Turning Your Idea into a Book

A lot of church leaders have a story to tell but don't know how to get it from brain and heart to paper. They wonder whether anyone would be interested in reading it. And they don’t know how to contact publishers – or whether to go the self publishing route.

To address those issues, I wrote an article for the August 2009 issue of Church Executive magazine titled, "Suggestions for Publishing Your First Book." It's available online as part of their "web exclusive" add-on features. Here are the questions I'm often asked that I try to answer:

o Do I need an agent?

o Do I need someone to help me write the book?

o If I write a book, how many people will read it?

o Should I write my book before thinking about publishers?

o What about self-publishing?

o What about making a book into an audio book, whether for download or CD or Kindle?

o What’s a good royalty advance for a first-time author?

If you're curious about any of these topics, you can read my article here.

Also, the blog world has a lot of other helpful advice. Here are just a few suggestions:

 
o Mark Batterson offers "Seven Writing Tips" at http://evotional.com/2009/07/7-writing-lessons.html
o Tony Morgan says "Don't Write a Book -- Start with a Journal" at http://tonymorganlive.com/2009/07/31/do-not-write-a-book/
o Thomas Nelson publisher Michael Hyatt advises "How Not to Pitch Your Book" (and at bottom offers several related posts) at http://michaelhyatt.com/2009/05/how-not-to-pitch-your-book-proposal.html#more-2212

o "The Ugly Truth about Book Publishing"

Warren Bird, Ph.D., is Research Director at Leadership Network, and co-author of 21 books on various aspects of church health and innovation.

Comments

[Mike]

Thanks Warren! good, helpful stuff

[Warren Bird]

Here's a recent link with some excellent suggestions from other people about writing a book: http://www.catalystspace.com/catablog/full/thinking_about_writing_a_book/