10,000 Words is Worth Celebrating

When I was doing my post-graduate diploma, the essay length demanded was 10,000 words. I wrote quite a few for my Ephesians course and also the Gospels. And also a research essay on the 7 angels in 10,000 words. Today I had passed the 10,000 words mark in my new book, a commentary on the book of Ecclesiastes. Why one may ask am I writing a book on Ecclesiastes? Because it contains many truths and some of these truths I do not find in the four or five commentaries I had read on Ecclesiastes.

Likewise in John's Gospel, I would imagine at least a third of my commentary contains new insights that I have not found in 20 or more commentaries and many more monographs that I had read over 40 years. Writing on Ecclesiastes will take a longer time compared to John's Gospel partly because of my familiarity with John's Gospel because I had taught the Gospel of John four times, twice in TTC, Singapore and twice more in my Bible College in Namaus, Ranau, an interior Bible school where I was based full time from Jan 2016 to Jan 2019, just over three years full-time. 

So today I am celebrating the fact that I have crossed 10,000 words and it is now onto ch. 2 verse 6 or 7 of the book of Ecclesiastes. I hope to have about 70,000 words in about 200 pages. As the printing costs have risen, I can no longer price my books like I did previously. It has been RM40.00 per copy since January 2020 and for 6 and a half years on I had not raised the price. A majority of my buyers are village folks with not so much income. 

The other day during the Pastors' Conference, I gave a RM10.00 discount for all my books to interested buyers and there were five pastors coming to me without me saying a word about my books. I normally have a free hand to promote my books when I get invited to preach or I ask the church leader to allow me a few minutes if I visit the church on purpose to promote my books. I did that several times during the end of the pandemic at the 2nd half of 2022 and I must have sold 200 or more books that year to help me survive 18 months without pay. 

And 2023 was also a bumper year as far as book sales are concerned and I probably sold another 200 books during my one year at the Seminary. A couple of my students introduced their friends and one place alone in Kudat bought about 30 copies of my books. May God bless my new book on John 13-21 and equip many for His service. I do not know whether my books have shipped from KL, once it is in sail, it will take about 3 or 4 weeks to reach me. I hope to launch the book in church sometime in July or early August, God willing. Kyrie Eleison!