Once a month, you’re going to hear from some of our authors or from our team on how we study the Bible, what resources we use, and what questions we ask. Submit your questions related to these topics by filling out the form here! Many of you have asked about writing and publishing a book, so we asked Jennifer Lyell, the Director of Book Business at B&H, to help us answer that question.
Most of us grow up with books. You may have first connected with books through a classic children’s book like Goodnight Moon, or maybe books became a part of your life once you could read chapter books. Perhaps you, like me, escaped into the imaginary worlds contained in books and could be consumed for hours at a time. Or maybe you struggled with reading for a period, but then God worked in your life as a believer through a ministry message in the form of a nonfiction book. Regardless of when books really hit your radar as something significant enough to leave you reading these words on this particular page, history makes it clear that books play an important role in culture, the church, and in the sanctification of believers around the world. So, in short, it is a worthwhile thing to consider what it might mean to write a book. Now, that being said, the first thing I’m going to do is discourage you from writing a book. Yep, I want to encourage you to try hard to talk yourself out of writing a book. Read this with an open mind and heart and I promise we’ll get to some practical details and insight for you if you decide to pursue publishing your message.
Why would you want to talk yourself out of writing a book? The first reason is because of the nature of a book and why publishing even began. It was around the year 1440 when Johannes Gutenberg developed the printing press, which was developed to spread messages further than a single person could take them. This was most distinctly seen by the development of the Gutenberg Bible, which allowed God’s Word to be duplicated and spread more quickly than ever before. Why is this relevant to your sense of call and purpose today? At its core, the printing press was developed for the same reason that compels us in ministry—to spread a message further than we can take it ourselves. That is most definitely a worthwhile motivation. But, before you run headlong into publishing, you should ask yourself whether the printing press, invented in the fifteenth century and still at the center of publishing, is the best path for spreading the ministry message you have been burdened to share.
Why wouldn’t publishing be the best means to share the message? Well, because our generation is blessed with other options that can be shared more easily and more widely. The most obvious of these is the Internet. You can freely accomplish the heart behind the printing press through a blog such as this, for instance. Through this online format, your ministry message can be shared instantaneously around the world without the barrier of cost to the recipient. In addition to being able to share content through blog posts, the posts can then be shared through social media to extend the message reach. This format also gives you the advantage of immediate feedback through comments, e-mails, and social media interactions, whereas the form of traditional publishing creates a separation between the author and the reader. This leaves us with the reality that the most obvious reason to publish a print book—and the reason publishing began—is no longer the most efficient or obvious reason to publish a book.
Given that it is immediate, easy, and free to connect your content with an audience, why do any authors still work with publishers? Traditionally that has been because an author sees value in obtaining help developing the content, packaging, marketing, and distribution for that message. Ah, that makes sense and sounds super valuable, right? Who doesn’t want help with those things? As someone who has spent more than a decade helping authors develop hundreds of messages and/or equipping others to do so, I absolutely believe in the value that publishers bring to authors. And I hope that authors with whom my team has worked would affirm this as well. I’m also absolutely confident these authors would say this has come at a cost. There has been a cost to their messages and a cost to them personally, which is the basis of my second reason I want to discourage you from publishing a book. My experience is that most authors can only see the benefit of having published a book before they actually do so. Until they have experienced it, they can’t appreciate the time it takes away from relationships and ministry. It’s not just the time that it takes to write the book; it’s time spent working with the publisher on the editorial process, covers, marketing plans, sales plans, and then fulfilling the author obligations that are a part of all of those plans. These are not small commitments and all of them are full of subjective decisions that can be confusing and daunting, particularly the further you get into the process. Publishing a book will take time from other things in your life. Things you value. You cannot fail to consider this cost.
The time publishing takes is not the most significant cost to authors, though. The primary cost to authors is the element of publishing that most burdens my heart. It is the spiritual cost. In fact, I sometimes wonder if I will get to heaven, be face-to-face with Jesus, and He will rebuke me for the ways in which my work has made it harder for other believers—authors—to faithfully walk with Him. I pray that’s not the case and work hard to ensure I’m prioritizing and emphasizing what honors Him in the way I work with authors, but I cannot deny the spiritual and emotional costs of publishing. They manifest themselves in many forms. The way publishing often subtly shifts an author’s sense of identity. The way it tempts to pride. The way it unleashes insecurity. The way it can foster jealousy in others. The way it can bring out the controlling diva that resides in us all. The way it often introduces a new, challenging element to marriages. These are not small things. Please pause and consider what I’m saying. This is sin. And I am telling you on the basis of more than a decade of experience—and of working with authors who are at least as godly as you—that no one is immune from the impact of these costs. Let me be even more blunt: I have seen lives, marriages, and ministries wrecked by taking the step of publishing because with that comes the step into the spotlight and with that step into the spotlight comes the temptation and justification for sin. Why in the world would you step into something that comes with such dangers? There is only one reason that is justifiable: Because God has clearly and firmly told you to do so. This is not a trite Christian answer. I mean this as a litmus test for whether you go any further in this thought process. Until you are certain—I mean, certain—that God is clearly communicating to you that this is a step He has for you, then you should not pursue it. Not one step. Instead, you pray. You devour and live by His Word. You teach the messages He has given you in your local church (and not just to women—there are some future women in the children’s and youth ministries who need you). You learn to love like He calls us to do. And you do whatever it takes to get emotionally and physically healthy. If you do all of those things for a prolonged period of time and having a burning certainty that God is calling you to publish, then you pursue publishing.
Okay, so what does it mean to pursue publishing? Assuming that you get to the point where you are absolutely certain that this is something God is calling you to do, I’m happy to share some key elements of book publishing. First, publishing begins and ends with an audience. There was a time when publishing created the audience, but that’s no longer exactly the case. Publishing does expand an audience, but the degree to which it does so is related to the size of the author’s audience before publishing. Authors no longer need a book to establish an audience. Blogs, social media, podcasts, and events are all means by which a ministry message can establish an audience before a book is ever written. They are more easily accessible means by which a message can be shared and received. Publishers have business realities that necessitate they publish those books for which they are confident an audience exists. Those potential authors who have not ministered their messages in such means to begin to establish an audience are at a great disadvantage when seeking a publisher. Those authors, however, who have tested ministry messages through available platforms not only have an audience that the publisher can anticipate, they also have insight from audience feedback of their ministry messages. The patience, faithfulness, and effort it takes to minister your message to an audience before trying to write a book will bear great fruit if the Lord does lead you to that step.
The second element of publishing a book is what most people think of as the substance of publishing—writing. It is not enough to care about a ministry message or have a ministry passion; you must develop the writing skills to effectively communicate that message to a broad audience. Most people consume a lot of content online, which is not content held to the same standard one should experience in a published resource. The best books are relatable and can be conversational, but that is accomplished by reasoning that is well crafted. This means, for instance, that what you write should have a thesis—essentially a purpose statement. This should be true for the whole book as well as for each individual chapter. This post is not sufficient to address the nuances of quality writing, so instead I leave you with the expectation that writing is something that must be developed and cultivated. You should read more books than online sources to begin to develop your framework for book publishing. You should read books on writing. You should pay as much attention to how you write as you do to what you write.
The third key element of publishing a book is the reality that book publishing happens in the context of the publishing industry. Business realities are a factor in whether or not a book is published, but the impact of business realities does not stop there. The publisher has to build a plan for your book that will sell enough to recover the costs it takes to develop it, design it, pay you for it, print it, and distribute it. But most publishers aren’t selling your book straight to readers. They are selling your book to retailers who sell your book to their customers who read the book. So it isn’t just the publisher’s business realities that drive much of the experience of publishing, it is the retailer’s business realities. This is where marketing becomes both an opportunity and a challenge for authors. Retailers need people to come to their stores. In the age of online shopping and free content online, it is a battle to maintain a store (whether online or physical). As such, retailers are particularly excited about products for which there is a known ambassador to advocate for the product and send an interested audience to their store for the product. This is the role they desire authors to play. This can seem discouraging and like a step too far into the world of business for some authors.
As I close, I encourage you to think back to the books of your childhood or perhaps the books that have shaped your walk with the Lord. If I had to pick one book that was the most significant in my life (apart from the Bible), I would pick the Bible dictionary that the Lifeway Stores Associate sold me when I walked in the store two days after I was saved. Well, someone made that Bible dictionary. It’s perhaps a bit telling about me that my most significant book was a dictionary (insert: nerd alert), but I suspect you can point to a book or Bible study that turned your life upside down (in a good way!), too. That is because the ministry potential of a God-given message is incredible. Don’t be too focused on the medium (a published book) and instead focus on the people. Start in your home. And then expand to your church, then maybe to churches in the area. Sow faithfully and be content with the results God brings. One day that may be a book!
Jennifer Lyell is Director of the Book Business at Lifeway Christian Resources.