If you’ve found something that works — a way through grief, a way out of debt, a way back to God — and you can’t stop telling people about it, that’s usually the call.
A calling to write is rarely a voice from heaven.
It’s a burden plus an answer.
Here’s the test I give every woman who asks me whether God wants her to write a book: Do you have answers?
If you don’t have answers, don’t write a book.
If you do, you owe it to people to tell them.
I started small.
I dreamed of being a writer from the time I was a little girl. I knew God had called me to be a person of influence. And a book changed everything for me. My life divides neatly into B.B. and A.B. — Before I wrote my first Book and After I wrote my first Book.
But here’s what surprises people: I didn’t start by writing devotionals.
Instead, I self-published four little booklets on very narrow topics about working from home with small children. Then I landed my first book deal with Focus on the Family for Homemade Business: A Woman’s Step-by-Step Guide to Earning Money from Home.
Five years and four published books later, I went to a cabin in the woods that a couple from church lent me, and wrote Becoming a Vessel God Can Use over the course of five days. It became one of my bestsellers. It has sold more than 300,000 copies, and I’m still getting paid on a book I wrote in 1996.
Signs God may be calling you to write a book
- You have a clear before-and-after story, and the “after” is something other people want.
- People keep asking you the same question, and you keep giving the same answer.
- You’ve solved a problem that other people are still stuck in.
- You’ve formed a habit or routine that changed your life, and you want others to try it.
- The message won’t leave you alone, no matter how many years go by.
Notice what’s not on that list. Feeling like a “writer.” Having a degree. Having a huge social media following.
A calling is not a command to write everything you know
“Write the vision, and make it plain” (Habakkuk 2:2, KJV).
Plain. Not exhaustive.
When many women hear “write a book,” they assume God means a 65,000-word magnum opus with their entire life story and every lesson they’ve ever learned. Then they freeze, because it’s intimidating.
That’s why it never gets written.
Here’s the good news. Amazon is okay with short books. Quick easy reads. It even has an entire category devoted to books that can be read in two hours or less…and it actively promotes those books to potential readers.
You can start with a short book, just like I did. A focused 15,000-word manuscript can deliver one useful message without becoming an overwhelming project.
If you have a message or a method that really changes people’s lives, writing a book is more than a good idea. It’s essential. But it has to be one message, for one group of people, with one clear outcome. I walk through how to narrow it down in How to Choose a Book Topic.
What most women are really asking
Most women who ask me whether God is calling them to write already know the answer.
What they’re really asking is whether He’ll let them start small.
He will.
He did with me.
Quick answers
How do I know if God wants me to write a book? Look for a problem you’ve walked through, a solution that worked, and people who keep asking you about it.
Not sure what kind of writer you are? Take my free 90-second quiz — What Kind of Writer Are You? — and discover your writer type, the hidden trap stalling your book, and your one next step.