Friday, January 31, 2020

Process of Publishing a Book

Brexit is done and my book is done. Altogether it has taken me five months to bring into completion two books which I wrote some years back. For Departure Points I spent about two and a half months editing, arranging the photos, proof-reading (Sept-mid Nov 2019). As soon as I finished that, I moved on to completing the Gospel of John (1-12) in Malay and that took another 2 months and this time in proof-reading as the book is purely text with no photos except the cover. For me, to put the price of my book at RM50.00 is cheap, not just the labour that went into getting it published but the years of writing and the skills and knowledge that go into producing a quality book. But I will let my readers judge except that I am encouraged to note that one reader had given me high marks on my Malay commentary on John.
He is a bilingual, a University graduate and is a 2nd year theological student - a representative of the target audience of my book as I wrote in my foreword. I thank my printers who have gone beyond the call of duty. The person involved spent days and weeks working with me, correcting and arranging the text, and designing the cover. Yes, a book is judged by its cover. I trust in the Lord within a fortnight, at least 100 copies of the book will be printed and the rest will follow by the end of February or early March 2020. I will take a couple of weeks' rest (not months) from writing but when I come back from Singapore in the latter part of February with all my treasured possessions (300 books) I will start writing again, in fact I have already started - it's 21,000 words and by 50,000 words (about 120 pages) I will conclude so that I can call it A Concise Commentary.

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