This was originally an e-newsletter. If you’d like to receive updates from me in your inbox, click here.
The book is 85% finished! I’ve got a bit more writing and rewriting to do and I’ll be collecting material for some crowd-sourced sections, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
I had a great 3-hour meeting recently with two local brand strategists. Among other problems they could help with, I was completely at a loss for a title, which also meant that there wasn’t a cohesive theme running through the whole book. As the pros at this kind of thing, they quickly targeted key ideas that became the working title:
Serving God and others through our work is better than being famous, which is thought of as the pinnacle of success for artists. Financial, emotional, and spiritual sustainability will allow artists to fulfill God’s creative calling through all seasons of their lives.
Feedback about the title has been great. No other books called Better Than Famous come up on the Library of Congress website or Amazon, and the domain name was available. All good signs. I’m rewriting the Introduction and going back through the book to tighten toward that idea.
The next big step is to start contacting potential publishers, which I’ll begin after the first of the year. Publishing options these days range from the traditional full-service publisher on one end to self-publishing on the other end, with several other types of publishers in between. The further toward self-publishing I end up, the more time and money I’ll need to invest, especially since I’m a novice at this. I don’t want my limitations to hinder the book’s chances to help young artists. So, as much as possible, I’ll be following my own advice to artists by paying professionals for their help, like the brand strategists and an editor I’m working with.
If you feel led to contribute to the process, I’ve reactivated the Book Partnership page, and would love to include you in this phase of the work.
I teach that artists need partners, not patrons. Partnership is about working together on something mutually beneficial. I hope that the partners will see the value of this work God has led us into together for the world around them, and for themselves. All partners will be recognized in the Acknowledgements in the book and on the book’s website.
The other big news is that we’re leaving Waco. It’s been on our hearts for the last three years, and God opened and closed doors for us in the last few months to tell us it was time. By the end of the year, we’ll be heading to Chattanooga, which is closer to our families and is a larger arts market with more opportunities for both of us. I have some specific projects I’m working on in Chattanooga that I’ll tell you about in the next update.
If you can’t wait that long 🙂 or have any other thoughts or questions to share, feel free to contact me at luann@luannjennings.com.
Luann Purcell Jennings 