Book signing continued....

Well dear friends thank you for coming to my blog site and looking at my posts.

My last post was to do with my book signing.....

This post is to tell the story of what happened.

I can sum it up in one word, 'nothing', 'ingenting', 'nada', 'niente', 'niets', ekkert, I think that is enough ways of putting the point across.

After advertising in the local newspaper, who got the advert wrong by advertising a cake book sale, and putting up lots of posters, alerting the local radio station and using many social media sites, the event attracted no new buyers. If my friends hadn't come to support me and eat Victoria Sponge Cake and drink the coffee and tea provided I would have had a very lonely first book signing.  

I thought before Christmas, with ideas of what to buy for your loved one foremost in people's minds, this event would be of interest to a market of discerning Christian readers. Having received replies that people were coming, and hopes high, this absence of customers or potential buyers was a hard cake to chew, and my pride ran out of the cake like the jam when you bite into a jammy doughnut. 

So it is back to the drawing board.....

Of course when I wrote this book, I had plans for a big Christian publishing company taking it on and doing all the marketing and promoting, and the message travelling to all four corners of the earth. It would be a success because I had answered God's call to write it. 

Yes I was naive, but I was also a poorly housewife and mother, (in the sense of not been well at the time) with a thousand other roles to occupy my day with, that drank at my limited energy levels. Taking on the role of marketing and promoting my book was not even remotely on the radar.  

With an introvert nature and speaking to audiences a feared thing, the way forward was clear. The book needed a large publisher to take it on. 

However this did not happen, my book was seen as not a typical Christian read. It was too different!

So another route was followed....

My book was published, but by a small company who did not specialize in marketing and promotion. 'God's ways are not our ways', He knows the beginning and the ending of this path. His path is one of trust. 

It appears that there is a lot of help 'out there', certainly if you are able to part with money, but as the book needs to make a profit in order to produce money for publicizing, marketing and promotion, it appears that the road will be trodden with feet rather than in a fast car. 

Lamentations 3:21-26

 This is what comes to mind,

    and therefore I have hope:
22 Because of the Lord’s gracious love we are not consumed,
    since his compassions never end.
23 They are new every morning—
    great is your faithfulness!
24 “The Lord is all I have,” says my soul,
    “Therefore I will trust in him.”

25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
    to the person who searches for him.
26 It is good to hope and wait patiently
    for the Lord’s salvation.

This does not mean that I don't continue to keep trying just because my first attempt at book signing was unsuccessful. Rather it shows me that in all things there are challenges to be overcome and learned from. God grows things slowly, in His time and for His glory. This book was never for my own glory, but to bring others closer to Him, to be drawn to a more personal relationship with God through every day events and challenges. And how we must continually say 'yes' to what He wants us to do each day. 

My prayer now is a heart felt "I trust you God" because He lay it on my heart to write this book and He will fulfill his promises to prosper as Jeremiah 29:11 says "For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."

God bless you all.

("How to make Victoria Sponge" by Margaret Kazmierczak in Kindle and paperback through Amazon)