You might have noticed some changes around these parts in the last couple of months. And by changes, I mean that I completely redesigned my website. This was months in the making and coincided with the recent release of my ebook, The Single Christian’s Church Survival Guide.
But, I now realize that I did not exactly tell anyone it was happening or why. That’s my bad, and one of the perils of being a self-employed writer. In my head, I’ve talked about every element of my business so much that I forget little of it happened with other humans, and therefore, y’all might not know what’s going on.
I have redesigned my website almost annually since starting it, even going so far as to hire a designer last March so that I could leave it alone once and for all. That was a few months into a year-long mastermind program designed to help me level up as a creative and a business owner. As part of that program, I got a monthly one-on-one coaching session, which rotated between the three coaches running the mastermind.
It was November. I’d recently returned from our gathering in Grand Rapids where I struck out pitching my book idea to a publisher. My call that month was with the writing coach. Though this editor said no, I was undeterred in my conviction that this book needed to be in the world. Or at least on paper.
In the publishing industry, there’s a lot of talk about what is called the “three-legged stool.” These are the three big things that a publisher or agent looks for when considering whether or not they will take on a book. There’s the strength of the idea, the skill of the writer, and the size of that author’s platform (aka their audience, aka the number of humans who are paying attention to what they are saying and therefore might buy a copy of the book). That’s the business side of it.
Regardless of my relationship with the publishing industry, my relationship with my readers, that is to say, you swell folks, is profoundly important to me. And serving you is the center of my business. But it’s also getting the things I’ve been called to make and the insight I’ve learned into the hands of others like you who would find this work helpful. That’s the human side of it.
And so that brings us to November, staring at my computer for my umteenth zoom call of the week. We talked through different ideas I have for products, services, and events. We talked about my future as a writer and the future of the business. And at the end of it all, my coach asked, “What question is your reader asking that your site wants to answer?”
I paused for a moment, second-guessing my instinct. In that second flashed the conversations I’d had on singleness in which my passion had been louder than my fear. “How to be single in the church,” I replied.
From there it was a matter of building various offers that would answer that question. I won’t bore you with all those details and moments of existential angst. But it did mean that I needed to adjust some of the words I was using on my website.
And then, I went to add a shop to my site on which I could sell my ebook and realized that the theme I was using didn’t support that function. And so, my website got a whole new look. Lord willing and the creek don’t rise, this one’s here to stay.
I’m here to serve you, and I’d love to hear from you. What is one challenge you have as someone who’s single in the church? Drop it in the comments, and I promise I’ll respond!