By Joy K. Massenburge, @JoyMassenburge
I remember the first time an agent asked me to describe my audience. I remember thinking, What does that have to do with the book I’ve written? More so, I remember the look on her face when I said, “everybody.”
To this day, it’s still one of the most embarrassing moments in my writing career. If only someone had told me what I’m about to share with you. I’d placed so much emphasis on pitching the content of my story and summarizing the plot into a mind-blowing hook, I never thought to go beyond the manuscript.
To clarify your focus, answer the following statement. I help (X – Who) accomplish (Y – What) so they can do (Z – the action).
Now this may look easy, but it took me months of training in the Eric Thomas & Associates (ETA) Game Changers speaker’s program to learn the answer. Remember, my focus was everybody when I first started writing, not understanding the importance of having a niche to center my writing efforts. Maybe that’s because I had to examine the pain points that drove me to reading romance in high school and falling in-love with the genre.
Twenty-eight years prior, this coming July to be exact, I married a man I did not love. Who could trust that flighty emotion when my mother’s love hadn’t been enough to keep my pastor father from doing the unthinkable? After suffering too many personal heartaches while trying to obtain the fairytale, I grew up and accepted the reality that love didn’t exist. But the desire for a traditional family and my future kids to have a father active in their lives never went away. So, I married my best friend. He understood my fears regarding that fickle emotion and knew that I didn’t think my hardened heart capable of ever loving him in that way. After all, I was my father’s daughter. He assured me it was a man’s job to love his wife, respect was all he asked of me. I had always been able to trust him; he came from a good family, and as long he understood the risks, I didn’t see why I shouldn’t marry. Long story short, his consistent adoration, when I didn’t deserve it, helped me let go of the unforgiveness that kept me from trusting God. I realized true love was unconditional. Even when we fail one another. Forgiving my father, softened my stony heart and I received all that God had for me. With a heart of flesh, I was able to receive the gift of love my husband had offered for years. In return, I surrendered my heart and fell madly in love with my best friend. Now I tell everyone, “My husband loved me to Jesus.”
Considering my unique learning experience, I understood that I wanted to write contemporary love stories to help (X) black church ladies who read romance, (Y) to identify their soul wounds and walk in forgiveness (Z) so they can choose to experiencing the love they read about.
Discovering my XYZ changed my writing life. It gave me purpose, especially considering how arduous the writing journey can be. When I looked at a market saturated with so many good writers, numerous stories in an already crowded genre, and wanted to quit, I remembered who I was helping and persisted in learning the craft. The black church ladies needed my stories of hope.
When I wanted to compare my limitations to the strengths of other authors and give up, I remembered my own soul wounds. I would’ve missed out on the greatest love affair of all times if I hadn’t had an example of what love looked like. That’s what my stories do. Oh, the struggle I had finding Christian Romance that resembled the culture I had been raised in. And if I wanted the Christian content to be more than the mention of a church or the sinful pastor, I had to really search. The black church ladies were depending on me to fill the shelves, so they’d have books to buy when they needed to be reminded of the love they wanted to experience.
Understanding my message helped me become the best version of me. It gave me author confidence whether I just wrote “The End,” before publication, or between book deals. If I’m not writing about the power of forgiveness and love, I’m speaking about it or posting content on social media. I can’t keep the truth to myself when knowing the message has the power to help another woman experience the joy I found.
Thinking on my latest pitch to an editor, there was no hesitation when asked what I write, who my target audience is, or if I have a social media presence. With an authority I told her, “I write African American Contemporary love stories to help (X) black church ladies who read Christian Romance, (Y) to identify their soul wounds and walk in forgiveness (Z) so they can choose to experience the love they read about.” She asked if I had a proposal ready and gave instructions to have my agent contact her.
So, I ask you. Can you clarify your focus? Then, fill in the blanks and prove it.
I help (X – Who) accomplish (Y – What) so they can do (Z – the action).
As the teenaged pastor’s daughter of New Hope Church, Sharonda Peterson knew finding comfort in Carl’s arms was a mistake. But how could the only night she ever felt beautiful be wrong?
When Carl leaves town to pursue an acting and singing career, Sharonda relegates herself to a life of church service–and solitude–rather than face the pain now associated with that one night.
Carl Ray Everhart has been caught up in the fast pace of fame … and female adoration. But a near-death experience has him questioning everything and vowing to set things straight … starting with the love that got away.
When Carl returns home to sere as the worship leader at New Hope, Sharonda finds that it takes every ounce of her resolve to resist his pursuits … not to mention memories that threaten to overturn the delicate balance she’s created. Can she finally surrender the one thing she’s tried all these years to protect: her heart?
Author and speaker, Joy K. Massenburge, crafts the love stories of pastors and their kids. She was born the sixth child of a pastor. She married a football player turned pastor…they raised pastor’s kids; a son and two daughters.
Her contemporary romance debut novel “A Heart Surrendered” is a top-seller. She is also the audio voice of Beatrice “Mama B” Jackson in author, Michelle Stimpson’s Mama B Book series. When she is not writing or recording, she is speaking at retreats and conferences. Believing it is better to give than receive, she serves as American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW East Texas Writers) chapter’s President.
If ever you visit Tyler, Texas, you can find her curled up on her back-porch swing reading a good book with her four grandchildren, caretaking for her donkey and a dog, or filling her five-acre country home with fifty-plus people for a Blue Bell ice cream party.