I have recently been mulling over a few concepts in order to publish a book over this next year and recently met Jeff through Twitter and blog. For many reasons, I believe self-publishing is a great option for those wishing to further their reach and influence. I asked Jeff if he could help introduce the concept of publishing a book to the pastors and ministry leaders who haven’t even considered it to begin with. Here’s his guest post — I’m interested in your thoughts regarding pastors publishing books…please read this post and then leave a comment below!

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With the start of the new year, agents and publishers alike are being deluged with record numbers of query letters and book proposal packages. But while publishing dreams are at an all-time high, the cold, hard truth is that not everyone will make the cut into the ranks of the commercially published. But that’s no reason to give up hope, keeping your message under wraps.

The self-publishing model is nothing new. From Martin Luther to Joyce Meyer, writers of all stripes have stepped up to take matters into their own hands in sharing their work with the world. And with the current array of technology to help both produce and promote their books, aspiring novelists, business owners, and yes, pastors too, are increasingly seizing upon a quick, efficient, and cost-effective way to reach their target markets.

While there’s no question that taking the traditional route over the self-publishing route garners an added level of prestige — no matter how imagined — the lines between approaches are increasingly blurred. In fact, there’s really only one core question separating the two: who fronts the money?

Here’s how it works: with the traditional model, the publisher, e.g. Thomas Nelson, commissions a team to have a book written, edited, designed, printed — and to some extent — marketed. The publisher pays an advance to the author on estimated future book sales, and in return, the publisher reaps 85-90% of the profit. And when you think about it, why shouldn’t they – it’s their investment!

In the self-publishing model, however, authors come up with their own funding for book production, promotion, and distribution, and as a result, stand to make 100% of the profit – depending on the company and services being utilized.

Granted, we’ve all seen material on the racks that we consider “not ready for primetime.” But that’s certainly a matter of opinion. With respect to your own work, you’re now empowered to make that call for yourself. If you believe in your message, and you invest the proper energy and resources to do it right, the self-publishing path can be a tremendously rewarding experience. And it’s especially true with pastors.

Here’s an introductory Q and A that may help you understand the process:

Is self-publishing expensive?
Not really. Any legitimate self-publishing service provider will offer reasonable rates for their services and expertise. In fact, we offer a special discount to pastors to help defray the costs.

Can pastors use existing sermons as source material for their books?
Absolutely. Many pastors are excellent orators, and we highly recommend playing to those strengths. We offer a transcription service to capture the message from a recorded sermon, which we then use to repurpose the content into book form.

Where is the best place to sell my book?
Congregations are often a great source of initial book sales. The book can also be used as an entryway to guest speaking engagements at other churches. Many large churches even have in-house bookstores that will carry a pastor’s book.

Bottom line: If you’re a pastor interested in spreading your message in 2010, self-publishing a book should be among the top methods on your list of considerations.

Have you ever thought about publishing a book? Leave a comment and share what you are thinking of doing next!

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Jeff Smith is a writer and publishing professional with Smith Publishing & Communications in Colorado Springs. He can be reached via his company website at www.smithps.com or via email at jeff@smithps.com.

Todd Rutherford and Ryan Sheehan of Yorkshire Publishing (www.yorkshirepublishing.com) also contributed to this article.

Today’s guest contribution comes to us from Kyle Reed, who has been eating, breathing, sleeping and dreaming about how mentoring can impact our Christian community and beyond. I asked Kyle to share with us a tidbit of his vision involving mentoring.

Check out what he has to say below and then head over to his project over at www.MentorMeProject.com. If you are as excited as I am about some of the groundwork Kyle is producing, please help encourage him and anyone else that can see the potential of his plans by leaving a comment with your reflections, frustrations, insights and feedback about this topic.

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Did you know that when you search the word “Diets” on Google over 19,500, 000 pages return? Seems more then enough info for you to find what you are looking for or need. In a world saturated by information, often times it can be overwhelming rather then useful. Shane Hipps in his book “Flickering Pixels” says:

“If we are not alert, the info age may stunt our growth and create a permanent puberty of the mind.”

With so much information out there, where do you begin?

Now maybe you are not searching for diets or how to have 10,000 followers on twitter, but you might be looking for one thing, for one thing that you can do to impact others. Today, I would like to share with you one thing that I find very important for you, as a leader, to understand, the importance of influence. People are watching and learning from you, your influence reaches out to many. This could be a very scary thought or one that gives you great energy and passion. No matter how you view this, you are influencing others.

I have several conversations with people daily about mentoring. One thing they often tell me is there desire to have a mentor. I find this challenging and difficult.

Instead of being pursued, a generation is looking to be influenced and shaped.

I want to call you to be the influencers that are leading out mentoring relationship. A relationship that shares life together and learns from conversation, life experience, and the grace of God. Today, I would like to encourage you to be specific with your influencing, to go out of your way to notice, and to be one that calls others to lead.

How can you be an influencer?

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Kyle Reed is a 20 Something that is blogging his way through life and looking to connect through community. He believes that everyone is looking to connect. He has this crazy dream that one day everyone will be connected and mentored. This idea keeps him up at night. You usually can find him somewhere in St Louis reading books, chatting on twitter or writing blog post about life. If you really want to know what Kyle is about, ask him what this whole mentormeproject.com is…you will get to know who Kyle is pretty quickly. No seriously, ask him, kyle@mentormeproject.com

LINKS:
Blog: http://thoughtsaboutnothing.com
Twitter: @kylelreed

MentorMeProject: http://mentormeproject.com
Twitter: @mentormeproject

I just realized this week that it’s a special occasion!

It was one year ago that I started another blog to focus on church marketing, faith and the practical tactical for ministry…here at Godvertiser.com

It’s been a great year since it all started last January 2009. Happy Birthday Godvertiser.com!

Looking back at the posts from one year ago last January, it is interesting to see how my blogging has changed. I publish several blogs focusing on various topics, but this one is definitely the most fun to write for as of now.

It’s also my own birthday coming up in another week and a half, so January is definitely a celebratory time around here. Thanks to all the peeps I’ve met this year here on this blog, the Twitterverse and beyond. Love the comments, tweetbacks, and emails. The connections and interaction have been the best part of the experience this past year.

Well, here’s to another year ahead of us. . . What would you like to see more of here on this blog?

Someone recently shared with me, “I don’t see too many Christian-aimed marketers out there. Love the Godvertising concept very much!” And other recent feedback has pushed me to think that 2010 should focus on more practical tactical content as well as including other voices through guest blog invitations.

If you have any ideas, I’m all ears - please leave a comment below and share your thoughts.

In the meantime, let’s have some cake!

Pastor Jason has been one of my Twitterati faves ever since I’ve connected with him in the days of Twitter when it really started to take off with the mainstream (this just means 2009ish!). He’s a part of the multi-site BAF ministry in TX, which continues to expand and extend the reach of the Good News. {You can catch the lead pastor’s message on Daystar TV as well.}

Recently, we were going back and forth on which Bible reading plans each of us are tackling with the start of the New Year. Jason told me that he ended up with taking on 2 reading plans simultaneously!!! So I asked him to share with us how he ended up with 2 reading plans. . .what a great little story about the Bible and his church community in Texas!

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With the end of the year I did a little evaluation of our campus and found that at Bay Area Fellowship 5 Points, we had seen over 750 first time guests come through our doors on Sunday mornings and over 260 people had prayed to begin a relationship with Christ. For a church 18 months old those numbers told me one thing: We were reaching a lot of people who were unchurched.

With so many people just beginning their relationship with Christ and with a desire to reach even more people in our area in 2010, we set out to create some spiritual momentum to kick off the New Year.

One way I felt would help not only those new to Christ, but everyone at our campus, would be a Bible Reading Plan Challenge. I knew this plan needed to be simple enough to attempt and succeed, as well as kick start new spiritual habits for this New Year. Thus the #NTPin30 plan was developed.

#NTPin30 is actually the Twitter hashtag for our New Testament/ Proverbs in 30 Days Challenge. This plan was simply choose to read the New Testament or the book of Proverbs in 30 days. I opted for a choice, as this would challenge those who may have been stagnant in their reading as well as rewarding for those new to their faith.

The ultimate goal would be to kick start some spiritual momentum in the New Year. Get everyone to open that Bible every day. I actually upped it for myself by telling everyone I would read both if they would choose at least one. The response on the challenge was great as many people are jumping in to kick off an awesome 2010.

As far as specifics to the program, the Proverbs part was simply reading the Proverb chapter that aligns to the date. For the New Testament I broke it down into a 30 day plan…but read out over about 35 days. The plan would be to read Monday through Saturday with Sunday as a catch up day as needed.

You can download and see the 30 day Bible reading plan we’re using for own use.

At the date of this writing we have just kicked off the plan so I hope to come back and share some thoughts when it’s over. WOULD YOU CONSIDER JOINING US FOR JUST 1 MONTH IN OUR READING PLAN TOGETHER? Send a tweet @jasoncurlee with #NTPin30 and let me know how you’re doing with reading the Bible this year.

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Jason Curlee blogs at JasonCurlee.com and is all about influencing and developing others to make a difference in their world. He is currently the Campus Pastor for Bay Area Fellowship 5 Points in Corpus Christi, Texas.

His blogs are about creating content that ministry leaders can find practical and inspirational as well as sharing the ministry principles and experiences accumulated since 1995. It’s about being innovative, unique, and creating content that can help you make a difference.

It’s a new year, and you undoubtedly have a shiny new list of objectives to tackle this coming year. You’ve envisioned how you’re going to make it all happen, how you’re going to engage, how you’re supposed to conduct yourself…but is BEING RUTHLESS on your list? It should be. And oh yes, it’s still going to be a great year.

According to Harvard Business School, one of the big ideas is that how you prioritize your time and energy against your projects and tasks is critical to your potential successs. How true it is.

You have to be RUTHLESS in your prioritization - which means including one more dimension of consideration in your planning: One of the key tips from the HSB article is kind of eye opening for me… Instead of writing down all the stuff you have to do and then do the usual sort, kill and delegate, they recommend including another perspective.

Figure out how much total time you have first to work — treat your time available to work as a limited resource and then you can allocate that accordingly against the priorities you’ve set ruthlessly.

When you figure out exactly where you’re spending your time currently, you’ll mostly likely be surprised. This is what I call the Quicken Effect. When people start using Quicken on the computer to track ALL their spending, and see the graphs and charts showing them exactly where their money is going, they go into utter shock. The spending habits are clearly not in line with their conceptual ones. The same thing goes with where you are spending your time. You are most probably NOT spending your time where you THINK you are.

The suggestion is to take the highest priority tasks and knock those out first taking into consideration how much time you actually have available to work today, this week, this month, etc.

If you take the time to be ruthless first, you’ll have the time and energy to be accomodating in the end.

What other time management tactics do you use to help you make the most of your schedule? Please share one with us in the comment section below!

This past year, Rick Warren dipped his toe into the depths of the magazine publishing.

It’s definitely a hard business to survive and thrive in for sure. Only a few survive — like Oprah, Martha and Rachel Ray, all who have figured out their own niche on paper it seems.

But Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Connection magazine has completed their 2009 year in print. . . and basically figured out that their publishing ministry needs to incorporate more social media driven purpose itself — to the point where the magazine is going all-digital in 2010.

Purpose Driven Connection magazine has issued refunds to all current subscribers and told them that they’ll get free access to the PDC website that is going to be re-purposed in 2010. Rick Warren’s letter to subscribers lists several reasons why becoming social media driven makes sense.

Before you poo-pooh this as spinning the folding of a traditional magazine, take a look at the numbers — such as the 300,000+ subscribers to the daily devotional emails available through the beta website for Purpose Driven Connection

In order to make it work online, I think there are a couple of key things that the Purpose Driven team should consider:

• More of Pator Rick talking to you and me - Videos, videos, videos. People didn’t *read* the magazine for a reason. Hopefully the PDC folks won’t think about the website just as a cheaper way to push more *print* content out to the community. We want to hear Rick Warren himself, and often.
• Real Connections For PDL Churches - Thousands of churches have taken on the 40 Days of Purpose campaigns and beyond. There’s so much to learn and share about how the Purpose Driven platform is being used to grow churches, deepen faith walks and plain old bring the church together. The internet is the perfect medium to allow churches to connect and share experiences. What about hooking up churches in mentoring relationships so that the wisdom can be transferred in meaningful ways?
• Watch-worthy Interviews and webcasts - Stream live worship, interviews, and ministry webcasts teaching the audience how Saddleback approaches the tactical, practical nitty gritty of ministry. We want real life case studies from Rock Warren’s own ministry — and beyond.
• Community rally / cause projects - Figure out a way to mobilize the thousands of people online just waiting to get involved in ministry online. What about a massive blogging collbaoration project? Or a testimonial filmhouse? Or crowdsource the community to help write a book.
• Local PD Meet-ups. Let’s connect churches and Christians together (both seekers and believers) in offline events. Do something like www.saltexchange.com on a national scale with like-mided, purpose-driven ministries and individuals.

What else can you think of that would make the new 2010 Purpose Driven Connection website meaningful instead of just another pretty magazine website with glossy photos, and static content? Leave a comment below and share your vision and hopes.

Is the sonic speed of social media forcing you to realize that you really need to collaborate with your ministry teams better?

Google Wave is the latest iteration of social collaboration platforms that have hit the streets recently. You’ve probably heard Google Wave’s awesome features.

The big picture is that Google Wave hopes to replace email as the main form of communication between people and groups. But in the short term, until everyone adopts the real-time collaboration communication platform, it’s still useful for teams of people working together. For example, you can edit documents together with a group in real-time. No more waiting for others to edit and forward so that you can make your own edits. Everyone can see your changes live just as you type them into the computer. There’s other neat features too of course.

In fact, there’s so much you can do with Google Wave, that the team at Google Wave originally created a 1-hour+ video overview of the new social communications tool!

Re-thinking their first approach, they decided to create an ‘abridged’ 10-minute version overview video about Google Wave:

So far, the Google Buzz is working since official invites for new accounts are still selling like hotcakes on eBay. When Google Wave first came out, invites were going for as much as $70+ each. Nowadays, you can grab one for about $5-$8:

Of course that’s not the only way to get a new Google Wave account. If you know someone with a Google Wave account, you can get one of the invites that are periodically released to current account holders. I’ve got a couple of free invites to give out, so if you’re interested in trying out Google Wave with your ministry team, let me know — with your email address and I’ll send an invite to you as long as I have them available (right now, I have about 2 dozen free Google Wave invites). You may want to use the contact tab to send me a direct message vs. leaving a comment below with your email address in plain view for spammers to harvest, etc.

The only requirement I ask for in addition to getting me your email address via the CONTACT tab (on the left side of the site), that you do leave a comment letting me know the name of your church/ministry and website address. It’s always good to hear from the readers of Godvertiser.com and see the links to your own site.

Already have a Google Wave account? Send me a wave, and I’ll wave right back!

Hope everyone had a joyous celebration during Christmas this past week. Our Saviour’s birth!

Here’s a Twitter backdrop you can download for free this week that is a nod to all the names we can call our Savior.

We’ve had fun releasing free Christian Twitter graphic backgrounds in our Twitteratti Tuesday Series.

Would you like to see more in the new year?

Let me know by posting a comment below!

How to upload a custom background to your Twitter account:

1. Log in
2. In top navigation bar, click Settings (or go to http://twitter.com/account/settings)
3. Click the last settings tab, Design
4. Select a template, change your text and background colors, or upload your background image
5. Save your changes

This Christian Twitter backgrounds series was our little effort to help “fill the Twitterverse with the Bible and teaching of Christ!”

If you are handy with graphics and want to contribute a free Christian-themed backdrop for Twitter users, just use the contact form and we’ll share your work with others here and on Twitter!

This year for Christmas, we introduced Kiva.org to our kids. They are old enough now where we want to try and instill some meaning to the “spirit of giving.” Kiva is the perfect Christmas gift to enjoy together while doing just that.

Kiva enables micro loans of $25 at a time from “lenders” like you and me to entrepreneurs in developing countries. It handles all the administrative issues, tracks the loans, provides narrative updates, lets you see and connect with other lenders to the same Kiva loan if you wish, etc. The repayment rates are unbelievable, topping 95% in most cases. Which means that you’ll most probably get your $25 back in several months (each loan has a set repayment schedule too, so you’ll see the progress of the loan as well) where you can take it back or . . . invest in another Kiva loan!

Here’s the Kiva story our kids picked out to invest our $25 from Christmas. By May, before their school is out, they’ll see the success of their loan. And hopefully we can choose another loan to reinvest for the summer and beyond.

You can see details of our our Kiva loan group right now: My Kiva Loan

There are tons of other sample loans available to invest in:

Kiva loans are addictive, makes a visible connection with someone else across the globe and better than writing a check to a faceless charitable organization.

Do you Kiva? Tell us about your Kiva story and leave a comment below.

This Christmas break, I’m sitting down again with Tim Keller and his Counterfeit Gods. It is always refreshing to take in a story or message that’s well told. And that’s what Dr. Keller, lead pastor of Redeemer Pres in NYC does - tell great stories, share some great messages.

As Dr. Keller starts to put out a book a year (I’m eager to find out more about his next book which is apparently on suffering/evil), his unassuming style is being noticed by more and more people. You’ll notice that the buzz about #tk is constant in the Twitterverse. And yet some people can’t get enough of the messages he offers from the pulpit.

If you haven’t been tipped off yet, here’s some good news. Redeemer has released 150 doses of classic Tim Keller. You’ll notice that much of the content that Redeemer has chosen to give away completely free are great to share with friends — especially those that have questions about faith, the Church, and God.

The only issue anyone can have with this huge archive of free sermons from Dr. Tim Keller is that there’s no 1-click to download all 150 mp3 sermons at once.

But if you listen to just one sermon a day during your daily commute, workout, or daily devotion time, you’ll get to spend enough time with Dr. Keller over the next 5 months to the point where you will probably find yourself starting to tell some great stories…share some great messages. Doesn’t that sound like Good News to you?