My First Book: A Prolonged Process to Publication

It was a prolonged process to getting my first book published from the time I was inspired to write it in 2000, but God blessed me to get it done in 2008. My first book is a poetry collection entitled, “ON SOLID GROUND: Inspirational Poetry For All Occasions”. All of the poems are God inspired and are based on His word with a scripture reference for each one. I wrote the words, but God spoke them to my spirit to help encourage, heal and celebrate others as well as myself. 

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​I am often asked how long it took me to write the book and I always have to pause before I respond because:

• The oldest poem in the book was written while I was in college in 1982 and the newest poem was written in February 2008, so the book is reflective of over 20 years of experiences with people, places, situations, events, and occasions;
• I compiled the original manuscript in 2000 and allowed fear, insecurity, lack of publishing knowledge, distractions and procrastination to keep me from following through. However, I always intended to return to the manuscript to edit it and add scripture references;
• In February 2007, while attending Inner Visions Institute For Spiritual Development, I acknowledged the manuscript as one of my incomplete cycles of action and incorporated it into my Living Vision Action Plan. I committed to retyping the poems in my computer (I had previously lost the electronic copy when my old computer crashed) and adding the scripture references. I completed that process in June 2007;
• My spiritual journaling instructor from Crossroads Tabernacle told me about www.christianmanuscriptsubmission.com, where I posted a proposal of my book and awaited interested publishers to contact me. I received a couple of emails, but one publisher emailed me every week for approximately six months. I had decided to wait and pray for direction of what to do next;
• As 2008 came into view, I set some goals and decided to publish with Author House when they reoffered the poetry book $399.00 special. Just before I was to submit the initial manuscript, the Holy Spirit led me to reformat, add a new section, remove some poems and add others. I was amazed and quite content with the finished product and God's order of things. Six of the seven sections ended up with 8 poems each while the Tribute section ended up with 16; and the final collection was more reflective of my life experiences and contained some of my dearest pieces. I had originally thought I would just get the first book out to complete that assignment and publish my more evolved work afterward. But God said, “No! - make this first book a combination of your earlier work and some of your best.”
• I submitted the manuscript to Author House in February 2008 and it was published in April 2008.

So the answer to the question of how long it took to write the book is a little complicated because I was in a 20+ yearlong process.  

The 64 poems cover a variety of occasions, including friendship, anniversaries, birthdays, retirement, promotion, bereavement, and church celebrations and are e categorized into seven sections that include Words Of 1) Encouragement 2) Challenge 3) Relationship 4) Tribute 5) Comfort 6) Testimony and 7) Ethnocentric Expressions.

I think the book cover is beautiful! The design team came very close to the vision God gave me for it in 2000. It includes an eagle, a rainbow and a rocky mountain top. The rainbow symbolizes God's covenant promise (Genesis 9:13) to His people; the eagle represents majestic strength and soaring; the mountaintop is two-fold, representing the mountaintop experiences and the rocky surface representing the valley experiences.

​The message that I wanted the cover and the poetry collection to convey was that no matter what situations we encounter in life, whether they be joyful mountaintop experiences or sorrowful valley situations, God's promises are always in effect. He is faithful to those who stand on the solid ground of His word and "those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint". (Isaiah 40:31).