Non-Fiction Authors Nancy Cobb and Connie Grigsby ~ Interviewed

Cobb and Grigsby have co-authored three books, including the best-selling How to Get Your Husband to Talk to You. Both are popular speakers and the hosts of a local weekly radio program called Lifewalk. They have appeared on The 700 Club and have been repeat guests on Family Life Today and Revive Our Hearts. They have a new website.

Kelly's note: I had the opportunity to meet Nancy Cobb for coffee in Omaha. We had a delightful conversation and I've taken the liberty of including her comments throughout the interview below. Much of what is said are not direct quotes. I have a review of "Listen" at Amazon (click on the book cover, or here.)

Quirky fact: Cobb's and Grigsby's previous titles were nominated for awards and they have the unique distinction of being edged out by Kay Arthur and the Dali Lama.

Share a bit about your writing journey.

Connie: I attended a class taught by Nancy in 1996. A few weeks later, I asked to meet her for coffee as I was trying to figure out what God wanted me to do at that point in my life. My 3 daughters were getting older and I had more time... We met for coffee, she suggested we put her teaching material into a book form, and off we went!

Nancy: We've been writing together now for ten years. We had the idea and we went to a bookstore and got a book on how to write. Then we got a book on publishing and it said to write a query letter, so we did that. We sent it to four publishers, and we picked those four from the companies that published books we liked. Two weeks later we got a call from a vice-president of Multnomah. I still have his voice message and I resave it every hundred days. He asked for a chapter but none of the chapters were written so we had to write it before we sent it.

Before getting together, Connie had never taught adults before and now we have a segment on a radio program and an active speaking ministry. I do not have a college education but started a journey to finding Jesus by sitting under a teacher who then groomed me to take over when she was called elsewhere. When I took over it took me fifty hours a week to put together the hour lesson.

What came first for you -- the platform or the book(s) and how did the two mesh?

Connie: Nancy was teaching originally, and I was in her first class. We decided to put the material into book form. Once our first book was published, we had a platform for teaching and speaking to women's groups, which we've done a considerable amount of.

Nancy: Connie was going to take a class on parenting teens, but took my class instead. She sought me out for an individual conversation and after we set up a time, I received an impression that she would help me write books. As she and I talked she shared that was looking for purpose in her life. Through prayer and confirmation involving God giving Connie a specific verse, things fell into place.

How would you sum up your platform, expertise or message?

Connie: Do you know your job description as a wife? There is one, and it was written by God Himself. Every woman is 100% responsible before God to carry out this job description regardless of what her husband is or isn't doing. If you want to find fulfillment as a wife and as a woman, you must get into God's Word and you do what it says. That's where ultimate satisfaction and joy are found.

Nancy: I can share from my own experience that God uses failures. My marriage was failing and I can sympathize with those who are in that situation. I've had that feeling or I've experienced that and God uses it to help others.

What's more important to your platform education or personal experience? Why?

Connie: Both. The education is important as far as knowing what God's Word says about marriage, and the experience is important because this is how women relate to us, and feel like "we've been there," right along with them.

How does your message or your book(s) meet a need that others do not?

Connie: It has much more of a breakdown in the differences in men and women, and just what it is that so often gets women off-track in their marriages.

Does your passion reside with your message? If yes, spout a bit, if not, what is it you aren't writing but want to?

Connie: Yes, this is the area of life where we've both struggled, and so our passion is to help other women in their struggles and help them see the way to happy, fulfilled marriages, which is what we all want but so few of us understand what it takes to get there. I also have a passion to write about "life"--in an Erma Bombeck style of writing.

Nancy: Submission to my husband to glorify God. I have seen divine results as eternity hung in the balance. Twenty-three years of marriage that didn't go well followed by the twenty-five under God's control gave me years to study my husband. I was given the opportunity to ask my husband if he was sure he'd be in heaven as he fought the cancer that ended his life just a week later. Because I had followed God's instructions, my husband was able and willing to listen to me and ended up accepting Christ as his Savior. Is there a more important message than that?

What are your major marketing strategies?

Connie: We do dozens of interviews scheduled through The B&B Media Group, and also do some speaking.

Nancy: We have a weekly segment on KGBI radio called Lifewalk.

What marketing have you done in the past that has been most effective and what do hope to try in the future?

Connie: We did 2 weeks on Family Life Today and Nancy Leigh deMoss, both of which were highly effective. We were also on the 700 Club, which was a great experience. re: the future marketing, we're leaving that to our publisher and B&B! Our lives are so packed that we don't have a lot of "down" time to go out on our own and promote the book.

What helped you the most when attempting to clarify your call or platform?

Connie: To realize that this isn't the Cobb or Grigsby way of doing things, but God's way. It is the only way to true fulfillment, peace, and joy... Also, to realize that what catches most women is that they live by their feelings, and to address that and try to re-wire that part of their brains...

Any books or classes that you'd suggest to other writers?

Connie: How to Write a Successful Query Letter was of great benefit to us.

What career would you pursue if you couldn't write or speak?

Connie: I am an occupational therapist by degree, and enjoy working with people.

Parting words?

Connie: Both of us were at very low places in our marriages at one point or another. It was when we embraced God's Word for our lives and for our marriages, that things began to change... So often, women think that their husbands are the problem and that the husbands need to change. However, every time I look inward, God shows me an area within myself that needs refined, and as I begin to work on that, my eyes go off of my husband, on to God, and my entire mindset is usually changed.