blessings from Book Blest

This weekend I attended my first ever literary festival as an author, at Book Blest in Stroud, Glos. I didn’t really know what to expect. I did my best to gauge a reasonable amount of books to take (not so many that I’d pull a muscle carrying them in, but enough that I hopefully wouldn’t sell out), I dreamed up a competition that I hoped would garner interest, and I purchased a cash box in case people wanted to pay by cash. But still, I had no idea how many books – if any – I would actually sell.

On my first day – Friday – I sold one book. Actually I should say my friend and fellow-author who was on the table next to me sold one of my books. A browsing customer asked about my books and I, feeling somewhat awkward about promoting my own work, muttered a very brief and embarrassed precis. My friend took pity and came to my aid, giving a simple but clear overview of the Jesse Tree Anthology, and the customer was delighted to buy a copy. It was the first of several lessons I was blessed by this weekend, that I hope to remember…

Lesson one: you don’t have to be a pushy salesperson, but you do need to believe in your books and be ready to talk about them positively when people are interested.

The next morning as I walked along the road from the carpark to the venue, chatting with God as I went, I “humbly” told him I didn’t mind whether or not I sold books – I was there for the learning experience. Immediately I ‘heard’ His amused reply: “Oh, so you don’t want to ask me for sales, then?” I hastily backtracked, feeling foolish, and said that yes please, I would like some book sales too! That day I sold seven more copies to customers and an additional six to the local bookshop, then one of the anthology contributors at the festival took ten copies to sell, and when I got home, I found I had sold five more copies in America (unrelated to the festival) AND another contributor had ordered 87 copies! At that point I laughingly told God he was just showing off… but lesson learned!

Lesson two: God cares about our business success! Asking Him for help with it isn’t shameful, it’s wise!

So yes, the book sales were a definite benefit of the festival, but there was so much more besides. For example, one of my customers said she hosted a radio show and would love to promote the Anthology in her Advent programmes. Another said he was part of a much larger group who he would be happy to recommend the book to.

Lesson three: We can’t measure the success of value of an event just by sales alone. We never know the ripple effect that can happen as a result of selling a single book, and where it might end up.

But even more than the book sales, was the greater blessing of being with the people: chatting with fellow writers and enjoying the fellowship of a shared experience, and listening to the inspiring stories of how God had led them all on different paths of overcoming adversity, in order that they might publish their stories to encourage others. Also in chatting with the customers, hearing their life experiences and feeling the thrill of knowing that God was able to speak to them through my books – that blessed me so much more than the sales.

Lesson four was more of a reminder than a lesson, but still worth remembering: any event/ any book is far more about the people there/ the readers, than anything else.

Finally my final lesson (that I am able to identify right now) came from my ‘spotlight’ slot: 25 minutes of being interviewed on the front stage. The lovely host, Rev. Jo, had sent me some questions in advance so I could feel prepared, but we had also agreed that other questions might pop up. I was happy to go ‘off-piste’. But then when chatting about Friend of God, she asked an unplanned question about what friendship with God is like. I momentarily panicked, and then managed to say something about the Old Testament call to people to walk with God, and the New Testament message from Jesus that he wants us to know him: ie, that true Christianity is about relationship, not religion – which is rapidly becoming my life’s message. It was such a good question, I was a bit cross with myself, feeling my answer hadn’t done it justice, but just hoped that God had managed to speak through my words anyway.

The next morning back home, I was thinking about Jo’s question again, and chatting with God about why it was still niggling at me. I realised (or rather he showed me) it was very significant because of the subject. What friendship with God is like – and how to experience it – is the whole point of my next book. It’s a huge subject that I’m still processing and trying to figure out how to communicate, so I don’t have the answer in simple form yet (hopefully I’ll get there by the time I finish it!) But I am so glad Jo asked it, as it reignited the passion in me to write the next book. I had got a bit stuck and bogged down in trying to outline the structure, but I realised it’s more important at this point just to write down the essence of what needs to be said, and then tidy it up afterwards. I feel re-envisioned.

Lesson five: Keep writing! And when you lose track of what you are writing, go back to why: Why does it matter? Why bother? Passion really can inspire a fresh flow when words dry up.

So those were my blessing/lessons – my “blessons”? – from BookBlest this weekend. It was such a rich time, I’m really grateful especially to the organisers, and to my fellow stall-holders and customers, and most of all to my friend God, for my time there!