Oh Baby, Our Book!

As the mother of three children, and now the co-author of three books, I thought I'd take a shot at comparing the two. At least from my own experience.

• Parents and authors both endure approximately nine months gestation from the creation of their "baby" to the day their prize arrives to be held in their hands. Sue and I delivered the Mixed Ministry draft to our editors last May. We expect to receive our copies this week or next.

• During that gestation time, parents & authors suffer through long periods of boredom followed by bursts of activity. Moms go through the "am I really pregnant?" phase because, face it, you don't look it, feel it, or sometimes believe it. Then, boom, your sonogram shows a wildly-beating heart, then your belly pops out and your scale creaks. Similarly, authors turn in the manuscript, then in effect forget about it for about four months. We feel forgotten, too, by our editors. But in reality, they are busy, busy morphing that original manuscript into a masterpiece worthy to be read by others. One day they send it back to you and give you two weeks to answer all their questions, fix all the problems they found, and return it in publishable form. Yeah, right.

• Both get their rooms remodeled. That poor third child...surely he/she deserves to have the nursery repainted or remodeled. We decided to do the same: a few weeks ago I announced that our web site had recently been remodeled, refashioned, and completely redeveloped. Sue and I put time and money into that effort, after several years of neglect, because we knew our little family of books was soon to grow. Mixed Ministry deserves a little room of its own!

• The arrival of both baby and book means...MARKETING! Of course you market your baby--you just call it "birth announcements" or "baby showers" or "visiting hours." Authors unfortunately call it marketing. But really, it's fun and rewarding to let the world know about your new bundle of joy. We want you to get excited about the imminent arrival of Mixed Ministry, a resource for church leaders that challenges the way men and women do ministry and life together. Like any doting parent, we'll be sure to point out the unique qualities--the ones you won't find in any other book on the market--of our pride and joy. For instance, where else can you find a book that...

...tackles mixed-gender relationships in the workplace from a biblical perspective

...invites believers to renew their eyes when viewing their sacred siblings in the church

...offers a means to healthy community among men and women who work together for God's kingdom within the context of our oversexualized culture.

...and more.

I'm sure there are many other similarities between birthing babies and books. I think it would be fun to keep going with that, but--hey, my due date is here and it's time to look to the future!

In an early bid to get this marketing going, our publisher, Kregel, has noted this blog as their featured author site for the week of February 4th.

If you would be willing to review our book, please email me on how to get a review copy. We welcome all honest and thoughtful reviews for amazon, CBD, and your own blogs or web sites.

Don't forget to check out our web site for more details on Mixed Ministry, our past books and articles, and our future ministry plans. I'll post the "birth announcement" on this blog as soon as I find out.