A Christmas Story: The Fourth King. They said it was too short! by Kim Michael
Every publisher I sent the Fourth King to said it was too short to be a novel and too long to be a short story!
So that is how it was back in 2012 when I wrote the story of The Fourth King. At the time it was only meant to be a Christmas gift for my grand babies. But after some friends read it and encouraged me to publish it, I began to see just how limited publishers views could be. No wonder the publishing world is in trouble.
Up to that point I had published a number of articles for magazines and special publications nationally, but never a short book. And like most beginning writers I naively sent out letter after letter for them to all come back with the same response--too short for a book--too long for a short story.
Finally I decided to try the waters myself. See if the story had relevance with readers. I put it out on a one of those “my space” type sites. I didn’t charge anything for it. To my surprise, without doing any kind of promotion, within the first three days it had over five hundred and sixty reads. I began getting amazing emails on how the story had touched people’s lives. Within a month it was over two thousand.
These are just a few of the responses:
“Thank you so very much for this story. You touched my soul and my heart. I cannot stop crying because this is so very beautiful. It is like music that is touching my heart deep inside. Thank you for blessing me.
Merry Christmas , frohe Weihnachten” SJ
“Wow....that is a great story...I love the way you combined the Biblical events of Jesus' birth with a very interesting and entertaining story about how Santa became Santa. You need to publish this one for sure...I loved it....
Keith Sargent
Nationally Known Entertainer
“Terrific story! Had to wipe my eyes a few times even though I knew what the ending would be. You will touch many people with this.
Pharaoh Cain, author
Django’s TuneTown Shuffle”
“This is Wonderful. I'd love to buy this in a book sometime to give as gifts to my Children and Grandchildren, and my friends children etc., My husband Harold read it out loud and was so moved by it, he may read it in church. Even though it is long, our preacher wants him to.”
Diane S
“I do not claim to be a literary critic but as a lay person, I truly enjoyed_-The Fourth King. The concept of mixing the biblical story of Christ's birth, the three wise men and the northern folk story of St. Nicolas was ingenious. Your descriptions of King Nicholai's travels were so believable that I traveled south with him. "The Fourth King" will become a family tradition. Bless you at this Christmas season and always.”
Tina Dancey
This is marvelous. It is like a parable inside a parable. For those of us who really believe in keeping the Spirit of St. Nicholas (Santa Claus) alive and kicking, it has a profound meaning. It likewise has deep and wonderful meaning for me. This needs to be published on a large scale.
Julia Rogers
I eventually pulled The Fourth King from the site when I found out they were forcing people to become members and it sat for nearly three years. Still, people kept asking about it.
Up to that point I had published a number of articles for magazines and special publications nationally, but never a short book. And like most beginning writers I naively sent out letter after letter for them to all come back with the same response--too short for a book--too long for a short story.
Finally I decided to try the waters myself. See if the story had relevance with readers. I put it out on a one of those “my space” type sites. I didn’t charge anything for it. To my surprise, without doing any kind of promotion, within the first three days it had over five hundred and sixty reads. I began getting amazing emails on how the story had touched people’s lives. Within a month it was over two thousand.
These are just a few of the responses:
“Thank you so very much for this story. You touched my soul and my heart. I cannot stop crying because this is so very beautiful. It is like music that is touching my heart deep inside. Thank you for blessing me.
Merry Christmas , frohe Weihnachten” SJ
“Wow....that is a great story...I love the way you combined the Biblical events of Jesus' birth with a very interesting and entertaining story about how Santa became Santa. You need to publish this one for sure...I loved it....
Keith Sargent
Nationally Known Entertainer
“Terrific story! Had to wipe my eyes a few times even though I knew what the ending would be. You will touch many people with this.
Pharaoh Cain, author
Django’s TuneTown Shuffle”
“This is Wonderful. I'd love to buy this in a book sometime to give as gifts to my Children and Grandchildren, and my friends children etc., My husband Harold read it out loud and was so moved by it, he may read it in church. Even though it is long, our preacher wants him to.”
Diane S
“I do not claim to be a literary critic but as a lay person, I truly enjoyed_-The Fourth King. The concept of mixing the biblical story of Christ's birth, the three wise men and the northern folk story of St. Nicolas was ingenious. Your descriptions of King Nicholai's travels were so believable that I traveled south with him. "The Fourth King" will become a family tradition. Bless you at this Christmas season and always.”
Tina Dancey
This is marvelous. It is like a parable inside a parable. For those of us who really believe in keeping the Spirit of St. Nicholas (Santa Claus) alive and kicking, it has a profound meaning. It likewise has deep and wonderful meaning for me. This needs to be published on a large scale.
Julia Rogers
I eventually pulled The Fourth King from the site when I found out they were forcing people to become members and it sat for nearly three years. Still, people kept asking about it.
After I had just put up my blog site a friend recommended I
read Michael Hyatt’s book on “Getting Noticed in a Noisy World”. In it one of his recommendations was to write
short pieces and sell them as a means to fund the site. My first thought was I had nothing. Then I remembered my Christmas story.
Unlike several years before the industry was changing and authors were beginning to publish short books. It was not as easy as I though and it took me several months to finish the cover artwork and format the book for E-Publication, but I did it.
Unlike several years before the industry was changing and authors were beginning to publish short books. It was not as easy as I though and it took me several months to finish the cover artwork and format the book for E-Publication, but I did it.
Still the cover needed something else. The book combined Norse Legend, with the
birth of Christ and the story of the three wise me. If the title was to be The Fourth King, who in
the story was a Norse King, I needed his picture on the cover. I tried to find a suitable picture, but never
was really happy with any I found. I
needed someone that looked like a Norse King.
Then one day I noticed my neighbor mowing his yard. Long white hair and beard, and I thought…
there’s my king. The guy who is the King
on my cover is actually my next-door neighbor.
Shortly after I finally released “A Christmas Story: The Fourth King, it was reviewed by a
local publisher, Sam Shuler CEO of Duck River Press, who had this to say:
“What Kim
Michael is pioneering is a new genre, if you will. Short enough that it
can be read and reread many times, and each time the experience will leave you
wanting to revisit it again and again.
For anyone who has ever
felt compromised by celebrating the traditions of Christmas while trying to
hold to the true meaning of the day, “The Fourth King” will touch your heart in
ways that no other Christmas story has.
And perhaps... it is not just a story,
but the beginning of a legend. I will leave that for you to decide.”
As with any Amazon Book starting out, it is buried in pages of search engine entries, but as The Fourth King becomes known it will move up. My hope is that all of my friends will help in this endeavor, as a means to fund my future endeavors. If you can leave a review for future readers, that would be great as well.
I hope you enjoy this new version of A Christmas Story: The Fourth King, and you and your family enjoy it for years to come.
KM
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