Death of a Book

I just received news from my publisher that they will not be reprinting Hired @ Home, which essentially means the book will officially go out of print and not be available for purchasing online or in bookstores.

Naturally, this news is very distressing to me, as writing a book is akin to giving birth. We plant the words on the page and water them sometimes with our tears, sometimes with our sweat. We carefully craft the flow of the book and send it off to the publisher to be transformed into something magical. We await with eager expectation the arrival of the book in printed form with high hopes that it will find its place in the world, that it will make many friends and find a good home in many lives. We follow its progress through the outside world. Will it find an audience? Will it succeed? Will those who read it find it inspiring and worthwhile?

Then the crushing news that, a mere 15 months after its arrival into the published world, the book is dead, a victim of rapid changes in Christian publishing and the retail world (according to the publisher). And you as the author are left with a choice: purchase the inventory and hope to somehow sell the copies yourself or let it pass into obscurity.

As of this post, I have no answers. I cherish the readers who have contacted me to say the book has made a difference in their lives. I still believe in Hired @ Home, but am mourning its death, at least as far as my publisher is concerned.

So I'm left with passing along the sad news to family and friends.

Until next time,

Sarah