Lessons Learned from Authors I’ve Worked With

Over the twenty-something years I’ve been working with authors, I’ve learned a lot from them. Some things they’ve taught me with words. Some things they’ve taught me with their lives and example—

Promotion Priorities—I’ll never forget an experience around the conference table at the Word Publishing offices in Waco, Texas with a young pastor from San Antonio who had published a couple of books but with no great notoriety at the time. Max Lucado. And I remember being moved by his desire for his writing. He said something like, “When people read my books, I don’t want them to say, Wow, what a great writer! I want them to say, Wow, what a great Savior!” I had never heard anything like that before.

I also remember being with Max in a meeting just a few years ago when we were discussing a difficult issue and he said, “Let’s stop and pray about that right now.” He wasn’t content for a decision to be made without consulting Wisdom.

Marriage Advice—Two authors I worked with before getting married gave me great marriage advice that I’ve never forgotten and passed along a time or two. Keith Miller (author of A Taste of New Wine, the first blockbuster Christian book written for laity) passed along the advice given to him by his daughter as they saw him struggling to make a relationship work with a woman who lived a dramatically different life than he. “They told me to start walking down the road I want to go down and to find someone walking down that same road and take her hand,” he told me. Good advice. I also remember Marabel Morgan (Of The Total Woman/meet your husband at the door in saran wrap fame) telling me, “Don’t marry a man until you can say he is the finest man you’ve ever met.” She sent me a crystal jar from Neiman Marcus when I married David and it is one of the few wedding presents we still use every day (for David’s espresso pods).

Ministry Mentoring— I’ve learned innumerable lessons from working with and traveling with Anne Graham Lotz throughout the years. Saturating ministry with prayer, waiting for God to open doors for you, being bold in your witness, rejecting the temptation to compromise with the goal of being invited back, the beauty of an on-going lifestyle of repentance, the blessing of offering God your weakness, and so much more . . .

Making people feel important—I’ll never forget accompanying Tony Campolo to a Rotary Club at which he was speaking. All the business mucketymucks gathered around to talk to him. He noticed a young unimpressive-looking guy standing on the outside of the circle. And he focused in on him asking about his karate school. The rest of the businesspeople seemed a little annoyed he was giving the guy so much attention but I remember thinking that it was what Jesus would have done. He gave his attention to those others overlooked.

Tony’s wife, Peggy told me one time that once her kids figured out that their dad was famous and got very excited. And she told them, “It is nice to be important, but it is more important to be nice.”

Making yourself feel important—The opposite experience was with an author at lunch at a restaurant when she spoke harshly and condescendingly to the waitress so that we all wanted to hide.

What is Harder than Being Imprisoned in Afghanistan? Going on a nationwide book tour. It was excruciating for Heather Mercer and Dana Curry—and especially painful for them when they received messages from missionaries that telling their story of ministering to people living under the Taliban in secretive ways was harming the work of missionaries around the world in similar situations.

Never make a movie recommendation based on seeing an edited version on an airplane—This tidbit came from Dale Evans Rogers, a silver screen legend who was asking me for movie recommendations. She had made too many based on seeing edited versions on airplanes and ended up embarrassed by what had been cut out that she didn’t know about. I also noticed when helping her check out of her hotel room that she made a point to leave a generous tip for the maid.

Own a Pet—This is one of many important lessons I learned during the season of parenting a toddler and working with Kathy Peel aka The Family Manager. She said all families need to own a pet—and preferably one that will die so that children will learn that you can love, lose, and recover from that loss. I’ve always wanted to keep my table set with pretty linens like hers is but I’ve never mastered that one. She did convince me of the importance of setting a peaceful environment in the home—reducing noise, pleasant voices, good smells, beauty, love.

Where Real Joy Comes From—On a trip out to California I walked into the office of Anne Ortlund and she was giddy with excitement. She had just received a royalty check. But that wasn’t what made her so happy. What made her really happy was writing out checks to missionaries because of the new funds made available to her from receiving a royalty check.

Write a Tribute to Your Parents—I’ll never forget Dennis Rainey handing me a copy of his book, The Tribute and encouraging me to write one to my parents. It took me about three years, and it is one of the most important, significant things I’ve ever done.

Grace vs. Grouchiness—I was in my first few months of my job at Word and part of my job was writing letters to authors to let them know their books had gone back to press. This was before personal computers and there was a typing pool at the company. So I had little forms that I filled in the blanks and sent up to the typing pool to create the form letters. Dear : And following the form of my predecessor, I filled in the author’s first name and the number of books being printed in the new printing. One of the authors I was writing to was way up on my list of people I admired. She still is. But what a sting it was to receive a letter back from her saying something like, “ Dear Miss Jinks, It was completely inappropriate for you to address me by my first name in your recent letter advising me of my book going back to press. I hope you will show more respect in the future.” I was crushed.

Having Spiritual Discipline Doesn’t Mean You Can’t Have Fun—I was hired to escort Richard Foster (as in Celebration of Discipline) for a day of media interviews and book signings. It was during the presidential campaign when Ross Perot was running for President and Admiral Stockwell had just had his vice presidential debate debacle. We were talking about it in the car and I had just seen about the funniest Saturday Night Live skit with Ross Perot driving along in a car with Admiral Stockwell trying to drop him off in the middle of nowhere. I wanted to bring it up, but I thought, surely someone this spiritual does not watch Saturday Night Live. But then he brought it up and I thought he was going to split a gut as he remembered the skit. I guess you can be very spiritual and still enjoy Saturday Night Live here and there.

Some Authors Can Keep Writing the Same Book Over and Over Again—and amazingly they keep selling! And some authors only had one good book in them and they keep writing more (Lord, don’t let this be me!). Most authors write about the things they struggle with themselves. One author comes to mind who writes repeatedly about worry. It comes up in his writing over and over. I finally figured out that it is because he struggles so much with worry. I suppose this is kind of like the principle that we tend to point out the error in others that we see in ourselves and what annoys us in others is what we don’t like in ourselves.

The Value of Writing a Note—I was with Joni Eareckson Tada a couple of weeks ago. She made time for me and a couple of friends at a conference at which she was speaking. Did I send a follow-up thank-you note? I’m embarrassed to tell you I didn’t. But she did—mentioning my friends by name, thanking me for the time together. Kind, classy, and something I will save.