Kevin Harney: On Getting Published (Part 1)

Now that I have a few books under my belt people will ask me from time to time how they too can get published. That’s a hard question to answer because getting published is not very easy. One person from the industry told me once that getting published is like a horse race. You have the jockey, the horse, and the track. The jockey is the author, the horse is the idea or subject matter, and the track is the timing or the cultural environment. You need at least two of the three to get published. So when Ted and I got a deal for Why We’re Not Emergent, we were basically nobodies with no platform (though Ted had written a few books which helped). But the subject matter was hot and the timing was just right. Still, we were very fortunate that Moody was interested in the book. We got turned down by plenty of other houses first.

When I was thinking about trying to get published I was very impressed with the advice I received from Kevin Harney. Kevin is a fellow RCA pastor and friend of mine. Besides working (along with his wife) with Bill Hybels and John Ortberg on different projects, Kevin is the author of several books: Finding a Church You Can Love and Loving the Church You’ve Found, Seismic Shifts, and Leadership From the Inside Out. Kevin has given me permission to post his brief paper on getting published for my blog.

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Dear Friend,

Over the years Sherry and I have been writing we have had many people ask us about how to take first steps into the world of publishing. Since this is a very common question, we decided to write down some basic guidelines we feel will be helpful. What follows is simply a collection of our observations and thoughts on what might help anyone who wants to be a writer or to publish a book.

1. LEARN TO LOVE WRITING FOR THE SAKE OF WRITING NOT FOR THE SAKE OF PUBLISHING…

We encourage you to grow as a writer because you love to write. If you love it, you will do it. Also, if you feel God is calling you to write, go for it. No matter what else happens, you will have been faithful to the Lord, and this matters most of all.

2. LOOK AT PUBLISHING FROM A REALISTIC VANTAGE POINT…

Most acquisitions editors get countless unsolicited manuscripts each year. These are books or book proposals they did not request, but were just sent in by an aspiring author. Some of these are never read or reviewed. The truth is, acquisition editors (The ones who decide what books should be considered for publication) are already over worked and have many published authors who they are partnering with. When the time comes for you to submit a proposal to an AE (Acquisitions Editor) you need to present the right thing in just the right way. We will give you some ideas about how to do this later in this paper.

The simple truth is, it is hard to get a proposal to the right person. And, once they have it, it still might not go forward and become a published book. This is why we encourage people to write out of a passion and desire to write, not to publish. If you end up being published, great! But, if you knew you would never be picked up by a publisher, would you still write?

3. CONSIDER SELF-PUBLISHING…

If you are certain you want to publish something you have written, but you can’t find a publisher, we encourage you to consider self-publishing. The cost of publishing your own work has gone down with time. This is a very viable route to take for anyone who is really committed to seeing their work in print and available to others.

My little sister Lisa had a book idea that was turned down by every publisher she went to. So, she self-published! My mom was her editor. Friends proofed the work and gave input. Her book has become a leader in her industry (employment). If you asked her if she wished she was working with a publisher today, she would say, “No.” Self-publishing worked very well in her case and it might be the way you want to go, at least with your first project.

4. START SMALL…

People who think they have a great book idea (but have never been published in some other format) rarely get a hearing from publishers. There are very few professional basketball players who did not play in grade school, high school and college. When Sherry and I did our first projects for Zondervan, we had already written over 200 articles (for youth and adults) for a publication called The Sunday School Guide. This guide has a modest circulation and is used in Christian education settings. We started small! Also, we wrote small group guides and did editorial work for Zondervan for almost a decade before we wrote our first book.

One suggestion is to write short sections of your book and seek to have them published as magazine articles. Pick what you feel will be your strongest pieces. Choose what you are most passionate about. Then, write articles that are 600-1,500 words long. Once you have three or four solid pieces, go to your local super-bookstore and look for a few magazines that might fit the content of the pieces you wrote. E-mail the magazine and ask them about the procedure for submitting an article. If they publish a piece you have written (and maybe ask for you to send them more articles) you have a confirmation that there is interest in the topic of your book. Also, if you take your book concept to a publisher down the line, you can show them that sections of your book have already been published.

Another helpful idea is to have your articles published in church magazines, the local paper, or anywhere else. Be creative…but get some stuff in print and in front of people.

5. TAKE WISE STEPS IF YOU WANT TO BE A WRITER…

Here are some general suggestions if you want to progress as a writer:

Write often. Make time to write at least 4-5 times a week. You might not even plan on showing it to anyone, but develop a discipline of writing.

Be sure to focus your writing on things you are passionate about. Don’t let writing become a chore, but let it flow from your heart.

Be realistic. Too many people say, “I have a great book idea” but they have not written anything. What they mean is they have a great idea and maybe a clever title. Unless you have been moved to write many pages already, you don’t really have a book, you have a dream. If you want that dream to become a reality begin writing.

Don’t over-spiritualize your desire to write. Too many people say things like, “I know God wants my book published,” or “The Lord gave me this book.” It is fine that you feel this way, but Christian publishers will not respond well to someone who tells them they need to publish this book because God said so! Let your work speak for itself. And, if God wants it published, He will make this known.

To be continued…