Into the Fire

The open door we desire . . . leads to the fulfillment of dreams, careers, accomplishments, relationships, and goals. Christians accept the door is opened for us by the Lord God, and we quote clichés about when God shuts a door, He opens a window. That is, some of us do.

In the writer's world a door sometimes whisks open only to close before you get your proverbial foot inside. The window of time between submissions of manuscripts and acceptances or rejections does not go swiftly, but when the door shuts, it seems like a quick slam.

The perception of that closed door varies depending on the acquisition editor's response. If they bother to add a few words of encouragement accompanying their rejection note, which can be a rare occurrence, the door shutting might feel like the picture above instead of the loud echo and reverberation of a slam. Many writers experience both methods.

Some writers take all open and shut reactions in stride and persevere until they either pick the lock of a particular publisher's door or finally a particular publisher says, "Bring it on" referring to their manuscript.

Nowadays many authors choose not to wait for that door to be opened to them and burst through the publishing hurdles by engaging in e-publishing. They decide the multiple doors to various publishers which are locked when they knock, no longer seem like the preferable option.

Of course there are important drawbacks to each choice. In both instances marketing can be a huge deterrent, and in both cases the majority of implementing marketing lands squarely in the lap of the author. Selling books means you make your publisher happy – whether that's you or a traditional publisher.

We writers know well the case of the open and shut doors, and we can tell you the windows are sometimes painted shut. We labor over the words, but sometimes we don't know how or where to peddle them. We're tempted to take an axe to some of those doors, but we understand that's not correct protocol. So . . . we wait. And hope the Lord will escort us through one of those doors – the one He's holding open just for us. 

Father, you lead, I follow. Apart from you, I can do nothing. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.