“The RoseBouquet”

One of the things I did yesterday was spend several hours researching how to get my devotional book, “Joy Gems,” published. I thought I’d try the traditional publisher route first instead of self-publishing because I might gain some valuable experiences, and because I really don’t have time to promote it heavily by myself.

Well, I discovered that some things have changed since I last looked into this earnestly. All the websites of the better known names in Christian publishers pointed to one or two sites. They no longer accept unsolicited manuscripts themselves, but go check regularly the database these other sites provide and then contact the authors of the book proposals that most appeal to them.

ChristianManuscriptSubmissions.com
WritersEdgeService.

They charge $98 and $95 respectively for a six month listing of your book proposal and description and sample chapters. There is another fee for like $299 if you want it critiqued and edited first.

Well, I had wanted to know what it would take, and I’ve found out. I was able to download a PDF file on how to prepare your book proposal to best advantage, so I will need to study that, and save up for this expense.

Over all it does seem a smarter way to go. Before one had to pick a publisher find the acquisitions editor, and send it there with a cover letter. Then wait and wait for a reply before trying the next publisher. This way one might get contacts from two or three publishers showing an interest, and if they all make an offer, you can study their contracts and make a choice.

In this scenario, since your manuscript is online you can login and improve or re-write it if you think that will help. If six months is not long enough to get a bite, you can subscribe for another six month period.

Apparently self-published books don’t count, but you can submit one to these publishers in this way. They have also latched onto Print-on-Demand (POD) self-publishing, because they (CMS) say that if you prefer to go the self-publishing route you can jump over to their partner site, Believers Press, and get it published there. For a fee, of course.

Hmm… Interesting. Something for us to think over, right? (See, I know you have a book in you too!)

Another bright idea I got yesterday was to start a series of articles on the friendships we observe in the Bible, and draw practical lessons for how to deal with our own friendships. Guess what. I’ve got one written already for this issue!

Recalling what happened when I promised to do a series like that on angel encounters in the Bible for my friend Connie’s ezine, I am expecting some very interesting adventures and discoveries ahead! That turned into 30 articles which I published as a free e-book. You can still get it here; Angel Encounters