Why I Sleep With My Kindle Fire

The latest figures are in and Amazon sold four million Kindles in the month of December of which the Kindle Fire was the bestselling. I was one of those blessed individuals which received one for a Christmas present. Now, my wife is having second thoughts about having bought it for me. I can't seem to put the thing down and it has become the new occupant in our bed at night. One of the reasons has to do with a little app called MySword. This app is free and has a full complement of standard commentaries, Bible dictionaries, Bible versions, and other helpful study material. It had to be side loaded but that was easy enough just by going to the...

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Posted in: indsutry news,Kindle Fire,MySword app,writing

Judging a Book By Its Cover

With the advent of eBooks and ereaders like Kindle, Nook, and iPad, the aspiring writer has an opportunity to be on par with the Big 6 publishing houses. The one thing that they had in the past that authors did not was distribution. Now, you can get that rather easily with free accounts with Amazon, Barne & Nobles, and a slew of others. The convenience of being able to produce your own book and keep all the profits for yourself is liberating, to say the least. The savvy indie publisher/author will know when to do things themselves and when to call in a professional. One of the instances that I am adamant about calling in a pro on is in...

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Posted in: book covers,fiction,self-publish

ChristianWriters.com: The Un-Christian Christian Forum

I've been thinking long about whether to write this post and needed to make sure that it was going to be a post that didn't end up being the opposite of what I wanted it to be. Some time has passed and I feel compelled to write this and let the chips fall where they may. I recently was a member of the Christian Writers.com forum. At first, I thought it would be the place for me because...well...I love the Lord. Seems reasonable to seek out others that were supposedly like minded and writers. Writing is a lonely endeavor and we need that kind of support. I posted on there for a while but it began to occur to me that something was amiss. Some of...

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Posted in: Christian writing,writing

Christian Fiction: Reality and Necessity

If you're wondering, yes, I am still working on this blog. However, I had to write a post in relation to something I read recently. There was a post over at the blog Novel Rocket titled The "Myth" of Secular Fiction. Though it was a play on words, the basic argument laid out by Mike Duran, the author, was that the line between the sacred and secular is unclear and should not be implemented when it comes to art, specifically fiction writing. One particular quote that caught my attention was the following: By dividing the "spiritual" and the "secular," not only do we create potential animosity or suspicion between camps (the same animosity that...

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Posted in: Christian fiction,Christian writing,fiction,writing life

Search for a Book Cover Designer - Part I

I recently finished the first draft of my book, Stop Bringing Them to Church. I was elated over the fact that I actually finished it. Grant it, we still have a long way to go but a milestone has been reached with its completion. Now that I'm in the editing phase, I'm in the market for a book cover designer. One of the things that I tend to see more of in the self-publishing arena is a plethora of bad book covers which is a no, no. Anyone that reads books knows that the cover can make or break a book. Granted, a good cover won't make bad writing good, but it will draw people in to take a closer look at your book. A bad cover will guarantee you...

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Posted in: book covers,self-publishing

The Christian Writer's Ten Commandments

While part of a discussion on a forum recently, it occurred to me that a Christian writer has a very different approach and outlook to writing then non-Christians. Our whole motive is different. Knowing that the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 are tenets by which we live, I sat down and put together a list of ten commandments that every Christian writer should live by when writing. In so doing, we can be sure that whatever we write will be pleasing to God and then others. So, without further adieu, here they are. The Christian Writer's Ten Commandments: 1. Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.(1...

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Posted in: Christian writing,writing life

Christian Writer or Writer That's a Christian?

When I was a DJ over at a Christian radio station, I often met many music artists who identified themselves not as Christian music artists but music artists who are Christian. You may look at that and think that they're one in the same but actually that's not true. Each one distinguishes a different audience and also, to a lesser extent, what identity takes precedence. I was thinking about this recently in my capacity as a writer. I'm a part of a forum at Christian Writers.com. The title of the site itself prompted me to think about how I was going to identify myself. Am I a Christian writer or writer that's a Christian? Then it hit me: I wouldn't...

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Posted in: Christian writing,writing,writing life

The Importance of Book Covers

I want to start this post off with a small reality check: I'm pretty much a nobody. When I say that, it's in reference to my being an author. Yes, I've been published in national magazines, newspapers, trade journals, and the like. But I don't have any books published and this first offering, Stop Bringing Them to Church is probably going to ruffle some feathers for the people that read it. In the very least it's going to challenge them to take a closer look at the Bible and what it actually says. However, that is currently en route to publication. I had to think about the reason why I was writing this blog and what I wanted to accomplish with...

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Posted in: book covers,self-publishing

6 Tips for Writing Non-Fiction: I Do Like It

When I first decided to become a writer I did so on the premise that I was going to be a novelist. Yes, I had the same visions in my head as every writer on the planet: writing for only a few hours a day while being free to go on book tours and sell millions of books to my adoring fans. Ahhh! There's something magical about being naive and stupid. Back then I always had an aversion to write nonfiction books. Don't ask me why. I suppose I was too steeped the romanticism of being a novelist.  Well now, here I am. A little older and a tad wiser and though I don't know if I'm going to have millions of fans who read my books (a man can still...

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Posted in: non-fiction,writing tips

6 Reasons Why I'm Self-Publishing

Beginning of the End? If you do a search on the internet today, you will see that self-publishing is all over the place. If you're an author and have an idea for a book, you don't have to scrounge around for an agent or publisher and watch the profits go mostly to them as they give you some paltry advance for all of your hard work. You can take that idea and sell it yourself with some savvy marketing and keep the vast majority of the royalties yourself. My upcoming book, Stop Bringing Them to Church (I changed the title to give a little mystery to it as far as who "them" was) is Christian non-fiction. It talks about an issue today that really...

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Posted in: non-fiction,self-publishing