Independent Study: This is it, Boys.

After a semester of making changes to a manuscript, to the project, and to my heart, we're ready to share with you.

This sends you to 300wordsaday.com/agreatwork.

After just two clicks, you'll be reading A Great Work.

We will gladly accept comments on this excerpt. That's why we're doing it this way.

Read. Enjoy. Learn.

I have had a rough time with this project this semester, and I'm glad I had to write about it or I wouldn't have finished it at all.

Thank you, Terry, for being willing to work with me on this. Our conversations have been wonderful and encouraging, and perfectly timed.

Thank you, people around me who have listened to me talk about what I've been doing. Your positive reactions let me know that this is worthwhile stuff.

Thank you, Mom, for reminding me every week to be working on this. I know that I needed it.

Thank you, Dad, for writing to teach. You helped me fill in the empty hours in my semester with a "class" that taught me about God, about the Bible, and about me.

Thank you, readers. I know you are few, but you are faithful. (I'm talking to you, LG.) If you like what you read, share it. Tell us what you like. Tell us what you think needs to be changed.

Glory to God.

Independent Study: Finishing the Hat

We have about fifteen chapters left to finish.
Even though I'm terrible at following through on goals, I'm setting a personal goal to be completely finished and selling copies by August.
I think that's reasonable.
For those of you who have ways of interacting with me beyond comments on blog posts, do me a favor and ask me how it's going.

Meanwhile, I'm going to keep studying Nehemiah and publishing. I'm not sure that I'm going to become any kind of editor, but after I write one more post I will be finished with being told what to study. I get to choose to study publishing.

Over the course of the semester, Dad sent me several links to articles and blog posts about publishing. I want to share them with you.

Here's one from Steve Woodruff about how the industry is being changed by the rise of self-publishing.

Guy Kawasaki shares his 10 Social Media Tips for Authors. We'll be sure to remember these through this process.

Geoff Livingston is done with traditional publishing.

Kris Rusch talks about hiring editors. She delineates the types of editors that exist and how to choose one.

Thanks for joining us on this journey.

The next post will be the last of my assigned 10, and will give you instructions on how to obtain a copy of our sample.

Independent Study: In Defense of This Method

The author reads my posts. He commented on the one I wrote last night:

"I'm thinking that the five chapter approach isn't just because we put it off. Reading APE earlier in the semester showed me the value of testing and feedback and comments as part of the publishing process, especially for ebook publishing. It's part of platform building. So I'm not sure that this is a lesser thing, I think it's the right thing. (And that's not just justifying my one procrastination. It seems to work very well for Guy Kawasaki and for others who have allowed sharing of their work.)"

One of the books that has helped me in this project is a recent publication by Guy Kawasaki and Shawn Welch. APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur is a self-published book about self-publishing. 

Publishing this way allows us to tweak the book until we're ready to publish. Even after we make our PressBooks version public, we'll be able to make changes so people will get the most updated version.

It's what influenced my post in defense of publishing A Great Work, and has helped me understand the process authors go through when trying to convince people to buy into their books.

If you want to learn more, buy the book. (This link goes to Dad's Amazon store.) and/or check out apethebook.com.

Like Dad said, this approach is helping us with more than making a deadline. We can ask for feedback, build an audience, and make sure what we're putting out there is what people want to read.

I was home for last night and part of today, and having this conversation with Dad helped me feel like less of a failure in this project.
Also, my grades are slowly being published and I have A's in everything so far. Including Romans, which was stressing me out.
I would love to write more, but my youth pastor's baby is struggling to survive, and I need to pray for him.

I ask you to join me.

Independent Study: PressBooks

This is a pretty rad publishing tool. In a few easy steps, you can create a book and export it in various ebook formats, PDF, and others. It takes just a little bit more work than managing a blog, and you can send your complete book directly to your friends' inboxes or ereaders.

Last night was our first use of PressBooks. It took less than an hour to create a foreword, introduction, and five chapters. We were then able to send it to Dad's Kindle and make changes as we needed. It's simple to then export the newest version. We're fans.

PressBooks uses the power of WordPress, and lets you create a website for your book that is essentially a blog. But being able to publish takes this platform so much further.

Here's what I just found on the blog on PressBooks.com.

"Three Design Principles underpinning PressBooks

1. PressBooks should be easy for anyone to use (even me).
2. Input text once / output in every format: EPUB, MOBI, WEB AND PRINT.
3. The web will win in the end (and future-proofing your workflow now is a good idea)."

Exactly. At least, the first two points. It is so convenient that we can send our document to both Kindle and nook users, and those who are content to read a PDF.

You can use one of their themes for the design of your book.

It will automatically generate a table of contents.

You can update as many times as you need/want to.

It's just great.

We still have some experimenting to do, but so far we are very pleased with the simplicity of PressBooks.

Independent Study: Here's How I'm Going To Pass

We realized that finishing the whole book while trying to pass everything else and while Dad still works full time was just not going to happen.

Dad suggested an alternative.
Rather than sacrificing in other areas, we'd postpone the final version of A Great Work.

Instead, we spent some time this evening putting the introduction, the first five chapters, and my post in defense of publication (the Foreword) into PressBooks.

We'll be able to send that document to a kind of test audience to whet their appetites.
I'm excited about this.

Of course, it wasn't my first choice.
I suppose I forgot that this was a real class.
I dropped the ball and just couldn't quite pick it up again, and that is difficult for me to admit.
This was my fault. Despite regular reminders from my parents, I neglected this project.

But Terry has been gracious and encouraging, more so than I have deserved.

We still want to publish the whole book. We will work on it this summer, in all of the free time we'll have.

That was sarcasm. Dad and I will both be working this summer, at the same place. That's a different post.

Tomorrow I'll be writing about PressBooks.

Independent Study: Why Should We Publish This?

With the rise of self-publishing, books that have no business being sold are regularly finding their way onto Amazon.

Someone has a cool life story or wrote a great creative writing sample for a class and suddenly people are saying "you should write a book." They don't really mean it, and would never purchase the finished product, but it's what the writer wants to hear so he or she decides sit down and type up a manuscript. Because self-publishing doesn't require anyone's approval, the writer can put it up for sale and then sink into a depression when it doesn't sell more than the few pity copies bought by relatives and close friends.

So why are we publishing this? Why is this book more worthy of publication than any of the others?

Unbiased opinion: my dad is a great writer. Seriously, if I didn't think he was talented, I wouldn't be spending time doing this. He writes well, he writes good, he writes to teach, and people learn. He has made friends all over the country and world over the past several years as he has written blogs, spoken at conferences, and tweeted about the coffee being ready. (You don't have to take my word for it. Check out 300wordsaday.com to find out for yourself.) And the fact that he spent over a decade studying and teaching communication and rhetoric, and a lifetime working on understanding what it means to follow Christ gives him some credibility. (Not to mention the fact that he's already published two ebooks that have sold pretty well.) It's quality, thoughtful, insightful writing. He did the necessary research. He worked to understand, and it's worth sharing with those who struggle with the Old Testament.

People don't read the Old Testament. Okay, so we read Psalms and Proverbs, parts of Isaiah, parts of the Pentateuch, and other stories that we think are cool (Esther, Ruth, the anointing of David, etc.). But Nehemiah? "Oh, he's the one who built the wall, right? Yeah, I kinda remember reading that story in my Read-the-whole-Bible-in-a-Year plan. I guess it was pretty cool." Dad's book takes us into the story. The subtitle is "A Conversational Commentary with Nehemiah for People (who want to be) Doing Great Works." A conversational commentary. Sometimes Dad might sound a little crazy because he's saying that he's having conversations with Nehemiah, but that's what it's like. You'll get over it. It's a different way of reading the OT. As I read Dad's book I am constantly reminded that Nehemiah was a real guy who actually oversaw the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem, who actually faced opposition, who actually prayed and fasted for four months until the king asked him what was up. Readers will have an understanding of Nehemiah that you just can't get from reading a traditional commentary. Unless you actually understand traditional commentaries, in which case I commend you. But read this book. It's worth your time.

It's quality. It's different. It's helpful.

It's worthy of publication.

Independent Study: This Is A Book.

A few months ago, Dad came to visit me. He had been working on some course writing about 45 minutes away from campus, and we decided to have lunch together.

It was a Friday, so I had choir. We met at SG just before noon so I could buy him coffee with Bethel Bucks, and he sat here writing for an hour. (Nehemiah visited him while he was here and they talked about the lists of names. You'll be able to read about it after we publish.)

After lunch (Chipotle!), and some grocery shopping, we sat in the Shupe lounge for a while. We talked about the project and he shared his insights about the lists. And this is when he said it:

"We're writing a book, aren't we?"

I'm not sure it had ever been said out loud, and it was a major shift in my thinking about the project. It's not a very long book, and I don't know whether we'll have it printed, but it's still a book. We are self-publishing a book.

Dad's the author, obviously. Nehemiah might get contributor credit. I'm working as editor and copyeditor. Big thanks go to Terry, Mom, and those who have let Dad talk about Nehemiah for the past year.

I feel like I'm getting ahead of myself here. All we have at this point is a manuscript and a dream.

Okay, it's a little bit more than a dream, but it was poetic. It could be a song in a musical about an aspiring writer. Maybe that will be my next project.

For now, we'll be polishing the first five chapters for early publication.

And I'll be posting daily for the next week.

Tomorrow I'll be asking the question "why should we publish this?"

Independent Study: This one is difficult to write.

When I checked my email this afternoon, I read the subject line of the first message in my inbox.
The way I read it, it said "How IS the project coming?"

This was like a punch in the gut. Read it out loud with the emphasis, and you might know what I mean.

 I now know that it actually says "How is the IS project coming?" This is an entirely different sort of question, carrying much less of a guilt trip. But you'll understand why I read it the way I did as you continue reading.

When I read that subject line, my face got how and I simultaneously wanted to cry, climb in bed and go to sleep, and go for a run. The tears would have been from shame. The desire to sleep came from the opportunity it would give to escape from reality. And I only want to run when I have something to run from. Fight or flight response. When I'm confronted with something that requires me to admit my shortcomings, I choose flight every time.

The project is not going well. The semester is not going well. I am in a pit that I dug for myself, and it's easier to just stay down here than to try to climb out. This, of course, is not the response that anyone wants from me. I've been squandering my potential my whole life, and I've said more times that I care to count that "it's time to do things differently."
Well, at the end of my time in undergraduate studies, I'd better figure out how to stick to that statement.

If this project is about lessons in doing a great work, I'm going to treat this project as a great work.
In the editing that I did this evening, after feeling terrible all afternoon, I learned that it fits many of the criteria for a great work.
If you want to know more about these criteria, you can read the book on your Kindle when it's published in May.

The manuscript is now two-thirds finished (as far as I'm concerned).
I'm further behind in my reading that I care to acknowledge (this is true of most of my classes at the moment).
And this is only the third of the ten posts I committed to writing.

The project, from now on, will get better.
My edits of the manuscript I have will be finished by Saturday. Dad, I'll give you the binder at lunch.
My reading will be done within two weeks.
I'll be writing multiple posts each week.

This will get done. I will finish well.
I have made mistakes, but I am not a failure. I refuse to defeat myself.

That's how the project is going.