I am beyond excited! For not a few years, I have been writing a book.
Call it my “Rejection Collection” if you will, but the actual title is A Little Faith Lift…Erasing the Lines of the Enemy. And yes, it was difficult to narrow down my personal anecdotes into 25 chapters, but I’ve tried to choose the best of the best. Or should I say, the worst of the worst?
At any rate, once my book was finished, I started worrying.
What if no one sees merit in it?
Who am I to try and enter the world of authorship when there are hundreds struggling to do the same?
Will I survive if it receives bad reviews?
Would it be tacky to pay my friends to write good ones?
Could it be that I’m the only one who has enough stories of rejection/embarrassment to fill an entire book, so no one will relate…and I’ll be alone, sitting on an island somewhere, yes, alone, reading one of my many…well, books…because I had to pre-order 5,000 of them which, of course, didn’t work out so well for me?
(Did I mention that I will be alone?)
Do you see a problem here? I wrote a book on overcoming rejection, yet clearly, I have a tad bit of work to do to take my own advice.
A month ago, John, a respected agent, read my first four chapters and wanted to represent me to the Christian publishing world. For days, I walked around in a stupor, not knowing if I should share the unbelievable news with my friends or not. I certainly never expected an agent with his reputation to take on someone who had never authored a book, but when his wife read my chapters on an airplane and “laughed at loud in several places” and told her husband so, the deal was sealed.
The next step was for me to write a book proposal. Twenty-seven pages later, I sent my 1800th revision to John.
It lacked one thing: I didn’t have a huge social media following. Publishers insist on it. In other words, people have to know me before they want to really know me.
For starters, I had to get an Instagram account. And yes, I know Instagram has been around for a decade, but I was intimidated by it…which is nuts because one of my chapter titles is this: “The Worse Failure? Failing to Try.”
In that same chapter, I mention Jael, Abigail, Rahab, Ruth, the hemorrhaging woman and Mary Magdalene, all Biblical characters who took enormous risks. A page later, I even wrote, “I fear too many people will end up with a life of Regret instead of Adventure.” So, I took the plunge and between my son, my granddaughter, and my daughter-in-law, I find myself experimenting and now am a member (is that the right word?) of Instagram! You can follow me (please!) at patty_laroche.
This might be the gutsiest thing I’ve ever done in my life (writing the book, not joining Instagram).
What I do know is that I don’t want to look back, years from now, and wonder what might have happened if I didn’t take the risk.
Perhaps you can relate. Someone/something has convinced you that you aren’t capable, yet you have a passion to press forward. Perhaps you want to design clothes. Or have a yard sale. Or sing in the praise and worship band. Or learn to golf. Or start a Bible study. Or perfect a pecan pie. Or…(you fill in the blank).
Whatever it is, let’s do this together. Let’s take the risk like the Biblical heroines did so that we never regret not trying.
