Who Is Our Community?
Author Life: Behind-the-Scenes
Here’s a bit of behind-the-scenes for an author. I wrote a manuscript for a book and I’m working on getting it published. I (naively) used to think that one wrote a book, sent it off to lots of publisher, and a few years later saw the book on bookshelves.
photo courtesy of youssef naddam at Unsplash
Who are my Readers?
Boy, was I wrong!
Publishers today want authors to have their own “platform.” They want authors to have readers already lined up so the book will be successful when it (finally) comes out.
There is no shortage of advice about how to to this. I’ll spare you the monotonous details of THAT but the bottom line is that we need to find out who our people are and connect with them. Lots of people want to know how to find their community. They want to find group of people to connect with; people who understand them.
When I first started learning about this I thought it would be easy. I wanted my readers to be people who want to improve their relationships by way of improving their communication skills and understanding Scripture’s role in relationships. Even better, they wanted to learn from an expert on the topic and understand the Biblical foundation for those skills.
Sounds good, but it’s pretty general. When I’m not writing, being a wife/mom/friend, and teaching, I take as much time as I can to learn about writing, speaking, and publishing. In the meantime, I’ve been writing articles and making social media posts for a year or so, while sort of just floating around with no reader anchor.
At last, a community ❤️
Last weekend it hit me, though. I know who my people are! 😄
My heart’s desire is to build a community of people who want to support each other’s marriages.
We practice skills and exhort each other with Scripture. We don’t gripe and complain about our husbands, but seek guidance and earnestly desire to practice being a better wife while encouraging each other to do the same.
THAT is where my community is…THOSE are my people.
I hope you are in that community with me. I hope that you, too, desire to help build a community of people who want to support Biblical marriages that last a long time. Not perfect marriages – that’s not possible. But marriages that stand the test of time because they have a backbone of believers and friends to support them.
Yes! I want to be a part of the WriteSpeakRelate community!
If you ARE in my community, please let me know below in the comments (scroll all the way to the bottom).
And if you are, please share this with others whom you think would like to be in our community. Together, we can make long-term marriages a reality again.
With love,
I am an author, speaker, and communication professor. My specialty is teaching people how to have successful, faith-based relationships. My passion is to teach people how to live out Scripture in healthy relationships, especially at home. I've been married for 29 years and have two boys - ages 19 and 15. I love to bake to show my love, so you'll sometimes see favorite recipes!