and He is), then He’s also in control of my writing and its timeline. He also promises that all things will work together for my good.
I have a melancholy personality and can easily get down in the dumps. So let’s shed the negativity and switch this around to a positive.
Good News
So what “good” can I take away from the trying experience of getting this book to publication?
Trials must be God’s good gifts. Otherwise the novel would have been published two years ago. But if life were only that easy, I may not have learned so many lessons:
To be patient
To persevere
To rest in God’s sovereign (and best) plan for my life
To stop looking at the clock and start resting in Him
To stop envying others and their success
To stop comparing myself to others and their success and pace
To see myself as a wretch who must continually shrug off negativity and turn my eyes to Christ
To stop measuring my worth based on my performance (my worth is in Jesus Christ)
To realize publishing novels isn’t all about me but about God and what He wants to do
To see that publishing novels is not the end-all (there are more important things in life)
To remind myself that anything I do well is because God has empowered me to do it (therefore, He gets all the praise for any success)
To accept that I may never publish another novel and that I need to be okay with that
To not blame others when ultimately God is in control, even of the rejection and disappointments
To make people I love a higher priority
Ready for more good news?
The Lord willing, unless Jesus raptures His church before January, the novel is still being published. That hasn’t changed.
The timeline is only what has changed. And only by four short months.
And God allowed me to cowrite a memoir, which is being published this fall by DayOne (hopefully I’ll have details about that book soon). Praise Him!
So, as usual, I tend to make a mountain out of a mole hill. I have every reason to rejoice. God accomplishes His will, and I become a more mature author. And really, readers are willing to wait a little while longer than we think they will. If not, they may learn something about patience too.
So this trial is a win-win for everyone.
I’ve been brutally honest about my struggles to make a point. I’m human. I get discouraged like you do. I struggle with my attitude and need a regular wake-up call to keep things in the right perspective.
What about you? Are you going through a major life trial that has sapped you of your joy in the Lord? Here are some lyrics someone sent me a while back that may help:
There’s not a victory without a fight
There’s not a sunrise without a night
There’s not a purchase without a cost
There’s not a crown without a cross
4 thoughts on “Release Date Changed to January 2013”
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You know that I know what this is like. And I’ll tell you the sense of what you said to me: something better will come of this.
That said, I feel like the two of us might sit down together and — and just site for a while.
Yes, I think you just read my thoughts and put them on the page. It’s so hard to have faith and keep believing God will do something with the book He gave you to write. I, too, tend to plan for the worst, then lose heart when I don’t see any movement in the direction I want to go. Thankfully, my husband seems to get an extra dose of faith in my book when mine is gone (even though he hasn’t even read it yet!), and he’s constantly buoying my spirits in this WAITING season of life.
How naive I was four years ago, when I finished my first novel and was sure it would get published! Regardless, I’ve learned so much in the meantime about blogging and platform-building. Not to mention, I’ve gotten edited and critiqued, so my writing’s getting better.
GREAT and honest post. So glad you have an end date in sight for getting your next book published!
I hear you, Glynn. It happens to all of us. Trials just make the final triumph of success all the sweeter. (-;
Thanks, Heather. Oh yes. The trials are indeed mutual and “common to man.” I can feel so dejected sometimes, but it’s the truth of Scripture that lifts me up and keeps me going. It’s nice that you find a cheerleader of sorts in your husband. I wish I had a whole army of cheerleaders. Some days I truly don’t know why I keep doing this writing thing until I remind myself that God is control of all of this, even with the desire that began as a child. He has a purpose.
I pitched a rough draft of this second novel to Kregel three years ago this summer. Three very long years of working and waiting on two publishers and one agent.
I need to work more at this platform-building thing more, so I’ll add your rss to my Google Reader. At least I’m blogging and doing book giveaways and stuff like that. I know I need to be tweeting more, etc. Are you in a writer’s critique group? I honestly haven’t a clue how to find the right people for something like that. I’m glad the post was helpful for you. I figured, hey, I’ll bare my soul. Others may struggle with discouragement too. It turns out I was right. We could start a writer’s rejection support group or something. (-;