1. WHY DO YOU NEED TO AUTHOR A BOOK?
Books complement your ministry efforts
If you lead in one capacity or the other, authoring a book can go a long way to complement your efforts. You can author a book that will have sufficient information to help your group or Christian community. For instance, if you taught a series and you want them to keep growing in the things they have been taught, you can author a book that will help them achieve that.
Books create an avenue to reach more people with the word
Books create an avenue to reach more people with the word of God. Whether your book is soft or hardcopy, it can reach more people. Many people can purchase your book online and you can print several copies of your book and get them into people’s hands and libraries. The result of more people getting to read your book is a wider reach with the word of God, which has the capacity to transform lives.
Avenue to make an impact through information
Authoring a book is a great way to directly influence other lives with the transformational knowledge that has impacted your life. Your knowledge and experiences are priceless and they can help to shape the decisions and paths of other people. Think about the change that your book can make in the lives of other people and let this encourage you to write your book.
Creates opportunities for mentorship and relationships
Your book can connect with other people in their journeys. Authoring provides a great opportunity to connect with your readers, build a relationship with them and mentor them in a personal way. This will help to increase the quality of your influence and impact on them.
Opportunity to profit
Christian authoring can open up an opportunity to profit. You can earn as an author from the sales of your book whether online or offline. Your motivation for writing should not be to make money. Rather, it should be to make a gospel impact in people’s lives. However, God specializes in prospering through the work of the hands of His children and He teaches us to make a profit. Trust the Lord to guide your heart in the process of earning through Christian authoring. You can also learn more about this in the chapter on earning as a Christian author.
2. WHERE TO GET CONTENT FOR YOUR BOOK
WhatsApp teachings
If you lead a WhatsApp group community and you regularly hold meetings where you teach the word, you already have a minefield for your book. All you need to do is to compile them, edit them and examine them to see if the teachings are related such that they could fit as chapters for a book.
Devotional writings
Your personal notes during your quiet times and in meetings can be a great source of content for your book. This works best for devotional books.
Church Ministrations
If you have the privilege of teaching and preaching in your local church, you can gather all your teaching outlines and compile them. You can develop your sermon notes by elaborating on the points you have written. You can make related sermons to form the chapters of your book.
Transcribing audios and videos
If you run a podcast, use WhatsApp voice notes or make videos to share God’s word with people, they could be transcribed and they could form content for your book.
Blog/Social media posts
Christian writers who post a lot of gospel text content on their blogs, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram already have a source of content for their Christian books. All that is needed to be done is to check for related content, build on them (add more content) and you’re on the right pedestal to becoming a published author!
3. HOW TO GET YOUR BOOK PUBLISHED ASAP
Get information
Many prospective authors have a great desire to write and publish their books but they don’t have enough information about the process of publishing and that makes them keep postponing. Knowing what exactly to do to get published will help you to get published faster. You can have access to information by attending webinars and purchasing books that address this.
Work with a timeline
The Bible says that for everything there is a time. In order to get your book published in good time, you need to set a timeline. There are steps involved in publishing. You can allocate timeframes for the accomplishment of the things involved in each of these steps. The basic part is the process of writing your book. Allocate a timeline for the writing of each chapter of the book. You can also get an accountability partner to walk this process with you.
Work with a publishing agency
Working with a publishing agency is a great step to getting published. Publishing agencies will guide you through the process of getting you published as an author. They will also work with specific timelines to ensure that your book is ready in good time.
4. STEPS INVOLVED IN PUBLISHING A CHRISTIAN BOOK
Writing your book
This is the basic step in publishing your book. It involves selecting a book idea. You need to determine what the major thrust of the book will be. The major thrust of the book will form the basis of its title and subtitle. It will also determine what the content will be. Your content involves the chapters and subchapters of your book.
Before embarking on your writing project, trust the Lord for direction on what the focus and content should be. After settling on what to write about, consult widely to know the relevant information to write in your book.
Afterward, set yourself to begin the actual writing by having a good writing environment and working with a timeline.
Editing and proofreading
When you have completed writing your book, you need to consult the services of an editor. Editors will help you examine your manuscript and make necessary corrections to it. Your work could require a full rewrite, developmental editing, copy editing or proofreading.
They will check the doctrinal accuracy, flow of sentences, grammatical correctness, spelling accuracy, punctuation, etc. You need to consider this if you want to turn out a highly valuable resource.
Book cover design
Having a great book cover design is a good idea. To many people, the beauty and appropriateness of a book cover design are directly proportional to the value of the book.
This is the reason organisations invest in branding and public perception. Invest some amount in getting a befitting cover design for your book.
Book formatting
Furthermore, you need to format your book. This refers to arranging the texts in your book so that they are in a very readable format. Formatting your book will make it print-ready.
International Standard Book Number
This refers to the International Standard Book Number. The ISBN of your book is its identity. Every book deserves to have one. This is one of the things that differentiates it from any other book on the globe. It is also a viable way of protecting your book as your intellectual property. Those living in Nigeria can get their ISBNs by visiting the nearest national library to them or applying online via: nln.gov.ng.
Uploading your book on Online Publishing sites
When you’re all set with your book, you can publish your book by uploading it to sites like Amazon KDP, Lulu and Gumroad.
These platforms will require all necessary information and documents about you and your book. Such information includes the name of the author(s), cover design, category, price, payment information, format, etc.
Printing
More than having your book online, you can also get it printed. From experience, there are still several people who prefer to have a physical copy of a book. And their reasons are very valid. This is the reason you should consider having your book in print.
5. HOW TO EARN AS A CHRISTIAN AUTHOR
Online publishing
Publishing your book online is a great way to earn as a Christian author. Online publishing sites are marketplaces where your book(s) can be seen. You can also make efforts to share the links to your book to make it discoverable by potential buyers.
Online publishing sites have payment methods for authors. You can take this step and begin earning income.
Book introduction/launching
Introducing your book in a public gathering (online/offline) can be a great way to raise awareness about your book to potential buyers. Deciding to work with a launch team will make your launch more successful and productive.
A book launch allows you to get people aware of your book and its value. And once the value is perceived, people will find it easy to purchase and read it.
You can sell several copies of your book during a book launch at a discount and earn.
Digital/traditional marketing
To make sales as a Christian author, you need to get your book in front of your prospective buyers. This will require getting across to pastors, going to Christian bookstores and being at book fairs. You stand a chance of getting your books sold via these platforms.
You can also engage in marketing your books digitally. You can engage digital platforms such as social media marketing, content marketing and email marketing to promote your eBook or physical book.
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