If You’re Considering Contacting Me Regarding Help with a Book

If you're considering contacting me to ask that I review a manuscript, provide advice about publishing, or endorse a book, I must respectfully ask you not to do so. I cannot be of help to you in this way. In regard to input about whether something is publishable, it is really only a publisher who can tell you whether or not it is something they want to publish. I only consider endorsing books that are written by people I know personally.

My best advice to you is to use this book proposal guide to create your book proposal to submit to a publisher. Working your way through this proposal guide will help you to understand what a publisher is looking for and help you to organize your thoughts and dreams about writing a book. Michael Hyatt, the author of the book proposal guide also offers lots of great publishing advice on his popular blog to authors as well as a list of agents.

While only a few years ago I would have never recommended that someone pursue self-publishing a book, the advance of technology that allows for smaller print-runs, and the proliferation of the internet to get your message out has really changed that. But I would also say that many companies that will help you to self-publish your book promise much more than they can deliver and that many people who choose to self-publish who have no mechanism or skill for promoting a book beyond the people they know personally often end up with boxes of books in the garage they don’t know what to do with.

When people who have a story they want to tell ask my advice about writing a book, I often suggest to them that they first consider writing an excellent article and seek to get it placed a popular website or blog. This helps you to refine the telling of your story and the key "take-aways" or points you want to make with your story. It serves as an outlet for your desire to minister to others with your story and as a reality check in regard to the interest those who are not connected to you will have in your story. You might also look at my responses to a couple of people in the Ask Nancy section of this site. But the most important thing I would want to tell you is this: the most important thing about telling your story is that you use your story to tell God's story.