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How-To
Write, Publish & SellYour Christian Book
By Akili Kumasi
GIL PUBLICATIONS
www.PublishChristianBooks.com(718) 386-6434
P. O. Box 80275, Brooklyn, NY [email protected]
2011, 2010 Akili Kumasi, God Is Love Ministries, GIL Publications
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How to Write, Publish and Sell Your Christian Book www.PublishChristianBooks.com
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Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................ 3Purpose of this Book .............................................. 4
My Testimony .............................................................. 6How To Write A Christian Book ....................................... 9
What to Write About .............................................. 9Focus on Writing/Develop a Habit .......................... 11How to Get the Words on Paper............................. 11Organize Your Work............................................. 13Eliminate Obstacles to Writing............................... 14
How to Publish Your Christian Book............................... 16Publishing Houses ............................................... 17
Book Proposal.............................................. 19Literary Agent.............................................. 20
Publishing Services .............................................. 21
How Do Publishing Services Work?.................. 22Self-Publishing.................................................... 26
Pre-Press .................................................... 26Printing....................................................... 31
How to Sell Your Christian Book.................................... 34Who Is Going to Sell Your Book?............................ 34Three Categories for Marketing Your Book............... 35
In-Person.................................................... 36Traditional/Written ....................................... 37Electronic/On-Line ........................................ 37
Marketing Materials ............................................. 38
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Call to Action ............................................................. 41Make a Real Commitment .................................. 41Articles to Read................................................... 43Set a Date to Finish Your Book and See It In Print .... 43
Christian Author Publishing Service ............................... 44A Christian Authors Testimonial ............................ 48Manuscript Preparation......................................... 49Book Production and Printing................................. 49Book Registrations............................................... 50Book Marketing Services ...................................... 50Other Services .................................................... 50
Further Reading ......................................................... 52Books................................................................ 52Websites............................................................ 52
Glossary of Terms ...................................................... 54Final Comments ......................................................... 58
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Introduction
The longer I live the more I realize that:
Whatsoever ye do,do all to the glory of God.
(1 Corinthians 10:31 KJV)
The is the first point that I wanted to make in this book
on How To Write, Publish and Sell Your Christian Book.
Whatever we do - we should do it for the Glory of God. If
what we do is not for Gods glory then it is done in vain.
The second point that needs to be made is that
Christian Authors have a particular responsibility to write
what God has revealed to them so that others can read it
and benefit from it. When we do this, then God does get the
Glory!
With those two points in mind, the material herein is
presented with a Christian audience in mind. But, even if
you are not a Christian or you just dont agree, thats okay
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too. You can use the information herein to help you write,
publish and sell your book.
Purpose of this Book
The purpose of this book is twofold: (1) to educate
potential and present Christian authors about the publishing
industry and what it takes to get their Christian books
written, published and sold; and (2) to introduce you to our
Publishing Ministry and our Christian Author Publishing
Service.
This book will present information about the publishing
process, from book idea to the finished product to book
sales. Most of the presentation is simply an introduction or
overview. Much more detail can be gained from reading the
articles on our website www.PublishChristianBooks.com or
from the many books available on the topic. The principles
herein apply for authors of non-fiction, fiction and poetry.
Since my books are all non-fiction (so far), it is from that
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perspective that I write. However, I have worked with
authors of all types of books and the material herein is
completely applicable.
All of the books and articles listed in the section on
Further Reading at the back of this book can be found on our
website as well.
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My Testimony
My name is Akili Kumasi and for many years I dreamed
of having my books published. I wrote manuscripts and
then submitted them to several publishers, only to be
rejected if I got an answer at all.
After that, I went to literary agents who were polite
but they were not interested in representing my work.
Next, I tried self-publishing my books by duplicating
them in a copy machine, spiral binding them and selling
them one-by-one.
I even looked into vanity and subsidy publishers where
you pay to have your book published. All of them had
publishing packages that I could not afford and most of
them were only going to give me one copy of my own book
unless I paid much more money.
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After too many years of un-fulfilled publishing goals, I
had had enough. I knew God had called me (and equipped
me) to have a publishing ministry, so
in 2003 I started GIL PUBLICATIONS
(the publishing arm of the God Is
Love Ministries) to publish my own
books.
Now I have over 14 of my own books published and I
operate www.PublishChristianBooks.com to help other
Christian authors get their books published.
PublishChristianBooks.com has a low-cost Christian
Author Publishing Service for those Christian authors who
are ready to see the fruits of their hard work published in a
real book.
If you want to get your Christian book published let
me help you. My service is individualized and it is
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inexpensive! You will not only get your book published
and sold - you will get a website as well.
I hope that the information in this book is helpful for
you and whether you use my service or not, I pray that God
will make a way for you to publish your Christian book as He
has so deemed.
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How To Write A Christian Book
The first step in the process of getting your book
published is to write the book. This section gives some
valuable suggestions on how to write your book that can be
helpful to novice writers as well as experienced writers.
What to Write About
Follow your passion. What does God speak to you
about? The best thing to write about is something that you
have a passion for or are enthusiastic about as well as
knowledgeable about.
If you have a topic that you think about all the time -
then that is your passion. What does God speak to you
about it? What do you like researching about it? What do
you like talking about it? That is your passion and as such
you already have a motivation to get you started.
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This motivation and inspiration (that you already have)
is invaluable to getting your book written because it means
you are driven or you have a vision to communicate
something that God has given you. Use that motivation and
inspiration to propel you toward finishing your book.
And keep in mind what God has said about VISION:
Where there is no vision,the people perish.
(Proverbs 29:19 KJV)
Write the vision,and make it plain upon tables,
that he may run that readeth it.(Habbakuk 22 KJV)
For a more detailed discussion on the issue of having
and writing about your vision, please see my article, Write
the Vision: An Open Letter to Christian Authorson my
website, www.PublishChristianbooks.com.
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Focus on Writing/Develop a Habit
Commit to writing a minimum amount each and every
day. I find that ONE-PAGE-A-DAY is a good place to start
(five, six or seven days a week). Or it could be one-idea-a-
day or one-section-a-day. Whatever you choose stick to
it. You will see results in a relatively short amount of time.
If you do not write regularly, it is easy to put the work
off. Delay after delay can lead to abandonment of the
writing project altogether.
How to Get the Words on Paper
Some people have problems writing. I am one of
them. Often it feels like I am trying to squeeze the words
out of my pen. At other times, I have a real problem writing
because I dont think that what comes out is good enough or
I am too worried about saying it right or with the proper
punctuation and grammar.
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I have learned however, that none of those things are
important. What I need to do is just get my idea down on
paper no matter how it looks or how it sounds and then I
can pretty it up later. Here are a few tactics that I use that
work well!
Brainstorm. Just write whatever comes to your mind
and then sort it out later. This way, you get to do what I
call a data-dump. That is, get the idea out of your head and
onto the paper. Dont be concerned how it looks or sounds
just write it and fix it or tweak it
later.
Carry a pen and paper with you
at all times and use them. If you are like a lot of people
who really desire to write a book then ideas come to you all
the time. WRITE THEM DOWN! Do not let a good idea go to
waste. When you think of it write it down. Often times
when ideas come to you, it is really the Holy Spirit talking to
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you about that idea. When God is revealing something to
you you have to write it down or you might lose it!
Use a tape recorder. Whenever an idea comes to you
that you would like to put into your book, speak it into a
tape recorder. Then, transcribe it to a computer later. This
can be very helpful when you are driving or just talking with
someone (especially over the phone). Notebooks are also
helpful.
Of course if you are preaching, teaching, giving a
presentation, workshop or seminar you should always
record your portion of the event so that you can transcribe it
or have someone else transcribe it for you.
Organize Your Work
Get (and use) a three-ring binder with tabs. Once you
have started writing, put everything
(big or small) into the three-ring
binder even if it is just one idea
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expressed in a single sentence on a big piece of paper.
Get some tabs for your three-ring binder and start
organizing your thoughts, drafts and research into section,
chapters or sub-topics. Dont wait until you have paper all
over the place and you cannot keep track.
Even if you have not written anything, get a binder. It
will motivate you to put something in it. Dont forget to
print your Internet research and put that into the binder as
well.
Eliminate Obstacles to Writing
Commit to writing a minimum amount each and every
day. Oh, did I say this one already? Obviously, it bears
repeating. This is the single most important aspect of
writing CONSTANT PROGRESS. A friend of mine once told
me a profound truth, Writers write! That single statement
helped me get out of a mode of constant procrastination and
into a mode of constant writing. Writers write.
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Please see the article, Writers Write at
www.PublishchristianBooks.com.
Turn off the television (or the Internet). For at least
one hour or more per day or for one
program each day, turn off the
television (or the Internet) so that
you can devote that time to writing.
Remember, Writers write.
Are you a writer? If so, then what do you do?
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How to Publish Your Christian Book
Once you have your book written it will be time to
publish it. You do not have to wait until you have finished
writing your book to start thinking about the publishing
process. The more you think ahead, the better you will be
prepared when the time comes.
There are essentially three avenues to getting
published: publishing houses, publishing services or self-
publishing.1 Below is an introduction to each of these
publishing avenues.
1 The discussion herein is concerned with paperback book and hardcover book publishing. Descriptions of electronic media and E-Booksare not included in this book.
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Publishing Houses
When a publishing house accepts your manuscript to
publish they will in some instances pay you an Advance
(payment up front) for a portion of the anticipated sales.
The publishing house might also pay
you a Royalty(on-going payments of
a percentage of actual sales).
Being published by a publishing
house is obviously how most authors
want to publish their books. But the
reality is that few of us ever get our manuscripts seriously
considered by a publishing house.
To break into the elite ranks of authors who are
published by a publishing house requires at least two
elements (in addition to a well-written and well-documented
book): the publisher has to believe that: (1) there is a
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serious market for the topic of the book, and (2) there is a
serious appeal for you as the author.
Thus, you need to have credibility as an author and a
perceived following (people who know you and/or your
expertise) that will buy your book once it is published. This
is known in some circles as anAuthor-Platform.
Publishing houses have the right to be so demanding
about what they publish because they cover all the expenses
and take all the risks when publishing your book. They do
this with the expectation that everyone will make money
from the venture. If a book fails to sale, the publishing
house is the one who loses money.
Most first-time authors do not have the type of
following and in many instances they also do not have the
necessary credibility as an author to guarantee that the
publishing venture will be profitable. However, if you as an
unknown or first-time author uses the tactics described
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herein then you can begin to develop the author-platform
that will help your work get accepted by a publishing house
in the future.
Book Proposal
Another aspect to getting published by a publishing
house that is often difficult for first-time authors is the work
that is required to develop a solid book
proposal and/or obtain the services of
a literary agent.
A book proposal will spell out at
least the following:
what your book is about, why you as the author are qualified to write the
book, the size of market for the book topic, other books have been written on the topic, and who will buy your book.
For more details and a sample book proposal outline,
please see my article, How To Write A Book Proposal,
at www.PublishChristianBooks.com.
BookProposal
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Literary Agent
Literary agents present authors and their work to the
publishing houses. A literary agent will receive a percentage
of the sales after a book is sold to a publishing house. Since
literary agents sell to publishing house, they use the same
basic criteria used by publishing houses for considering
authors and their work. Thus, many established literary
agents will not seriously consider your book proposal2
without: (a) a market for your topic, and (b) an established
author-platform.
Authors can help to establish themselves as experts in
their fields by publishing a book on their topic through a
publishing service or by self-publishing. This is potentially a
major step to begin developing their author-platform
(credibility and a following) that will entice a publishing
2 Some Literary Agents prefer to first receive a Query Letterfrom theauthor that spells out the nature and scope of the writing projectbefore they will accept a Book Proposal. If you pursue a LiteraryAgent, check his or her website for their preferences before yousubmit anything.
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house or literary agent to give their next manuscript a
serious look in the future.
Publishing Services
Previously, publishing books was the exclusive domain
of large publishing houses that operated large presses and
had huge staffs to meet their needs. However, the
development and proliferation of technology in computers,
the Internet, and in printing over the past few decades has
changed all of that. Now much smaller companies
(publishing services) can perform the same tasks that were
previously restricted to large publishing houses.
Since publishing services can now provide the same
level of product (book quality) to authors, they are able to
offer very valuable fee-based services to authors who would
not normally get their books published. This is very helpful
for authors who previously had to rely solely on being
selected by a publishing house.
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Consequently, any author can get published easily if he
or she has a few thousand dollars to invest in their own book
publishing effort.
How Do Publishing Services Work?
Publishing services provide services in four essentials
categories: pre-press preparation, printing, marketing, and
distribution.
Pre-Press. The pre-press work performed by many
publishing services is their core operation. Pre-press work
involves taking your manuscript and preparing it for printing.
At a minimum this could include: cover design, book interior
layout, copyright page formatting, obtaining an International
Standard Book Number (ISBN), obtaining a barcode, and
preparation of production-ready files. Other services could
include: editing and proofreading, obtaining copyrights and
more.
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Printing. The printing aspect of many publishing
services is often a secondary service. Thus, when an author
contracts with a publishing service the author generally gets
very few copies of their book in the basic publishing package
(i.e. one to five copies of the book for the author).
For authors this can be a significant drawback - that
many publishing services do not give
you enough books in their basic
publishing packages.
When authors dont get books to
sell, then how can they recoup the money they invested to
get the book published?
As a result, authors are obliged to purchase additional
printing services so that they will have books that they can
show to others and sell.
Print-On-Demand Digital Publishing. Publishing services
use (or sub-contract to) digital presses. They operate on
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whats called a Print on Demand basis (known as POD).
Thats where the books are printed only when there are
orders for your book.
The cost for printing books on a POD basis is based on
a formula that may or may not mean much profit for the
author. Your profit picture will depend on the retail price of
the book, the number of pages in the book, the number of
photos in the book, the number of books printed at each
printing, the cost of shipping, the wholesale discount, the
warehousing and fulfillment charges and so on.
See more about the pre-press and printing aspects of
the publishing process below under Self-Publishing.
Marketing. The publishing services can be very helpful
to you by establishing a presence for your book with national
wholesalers such as Ingram (and its Christian wing Spring
Arbor) and Baker and Taylor as well as listing you on
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Amazon.com and in Books in Print and other industry
databases.
They also provide essential desktop publishing services
of developing business cards, bookmarks, flyers, brochures,
post cards and the like.
These marketing services are usually separate from -
and in addition to - the basic publishing packages and the
author is charged an additional fee.
Distribution. Distribution general includes warehousing
your printed books, taking orders for your books from
potential customers and packing and shipping books. This is
also known as fulfillment services.
Each of these services can be billed as monthly service
fees with additional per unit charges. For example if you
have warehousing and shipping services you might pay a
monthly fee to have the service available to you on-demand
in addition to a per unit charge each time a book is ordered
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and then shipped to a customer. Each publishing service
has a different fee structure but the formula is essential the
same.
Self-Publishing
In a nutshell, self-publishing means an author will do
(or contract with others to do) everything that the publishing
house or the publishing service would have done to publish
the authors book.
Lets examine (or re-examine) the publishing process:
earlier we noted that publishing services provide services in
four essentials categories: pre-press preparation, printing,
marketing, and distribution.
But, let us now look more carefully at the pre-press and
printing aspects of the publishing process:
Pre-Press
Earlier, when I described the services of the publishing
services we listed the most critical elements in the pre-press
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process as: book layout, cover design, ISBN, barcode, and
preparation of production-ready files. These are the
minimum number of things that has to be done to your
manuscript to prepare it for printing.
You can do all of these yourself or contract with a
service or individual who can do each of them for you. Each
is described in further detail below:
Book Layout. The manuscript needs to be formatted to
a layout that is appropriate for publishing. In a great
number of instances, that will
be 5.5 by 8.5 inch pages or 6x9
pages. Headers, footers, page
numbers, font styles and sizes,
line spacing, indentation,
margins and text color are just some of the formatting
issues to be decided when formatting a book.
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All of the formatting can be done on a word processor
by a skilled operator, but a novice will not be able to do it
without help. There are also a number of other software
programs that can format books such as InDesign or
PageMaker. There are many book design wizards available
on-line for low or no cost. This might work for you if you
have the skill level to download, install and learn how to use
them, not to mention the time.
Cover Design. Designing the front and back cover for
your book is very important. Many times authors have an
idea about what they want to see on the cover of their book,
but it may not have anything to do with the actual content
of the book. For example, your child might be cute and you
might want to dedicate the book to her, but unless she is
recognized in your field of study or the book is about her -
her baby pictures dont belong on the cover of your book.
A book cover should inform readers of the title and
subtitle of the book as well as entice them to want to know
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more about the content of the book. It has to help you sell
the book.
International Standard Book Number (ISBN). ISBNs
are required by the book industry for books to be listed in
any of the industry databases or to be handled by
wholesalers and distributors or purchased by bookstores or
libraries. ISBNs are issued by the Bowker Company and
cannot be avoided if you want your book to be accepted as a
professional product.
You can obtain a series of ISBNs by registering as a
publisher and paying (the last time I checked) about $325
for 10 numbers (the smallest number available). This is
great if you are planning to be a self-published author of
several books. You can also purchase a single ISBN for your
own use for about $100 or so from some publishing services.
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Bar Code. A barcode is required on the back cover of
the book. The barcode is a digital encryption of the ISBN
and the price (price is optional).
This also is an industry standard
and should not be ignored.
Books sold in bookstores or
purchased by libraries must have a bar code of the ISBN.
Without a requisite bar code your book will not even be
considered by bookstores or libraries, not even Amazon.com
will take your book without a bar code.
Production-Ready Files. After the book cover is
completed, and the book interior is formatted to the size and
look desired, the files need to be converted to a production-
ready format. Generally a pdf of high standard will do. If
you have a pdf maker (software) or use an on-line service
(about $10 per file), you can do this yourself.
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Freelancers. There are also many Freelancers
(freelance operators) that can do any number of these
services for you. They can be found on-line on many of the
freelance websites. You would post your job on the website
and then and the freelancers will bid on your job.
Before I was able to perform certain graphic tasks for
publishing my books I used the services of a freelancer from
one of these websites. His work was very good. His prices
were reasonable and I went back to him for repeat services
a few times.
You should check the references for any freelancer that
you are considering using as well as the feedback from their
customers which should also be posted on their listing on
the website.
Printing
You can buy a machine that prints and binds paperback
books for about $10,000. I saw one at BookExpo a couple
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of years ago (it might be a little cheaper now). The machine
was about the size of a double-wide refrigerator and it took
about twenty minutes to produce one book.
Realistically, very few of us will do our own printing
unless we plan to produce spiral-bound or comb-bound
books that can be completed at the local copy shop. This is
how I published my first book and I sold over 1,000 copies
of it through word-of-mouth, mail order, and at trade shows.
For paperback and hard cover books, offset printing
and digital printing are the industry norms.
Digital printing is cheaper for small print runs. Digital
printing is generally used for POD (Print on Demand)
printing because the files stay in the computer and can be
keyed up easily.
Offset printing, on the other hand, is done on large
printing presses. It is less expensive (per book) for larger
print jobs. But it is not practical for small print jobs as the
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start up cost to get the large printing presses up and
running is not cheap. With the cost spread out over many
thousands of books it is the only way to go for large print
jobs.
In the next section we will deal with the topic How to
Sell Your Christian Book.
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How to Sell Your Christian Book
Are you ready for what might be a rude-awakening?
Who Is Going to Sell Your Book?
This is a bottom-line point about being an author and
getting published that most authors never discover:
As the author, you are responsible forselling your book!
The publishing house or the publishing service can
develop all the marketing materials in the world for your
book, they can list you in every database there is, they can
print thousands of copies of your book (at your expense),
but if there is no demand for you or your book, if no one
goes to the store to ask for your book, guess what happens:
nothing!
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Sorry to be so cynical about it, but that is the reality.
If you are to be a successful author,
you must sell your book.
Your job after you finish writing
your book is to get it published. Your
most important job after you write
and publish your book is to sell it. If
you dont do it it will not get done. Of course there are
exceptions to this, some authors write a great book, get an
Advance from a publishing house and then live happily-ever-
after. If that is you, then I Praise God for your success. But
for the majority of us, publishing our first books will involve
marketing our books by using many creative methods
including those listed below.
Three Categories for Marketing Your Book
To help me organize my marketing efforts, I have
divided book marketing into three basic categories:
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in-person, traditional/written, and electronic/on-line. Each
of these is distinct but with significant overlapping.
In addition to these three basic categories we also need
to list the marketing materials that can be used to reach
potential buyers in each of the three basic categories.
In this e-book I am just listing the marketing methods
as a full description of each of these methods is beyond the
scope of this e-book. Several of them are described in
articles on my website, www.PublishChristianBooks.com. All
of them are explained with step-by-step instructions in the
books on self-publishing.
In-Person
A. Book Launch
B. Word of Mouth
C. Book Signings
D. Speaking Engagements
E. Book Fairs/Shows
F. Mailing List Development & Marketing
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Traditional/Written
A. Manuscript Submission to Publishing Houses
1) Literary Agents
2) Evangelical Christian PublishingAssociation Manuscript SubmissionProgram
B. Bookstores
C. Wholesalers/Distributors
D. Libraries
E. Listings
F. Media/Press (see below)
1) Press Releases
2) Advertisements
3) Reviews (Trade publications, Christiannewspapers)
G. Coop Mailings to Bookstores and Libraries
Electronic/On-Line
A. Authors Website
1) Traffic Generators (directories, searchengines, etc.)
2) E-Commerce Payment Processor
3) Blog
4) Mailing List Development/Management
B. On-Line Bookstores
1) Amazon.com
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2) Barnes and Noble.com
3) Borders.com
4) ChristianBook.com5) Other On-Line bookstores
6) Author Pages and Search Programs(Amazon-Search Inside and GoogleBooks)
C. Social Media
1) Facebook
2) Twitter
3) Others
4) Author marketing and networkingwebsites (Christian & Secular)
Marketing Materials
A. Media Kit
1) Cover Letter2) Press (Publicity) Release
3) Basic Flyer
4) Basic Brochure
4) Draft Review
B. Postcards
C. Poster (for events)
D. Author Biography
E. Book Fact Sheet for Book Industry contacts
F. Business Cards
G. Bookmarks
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I can remember one day I was in a Christian bookstore
and I looked up on one of the shelves of books and saw a
book that I recognized. It took me a moment after I
recognized the book to also realize that it was my book that
I was looking at. I can remember my first thought, I know
that book. Then in a flash I said to myself, Thats me.
Thats my book. Then I looked around to see who was
looking at me. I sort of jumped up and down and smiled
ear-to-ear. I had arrived. I was an author and I was elated.
On another occasion, I was in a different Christian
bookstore in another city. I was going through the stacks
looking around at the books. I saw a book by Charles
Stanley, then another by Tony Evans and then one of my
books, Fatherhood Principles of Joseph the Carpenter. What
great company my book was in.
I had great satisfaction from seeing my book on the
shelf in the bookstore when I wasnt even looking for it and
next to very accomplished authors.
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You too can have that same satisfaction if you are
willing to persevere and follow the steps necessary to be a
successful author.
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Call to Action
Is this the year that you publish your book? If not this
year, then when?
Make a Real Commitment
For many years I asked myself those two questions
above. That is, until seven years ago when I finally self-
published two books that I had wanted to publish for years.
Those two books had been written years earlier but I
just could not get them into print. NOW, I HAVE PUBLISHED
OVER 14 OF MY BOOKS!
The secret to getting your book published is that there
is no secret. There are just hidden truths that can be
discovered, uncovered, understood and implemented.
The biggest truth that I had to uncover was this:
If I didnt do it,then it was not going to get done!
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You can pray about writing a book all day and all night.
But, if you dont get up and write down what God has given
to you, then you will never complete the book.
You can pray endlessly for your written manuscript to
be published as a book. But, if you do not do your research
and find the right avenue to get your book published then
your manuscript will just gather dust and it will be a sore
topic of conversation.
You can pray for sales all day and all night. But, if you
dont tell people about the book that God had you write and
publish, then the printed books will just sit in the boxes.
They will not sell themselves.
So therefore, if you really want to publish your
Christian book then I strongly suggest you read (or re-read)
these three articles that you can find on my website
(www.PublishChristianBooks.com) AND follow the other
suggestions below.
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Articles to Read
1) Are You a Christian Author?
2) Write the Vision An Open Letter to ChristianAuthors
3) Writers Write!
Set a Date to Finish YourBook and See It In Print
I encourage you to start out with
a clear purpose in mind to publish
your book. Set dates and diligently work toward those
dates.
1) When will you finish writing the book?
2) When will the book be printed and in your hands?
So, once again, I want to ask you this question:
Is this the year
that you publish your book?
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Christian Author Publishing Service
GIL Publications has created a no non-sense publishing
opportunity for Christian Authors. It is straight-forward and
simple too. We can help you publish your Godly books at a
reasonable cost then show you how to sell them and make
money for your cause.
Our personalized Christian Author Publishing Service is
different.
1) We give you a minimum of 50 books. Most
publishing services only give you 1 to 5 books when you
contract with them for publishing services. Even though
those companies offer very good services they can be
expensive and they just dont give you books in your
hand that you can sell without having to pay extra fees for
printing services.
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Books-in-handis a very important aspect of publishing,
because without getting printed books into your hand, you
cannot sell your book to make money. How will you pay for
the printing and other costs? How else can you raise money
for whatever cause you am working for?
Our motto: Give us your manuscript
and we will give you fifty book.
Its that simple. With our Christian Author Publishing
Service your book will be published. You will get enough
copies to sell and make a profit.
2) Our prices are affordable. Check our prices for
all three of our Christian Author Publishing Packages (Gold,
Silver and Bronze). You cold easily pay three or four times
as much with a publishing service.
If you have looked around and investigated publishing
services then you know this is a fabulous opportunity
because most publishing services are generally over-priced
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and in most instances you only get one to five copies of
your book.
Most of us cannot afford this type of elite service. We
need someone to take our manuscript and give us some
books that we can sell.
3) We Provide Personalized Service. It cannot
get any more personal than me and my wife, working
together to develop this publishing ministry. You will deal
with only us. We answer the phone. We format your book.
We design your book cover and marketing materials. We
call you back and talk to you about your project, your book
and your revelation from God to write and publish your
book. At times, we even pray with you over your book
project.
4) GIL Publications is a Ministry. This aspect of
our service is the most important! It should be made clear
now, before we go any further. We are here to help you.
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BUT, we do not publish every book that is presented to us.
First, I personally read every manuscript before we agree to
publish it. Why, because if the manuscript does not reflect
the Word of God we cannot publish it. We will be happy to
refer you to a publishing service that will publish your book,
but we (GIL Publications) only publish Godly Christian
books.
After I have read your manuscript, I will send you a
proposed agreement. When you are ready to publish, we
can get started.
5) You Can Pay as You Go. Once you agree to
have us publish your book, then we enter into a Publishing
Agreement. Our fee is then divided into three payment
amounts that are paid as follows:
a) One-third is paid at the beginning when we enter
into an agreement.
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b) One-third is paid at the time that you, the author,
accepts the final book layout and cover design.
We then print the books.
c) One-third is paid after the books are printed and
you are ready to have the books delivered to you.
A Christian Authors Testimonial
Several months ago, I was blessed toencounter Mr. and Mrs. Kumasi [Daisy and Akili],the principals of Gil Publications. I say blessedbecause I have had interactions with other well-known publishers, which interactions resulted onlyin discouragement or disappointment. Contrarily,
my exposure, and subsequent contract, with GilPublications proved to be a refreshing alternative.
They went above and beyond the terms ofour flexible contract by providing exceptionalsupport and personal attention to my needs. Theyalso stayed in touch with me in a timely manner,through every facet of the publishing process,offering suggestions along the way that wereultimately in my best interest, and at their own
expense.
I highly recommend Gil Publications to anyauthor of inspirational works especially noviceauthors. You will not be disappointed! I personallyam indebted to them for their stellar intervention
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in the final product my first published GospelPoetry Book, Licorice Lyrics: Poetic Praises ABook of Gospel Verse.
D. Marie Braggs
You can see Maries book on Amazon.com.
PublishChristianBooks.com takes the hassle out of
publishing your book. Our Christian Author Publishing
Service features the following:
Manuscript Preparation
Format Entire Book (from word processing files)
Custom made Cover Design (4 color cover) Format Copyright Page Convert word processing files to printer-ready files Electronic Book Layout Proof for author Bound proof for author
Book Production and Printing
Print 50, 100 or 200 copies of your book
(5.5 x 8.5 or 6 x 9) See website for currentpricing www.PublishChristianBooks.com
Four-color laminated Cover
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Book Registrations
Copyright from the U.S. Library of Congress Library catalog number from U.S. Library of
Congress International Standard Book Number (ISBN) from
R.R. Bowker Obtain Barcode for back cover of book
Book Marketing Services
Personalized Author Webpage (for 1 year) Listing with Amazon.com and Baker and Taylor
distributors Listing in Books In Printdatabase On-Going Marketing Consultation Access to GIL Publications book marketing
techniques
Other Services
Free shipping of printed books to author(within the continental U.S.)
For more details on our Christian Author Publishing
Service please visit our website.
We also encourage you to compare our Christian
Author Publishing Service to the publishing services on-line
to see what they are offering and their prices.
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Give us a call or send us an e-mail. We look forward to
hearing from you and answering any questions that you
have about our Christian Author Publishing Service.
Akili and Daisy [email protected]
GIL Publications
P. O. Box 80275Brooklyn, NY 11208
(718) 386-6434(347) 885-3625
You can also submit an inquiry at:www.PublishChristianBooks.com
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Further Reading
In addition to the several articles on our website,
www.PublishChristianBooks.com, below are a number of
books and websites that I personally recommend.
Books
Self-Publishing Manual: How to Write, Print, and Sell YouOwn Book (16th Edition), by Dan Poynter.
1001 Ways to Market Your Books: For Authors andPublishers (6th Edition), by John Kremer.
Christian Writers Marketers Guide: The Essential ReferenceTool for the Christian Writer, 2010, by Sally Stuart.
Plug Your Book, Online Book Marketing for Authors, by SteveWeber.
Get Known Before the Book Deal: Use Your PersonalStrengthens to Grow an Author Platform, by ChristinaKatz.
Websites
www.parapublishing.com Dan Poynter
More information on writing,publishing and selling booksthan you can imagine!
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www.bookmarket.com John KremerA ton of free resources and
information.
www.michaelhyatt.com Michael Hyatt is the CEO ofThomas Nelson Publishers. Hisblog is packed with valuableinformation of how to publishin the Christian world.
www.weberbooks.com Steve WeberMaster book marketer,informative blog, on-linespecialist.
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Glossary of Terms
Below are a few of the key terms used in the book
publishing industry. If these terms are not familiar to you,
try to get used to them as knowledge can be power when
trying to understand how the publishing industry works.
Advance An Advance is the amount that aPublishing House pays you whenthey agree to publish your book.
Author-Platform An Author-Platform is the authorsfollowing (people who know the
author and his or her expertise intheir field. A percentage of thesepeople will buy your book once it ispublished.
Book Proposal A Book Proposal is a paper thatdescribes the book project, thecompetition, market size and more.The Book Proposal is required bymost Publishing Houses and LiteraryAgents so they can evaluate yourbook project.
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Books In Print Books In Printis a published book ordirectory. It is accepted as the book
publishing industrys list of all booksin print. It is used by bookstores,libraries and others to find andpurchase books.
Distributor Distributors market published booksto bookstores, libraries andwholesalers. They have teams of
marketers and marketing programsfor publishers and authors.
InternationalStandard BookNumber (ISBN)
The ISBN is required for all publishedbooks. This unique identifier numberis issued by R. R. Bowker and isused by all bookstores, libraries,wholesalers, distributors anddatabases. Without it, your bookcannot be accepted or sold in thebook industry.
Freelancer A Freelancer offers his or herservices to the general public for afee. Many freelancers can do thesame services as the publishingservices to prepare your manuscript
for printing. You can find them onthe freelancer websites.
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Fulfillment The fulfillment aspect of publishingincludes: receiving orders, filling
orders, warehousing books, andshipping books.
Literary Agent Literary Agents market author booksto Publishing Houses and receive apercent of the authors Advance andRoyalties for their services.
Manuscript A Manuscript is your book after youfinish writing it. It is your book priorto Pre-Press formatting. .
Print On Demand(POD)
POD is made possible by DigitalPrinters who store authors books ina computer and can print books insmall quantities, from one copy on
up. POD means printing only theamount of books needed.
Publishing House A Publishing House is a largepublishing concern that contractswith authors to publish their books.They frequently pay an Advance andRoyalties when they agree to publish
an authors book.
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Publishing Service A Publishing Service is a companythat charges a fee to prepare an
authors book for printing. They alsoprovide authors with fee-basedprinting, marketing and distributionservices.
Query Letter A Query Letter describes the natureand extend of a book project ormanuscript. Many Literary Agents
prefer to receive a Query Letter priorto the Book Proposal.
Royalty A Royalty is the amount paid by aPublishing House once the authorsbook begins to sale.
Self-Publishing To Self-Publish is when an author
publishes a book him or herself or byoutsourcing the Pre-Press, Publishingor Marketing functions.
Wholesaler Wholesalers buy published booksfrom publishers and then sells themto stores, bookstores and libraries.
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Final Comments
We hope you have enjoyed this book and have learned
something that will be helpful to you in writing, publishing
and selling your Christian book.
If we can be of service to you please let us know and
feel free to go to our website to gain more knowledge and
information that will help to more your forward.
Please keep in mind that our Christian Author
Publishing Service (www.PublishChristianBooks.com) can
take the hassle out of publishing your book.
1) We give you a minimum of 50 books.
2) Our prices are affordable.
3) We Provide Personalized Service.
4) GIL Publications is a Ministry.
5) You Can Pay as You Go.
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Give us a call or send us an e-mail to ask any questions
about our Christian Author Publishing Service.
Thank you for taking the time to read our book, How
to Write, Publish and Sell Your Christian Book. Please
feel free to pass it along to others.
Thank you.
Akili and Daisy [email protected]
GIL PublicationsP. O. Box 80275Brooklyn, NY 11208
(718) 386-6434(347) 885-3625
You can also submit an inquiry at:www.PublishChristianBooks.com