Ever Tried "Do It Yourself" Publication?

My articles have been published numerous times over the years in magazines, newspapers, church newsletters, etc., but until I joined a writer’s group, the idea of actually writing a book had never entered my mind. Even then, I didn’t give book writing much serious thought, because those who had published books shared their tales of woe with the rest of us about how difficult it was to even get an editor to look at a manuscript, let alone consider it for publication.

Recently though, I began to think how nice it might be to gather together the lessons I had taught to middle school Sunday school kids and have them printed in workbook form. The lessons covered everything from Salvation to Choosing Friends That Please God, and seemed very well received by the kids I had been privileged to teach. Not that I aspired to approach a famous publisher with my small 40-page workbook, but perhaps I could figure out an inexpensive way to do it myself so that other parents could benefit from what I had already put together and used successfully with kids.

I read a couple of books I highly recommend to anyone who is considering self publishing, especially for books that are slanted to a specific group of people. The first was called, The Well-Fed Writer, by Peter Bowerman, and the other was, The Well-Fed Self Publisher, also by Peter Bowerman.

The first book covers the nuts and bolts of how to go about planning a book from beginning to end, and how to market it afterwards. The second, is a bit more technical on the publishing end and shows you how you can publish your own book and continue to make a profit from it for many years to come.

I learned a lot from both books, but decided I wasn’t really after making a big profit from my book, but rather to have all my lessons in one volume for parents to use at home with their kids. A friend told me about lulu.com where you can set up a downloadable book for free, and only pay a small commission for books that are actually purchased. It seemed too good to be true to this older lady living on a fixed income, but it was true. And the fun I had choosing the format and cover for the book made me want to write a big bunch of books so I could do it all over again. Who knows—maybe I will.

Anyway, the result of my efforts is a downloadable ebook called, Bible Basics For Kids, and is available for only $1.50 at this link Bible Basics for anyone who might be interested. Unfortunatly, they don’t send the cover with the book---but I’m pretty sure you’ll find the other 40-some pages are well-worth the money anyway.