By Jenny Fulton

On April 16, 2024, Foundations Book Publishing, a small press traditional publisher, released Striving for Unity: a Study on 1 Corinthians.

This is my first traditionally published book. I’d never written a Bible study before, am not a big name with a massive social media following, didn’t have a literary agent for it, and only submitted it to one publisher. 

In the first three days after its release, it reached the #1 spot in three categories and ranked as a Best Seller in two of those.

By all human, earthly factors, this book shouldn’t exist.

Unrelenting Curiosity

March 2020: I didn’t set out to write and publish a Bible study. I merely wanted to satisfy a persistent spiritual itch urging me to study 1 Corinthians. I’d heard a previous pastor adamantly and frequently dismiss the book as “a letter to a disobedient church.” His perspective was that we only needed to study and apply its lessons if we were likewise acknowledging ourselves to be disobedient.

But I sensed there was more. I’d read the book before and started reading it again. Everything in my spirit screamed it contained some vitally important lessons. I needed to know what those were. To do that, I needed to study the book as deeply as I possibly could.

I didn’t know I would discover so much about unity, love, and the necessity of believers working together in their God-given differences.

An Unexpected Opportunity

April 2020: When everything in Albuquerque was shutting down due to Covid, including the women’s Bible study I’d been attending, a woman on social media posted in a writer’s group that she was looking for women to lead Bible studies on a new platform.

I realized this would be a great opportunity to keep me motivated and on track with my personal study. So, I volunteered. For the next four and a half months, I studied, developed questions for the group, and wrote up my findings to share with them. I began the online study in May and posted one chapter a week.

Unexpected Time

May 2020: I still don’t know how I found time to study and write at that pace. I have no doubt I couldn’t have done so without God’s help. My three kids were home full time – a seven, three, and one year old. School and every childcare possibility had come to an abrupt halt. I woke up at 5 to write and squeezed in time during afternoon naptime/quiet time. I prayed and thought about what I was learning while I took care of my kids and worked around the house.

Unclear Direction

September 2020: Since I was already putting forth so much effort for this study, I figured I might as well reformat my materials into chapters for a book Bible study. I reached out to my critique partner, Jennifer Slattery, and asked her to give me feedback on each one.

I had no idea what, if anything, I was going to do with this manuscript. But I knew I didn’t want to self-publish it. In my spirit I had the strong impression it had been written for someone else to publish. My logical mind concurred and reasoned it needed the backing of a traditional publisher. However, given my lack of followers and connections, I doubted the success of such a pursuit.

So, while having no vision for what I wanted the printed version to look like, no clear idea of who to submit to, and my limited reality-check human understanding screaming that the most likely outcome was this book would go nowhere, I continued to revise the manuscript to the best of my ability, acting as though I expected it to be published.

An Unplanned Tweet

March 2021: Allow me to introduce you to Twitter Pitch Events. These one day occasions offer writers the opportunity to pitch their manuscripts to publishers and literary agents. You’re generally allowed to post three Tweets for each book in a bid to be seen. If someone in the publishing industry is interested, they “like” your post. This serves as an invitation for you to submit your work for their consideration. There are general Pitch Events for all genres and genre specific events.

March 25: #FaithPitch held what I would later learn was its final Twitter event. I didn’t plan on participating since I was still working with Jennifer to fine tune my study. Instead, I was scrolling through posts to support other authors by retweeting their pitches and commenting on them to help them gain greater exposure and thus a greater chance to be published.

Halfway through the afternoon, with only a few hours of the event remaining, I had an idea for a way to pitch my Bible study. The impulse was so strong that I immediately typed it out on my phone, checked it once for spelling errors, and hit “Post.” It was the only pitch I submitted. One pitch for one book in a massive sea of writers desperately hoping and praying to stand out and get chosen.

Minutes later, that one pitch was “liked” by Foundations Book Publishing.

I later learned their representative had logged in right around the time I pitched my study and that it was one of the first ones she read.

An Incredible Response

April 1, 2021: I followed Foundations’ submissions instructions, sending them a Query letter and a document with the first 30 pages and last chapter of my study.

April 9: The Publisher Responded:

Hi, Jenny! You’re who I’ve been waiting for. Yes, I want this Bible study…

If you weren’t aware of my signature, you will see I’m a huge fan of 1Corinthians. I was thrilled with the level of study you take readers on. Thank you for following God’s leading in delving into this book and helping others learn what are so useful in this day and age. We are in such turmoil. I can only pray this work will impact enough people to make a difference. Well done!

I talked with the publisher a couple times over the next two weeks, completed their suggested  edits, and reached out to a few of their authors to ask about their experiences.

April 25: Foundations Book Publishing officially offered me a publishing contract for Striving for Unity: a Study on 1 Corinthians.

May 10: I signed my first traditional publishing contract.

June 8: I finished revising my manuscript based on Jennifer’s feedback and sent the entire work to my publisher.

The next three years consisted of a lot of editing and even more waiting. I continued to pray about this book, sometimes wishing it would be published faster and sometimes wondering what I was thinking to study and publicize my understanding of a book with so many controversial passages.

Regardless of what happens with this book in the future and where God leads me next in my publishing journey, I can’t deny that this Bible study only exists because of God’s guidance, goodness, and power.

Striving for Unity: a Study on 1 Corinthians, can be found at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, BookBub, Goodreads, and other sites.