Candace Paul
- Writing Tips
- May 24, 2019
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Unpopular opinion: Your Friends and Family Aren’t Your Customers
A member of a Christian author’s group I joined expressed disappointment with the lack of overall support she’s gotten from her friends and family. She confessed to expecting much more from them and was somewhat blindsided by their disinterest in her book. While I understood her frustration, my feelings were a bit different. I offered the following advice to her – and to my surprise, it was very well received. I thought it would be best to turn it into a blog post for other writers. First, Understand the Magnitude of What You’re Writing – Not Everyone is Ready As a Christian writer your work carries a greater purpose. It’s not just for entertainment value. I imagine that there’s a deeper message you want the reader to understand about the importance of our faith. Truthfully, not everyone is ready to receive that message…at least not yet. It’s for this reason, I say, Christian books find the hands ready to receive them. I couldn’t tell you the number of faith-based and inspirational books I was given that I didn’t read until years later. They just collected dust on a shelf – mainly because I wasn’t interested at the time. However, when I was ready to read, and when my heart was open to learning more about my faith, I knew exactly where to go. Sometimes, it’s as simple as letting people know where to find your work when they’re ready for it. Not having the Initial Support of Your Friends and Family Helps Build a True Following Let’s face it, sometimes people will just buy your books because they know and love you (thanks, mom!). Don’t get me wrong – that’s great, but unless they’re actively reading and engaging with your material, it’s hard to know if they truly like your work – or just being the beautiful supportive family and friends that’s helped you with everything else in life. The silver lining to having a lack of support with your writing among those closest to you is the ability to gauge how others really feel about your work. If your following is primarily comprised of your family and friends, it’s hard to know for sure. In my case, my first book, “Spiritual Warfare” broke the top 100 on Amazon’s Bestsellers list multiple times – including holding the #3 or #4 spot for a few days. Since I have a rough estimate of who among my family and friends purchased my book and when, I know that their contribution alone did not make that possible. However, it was my community of followers on social media – over 13,000 people, that helped me hit that goal. I refer to those that support my work as a community, because that’s how I truly see them. It’s a two way street. We learn from each other. We help each other. I’ve chatted with many of them, prayed for many of them, and I make it a point to consistently share important news from around the world that mainstream media doesn’t talk about with them. So, when I receive unexpected praise from strangers like, “You’re one…