As a person with widespread influence, capacity and leadership in faith, taking the leap to write and Publish a Christian book that will be read by people around the world, regardless of their religious affiliation could be one of the biggest legacies you’ll leave behind as a Christian leader.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a religious leader or not. During the course of your journey of faith, you’ve garnered experiences, lessons and enlightenment that can impact people beyond your congregation.
And one of the ways to share all of this with people beyond your immediate circle is to put together a book that will successfully capture these experiences, lessons and enlightenment.
As someone who’s worked with many Christian authors to get their books out to audiences around the world, in this guide, I’ll be leading you through the steps you can take to write and publish your book, regardless of your faith, location or religion.
Clarify Your Message
Table of Contents
The first step to publish a Christian book is to clarify your message.
Before diving into the technicalities of publishing, you want to find time to meditate on what you want to write about, the purpose of writing the book, the impact you want to make and the message you’re passing across to your readers.
Doing this gets you all prepped up for the writing process. And then the moment you begin to write your book, it gets even easier to put together, a book that will get to meet the purpose and goals you have in mind.
There’s also the part about taking out time to pray and meditate on what you’re writing about, studying the word or allowing God’s guidance to inspire your writing. This is very crucial, considering the audience you’re writing for.
Where you’re writing more of a Christian themed book with secular setting, you also want to pay attention to your audience at this stage.
And then find steps to create a balance in a way that all spectrum of your audience will feel your book is exactly written for them.
Write & Edit Your Manuscript
Now that you’re very sure about your audience and the the message you want to pass across to them, it’s time to write and edit your manuscript to meet up with all of this.
To get started with your writing, pick up the central idea about your book, divide them into sub theme and sections, flesh out a summary of each of the sections from the first to the last. This is going to serve as your chapters.
As soon as this is completed, the next part of your journey to publish a Christian book online is to develop on each of the sub themes, based on your earlier synopsis.
Pour out your heart, experiences, lessons and enlightenment into each of the pages you write. Depending on what you’re writing about, allow your words, personality and beliefs to flow through each section and chapters you write about.
You don’t just want to write a Christian book, you want to share your story and your journey. Allow your authentic self to flow through the book and then where it’s needed, allow the divine to guide and inspire you as you weave through each sections of your work.
And finally when you’re done, go ahead and edit your manuscript. You can hire professional editors or go through the different versions of editing to get the best out of your work before finally getting it ready for the lay out and publishing.
PS: Keep in mind to ensure the tone of voice, storyline and anecdotes meets the purpose and goal of your work, in relation to your target audience’s expectations.
Design a Book Cover
You can’t publish a Christian book online and have it stand out without getting an iconic cover design that will grab the attention of your target audience.
The reason is not farfetched. Your cover design creates the first impression about your work. As much as possible, you want to make it command attention instantly.
To get this right, pay attention to these three factors, your target audience, the message and the market demand before taking a step to create a cover design for your work.
Even while paying attention to these things, try to put out up to 3 different cover designs so you can comfortably choose from any of these.
Doing that gives you options to seek opinion from your target audience or just tinker on what’s going to deliver the best possible results.
And finally, after choosing your preferred cover design, since you’re going to publish online, pay attention to the size, customizations and other necessary measurements that will be needed as you decide on what works best.
Prepare Your Manuscript for Publishing
One of the crucial steps to publish a Christian book online is to prepare your manuscript properly, cross the T’s and dot all I’s, before getting it over to the online platform you want to publish on.
To get started with this, work on using the proper formatting guideline as required by your preferred publishing platform be it Amazon, Lulu or Smashwords.
Since this guide is well optimized for authors that’ll consider using Amazon KDP, one of the first things to pay attention to before publishing on Amazon is to decide on all the versions you plan to publish on the platform and the format your book accordingly for each of them.
Since Amazon publishes both ebooks and print on demand paperback, if you choose to publish both versions of your book, you’ll have to format the book individually, to meet with the publishing requirements.
For ebooks manuscripts; Outside the basic formatting that can be done with Microsoft Word 2016 and above, you need a flowable table of content that can link to each section as soon as a reader clicks on it, otherwise, you may consider removing the table of content sections entirely.
PS: Doc. KPF Epub and Mobi are the only acceptable document formats for KDP ebooks.
For Paperback: Set up your interior file and ensure there’s a free flow of words from one page to the next, using page break and word formatting functions.
Choose your paper type and paper size based on the final outcome you want for your book but keep in mind that this might affect your cost.
PS: To get the best result, covert your manuscript to PDF before uploading it on Amazon.
We have a guide on how to format your book for Amazon publishing here.
Choose a Publishing Platform
There are a number of platforms where you can publish a Christian book online like Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, Lulu, Ingram, Smashwords etc.
But, to get the best out of your book, you need a top leading platform with an available audience. And one of the best places that fit this description is Amazon KDP which is regarded as the world’s number one online publishing platform.
Outside Amazon, there are a number of local and regional regional publishing platforms where you can publish books about faith, religion and other topics. And you can choose these other platforms if they meet your needs.
Of course you can as well consider using a hybrid platform. We use hybrid platforms for most of our authors outside the US. You can try this strategy to get the best out of your audiences.
But where your message is focused on an international audience, consider using either Amazon KDP exclusively or a combination of KDP and other international platforms.
We have a guide on the top four online platforms here.
Create an Author Account
Since your book is now ready to go live, to kick start the next step to publish a Christian book online, head over to your preferred online platform and create an author account there.
For Amazon, all you need is an email a phone number and a few other details to get started. So, head over to kdp.amazon.com to set up your account, using your name as you want it on the book.
As soon as this is sorted, fill up the account with your details like mailing address, bank account number and other information that’ll be needed to verify you and set up your royalty among other details.
Verify that all information used is accurate and up to date before heading over to the next stage.
Upload Your Draft Manuscript
At this stage you want to head over to kdp.amazon.com and hop on your dashboard. When this is done, you can now identify the preferred version you want to publish first be it ebook or paperback.
As soon as this is done, to publish a Christian book easily, follow the platform’s prompt to upload your formatted manuscript and in the version that works for your preferred book format.
After uploading your book, you’ll be prompted to add your book cover. Follow the prompt accordingly and add a pre-designed book cover or use the available designing option on Amazon to create a book cover using Amazon’s own templates.
Before moving forward from this step, take out time to preview your book and how it gets displayed for your readers with the different versions. And where it falls out of expectations, ensure that this is fixed before getting to the next stage.
Input Your Book Details
Your book details are things like book title and subtitle, author name, book description, key words and other items that make the book stand out.
They are also part of things that makes your book findable on KDP. To successfully publish a Christian book online, you have to pay attention to your book details.
Starting with your title and sub title, go for a title that is appealing to your target readers in the best way possible. Also, choose a subtitle that captures the theme and overall subject matter of your book compellingly.
For your key words, don’t go for anything random. I usually advice clients, go for keywords that are SEO friendly so your book can attract the right visibility without fail. Especially the one that can get your books started.
And finally, you need a rock star book description that captures the whole essence of your work, commands your audience’s attention while getting them all too eager to read your book.
You can reach out for our team to analyze your manuscript and your book description.
Set Pricing and Royalty Preferences
As someone aspiring to write and publish a Christian book that sells massively, you want to pay attention to your pricing and royalty preferences as this might affect your overall earnings on Amazon.
Doesn’t matter how altruistic your attention may be, publishing a faith based book could be an avenue to raise funding for yourself, a cause or just some passive income streams. but, for any of this to be possible, you have to get your pricing right.
Before thinking about any pricing at all, look up other books in your preferred niche to have an idea about the average pricing that works in that niche.
Also, think about the cost of publishing or making available a copy of your book for a user. Be it ebook or paperback, this cost will be indicated in your dashboard before the final publishing.
Where the cost price for production of a copy is on the high side, you have to shoot up the list price before you can make a decent royalty.
So, if you’re having a really high cost price, consider taking some measures to get even with that so it doesn’t impact your earnings.
Again, we can help you work out a pricing system that favors your expected royalty and your audience if you reach out to us here.
Publish and Promote your Book
Now that everything is all set for your book to go live, it’s about time to click the publish button and get your book live on Amazon stores. But, while doing this, keep in mind the need for promotion if you plan to reach a wider audience.
Yes, to get the best visibility after you publish a Christian book online, head over to the social media and other platforms to promote your book and get the word out across to your audience.
Start with leveraging social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok and Youtube to promote your book, using content best suitable for your audience.
Alongside social media platforms, get your own author website. As an author, people will want to know about you, outside your social media platforms so you need an author website.
You can also use this platform to create your own brand, share your content and sell your books online.
And finally, to further get the words out about your book, you can use paid promotion options either on social media, PPC or other website and PR options to promote your book.
Final Words
After going through series of enlightenment and growth in your Christian journey, you don’t just want to keep the lessons to yourself, you want to share them and tell the word about it.
And one of the easiest ways to do this is to write and publish a Christian book.
Using the steps above, not only are you going to successfully write and publish your book, you will get your voice heard and have your work in the shelves of people you might never ever meet in this life and become a blessings to potentially, millions of people around the world.
But, you’ll never get to do any of this without taking a step start writing a Christian book today. And even when you do, you might not reach your book’s potentials without taking steps to promote and share it with the right audiences.
As you go through all of this, I want to assure you that you don’t have to do it alone. You can reach out to our team to get you started on your publishing journey here. Or you can join communities online and find support from authors who are on the same journey with you.
So, now it’s your turn. What are the challenges you’ve experienced along your journey to becoming a Christian author? Drop your comments below.
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