I need to take my own advice. This morning I read the words above from Finding Myself in Britain and reminded myself of the need for rest, worship, and play in contrast to work, work, work. I love the freelance life, but I can say “yes” to too many things, meaning that I have too many deadlines and the rhythms of life get out of whack. For instance, my daughter says, “No more writing books,” to me, as the family has borne the brunt of me writing, under pressure, the 2017 BRF Lent book (to be published this autumn). I enjoyed the process but haven’t spent enough time focusing on a healthy rhythm of life that includes rest, worship, and play.
What do you do to rest? A friend shared her mother’s adage that I’ve been pondering: “A change can bring about rest.” Just as we might need to break out of an exercise rut, with our bodies too accustomed to the same routine we do again and again, so our souls can receive an infusion of life when we embrace something new.
But the niggle I have with her mom’s phrase is that we’ll use it as an excuse not to embrace the meaning of rest, where we acknowledge that God is God and we are not and that we can switch off, slow down, not produce, and be still. For me, time on my own by a body of water brings about a deep sense of peace and rest as I hear the roar of the waves of the gentle lapping of the lake. Yet we can’t put all of our rest-eggs into a holiday basket, so we need to build into our lives regular, shorter, periods of rest. Oh – hey – how about a weekly Sabbath!?
I’ve long admired Tanya Marlow’s “What I’m Into” posts. She humbly points to another blogger as the originator of these monthly missives about what they are reading, writing, watching, and doing. But I don’t know the other(s) so I’m going to point to her as my inspiration. Looking back over the month just gone provides a wonderful way to remember what I’ve been thinking and experiencing, hopefully with an attitude of thanks. And to share with you some fun finds.
This is a long post – I don’t recommend as spiritually healthy this level of activity without rest – so do skim and scroll down, and if you make it to the end, I have some recipe recommendations for you. Blonde brownies, no less.
Finding Myself in Britain
Hey y’all, I’m a published author. I say that not with gloating but with wonder, for my journey to publication – book publication, that is – was a long and arduous one. (I write about the stinging words batting me down here, and my tangled writing journey here.) I could see myself as a writer, but not so much as an author.
My publishing mentor has been wonderful in helping me make the transition. When I was redesigning my website, he said I needed to lose the “editor” from my bio and go with “author and speaker.” I did so with his encouragement, feeling some of that imposter syndrome. Then recently I looked at the bio on the back of my book and realized with a jolt that “editor” was there – and now that felt odd!
I have great joy in seeing Finding Myself in Britain reviewed and purchased, some of both happened in March. I gulped early in the month when I received an email from my publisher saying that the Church Times – the Church Times I say! – had reviewed my book. Holy Toledo, my heart was pounding as I read the review. I was humbled and amazed – here’s an excerpt from the 4 March 2016 edition:
“…Full of perceptive comments about the habits we fall into and the assumptions we make. Her tone is warm and self-deprecating,… A helpful reminder of what it is like to be a stranger in a foreign land, and an effortless read that will, no doubt, bring entertainment and comfort to many who have ever lived as expats.”
Some informative and fun blog posts on topics related to my book happened this month. Don’t miss my interview with visionary publisherSteve Mitchell. He has great advice for writers.
I love how I can blog about tea and it never fails to incite a response on Facebook. Here’s the post about CutiePyeGirl as she made her first cuppa, and here’s the Facebook discussion. What do you think about tea? Love it or loathe it?
I continue to adore the “There’s No Place Like Home” series. Wow; such a wealth of riches from people writing about what home means to them. Don’t miss this month’s contributions from Catherine Campbell, who writes about pondering what home means while way up in the skies, Amy Young, who writes about finding home while in transition, Claire Musters, who addresses the challenges of making a home when its in continual use for ministry matters, and Shaneen Clarke, who pens a love song for London. All of the posts in the series can be found here.
Reader Reviews
I love reading reviews and emails from readers, and was so touched when a fellow clergy spouse emailed me after reading my book. I won’t share from her email, but later she kindly posted a review online:
On reading Amy’s most enjoyable book at the beginning of this year, I came to chapter 10 and was challenged to have a party. You see, I, like Amy, have a January birthday, which can be a depressing month to celebrate in for various reasons, and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d invited friends to a tea party! I used some of the ideas Amy mentions, everything went really well, and everyone enjoyed themselves. So thank you Amy for being the trigger, through your book, to me having a very happy afternoon with my friends.
PS There are a lot of good things to read about in all the other chapters too! Eunice
I was chuffed when one of the readers of the Woman Alive book club posted this review in our Facebook group:
Whilst reading this book, I felt very much as though Amy was sat in a café talking to me. I laughed at the funny moments, like when she used an ancient tea bag for her new English boyfriend. There were hurtful moments too, such as when she was made fun of at a public dinner over the way she pronounced words.
Amy has confidently written down her heartfelt emotions before moving to Britain, and after. Culture shock arrives at unexpected moments, and so she shares her experiences and explores how to deal with these times.
Amy is a journalist who likes to study the background of a subject and unexpected stories weave cleverly through the book – this includes Harvest Festival, Thanksgiving and the Pilgrim Fathers. She writes pithily about Black Friday.
Living in a different culture can be extremely difficult, however hard one tries to ‘fit in’. At the end of her tether one day, Amy said to an American visitor: “All of life is Lent.” She then goes on to explain how through the years, she and Nicholas have created a life together of ‘old’ and ‘new’ where they can grow together. Amy points out how God ‘holds our hands to let us know he is with us, and helps us turn our aches and longings into the solid hope of heaven, giving us an eternal perspective’. Deep thoughts arising from deep longings.
I like the way this book is divided into logical sections for ease of reading. If you are: planning to live in another culture, marry someone from another country or even stay in your own culture but be in Christian service where you meet and greet peoples from all walks of life, then do read this book. You will feel encouraged. Carol Bye
And having reviews by people in the book trade humble me down to my socks. This one is from a former sales representative of STL, Tim Alban. It’s the first review he wrote after leaving STL in 2009!
Growing up near a US Air Force base, especially with a Grandmother who rented a house to service families who wanted to live off base, I’ve long had Americans as a part of my life. I have American friends, and like friends from other English speaking countries, I am fascinated by what we have in common and also what divides us.
My perception of Amy’s book was that it would be a Christian version of a Bill Bryson book but whilst there are certainly parallels there is much more to Finding Myself in Britain than that.
The first thing that struck me from Amy’s book was that even though, I have other friends who have transplanted themselves one way or another across the Atlantic, I had underestimated the practical and emotional upheaval involved; Amy writes openly and honestly about the depth of the decision making involved in her move to Great Britain, her decision to stay and her determination to make it work.
Amy is equally open about the benefits of her life as an Anglo-American – including writing about the her appreciation of our history and how she and her husband Nicholas make their respective cultures an everyday part of family life.
Another eye-opener for me was Amy’s glimpses into the demands, challenges and joys of vicarage life and the expectations sometimes placed on the spouses of the clergy.
Amy’s faith in God seasons her writing as does her do her descriptions of her church life; although I am not currently part of a church family, I appreciated reading about an Anglican church calendar I grew up with but had moved away from.
Finding Myself in Britain is a candid, entertaining, thought-provoking read and I am please to recommend it. Tim Alban
Devotional Writing
I was thrilled to have my second article published in Our Daily Bread in March – my first was published in February on one of the days I spend in Central London for my master’s. It felt surreal, as I was off social media for much of the day, to go online in the library at Heythrop College and open some lovely emails from readers around the world. Later I heard from my parents that they’d received several phone calls from people who were reading their daily devotional and were surprised to glimpse my name at the bottom – including our next door neighbors, from whom I took piano lessons for years, and my mom’s uncle in his 80s!
My second article looks at the theme from Hebrews 11 of strangers and foreigners, which I relate to my early experiences in the UK. I loved hearing from the daughter of one of my roommates when we were at Bethel University, who now is a mission partner in the Philippines. My friend’s daughter is now far from her tropical home while at Bethel, and she wrote of how one of her professors said that the Our Daily Bread reading (which I wrote) reminded him of her that day. We both thought it was amazing (“a really cool connection and awesome” in her words) that the words of her mom’s roommate while at Bethel were recommended to her by a Bethel prof!
The Living Cross: Exploring God’s Gift of Forgiveness and New Life
A sneak peek at a small part of the cover! Designed by the wonderful artist who designed Finding Myself in Britain, Vivian Hansen.
Writing my second book has been a big focus for me in 2016 thus far. I had to plan carefully to get the first draft finished, for time was more limited than I would have preferred. (See, writers, how using the passive tense I tried to move the responsibility right away from me?)
I’ve really enjoyed the writing, especially after a writing friend encouraged me to be present in the project. When I stepped back from the pressure, I remembered that I love writing Bible-based reflections (!). The theme of forgiveness is deep and rich, and I look forward to sharing the book with you later in the year. It’s the BRF Lent book for 2017.
By the grace of God and a lot of time writing (I even had sore wrists!), I finished the draft and sent it to the publisher on time. My editor gave me a seal of approval (thank you, Lord) as well as some changes to incorporate before I sent it off to my dozen or so early readers. I’ve heard from two so far, who have made some wonderful suggestions. And they’ve picked up some of the crazy mistakes I am prone to make, such as ‘lauded over’ instead of ‘lorded over’ and this query: ‘strife and amenity? do you mean enmity?’ Funny how I routinely get that kind of stuff wrong. Oh, and one Paul Sunday and another Cannan. Oops!
Jesus’ Last Words
I loved writing a month of Bible reading notes for Inspiring Women Every Day (CWR) for September 2016 on John 14-17, which is often known as the Last Discourse. It’s Jesus preparing his disciples for life after his death, and has some of my favorite bits in Scripture, such as him praying, “I in them and you in me.” Hearing from readers who enjoy this devotional or others makes me pleased and grateful.
Watercolor by Leo Boucher.
Lenten/Easter poetry
As part of my Lenten discipline I decided, rather on the spur of the moment, to write a Bible-based poem each day based in the gospel of John. I found it such a wonderful exercise, as writing the poems made me slow down and digest the words. I was touched by this message from a friend:
I am so enjoying your Lenten poems. Poetry may be your best gift. A great tragedy that poetry has waned as a literary art. What can be done to revive it?
I skipped ahead in the gospel to the events of Good Friday, so soon will be heading back to part of the Last Discourse to continue.
Also on the blog I finished up the Pilgrim devotional series, which I had run for 11 weeks, and look forward to figuring out what to feature next.
Speaking
I led my first quiet day for BRF (the Bible Reading Fellowship, publisher of my Lent book), and although it was a lot of work, I really enjoyed the day. We held it at our church, which turned out to be a wonderful venue, especially for those people who hadn’t been able to attend quiet days in the past when the venues weren’t accessible via public transport. We have Victoria Park right across the street so people could spread out during the quiet times, or they could find a nook to enjoy in the church or the vicarage garden. As one of the participants say, the bright sunshine was the icing on the cake for the day.
Photo: Ineke Huizing, flickr
The theme was living water, which I so enjoyed exploring from Creation to Moses to Jesus to Revelation. Putting together the prayer activities was fun too, such as people writing on a piece of acetate something they wanted to give to God, which then they’d see the water dissolve.
I penned a short poem during the day:
And I loved receiving comments from the participants, some of which were hugely moving as to how God worked in their lives. Praise him! One of the participants gave me permission to share this poem, which she wrote on the day. She said, “I don’t usually write like this so it’s come as a bit of a surprise.”
Two days after the quiet day I went down to the New Forest to speak at a women’s breakfast at Poulner Baptist Chapel on the theme, “There’s No Place Like Home.” What a wonderful group of women; I thoroughly enjoyed myself – especially as I got to have dinner with a dear friend the night before, and another lovely friend took me to the New Forest for the breakfast. She knows how much I hate to drive.
I had forgotten how I came in touch with Anne, the woman at the church who invited me to speak. She had written in to Woman Alive after buying a book that one of our readers had recommended. The content wasn’t exactly edifying, and I felt bad that I hadn’t done a better job of vetting the reviews. I apologized by way of sending her a copy of my book. We struck up a friendship and that’s how the invitation came about – God’s redemption at work!
The lovely original chapel – Poulner Baptist Chapel in the New Forest.
I’m looking forward to other upcoming speaking engagements, including the silver anniversary celebrations at Books Alive in Hove in June and being the keynote speaker (wow and wow) at the BRF/Woman Alive day in June – yahoo! It’s 25 June and more details are here if you’d like to join us. Please do! We have some fabulous speakers and Jennifer Rees Larcombe is heading up the prayer ministry team.
And of course I’m keenly anticipating leading the week’s retreat in Spain at El Palmeral, the place for a gorgeous retreat/holiday in Elche, near Alicante. The title is “Adventures with God,” including a trip to the beach, and some spaces are available for 25 to 29 April. Do come – it’s an amazing place for rest and renewal and fun.
The grounds include a labyrinth.
Master’s in Christian Spirituality
I’m loving the master’s I’m doing in Christian spirituality at Heythrop College, University of London. The lecturer, Eddie Howells, has been superb. He has a way of taking people’s contributions and synthesizing them while affirming the person. Such a gift. I will miss his lectures as I’ve now finished the lecture portion of both modules I’m taking from him.
This month I’ve been reading Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, and Meister Eckhart, among others. The course is “History of Christian Mysticism to the Reformation,” so it’s been a whole lot of reading, from Augustine to Origen to Bernard of Clairvaux to the Beguines. I need to take some time to try to make some more links and ponder. The so-called apophatic, or negative, theology, I found challenging in particular. Writers such as Dionysius write in this fashion, where they state a negation (what God isn’t), followed by another negation, and so on. It starts to boggle the mind.
For my end-of-year essay for my Intro to Spirituality course I’ve chosen to write about John Cassian from the 400s. He wrote a couple of so-called conferences on prayer that I want to explore, which he wrote for the monks in his care. He was one of the first to emphasize unceasing prayer, so could be called a precursor to Brother Lawrence.
On study methods – I found out, after I’ve enjoyed two of the four modules, that I shouldn’t take notes with a laptop. Oh dear! Back to pen and paper next year. Looks like our brains process information differently.
I had a hard time selecting a book to highlight for the June Woman Alive book club, trying several and tossing them aside when I wasn’t gripped by their content or structure. I won’t mention which ones they were! I landed then on The Wired Soul by Tricia McCary Rhodes, reading it and enjoying it, before I realized that it wouldn’t be published for several months and thus I couldn’t feature it in June. Back to the drawing board. Then I remembered Land of Silence by Tessa Afshar, which gripped me from the beginning. It’s fiction set in the biblical times and I really enjoyed it – review coming in the June book club, along with an interview of author Claire Dunn.
I also finished The Girl from the Train by Irma Joubert, fiction based in Poland and South Africa around the time of World War 2. I’ve posted some questions for readers to discuss in the Woman Alive book club Facebook group if you’d like to join in.
As I was writing the June book club, I started to do the math and realized that July will mark 10 years of the book club! How fun to celebrate this anniversary of books and more books. I’m publishing reader reviews of what the book club has meant to them or a favorite book they’ve read, so if you’d like to contribute please do. Also I’ll be featuring an interview with the inimitable Michele Guinness on her novel Grace.
For my local book club we read and discussed The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriaty. I enjoyed it after I was about a third of the way through, for the novel has so many characters that I couldn’t keep them all straight at first. I thought because of the many themes in the book we’d have lots to discuss, but our discussion didn’t take off as it often can. A fun book to read but not great to discuss? When finding some discussion questions for the evening I came across one book club that takes the task of preparation so seriously that she even prepared a power point!
We love that technology can keep us connected with people who move from London. Previously one of our members was in New York City – she’d join by Skype as her kids started to arrive home from school. Now we have a friend who has moved back to Japan, and she somehow amazingly manages to get up around 4.30am to join in.
I’m excited for the next one we’re reading, All the Light We Cannot See, which has won the Pulitzer Prize and has been super highly recommended to me.
In the Kitchen
Blonde brownies: We were seeing friends on Holy Saturday and I ran out of Ghirardelli brownie mix, and had to find something to make with the ingredients we had at home as I didn’t want to shop on Good Friday. Decided to make blonde brownies, but underestimated the time they’d need to cook. The recipe I used called for 20-25 minutes of baking; I had them in there about a half hour but later when I tried to cut them I realized they were still way underdone. I shoved them back into the oven for another 10 minutes. They were gooey but good.
I made another batch for the Easter Sunday tea party at church (that sounds so English), this time with the 4 eggs the recipe called for instead of the 3 I used the day before, and cooked them about 45-50 minutes so they were moist but not dripping. The 4 eggs made them more into a cake. Three eggs is definitely better. Here’s a similar recipe to what I used.
Homestyle Macaroni and Cheese: I had a hankering for mac-and-cheese, and didn’t want to pay the equivalent of $5 for a box of the Kraft fake stuff. So I made a batch with this recipe. I found it called for far too little pasta – the sauce was overflowing so I added almost twice as much pasta as it said. Not sure I’d make it again. Note for translation – 7 ounces is about 200 grams.
A friend made this lemon cream cake to celebrate her husband’s birthday – looks amazing.
At my local book club we enjoyed this Nigella recipe for flourless brownies. They were to die for.
A highlight from February
Having my parents visit for the half-term break was brilliant. The three of us went very early on Valentine’s Day to a self-service interview booth for me to be interviewed by BBC Radio Berkshire.
So tell me, please. What are you reading, thinking, learning, and enjoying?
This morning, my primary-school-aged daughter made herself her first cup of tea. On her own, without asking for help. Minor burns were suffered by the tea-maker, but thankfully nothing major.
I thought maybe she’d not catch the tea-bug, but perhaps living in a tea-saturated society, she can’t but help love the nation’s favo(u)rite drink. I even enjoyed some tea today – chai, naturally – but it’s not something I drink every day. Although lately I’ve been drinking a lovely peppermint/licorice mix. Some people hate licorice, I know. I’m not one of them.
I have a chapter on tea in my book, Finding Myself in Britain, for tea played an important role in the first date Nicholas and I shared. I certainly didn’t know how to brew a proper cuppa!
I love author Julie Klassen’s blog on tea that she shared last autumn, in which she shares what she learned from a tea-making class at the national Jane Austen society gathering, from A Social History of Tea, and from my book! Do have a read – with a cup of tea?
You can buy Finding Myself in Britain: Our Search for Faith, Home & True Identity (Authentic Media, 2015). from Christian bookshops, from me, or online at Eden,Amazon UK or Amazon US.
Freedom within the boundaries – an amazing thought. I never dreamed my home would be England for this many years, but here we are coming up to two decades and it is home.
Where are your boundary lines? Where is home?
I address these paradoxes in Finding Myself in Britain: Our Search for Faith, Home & True Identity (Authentic Media, 2015). You can buy it from Christian bookshops, from me, or online at Eden,Amazon UK or Amazon US.
What a great pleasure it is for me to welcome Steve Mitchell to my blog today. He’s a visionary, mentor, and encourager, and has probably the strongest and deepest understanding of the UK Christian retail market out there. I owe him a deep debt, for without him, my book would never have been published.
So you have a couple decades of experience with retail, and specially Christian bookshops. How did you get into bookselling? What do you love about the business?
I have always loved books. I grew up as one of those kids who used to read under the covers with a torch – books were always going to be an important part of my life. I fell into retailing as a career, and following a conversation about life with a friend of the family whilst on holiday, we ended up opening a Christian bookshop in Kingston-upon-Thames. I spent 15 years in retail and was inextricably drawn into publishing a few years ago.
My passion in life is to help people go deeper. I love it when we learn new things about God, life and ourselves and become better for it, and books are an amazing tool for deep change. Whether it’s teaching, or an amazing novel that pulls you into another world, a turn of phrase that you can’t let go, a piece of poetry that expresses a feeling that we can’t put words to, all of these are found in text. I love the tactile pleasure of the container of all these words…“a book”. Yep, I’m self-confessed book geek.
A look into Steve’s retail store, back in the day.
How does your history and experience inform your publishing?
Having spent so many hours behind the counter in a bookshop, my approach to publishing starts with thinking, “What should I recommend to my next customer? What is her outlook on life, her mind-set, hopes and dreams? What is the story she is telling herself about her life, and what can I offer her in a book that resonates enough with her to lead her to change that mind-set and her life?” So for me it starts with the reader but ends with the writer. Understanding the interplay between the two creates the dynamic of a deeply engaging book. I hope that my publishing is shaped by the knowledge, intuition, stories and lives of the writer and the hopes, dreams and needs of the readers.
An early example of Chapter and Verse being an internet bookstore. Hmmm…. perhaps they should have stuck with that!
When I came to you as a potential author, you could tell that I was muddled in what project I should pursue (having been turned down through my agent by 15 publishers). Tell us about our meeting in Birmingham and how you approached advising me on what would be the best first book for me to write. What sorts of things sparked your thinking and ideas?
Ok, are you prepared to be brave Amy? This is your blog! My initial response to your first autobiographical proposal was that it was interesting but wasn’t going to give readers enough value to stick with it all the way through. I could see immediately that you wrote beautifully, you had some amazing stories, some engaging and original ideas, but also that there wasn’t a strong enough hook. I also warmed to the way that you were very open to input, used your own editorial experience to be objective but held your author passion closely. So that gave me plenty of depth to work with.
I can’t put my finger on exactly what prompted the ideas, but have learnt over time to fall back on my character type which is introverted intuition, in Myers-Briggs typology, INTJ. This means if I give myself enough time and space to reflect on the questions in your writing, I can connect up enough parts to make a better whole.
As you had lots of great chapters, the challenge was to find a structure for the book that was fun and engaging. That creativity continued through each edit, even towards the end when you suggested adding the recipes, which was a fantastic addition for the reader. [Amy adds – actually, that was a recommendation of Michele Guinness.]
So for you, I never had the question of whether or not you could write a book, but finding the book that reflected what God had uniquely shaped you to write.Finding Myself in Britain was that book.
How did you come up with the “Michele Guinness meets Bill Bryson” in a through-the-year approach?
I’m not sure that I did, it may well have been you! The dialogue between an author and publisher should be open, honest and creative, so in our conversations I can’t remember who articulated what but I know it was the creativity of the process that drew out the best we both could offer. The hook of MG meets BB was a line that we could offer to booksellers to help them share the style, genre and heart of the book.
I believe all authors should drill down the concept of their books into a memorable phrase that is sticky and shareable. It also means that as the author writes and re-writes, that they keep the main thrust of the book front of mind. Too many books try to do too much and the connection with the reader is lost.
My advice to writers is to write for a person that you know, and that you think needs to hear what you have to say or will enjoy the subject that you are writing on. If you try to please everyone then you’ll fail and disappoint most readers.
So in the editing process as we talked about your life, stories and your hopes for how you wanted your readers lives to be impacted, it seemed to me that your journey from your beloved homeland into a strange different world offered unique insights into life faith and culture. If we could capture those insights in an interesting and inspiring framework which guided the reader to greater confidence in God rather than where they live and their home culture, then we would have a book that was unique, fun to read, and yet get gave the reader some meaning and value to their life.
As I laid down my first draft, I sent you chapters to read and give feedback on. What surprised you by this process?
I think it was how much of me that I had to put into the process. I had to walk the journey with you, feel what you were feeling, connect with the why as well of the what of the stories.
Then later on, after I’d written my manuscript several times, we had a discussion about spelling and punctuation that resulted me in floods of tears. Did you ever think someone would take these matters so deeply to heart?
I knew you would be passionate about the words, a pain about grammar and language, stubborn about certain sections … yes I’m talking about the chapter on plumbing here. And oh yes … the discussion about spelling and punctuation, which was of course, not about spelling and punctuation at all. You had been so vulnerable about relocating from the US to the UK, and in that moment popped up the thought, “Hey what if this move is permanent? So how do I hang onto part of my old life … I know, words. Right, Mr Publisher, I want American spellings!”
At that point in the writing you allowed yourself to think and react to the deepest of questions. The spellings were just the outward reflection of this. This was you going first on the journey that you were taking your readers through. To your great credit, you allowed yourself as an author and person to take the harder route.
Best book tower ever! #FindingMyselfInBritain
You’re brilliant at advising and envisioning authors/content creators. In closing, what advice do you have for them in an age where discoverability is such a challenge?
Well, thank you. With all my Britishness it doesn’t feel like that. I’m just muddling through.
For our writer friends, the world of writing is more open, exciting, scary and challenging than ever before. It is so easy to put your writing out into the world, but so difficult for those words to be found or to stand out. Writers, I believe, need to think first about their readers, and to consider the impact that they want their words to have. Then they need to structure their writing and profile to their audience. Ask yourself, what value will my book add to my reader? Why should they choose to invest their time in my words?
Be clear about the response you want from your book. Think deeply about your ideas and concept – make them as original and unique as you can. Improve your skill and craft as a writer, read lots of good literature, take your time to write the best that you can.
Get objective outside help: Send your writing to ten friends, and if they then pass it on to ten of their friends then you know that you’ve got something. If they don’t, then go back and work harder at it.
Be realistic about your reach. If you want your writing to go further than friends and family, then you need to build a platform for you and your message. If you want to be a voice of influence then you have to show up thoughtfully, respectfully, engagingly and, I strongly believe, consistently in their lives. Only then will you be given the permission by readers to allow your words into their life.
Above all, keep writing. The world will be a better place with great books and there is no reason why that can’t be your writing. Keep writing, growing personally and developing your craft – and even if it doesn’t result a large number of readers, you’ll still have added value to the world and helped some people.
Steve Mitchell is a lover of books and music, preferably served with great coffee. He is on a mission to help people live a deep and fulfilled life. To that end, he publishes books for IVP and loves coaching and mentoring. To relax he’ll pick up his beloved bass and jam along to some blues. He’s a Londoner living in Cumbria with no plans to return. The older he gets the more he enjoys learning, and having completed a Master’s degree, he is now working on persuading his family to let him to a PhD.
To read other posts in the Behind the Publishing Scenes series, click here.
To buy the fruit of our labo(u)rs,Finding Myself in Britain, you can find it at Christian bookshops, from me, or online at Eden or Amazon. If you’ve read it, please I beg you, write a review online. Word of mouth matters. Thank you!
What strikes you about the vision process in producing a book?
As he ended the class, our lecturer said, “Well, that’s probably enough on Augustine’s On the Trinity.”
I piped up, “Yes, but we understand you have a birthday coming up, and we want to celebrate!” We broke into song, enjoying the stunned look on his face.
I enjoyed organizing the surprise party for our lecturer, who when he interviewed me for the course at Heythrop College, let on that we shared the same birthday, but a year apart. I filed that little detail away, for use later…
In organizing the get-together after our lecture, I was a bit cheeky as I didn’t let on to my fellow students that it was my birthday too. It was more fun to pull off the surprise for him – he’s a gracious, softly spoken man with a big intellect and an equally big heart. And I don’t know that we do enough celebrating, so give me a reason and I’m on it.
After all, as I say in Finding Myself in Britain, in the chapter, “Come to my Party,” celebration is a spiritual discipline:
As we see with King David, celebration is rooted in gratitude to God for the many gifts he gives us. I love how Dallas Willard puts it in his classic The Spirit of the Disciplines: “Holy delight and joy is the great antidote to despair and is a wellspring of genuine gratitude – the kind that starts at our toes and blasts off from our loins and diaphragm through the top of our head, flinging our arms and our eyes and our voice upward toward our good God.”[1]
How might you incorporate more celebrations into your life? Who could you surprise?
And for some tips on how to throw a birthday party for yourself, with some thought-provoking dinner-party questions you could pose, check out my celebrations chapter. No leftover Bounty or Dove Caramels, I promise. (That’s a UK quip – sorry if it doesn’t compute!)
[1] Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines (San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, 1988), 179.
Me with Kate Beaton and Becky Fawcett, she of editorial fame, at my book launch, September 2015.
I’m delighted to welcome Kate Beaton to the blog today to talk all things marketing. She is an amazing person – one who feels things deeply with a huge gift of empathy, and one whose passion to connect readers with great Christian content has shaped much of her professional life. At the end of the year, she moved from Authentic Media to a position at World Vision, where she’s exercising her skills in a slightly different area – but still focused on connecting people with great ideas and causes. Join me in finding out more about her heartbeat behind how she spends her days.
ABP: Tell us a bit about yourself, Kate. How did your interest in marketing develop?
KB: I’m Chaos Manager at my home which I’m blessed to share with two children, aged 3 and 7, and my husband Kenny, a louder-than-life 6’1 Scot who works in the local prison where he brings light and life. We’re part of the congregation at Stony Stratford Community Church.
My publishing adventure began 18 years ago when I left the tranquility of East Devon for Milton Keynes, knowing only one person in my soon-to-be home but having a very clear sense of God going before me.
My interest in marketing has always been about people. I have always loved connecting people with others and sharing ideas. For me, marketing is about connections and adding value to people’s lives through great products, which in the world of Christian publishing has been a dream and a privilege.
Kate and Kenny, her gregarious Scotsman husband.
ABP: I knew of you when I worked at Zondervan and you were at Authentic Media – I remember thinking that you were a firecracker of a marketer, and I was secretly jealous of Authentic and your work there. Imagine my surprise when we were reunited to work together later at Authentic! Tell us about your work at Authentic and then Scripture Union and then Authentic again.
KB: Funny that you say that as I remember thinking the same of you! I came to work at Word Entertainment selling advertising space in Premier Magazine and then moved in to a Marketing and PR role. One of the stand-out campaigns I remember was lead singer of Irish group Clannad, Maire Brennan’s album ‘Perfect Time’. I then moved into the role of Marketing Manager and was with Authentic until my role was made redundant in 2007. That was a tough time and a stark reminder that who we are as people is more important than the job titles we do or don’t have.
I moved on to Scripture Union where I had the joy of being involved in the launch of their digital suite of products, WordLive and LightLive and their strong portfolio of published products. I loved being part of a mission organization full of gifted passionate people and was there for over 6 years before Authentic came knocking on my door!
ABP: I’d love to hear more from you about what is behind what you do in marketing. What do you hope to achieve?
KB: For me, relationship is at the heart of marketing. That is, knowing the audience you seek to serve in terms of their needs and communicating the benefits that your product will provide. In an increasingly noisy world where the average person is said to be exposed to over 350 marketing messages a day, it’s sometimes really tough to get your message heard. But the old advertising mnemonic AIDA is still relevant: build Attention of a product, capture Interest, create Desire, lead to Action.
The marketing process follows through from the inspiration and work of the author as we the publisher seek to build their voice to connect with the type of reader they had in mind. Of course, the author has to be a part of the marketing effort to deliver this.
At the heart of any good marketing campaign is a great product, and we are privileged to work in shaping campaigns that have already been inspired by the Holy Spirit as writers and artists have tuned in to God and what he is asking them to craft and create.
I’m sure many authors can relate that golden moment when they hear from a reader about the positive impact that their book has made in the reader’s life. We serve the ultimate Creator so it’s fantastic to be involved in a process which has creativity at its heart (and if you want to be inspired about releasing your creativity, watch this great poem written and performed by Fusion’s effervescent Miriam Swaffield).
Kate’s creative handiwork at the book launch. She taught CutiePyeGirl how to make a stunning book tower.
ABP: I was touched at my book launch how you saw potential in CutiePyeGirl to be a marketer someday. What qualities does someone need to be successful? What sorts of things did you see in her? (She now insists on creating any book tower wherever I go when selling my book – and she does so very well, under your tutelage!)
KB: Your second question first! In CutiePyeGirl I saw a gregarious, confident, people-loving girl who wanted to help shape a fantastic book-launch experience for all involved. Her creative spark was plain to see and her instant engagement with the building of the book tower was lovely to watch. All the natural ingredients of a marketer-in-the-making (which may answer your first question)! I wanted to verbalize what I saw to encourage her, as I know how powerful a well-placed God-inspired word can be for us all, whatever age we are.
A publisher’s lunch with Kate and Steve Mitchell, then MD of Authentic.
ABP: Many authors are disgruntled with their publishers, saying that they don’t get enough attention (not a complaint, mind you, that I would lodge). Why do authors need to be so involved in spreading the word today? What advice would you give to authors?
KB: In this noisier, digital world we are closer to each other. And people are searching for authenticity and truth. The author’s voice is powerful and readers develop a relationship with an author through reading their words. And these days people expect to be able to have – if they want it – interaction with writers and speakers, whether that is to follow their blog posts or tweets or watch their videos.
People follow people so at Authentic we have been working with our authors to help with this process as best we can. I understand that it can be scary for authors to see themselves as marketers, but when a book is published, that really is Day 1 of its life. There comes a lot of hard graft after that!
It’s not a question of having to be all things to all people, but it is a challenge to see how what you have carefully crafted in the pages of your book can be ‘repackaged’ and served up to add value to people’s lives across multiple platforms, including TV, radio, speaking engagements and last but not least social media which is where many of us spend time looking for inspiring content. Publishers will help you do this as they have a vested interest to do so!
So think about your target reader and how you can engage with them and continue to add value to their lives in a time-bound realistic way for you; perhaps that’s blogging once a week about a topic that you are passionate about and relates back to your book. Remember this isn’t about meaningless, soul-less marketing; it’s about relationship building, understanding your reader who is closer than ever before and bringing the message that God has given you and giving it away to others for his glory.
“Yes, Amy, this is a book. You read it by looking at the words on the page and turning them, one by one, to move along through it…”
ABP: Your time at Authentic is ending as you move to World Vision. I hear you’re passionate about this new venture; please share with us what you’ll be doing and what you hope to be able to achieve.
KB: Milton Keynes is home to many Christian charities. World Vision is an organization I’ve always deeply admired in terms of their work in child sponsorship, community development and disaster response. I know a lot of fantastic people who work there.
I will be joining the Supporter Experience team who connect with World Vision child sponsors and seek to enrich the relationship they have with their sponsored child through relevant timely communication. I’m looking forward to being part of a large marketing team and hope to be able to help World Vision grow its impact and awareness in the UK through child sponsorship. Ultimately it’s about God’s people using the resources we have to answer the call to bring about God’s will on earth as in heaven; sharing our resources and praying to make it possible to live in a world where every child is free from fear.
As we ring in the new year, may you know God’s love, peace, and joy. May you be held and supported through the hard times and have friends and family to share the laughter and joy of the good times. May you look forward to new challenges and experiences in the year to come as you live in each moment.
Christmas cookies to me are the language of love in the Advent and Christmas seasons. I’m behind this year – I’ve only made one measly batch so far, and Friday is the kids’ last day of school, so I need to get cracking in order to have the boxes of freshly baked goods ready for their teachers and staff at their schools.
I write about Christmas cookies in Finding Myself in Britain, for the lack of them here in the UK (where mince pies, Christmas pudding and Christmas cake are the choice seasonal foods) sent me baking as I tried to recreate America on these shores. Well, at least a bit of Yankee Doodle love…
Here is the Pye Family Favo(u)rite, an almond cookie bursting with taste and flavor. I make a triple batch because everyone loves it so much. If you have a go, post a photo of your delicacies and let me know if it rivals your best mince pie!
When I look back at growing up in Minnesota, I think of the BLTs my mom made me for breakfast, or the chicken-noodle soup we’d have for Christmas Eve (which I still make – recipe in Finding Myself in Britain), or Iowa-fried chicken cooked in my grandma’s cast-iron pan, or my mom’s cinnamon rolls and homemade rye bread (yep, recipes for those too in the book). They call macaroni and cheese “comfort food” for a reason.
Photo: cyclonebill, Flickr
I knew that food plays an important role in memory and emotions (comfort eating, anyone?), but recently I was taken aback by just how powerful is the absence of loved and familiar foods for people away from their country of origin. I realized this when I raised a question in several Facebook groups for American ex-pats in the UK, having come in contact with one of the key buyers of the American food section at a massive grocery chain. Intrigued with the idea of influencing this chain and their selection American products, I posted these questions to my fellow expats: “What foods do you miss? What do you wish this grocery-store chain would stock?”
I posted and left for my gym class, and when I came back a couple of hours later I was stunned at the rapid response. In that short amount of time, one group had 92 replies; another had 48; another 32. I clearly had hit a nerve.
I loved scrolling down the comments, for some foods that others hankered after I forgot about, such as pizza rolls. Other entries I could understand the draw of, although they didn’t apply to me, such as coffee creamer (I don’t drink coffee). Some items kept popping up again and again, such as real dill pickles (no sugar added, please) and real bacon (streaky, that is).
Real pickles don’t have sugar. Photo: Maggie Mudd, Flickr
I saw lots of cracker type longings: graham crackers (digestive biscuits just aren’t the same), saltine crackers, Cheez-its, Wheat Thins, Goldfish, and especially Triscuits, as evidenced by this comment: “For the love of all that is holy, they have one-thousand types of ‘cracker’-type products, but nothing I have found that approaches the taste or texture of a TRISCUIT.” Amen.
The mighty Triscuit. Photo: Yasmeen, flickr
And Velveeta and Kraft macaroni and cheese (which many supermarkets stock, but at 3 quid a pop I can’t justify it – the equivalent to 5 bucks a box, which only costs a dollar Stateside) and Old Bay seasoning and Jiffy cornbread mix and Cool Whip and Miracle Whip and Eggo waffles (PyelotBoy heartily agrees) and, again and again, Hidden Valley ranch packets.
A British person reading this list might think, huh? That sounds like a lot of processed food – why would they miss it? But we do. These foods scream memories or convenience or form the missing ingredient in a favorite recipe (Fritos for Frito pie, anyone?). Food can signify home to us because of the people we’ve eaten our feasts with; the memories we’ve created; the conversation, love, and sense of knowing and being known.
Kashi! Photo: Heidi Smith, flickr
For many years, I brought back boxes of Kashi GoLean Crunch, a cereal filled with protein and that satisfying tooth-filling-defying crunch. I think one summer I brought back 22 bags of the stuff, hoarding it in the cupboard under the stairs, grudgingly sharing it with my children. I even made five of my high-school friends bring a couple of bags with them as their “payment” for staying at the vicarage, calling them my Kashi mules. But eventually I tired of it, switching my allegiance to oatmeal (UK: porridge) with a dollop of almond butter to make it rich and nutty. Yet recently, I was cleaning out that cupboard under the stairs and I came upon a crusty old bag of that Kashi GoLean Crunch. How I would have loved it years previously when it was fresh, but now all it was suitable for was the trash.
So what foods would you bring back in a suitcase if you lived away from your country of origin? What screams home to you?
I need to take my own advice. This morning I read the words above from Finding Myself in Britain and reminded myself of the need for rest, worship, and play in contrast to work, work, work. I love the freelance life, but I can say “yes” to too many things, meaning that I have too many deadlines and the rhythms of life get out of whack. For instance, my daughter says, “No more writing books,” to me, as the family has borne the brunt of me writing, under pressure, the 2017 BRF Lent book (to be published this autumn). I enjoyed the process but haven’t spent enough time focusing on a healthy rhythm of life that includes rest, worship, and play.
