The best-selling novelist, often called “America’s favorite inspirational storyteller,” says as a young writer, she received 30 rejection letters before a publisher took a chance and hired her. Karen Kingsbury’s books have sold over 25 million copies and have been made into multiple television series and movies, including her latest one, “Thousand Tomorrows,” starring Rose Reid and Colin Ford.

However, Kingsbury told Christian Headlines that in the mid-1990s, she had issues finding a publisher for her first faith-based inspirational book, “Where Yesterday Lives.” Kingsbury was a crime book author and former journalist at the time. She said, “I had done four true crime books. I had written for the L.A. Times; I was a sports writer and then a crime writer. And so I wrote crime books, and everyone loved them. And they were received very well, but I didn’t want to write that.”

When Kingsbury read Francine Rivers’ book, “Redeeming Love,” she felt led by God to stop writing crime novels and start writing Christian inspirational stories. Kingsbury continued, “So I wrote my first inspirational novel, ‘Where Yesterday Lives.’ My agent dropped me. He said, ‘Karen, you were going to be a star. Why do you want to do this other stuff?’ You know, why would you want that? He dropped me, and I had to kind of be on my own.”

Kingsbury took “Where Yesterday Lives” to dozens of publishers, but unfortunately, she received 30 rejection letters, taking about a year to find an interested publisher. Kingsbury said, “The first rejection letters kind of surprised me. But it was a secular publisher. And they were like, ‘We do nonfiction crime, and you’re wanting us to look at fiction inspirational. We just don’t do it.’”

Kingsbury added, “A woman at another publisher said, “I loved it – it made me laugh, made me cry. But I don’t have a place for it. We don’t publish” inspirational fiction. According to Kingsbury, faith-based inspirational fiction didn’t truly exist back then. Still, at the one-year mark, things started to turn around for Kingsbury.

She told Christian Headlines, “And finally, at the one-year mark, I got a call back from a publisher at Multnomah who said, ‘Please tell me it’s available. And please tell me you have more because we want to sign you to a three-book deal.’”

Multnomah published “Where Yesterday Lives” in 1997. She has written more than 100 books – some of them being turned into Hallmark movies. Kingsbury, who teaches at Liberty University, said she often recounts her story to young writers, telling them, “Stay with it until God closes the door. Because it’s worth it. You don’t know what’s going to be right around that next corner.”

God must’ve had a reason for Kingsbury’s 30 rejection letters. Sometimes, it takes being rejected dozens of times until you find the perfect fit. For Kingsbury, God had a plan for her life and knew those other publishers wouldn’t be a good fit. Trust in His plan and know that your breakthrough will come when the time is right.