...in convincing Christian publishers that I have something worthwhile to say.
As I mentioned earlier on, this blog is part of my ministry to eating disordered women and a platform for the writing I have done. Earlier this year, I completed a manuscript tentatively titled "Redeemed From the Pit: Biblical Repentance and Restoration from the Bondage of Eating Disorders". I discuss my personal journey out of the bulimia that gripped me for 17 years, and how the reader may apply the biblical principals of recognizing and confessing her ED as sin, repenting of it, and allowing God to renew her mind as she overcomes this behavior.
What I have learned is that it is extremely difficult for a first-time author to break into the publishing world, regardless of how good your material may be. Agents won't even consider taking you on as a client without established "name recognition" because their main job is to convince publishers that your book will sell. Is there a market for this book? I believe there is, judging by the prevalence of eating disorders among Christian women. In short, I need to make the case to publishers of biblical material that there is a legitimate market for this book among Bible-believing Christians.
A fellow Christian writer forwarded an article to me about an aspiring author who asked online for potential interest, and forwarded the responses to publishers along with his query letter - and they ended up publishing his manuscript. What a great idea! I would like to do the same.
Please leave me a brief message in the combox if you would buy or read a book that attempts to address eating disorders as spiritual issues with straight-forward spiritual answers. Have you benefited in any way from this blog? Would you like to read more than a happily-ever-after testimony, one which focuses 16 chapters on God and you, and only 1.5 chapters on me? A Bible study that affects the deepest part of your life, and challenges your most secret besetting sin?
Leave me a comment explaining why such a book would be of interest to you. Anonymous comments are fine - pseudonyms are fine; town/state only is fine. Please just share your thoughts; help me convince the publishing houses that this will be a life-changing read for you (or someone you know who loves the Lord, but battles a food addiction).
Thank you, dear readers. My hope is that it will be in print soon.
7/30/09
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I definitely believe there is a need for information like this. Especially from a Biblical perspective.
ReplyDeleteI have known women with the same issues who I think would have benefited greatly from this book. There is also much in this book to recommend as a way of dealing with similar sin issues - other destructive habits. It is a very good encouragement to see how someone dealt with her eating disorder in a godly way, and how we can learn from her example.
ReplyDeleteI definately would benefit from a book like this. I think that the teaching is highly missing among Christians.
ReplyDeleteDawn
Hello Marie.
ReplyDeleteI am so anxious to hear that, "Yes", your book will be published. I have faith that it will happen in Gods time but I hope that time is soon.! The wisdom and insight you have into the the battle and recovery of addiction and eatind disorders is so apparent from reading your testimony and your blog and my correspondance with you. I am so happy that you have been so led to write and attempt to have your book published because I know how much it is needed. I have been searching through counseling, books and even a treatment facility once, for a road to recovering from my eating disorder and addictions that have been suffocating my spirit for the past 7 years. I had come to feel, very early in my quest, that only God himself could heal my warped mind. Knowledge was not enough but I did not have the faith and conviction to realize what you have so humbly and lovingly conveyed through your life story and counseling advice.
I have read recovery stories, but NOT ONE writer, ever told me what I needed to hear, in order to believe I could recover. I needed to be able to believe that this disordered thinking would not follow me and haunt me for the rest of my life; that it wouldn't "always be a weakness to battle". Is it any wonder that so many women and men give up when they are convinced that the fight will never end? I can attest to that. I had come to accept that this was a lifelong disease and I believe that is what has hindered my recovery. My body would visibly heal, but I never truly changed my thinking because I never truly changed my heart, and who can do that for me but the Lord himself. continued...
...You have shown me that God truly IS bigger than anything and that as long as I did not face the sinful nature of my "disease" and repent, I would keep going in circles. It's what my heart knew but what my mind did not want to hear. It is a truth that takes a lot of courage to share because it means we need to accept responsibilty and some of us, in our sickness, feel too beat down and victimized to take ownership of our role in remaining afflicted . I think that if not written very carefully, it c ould sound like a harsh message , coming from anyone who has not lived in these chains, to tell us that we are actually sinning , BUT WE NEED TO RECOGNIZE THAT. You have been able to be that voice and there is no self righteous tone or condemnation in your words. There is hope and proof that God truly IS bigger than any of our problems and he is the key to our full recovery.
ReplyDeleteI have seen how delicately, eating disordered people are handled . We are so often allowed to only see ourselves as victims and not told the 'harder to accept' words that every ED sufferer & addict needs no hear. At some point, it was our choice. If we are to believe our sickness is a disease with low recovery rates, it is perpetuating the lie that keeps those rates so low.
You have a gift and God is so clearly using you to reach us and let us see that we can be fully healed, that we do not have to battle for the rest of our lives, like many books and physicians would have us accept. How tiring that was to me and how many times I have given up because of the false vision of a lifelong weakness?
I am so blessed that it was in God's plan, that my road would intersect with yours and that your testimony and encouraging words have dissolved the lies, and that I may now be walking paralell with you in the arms of our Savior to life everlasting, with the chains that bound me, left behind.
I have never found someone like you in all my searching for a "real example". Call me "doubting Thomas", but sadly, I needed to see your example to believe that I do not have to wait on a miricle that I didn't even feel deserving of. Now I can understand that it is there for us to choose and that we do not have to do it ourselves, but with God at our side; our God who can do ANYTHING. If there are other books out there that have anything close to the gift your words have been to me, I have not found it, so CLEARLY, this suffering world needs to hear your story and I have faith that many will come to know the healing power of the Lord through your Book and know that to be delivered by him is so much easier (and the only way than the lifelong recovery that much of the secular world and medical community offer. This deliverance is not something we have to wait on, but an outstretched arm that we can grasp hold of as we unclech our grip on our sicknesses and addictions. I could never see it that way until God led me to you and I am excited and anxiously waiting for you to be able to reach even more of us. I felt so alone as an adult with an eating disorder and even more alone as a Christian one. Your story and this Blog have been like a manual written just for me, but it's for every one of any age gender or religion.
Bless your heart Marie. I will continue to pray that you find the pulishing company that will deliver your story of deliverance and redemotion.
Your sister in Christ,
Heisi Christie
heidiandbobby@comcast.net
Of course there is a need for this book! It would teach us all how to restore balance and peace through God... There are needed Christian books in general - not only about anorexia or bulimia - on many topics. Mood disorders, for example, are also the plague of the modern age - and, if I may say, they are very often connected with ED...
ReplyDeleteAnd ED population is even bigger then we think, since many women do not recognize it, or hide it for years and years (my personal experience)... definitely, there are a lot of readers awaiting for this book.
Personally I have never struggled with this. But I do believe it is a spiritual issue. I think that freedom through Christ is the only way to be freed from bondage such as this. I have never looked to see if there is any books out there like this, but I do think that a biblically based book addressing these things could have a huge impact on women who struggle with this. HTH!! God Bless!
ReplyDelete