A while back a friend sent a message about a book in the works that she’s helping to edit. She suggested that I send in my Lemonade Story for the book. The book is called God Makes Lemonade and it has stories in which something goes wrong but something bigger goes right; in which the sour parts of life are surprisingly sweetened by encouragement and inspiration. We all have one and if we don’t, one day we will.
So I decided to submit our story about years of infertility, having a biological miracle child and then an adopted miracle child. It didn’t take long and I heard back from them. They wanted to publish our story in their book. I was so excited that we would be able to once again share what God has done in our lives in this area. But when I got the release form it said I could never again tell our story in written form. We didn’t feel good about that and talked with a couple friends who have written their own books. After processing we decided that we didn’t feel comfortable signing “our” story away for good. I have no plans to ever write a book or publish it anywhere else but what if God asked us to in the future? I just felt like I couldn’t take that chance. I don’t know what the future holds and the story of our infertility and how God has formed our family is too woven into our lives, shaped us and changed us and I just couldn’t sign that away. I’m sad it won’t be used in that book but I have no doubt God will continue to use our story to bless and encourage others.
If you have a lemonade story you want to share check out the website and see what happens.
From the editor in publishing: Next time tell them you’ll only agree to exclusivity for a period of one year. It never hurts to ask. We alter our agreement for authors with some regularity.
And good on ya. Keep that story for the MASSES, not just the readers of one book. It’s too good to keep quiet!
Thanks Addie! I did ask them to make an exception and they didn’t respond. I guess they miss out. Who knows what God will do with our story in the future but I’m not going to be the one limiting Him. Can’t wait to see you soon!
i think this was a hard, but good choice jody!
I’m with Heather! That was a hard call, but a good one.