1. If you care about what you write, you’ll spend time promoting it. No point in writing an article or book to let it sit in obscurity. If you believe it, you’ll spread it.
2. Have some goto verses to guide against spiritual pride. Don’t obsess about stats or read all the reviews. You also don’t have to answer every critic.
3. Let a publisher or agent do a fair amount of the promotion for you. If you have ideas on how you’d like them to help promote, don’t be afraid to creatively brainstorm and share ideas.
4. Stepping into the published author world is a whole new experience. You will face fresh temptations and encounter new joys. Dig deeper than ever to consistently find Christ as your chief joy, not what others think or say about you.
5. Don’t retweet everything, but if something is particularly good, and gets across what you want to get across, no harm in doing so. Ignore what critics and leaders say about RTs and just follow the Holy Spirit. RT doesn’t equal Self Praise. Though RTs certainly can be full of vanity, they can also be a way to spread the gospel, distribute wisdom, and rejoice in the truth.
6. Don’t get sucked into platform building. Don’t read books and blogs on this stuff. It will just build your ego. God will open doors. Be faithful, fight for joy in Christ, work hard at your craft, promote as the Spirit leads.
7. Have one blind eye and one deaf ear. Filter praise and critiques and let the Holy Spirit guide you. Talk to your heavenly Father, honestly, about it all. This is part of your discipleship now.
8. Invite godly accountability. Be transparent about your struggles and share your joys. Most people wont understand the challenge of being an author until you let them in on it. When they discover there’s genuine fight for the fame of Christ, they’ll be discipled for good or for ill in how you handle it. When they observe humility and genuine zeal for truth, people will join you in prayer and support.
9. Ask your elders if they will to support you through prayer, promotion, accountability. Let them be a voice to the church to teach them how to support you, particularly through praying for you and the kingdom influence of the book.
10. Get and remain zealous about God’s fame, not yours. It’s all his truth, grace, and glory anyway. Ask God everyday to make you a creative, truth-telling author who is full of grace and humility.