How to Feed a Starving Dream...by Julie Saffrin

Julie Saffrin is a published author. Her story reminds us of why we should never give up!
She is offering each person who comments a chance to be entered into a drawing to win a free paperback copy of her latest book, BLESS BACK.

“There is corn in Egypt”
         Genesis 42:2
I’d suspected for months that the hope of my book being released with a traditional publisher might be ending, but I was not free to act upon my hunch until I received official news from the source. More than once I wanted to get ahead of the situation and take action. A couple of times I came close to speeding up the inevitable but my mind told me, “Hold.”


So, I did what I’ve come to see as a way to solve dilemmas in which I have no control. I applied Oswald Chambers’ remedy, “Trust God, and do the next thing.” While in my “holding pattern,” I created an action list of things that I could control. I tweaked again the manuscript that I had had professionally edited. I made sure I had received signed permission notes from those whose stories were in my book. And, I gained new contacts by using social media, people such as Kathy Brunner, whom I met through LinkedIn.


I checked off the last item on my list on a Tuesday.


The next day my hunch was confirmed. The economic downturn had affected my publishing world.


After months of mentally preparing myself, I was free to make a move with my non-fiction book, BlessBack®: Thank Those Who Shaped Your Life.


What I hadn’t prepared for, though, was my reaction and the sinking sensation that I was a failure and would never accomplish my heart’s desire.


Happy. Sad. I was both.


In the Genesis 42 story of famine in the land, Jacob knew that while there was a drought in his land, there was a granary in Egypt filled with corn. He just had to get his sons to travel there. The same applied in the publishing world. Times were tough. Here’s what got me on my camel, walking toward the Nile:


1)  I kept the facts in the facts box.


“Death is the one thing we all have in common but we never talk about,” Jeremy Hudson, a hospice chaplain in Cedar Falls, told me. A famine was in the land and a death to my dream of being traditionally published had come. Nothing would change that.


2)  I had waited for a sign of what to do and had received it.


Though the end of the road had come with my publisher and I was released from my contract, I needed to remind myself that it wasn’t the end of the road. Instead, I needed to view the situation as one of being given permission to pursue direction in a new land.


3)  The corn was in Egypt, not here.


No sense in wasting another day wallowing in might-have-beens or maybes. The time had come for me to pivot. Before I firmed up my decision to self-publish, I sent out a handful of letters to agents for representation, hoping on the outside chance that I would be picked up. I waited and waited. For months. Whatever the industry, economic downturn or not, what has happened to the words, “please” and “thank you”? Only one agent had manners, and wrote me a thank-you in his decline. With more doors closed, my hunger grew.


4)  I used my hunger to propel me.


The only way to satisfy my hunger to get my book published was to head in the direction of where the food was: self-publication, the land of opportunity.


5)  I readied myself for the journey.


“He who fails to plan is planning to fail,” said Winston Churchill. During my “hold” time, I had made a list of potential self-publishers. As I read their finely printed documents, I eliminated the ones with too many hidden dollar signs and chose a publisher with whom several friends had chosen. My writer friends were pleased with their decision and so am I.

6)  I tucked my dreams in my saddle bag, hoisted myself up onto the camel and started out.


For their journey, Jacob’s 10 sons had the company of each other. I went, armed with the knowledge I had gained and the people with whom I had made connections. They would and did provide nurturing and nourishment on the road. Along the way, I met my future book cover designer, Angie Hughes, of Angie’s Creative. She took BlessBack’s concept and created a book cover to match it. She also did the book’s interior layout as well as created my new website, www.juliesaffrin.com.


7)  I stayed on course, mile after mile, until I reached Egypt.


In February 2012, I arrived at my destination and my dream was made real. The paperback version of BlessBack®: Thank Those Who Shaped Your Life released. And in July 2012, the e-book version released. Now people can read the stories of those who have paid their thanks backward to their life influencers. Now people can discover how the power of gratitude changes us and helps us to live happier and purpose-filled lives. My hope is that you will step back from your life and look to the people who helped you become the wonderful you you are today. When you do thank them, you’ll find an altruistic after glow. Let their words or actions propel you to continue to work at fulfilling your dream.


And if you find are stuck in famine land, I encourage you to use my road map, board a camel, and go to Egypt. I’m here, championing you on.


Ever feel like Julie as though you were stuck and nothing was in sight but more famine?(share your thoughts and be entered to win a paperback copy of Bless Back)

JULIE SAFFRIN is the author of numerous articles and essays. She received her bachelor's degree in print journalism and English from the University of St. Thomas. She divides her time between her home in Minneapolis and her Adirondack chair at her cabin on a lake in Ottertail County with her husband Rick, sons Sam, Joe and Jake, and a golden retriever named Mick. She can be reached at www.JulieSaffrin.com.
 BlessBack’s Facebook Fan page at www.Facebook.com/blessback. Follow @blessback on Twitter.

Purchase Bless Back HERE