I’m visiting today with author Nancy Kay Grace. Nancy is speaker and author loves to share about embracing God’s grace in everyday life. She has contributed stories to several anthologies and published magazine articles.
Nancy is married to her best friend, Rick, who is a senior pastor in northwest Arkansas. They have served the Lord for more than forty years. Now they enjoy the stage of life with two married children and an increasing number of grandchildren. To learn more about her ministry, please visit NancyKayGrace.com.
Why did you write The Grace Impact?
I have been captivated by grace for many years, not only because “Nancy” means “grace” but also because grace has transformed me, strengthened me, and sustained me through difficult times.
The seed idea for this book began several years ago. In 2007, I submitted some stories to Chicken Soup for the Soul and a devotional book. The stories were accepted, which encouraged me to continue my writing journey. In sharing this with my friends, I wrote a short devotional in an email and added my publishing news at the end of it. This was the first issue of GraceNotes, my email devotional.
I have continued to send GraceNotes each month since then, even through some very difficult and trying times. The Lord encouraged me to keep writing and sending GraceNotes. Eventually I hoped to have enough devotionals to compile them into a book. It is now offered as an opt-in newsletter on my website.
In 2012, I was at a point when I was very discouraged with writing. A book project that I started abruptly ended. I attended a writer’s conference to hear from the Lord about my next step. While there I pitched the idea for this book to CrossRiver Media called GraceNotes: Thirty Days of Grace. The manuscript was accepted.
As I worked on it, the publisher noticed that in the past year several book titles included the word “GraceNotes” and suggested I consider re-titling it. After praying about it and researching possible titles, I decided on The Grace Impact. The project went from being a simple devotional about God’s grace to being a book on God’s grace that happens to be a devotional. This change challenged me go deeper in writing, researching, and showing God’s grace.
What’s the most important thing readers will learn from The Grace Impact?
God alone is able to set into motion the “grace impact”—His ability to work in and through any situation, revealing His love and forgiveness to us, thereby drawing us to Himself, ultimately through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The initial impact of God’s grace to each of us comes by accepting salvation through Jesus. It continues in us and through us as our lives are transformed by yielding more to the Lord. As we grow in faith, we share God’s grace with others. Like a drop of water released on a smooth lake, the ripples of the grace impact continue to reach outward to many.
We know marketing our books is a major part of what we authors do these days. How are you tackling that?
Over the past few years, I’ve been observing and learning from other authors as they have released their books through having a launch team.
This was a large part of my marketing strategy. I asked people in my Facebook writing groups if they were interested, and created a closed group on Facebook as the communication center. Members could re-post the info to their pages, spreading the word throughout their social media channels.
I posted updates about the status of the book, created videos that told about the development of the book, and contacted those who had blogs if they would be part of a blog tour during the launch. Tweets were created and shared. I managed the communications of this team effort. Networking is a huge part of marketing.
What advice do you have for writers concerning finding and gaining a publisher?
It is important to attend writers’ conferences to learn about the writing/publishing process. There are so many different options to consider and discern which path is best for you. Be willing to step out of your comfort zone to have informal conversations with potential publishers, not just to pitch your book idea, but to show interest in them as people.
What did you learn—good and bad—through all this that you’ll apply to the next time?
- Just do the next step in obedience. I didn’t intend to talk with a publisher at the conference in 2012, but when the opportunity was there, I took the next step. Keep moving forward.
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Put aside fears. I continually have to reject any fears of further disappointment and relinquish my doubts, trading them for trust in the Lord.
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Trust God’s timing. I found that when I tried to push the development of the book before God’s time, it didn’t go well and I got frustrated. There is a rhythm of the publication process of working (writing) and waiting (abiding in the Lord). Be diligent to write and then learn to wait on the Lord while the manuscript is in the hands of the editors.
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Don’t compare yourself to any other writer; let your voice show through. Many well known authors have written books on the same subject as my book. There is enough of God’s grace for everyone. God has called each of us to write for Him, through our fingers. There will always be someone further along than you, with more experience in writing and publishing. But there is also someone who isn’t as far along as you are, someone you can encourage.
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Keep the goal in sight, but break it down into smaller tasks. It’s overwhelming to look at the big picture. By tackling smaller tasks, you’ll be farther down the road in a month, and in a year, even farther toward the goal.
Where can we buy the book?
It is available from CrossRiver Media or at Amazon
Thank you for joining me today, Nancy, and for sharing your experiences and knowledge.
ABOUT THE GRACE IMPACT
“The promise of grace pulses throughout Scripture…Chapter after chapter, verse after verse, the Bible shows a loving heavenly Father lavishing His grace on us through His Son. In her book, The Grace Impact, author Nancy Kay Grace gives us a closer glimpse of God’s character. In all things at all times, His grace covers every detail of life, not just the good things, but the difficult, sad, and complicated things. That knowledge can give us the ability to walk confidently through life knowing our heavenly Father is with us every step of the way.”