Measuring success…but not on the world’s terms
People often ask me how my book is doing and, if I’m honest, it’s a question I tend to answer with a vague, “Yeah, it’s doing okay.” The truth is, I don’t really know what to say because, in all honesty, I don’t really understand the question. And I don’t know whether the same question would mean the same thing if asked by two different people. After all, surely it depends on how you measure success and, ultimately, on what you consider to be markers of success.
If you look at the question from a traditional worldly view of book publishing, it’s likely you’ll look at the success of a title based on two things: Is it selling plenty of copies and is it making plenty of cash for its author and/or publisher? Well, if we look at it in those terms, I’m no J K Rowling and I’m not short of a box or six of books in my loft. (Haha, only six?)
Sometimes people ask me if I’m selling as many copies as I’d hoped to. And I can honestly say I never had a quantifiable hope. I made a conscious choice not to set targets for copy sales or money generated from them. Partly, that was because, as a first-time author, I didn’t have the faintest idea what to expect. But, far more than that, it was because making sales and making money have never been the central focus of this project. Moreover, if they were to ever become my main focus then the whole point behind sharing our story would have been lost.
Don’t get me wrong, I get a buzz from making a sale. And the money that comes from those sales has already allowed me to make charitable donations that wouldn’t have otherwise been made. But it’s not nor ever should be about money because, contrary to popular opinion, money doesn’t make the world go round.
It never ceases to amaze me that people actually want to read a book by little old me about what are, to a great extent, very ordinary experiences. One of my favourite moments when I launched the book was receiving my first order from someone I didn’t know and who, to the best of my knowledge, was not even a friend of a friend. And it warms my heart when people who have already bought a copy of For the Love of Lentil return to buy more copies for family and friends because it’s positively impacted their lives and they think it will do the same for others.
And therein lies the nub of what For the Love of Lentil exists to achieve. The book was written and published because I felt a clear sense that God was calling me and Gary to share our experiences to help point other people to the loving Father who had upheld us throughout everything we’d been through.
I will confess to questioning myself at the time. What if I’d got it wrong? What if God wasn’t in this? What it is was my over-inflated ego playing tricks on me and leading me into a self-seeking vanity project. They were understandable questions – natural fears – but ones that could only be answered by biting the bullet and publishing the book.
And, thankfully, since then, the feedback I have received from people who’ve read the book has cemented the fact that it was, indeed, God’s plan, rather than mine, to see Lentil’s legacy develop in this way.
From people we already knew to people whose lives have only crossed paths with our own because of the book, we have received so many positive comments about how others’ lives have been positively impacted by reading out ours.
There have been people who have experienced the loss of a child recently and those for whom the loss happened many years ago. There have been those to whom God has spoken, through our experiences, to prompt them to re-evaluate their own. There have been people without children who have seen their childlessness in a new light in response to my writing on the subject. There have been so many people, so many lives, so many souls touched as a result of the book – and that’s just the ones we know of.
And one of the things that has been highlighted by many readers – Christian and non-Christian – has been how our faith has shone through the pages of the book and pointed people to the love and work of God in our lives. And therein lies the ultimate, unquantifiable and utterly priceless success of the book. And that will never be down to me, the writer who simply responded to a call of God on her life and used the talent and resources He had given her to fulfil that call. It will only ever be down to Him.
Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good, pleasing and perfect will.”
May I never be conformed to the world’s popular yet fallible views of life but always be attentive to God’s perfect viewpoint, purpose and plan. And may Lentil’s story continue to touch hearts – a fitting legacy for a precious child who touched our hearts so powerfully and permanently.
Sarah Moore is the author of For the Love of Lentil, A journey of longing, loss and abundant grace, which tells the story of her experience of pregnancy and miscarriage. Copies of the book are available here.