Just spent some time this morning with Leif and Margaret Feinberg. Margaret was a huge encouragement to me when I was a wanna-be author. We talked writing and publishing for about ninety minutes. I feel as called to write as I do to pastor. So I’m really trying to learn the ropes.

Margaret shared some great insights.

#1 In every cinderella story there is a fairy Godmother!

She said that most best-sellers are created best-sellers. A publisher bets the farm marketing the book. Or gives away 50,000 copies to create momentum. Our just pulls out all the stops!

#2 Writing is like buying a lotto ticket. The odds are low, but there’s always a chance!

95% of books don’t sell 5,000 copies. In other words, it’s a crapshoot. You really have to write for intrinsic reasons. You have to write because you feel called to write and let the chips fall where they may.

And I love the last analogy Margaret used. Think of writing as climbing the publishing mountain.

#3 There is a difference between driving and hiking to the top of the mountain.

Margaret talked about hiking a 14er–a mountain with elevation greater than 14,000 feet. She said the drivers and hikers see the same view, but they look different and smell different because of how they got there! I also think they feel different. A hiker appreciates the view a little bit more.

When it comes to pastoring and writing, I want to be a hiker. I don’t want to get to the summit to fast. I want to make sure I’m becoming the person God wants me to be. Plus, if you get to the summit too quickly or too easily it is easy to forget who got you there!

Really appreciate the writing trail that Margaret has blazed. FYI. She’s doing a workshop on How to Get Published at the Fusion Conference.