I taught middle grade Sunday school students for 15 years in addition to writing and directing Christmas and Easter plays for my church. My previous writing has been published in numerous devotional magazines and inspirational story anthologies including Chicken Soup for the Soul. I love writing for children, so this was a natural for me to write a devotional and activity book for them.
What’s the hardest part for you in publishing and marketing your own books?
Formatting was the most tedious part. Luckily, there are a lot of good videos online explaining how to do the process. However, I learned it only made sense to review those that were created in 2022 since Amazon and other publishing sources are constantly changing their formatting guidelines.
Designing the cover was fun but I gave up trying to figure out how to get the pixels and DPI correct on my own. For that part I hired somebody else.
What is the hardest part of writing for you?
Choosing each of the Bible verses and life applications to go with each Bible reading was the easy part. Writing a poem for each of the lessons was a joy to do. Finding just the right additional materials for the puzzles and coloring images to go with the lessons was a little more difficult because they had to fit within the book size.
What’s the best encouragement you’ve had in your writing?
Like many of my writing friends, I have a bit of insecurity about my own writing. That's known as Impostor Syndrome. You think your books just aren't good enough, so you keep editing them over and over. So when a reader tells me that they liked my book, and they kept thinking about it after it was finished, that makes me smile and gives me a purpose to keep on writing.
What do you know now about writing and publishing you wished you had known sooner?
There is a whole lot more to formatting and publishing than I realized. Even though I've been going to conferences and watching webinars for several years about marketing books, when it was time to actually start the process, it felt like I was trying to learn a foreign language.
What is the best writing advice you’ve received or could give?
Writing a book is like riding a rollercoaster. Some days you're creeping up a steep climb. Other days you're speeding fast with the words flowing fast and easy. Then there are times it seems like you're going around in circles. The key is holding on tight and keeping focused until the book is done. Then there's the roller coaster ride for marketing and publishing!
This book it's a large print edition so it's accessible to as many children as possible. I have additional materials to do two more volumes. When they are released will be determined by how well this book does in sales. The “look inside” feature on Amazon will show you the first lesson so you can get a feel for what the whole book is like.
If you are considering purchasing a Christmas devotional, I hope you’ll take the time to look at my family devotional and study guide called The First Noel–Digging Deeper into Christ’s Birth.
For this and all my other books, go to my Amazon author page https://www.amazon.com/Christine-L-Henderson/e/B09L2Y7XNP
No comments:
Post a Comment