Writing Spiritual Books: A Bestselling Writer's Guide to Successful Publication

There are few types of writing that are as personal as writing about one's beliefs or spiritual experiences. Unlike fiction where a writer can hide behind imagination and creativity or technical non-fiction where the author can remain emotionally unavailable, the author of spiritual material must share him or herself fully with their readers in order to give them insight into the literature or an understanding of how this material pertains their life. Writing Spiritual Books emphasizes a strong author-reader connection. Such a bond is built through the writer being genuine, describing life events that are appropriate to the topic, and writing about what they really know and have experienced fro themselves. Beyond these important aspects, the author of spiritual works, like any other writer, must tailor his or her organized, well written text to suit his or her audience's needs, wants, and desires. I found the information provided in this book to suit my needs and address my concerns while making me feel like I was having a good conversation with a beloved mentor and friend.

"Perhaps the greatest lesson any of us has to teach as an author is to touch our readers in such a way that they can remember their spiritual identity, and we do that as much by the relationship we establish with them as by anything we say about a particular subject. Put simply, the quality of the relationship we establish with our readers may well be our greatest message." - From the book Have you survived unusual life circumstances and thought, "Boy, I could write a book!" Or perhaps you've written some articles and reviews, and your readers have told you "You need to write a book!" Maybe you've experienced the creative stirrings deep within your soul, feeling "I've got a book in me...*somewhere*." If any of these scenarios sound familiar, writing coach and author Hal Zina Bennett gives you the tools to make successful publication a reachable goal in his book Writing Spiritual Books. From knowing your mission to finding models to follow, mapping out your book to creating a solid proposal, Bennett inspires potential authors with insider tips, friendly advice, and helpful resources. Writing Spiritual Books boosts confidence, largely by affirming that there are many approaches--and many formats--for writing New Age, self-help, self-improvement, or "spiritual" book. From biography to memoir, visionary fiction to channeled material, the author gives examples from published books from well-known authors to show readers exactly how--and why--they work. Bennett emphasizes that "writing a book can never be a waste of time, whether it is ever published or not", and maintains that tenacity and the act of writing itself can be a rich reward. From identifying your target audience to empathizing with your readers, providing relevant anecdotes to imbuing prose with sensual imagery, the author not only shows writers how to connect with their audience, but also provides practical guidelines for organizing ideas, themes, and chapters. He also encourages would-be authors to value the power of personal experiences. In fact, he points out that journaling, reflection, and "clustering" can help you mine the jewels from your life for inclusion in your book. As a bibliophile and reviewer, I tend to aggravated with books that tell you "what" you're supposed to be doing--but never provide the tools for HOW to do it. I was thrilled that Bennett pointed out this truth to potential writers by saying, "...we must not only point readers to the mother lode but also supply them with the tools and the light to uncover the treasure." Some of the other things you will learn from Writing Spiritual Books include: * How to overcome resistance to writing a spiritual book * Step-by-step brainstorming exercises * How to be a storyteller * Using memorable quotes to articulate difficult concepts * Writing authentically and responsibly * Creating experiential exercises that grab the readers' attention * Anticipating what the reader is thinking and feeling * Determining how--and w

This book was laid out in a wonderful way. I could read from the beginning or look for something in other chapters that was of interest to me. The fun part was the mind mapping. I found that an interesting and useful way to figure out what kind of focus, types of chapters and topics of my potential book. I bought it for the reason I would like to write and publish my own book. This book provided clear and easy ideas for layout, what to write to capture the attention of my potential reader and the joys and pitfalls of writing a book of any kind. My book at the end may or may not be a spiritual one but that doesn't matter- Writing Spiritual Books: A Bestselling Writer's Guide to Successful Publication, provided solid information for any genre a person might consider writing.

This book practices what it preaches, giving you examples and lots of clarity about how to write a good spiritual book. I particularly like the resources section in the back - gives you lots of orientation about how to get agents, publishers, etc.