So, You Want to Write a Book, Huh?

So, You Want to Write a Book, Huh? Seminar on self-publishing seeks to turn Metro Detroiters into authors

By James David Dickson | For Manifold Grace Publishing House

April 14, 2011

Your story needs to be told, but you can never find the time to write it.

You’ve written your story but soon found that getting a publishing deal and seeing your work on the shelf of your local bookstore can take years. Your creation goes back into a box in the basement, never to be seen again.

Darlene Dickson and Jenine Warren believe that your stories deserve better. On Saturday, March 5, 2011, the two authors/publishers came together to offer a seminar on the “pay-to-publish” world of the 21st Century - the market most authors will have to navigate if they want their words to appear between covers.

More than 40 Metro Detroiters joined Dickson (CEO, Manifold Grace Publishing House) and Warren (CEO, Kingdom Scribes Publishing) at the Redford Public Library for the seminar, which was titled “So You Want to Write a Book, Huh?”

The 3-hour seminar started with an overview of the writing process, led by Dickson. Most attendees were not writers, by trade. Even if they have an idea burning inside, getting it on paper often proves a challenge. The idea of writing a book can be so overwhelming that the author stops before they start. Which is why the first piece of advice was to pray: For inspiration, for revelation, and for direction.

“The book you might think you want to write might not be the book God wants you to write,” Dickson said. "Better to have a firm idea of where you’re headed, who your target audience is, and what you hope to accomplish with the book before committing pen to paper."

Structure is often a challenge for writers who are just starting out, which is why Dickson and Warren recommended that writers use an outline.

At the top of the page is the title of the book. Below it are the chapter titles, and below each chapter title, writers fill in major points that come up - research, anecdotes, revelations, what have you.

Then, Dickson and Warren had students turn their information packets to the back pages and start the outlining process then and there. All that talk about writing created a desire among the class to get started, now, rather than hope the motivation survives the car ride home.

Some attendees said later that they wrote more during the seminar than they had in months. After outlining either the book itself or a specific chapter, Dickson and Warren had class members stand up and talk about their ideas. This helps them practice another skill that might come in handy for the future authors: Public speaking, which almost every successful author engages in to promote their works and keep the bills paid between books.

The second half of the seminar, led mostly by Warren, focused on the due diligence authors need to perform to evaluate publishing opportunities.

Not all publishing houses or vanity (self-paid) presses are created equally. Some publishing houses are glad to take an author’s money but do little more than act as a printing press - with little to no editing involved, without a single conversation about editorial direction or target audience. The author will have paid thousands for copies of an error-filled book he’s now embarrassed to show his friends.

Both Manifold Grace Publishing House and Kingdom Scribes Publishing operate quite a bit differently, Warren explained.

“There are plenty of people who will take your money and print off your book for you, and that’s it” Warren said, “but that’s not what Kingdom Scribes does.”

Manifold Grace, neither.

“We’re going to sit down with you and understand what you’re trying to say, who you’re trying to reach, what you’re trying to accomplish,” Dickson explained. “I’m not going to turn it into my book, and we’re not going to publish it as-is -- we’re going to make the book as good as it could be and ready for the world stage.”

If you missed the March seminar, don’t worry. Dickson and Warren are planning additional seminars this spring and summer alongside Detroit World Outreach.

Darlene Dickson
ManifoldGracePublishingHouse.com Darlene@manifoldgracepublishinghouse.com/248.971.9771

Jenine Warren
Kingdom Scribes Publishing
EMAIL kingdomscribespublishing@yahoo.com