When God gets tired of a preacher

When God gets tired of a preacher

It is a sad thing to find a preacher who is not preaching his heart and convictions; a preacher just fulfilling an obligation yet not hoping that something more than the ordinary will happen

While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. 45 The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles.  Acts 10:44-45 NIV

The above scriptures paint the picture of what I want to point out. The Holy Spirit had tried everything to break Peter’s resistance. He had given convincing proof that his heart attitude to the Gentiles was against His will.

Now Peter arrives in the house of Cornelius and starts sharing the gospel but he actually started with his bigoted opinion. Something like – “You know we more superior race does not interact with some God-forsaken races like yours but I am here because our God asked me to.  You see the Jesus I came to talk to you about is actually our brother and a savior for us but well, since God asked me to come to you………”

At a point, the Holy Spirit was not going to allow Peter waste an opportunity to win a whole community, so HE MOVED UNILATERALLY AND FILLED THE PEOPLE. He moved in spite of Peter’s theology. He asked them to bring Peter because it was Peter’s job but He won’t standby and watch Peter ramble like that and so close the hearts He had opened.

What was the response of Peter and his holy race? They were surprised?  They were astonished. Even though they came, but they were not expecting their preaching to make any difference. Peter was preaching but his heart was not in line with what he was saying.  He still had reservations about the people. In the next chapter when he was explaining himself to his “holy race” check out his choice of words –

So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?" Acts 11:17 NIV

He never spoke on account of first conviction; he would not have permitted the immediate baptism of this family, even though they claimed they saw an angel. He would set up three months follow-up classes, call a council and debate if they should be baptized. And when baptized, take another one year to see if they should eat the Holy Communion.

May the Holy Spirit override every preacher that may squander an opportunity this Sunday morning in Jesus Name

Preach your heart Preacher

For you my sister who may be going to a church, ask the Holy Spirit to lead to a preacher that He can control

Happy Sunday

Emma your brother @PNUR

Trapped by what you said

Trapped by what you said

You have been trapped by what you said, ensnared by the words of your mouth. Prov. 6:2

It is a shame that today I have to write about one of my major weaknesses; Promising to my jeopardy. I just pray that my wife will not read this because severally she has advised me to pause before I make a promise. I call it a shame because I feel that up to this time I still make hasty promises. I also discovered that some people around me know about this weakness and have often taken advantage of it. As you perhaps know, I am a preacher who has put in many years into the work and like my peers in trade, I often pick characters from the bible; yes, some notorious characters which I use to push home my messages when I mean to talk about bad people who refused to repent and so suffered eternally. One of such characters, as your pastor would have told you, is King Herod who killed a servant of God called John the Baptist.

On Herod’s birthday the daughter of Herodias danced for the guests and pleased Herod so much 7that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked. Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.” The king was distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he ordered that her request be granted and had John beheaded(I) in the prison. His head was brought in on a platter and given to the girl, who carried it to her mother. Matt6:6-11

King Herod did not know that his enemy was stalking around and waiting to take advantage of the words of his own mouth. Herod would have been a bad man but sorry to say, he had more value for his own words than most Christians today. I complained to a pastor in Cameroon, very sad to say, but I cannot remember three pastors in Cameroon whom I met who thinks that they are obligated to keep their own words. And many of us are like that. I don’t want to believe that this is deliberate; rather it is as a result of not thinking before we talk. When Herod made the promise, he was thinking about lands and houses. Perhaps, he will think, what can this small girl ask for more than a big toy or a visit to an Aunty? Well, he may further think, if she dares to ask for an expensive car, I will give it to her and then get her a good driver. In his weirdest thinking he never believed that his wonderful harmless daughter will ask for a human head. Well, that was what she asked for. She asked for that knowing that he was a man who kept his words at whatever cost.

Yes, I remember that some people will bully you to a corner by reminding you that you are a pastor. They are not going to be pastors because they know they won’t live up to the standard but they are going to be supervisors for others who make up their minds to venture. If you understand the mess Herod found himself, you will forgive him and then try to use his predicament to better your own character. He was faced with two bad options; would he remain a man of his words and kill a man he holds in great respect or will he destroy a moral legacy he has held all his life and save a man of God. Some young women who committed abortion and young men who aided fraud in their company will relate with what I am trying to say. It is pertinent that our two legs would have already landed in the deep ocean before we realize the option before us.

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, James 1:19

When the bible said quick to listen, I believe that it means that when people tell you something, you make sure you understand them before you speak. There is nothing wrong with asking the person to repeat himself more than twice before responding. You may even go further to ask the person to allow you time to think about it. It may seem stupid but it is better to appear stupid than to carry guilt all your life. If you read the above text well, you will observe that Herod carried the guilt all his life.

It is also needful that we take careful note of the kind of people we relate with. Once a person introduces himself through his character or body language, we should start relating with him according to that. Herodias was another man’s wife, more than that, the wife of Herod’s brother. For that woman to cross-carpet to his brother-in-law’s house while her husband lived, was enough evidence that she had no morals and was evil. She never hid herself, if you ask me, she was very open to Herod.

In a relationship, if you meet a man or woman who is always insulting servants of God and uses dubious ways to assist you, just know that she can return the same treatment to you. Evil people don’t become evil because they don’t like your face. They do evil things because they are evil

To be continued

Emma your brother @PNUR

My Journey to Becoming an Author 11

Scratch My Back; I Scratch Your Back Publishing

This is a pattern of publishing we invented; authors are encouraged to publish their works under our publishing company as a series and then assist in selling each others’ books. In this way, they serve as outlet for their books. If there are ten authors in this series, it means each author has ten book outlets. The challenge is that they would have to write from a common view. This works more with novels (African Writers Series) and gospel literature. I am not saying that other fields will not fit into this. Teachers can help sell each other books, professionals and people in same field of trade can also do the same

Excerpt from my new book, My Journey to Becoming an Author

My Journey to Becoming an Author 10

Publishing your work

Online publishing

I have mentioned before now that I start with online publishing, it is easy and cheap. There are many online bookstores and platforms that will readily accept your manuscript even in a bad state. Yes, some will want to assist you to put your manuscript in more reader friendly format. You will do well to take advantage of their services. I don’t need to mention specific names but I encourage you to Google, “PUBLSH MY BOOK” and the machine will give you more than a dozen options.

Piracy

Piracy is defined as a situation when somebody or an organization reproduces a copyrighted book without permission from the copyright owner with the result that the copyright owner does not benefit financially from his labor. This is a global challenge to which the world has not discovered a cure, especially in developing countries like Nigeria. Most music, videos and literatures sold in Nigeria are pirated. Monitoring boards set up by government have not been able to check this menace.

Besides criminal mindedness another major reason for piracy is when good manuscripts are not available or the selling price is too high creating room for the pirate. I was speaking in a coaching class when somebody pointed out that some publishers could pirate ones book. Well, let me repeat here what I replied him; you must be a lucky person for a publisher to consider your manuscript for piracy. Except in very special cases, pirates don’t go for budding authors; otherwise their practices should be encouraged. Pirates go for established authors and titles which means the publisher is also a victim because he is deprived of his reward after he would create the market by first publishing. If you visit any publisher he is likely to have plenty of manuscripts begging to be published, so I don’t see how he will border about an unknown author. But there are cases when your manuscript is on target, what the publisher will do in that case is to discuss terms with you. I know one case when the publisher presented his terms to the young author but he argued that most of the gain will go to the publisher and so decided on self-publishing. Well, I bought a copy of the book from Ariaria market, Aba from where I got the author’s contact. He told me that what I have was the pirated copy. To my surprise, the pirated copy was cheaper, better packaged and had more spread than the original. So, what I mean is that self-publishing where you don’t have marketing network like the publisher will end up giving opportunity to pirates when they discover that your book is needed by consumers.

One thing I know that most publishers around the world are guilt of, is that they rarely pay full royalty to authors. Whatever is this reason is inexcusable.

What do I advice? Self-publishing is not a bad idea but if you can get a good publisher you may as well use him. There are still a number of good ones in town.

We publish too. For information on our publishing terms and contract, use the contact at the end of this book.

Excerpt from my new book, My Journey to Becoming an Author

My Journey to Becoming an Author 9

Discover yourself

It is necessary to point out that all writers are not the same because their experiences and background are different. People will act from the background of who they are and the grace of God in their life. No one is inferior to the other, so no one should struggle to give what he does not have. It is not wrong to improve on your potentials or, as the bible puts it, desire more spiritual gifts. But it is important to first understand what we are, who we are and the potentials that we have.

I am an inspirational writer and many of my followers marvel at the fact that I can speak for hours without taking a glance at a note book. Yet, that does not make me better than some very great servants of God who must have their messages written down and mount the pulpit with a note.

Inspirational writer – this kind of writer relies on spiritual inspiration to write. We find this class among Christian ministers; once the inspiration comes he can write a whole volume in an hour that ordinarily cannot be done in a week. Like I said earlier, I fall into this category.

The challenge with this kind is that your mind can play on you and you won’t know when the inspiration comes, or the inspiration comes while in a place where you cannot start writing. A lot of materials are often lost because if you don’t discipline yourself by carrying paper and pen around you may never be able to write a book. In some cases, something upsets you while writing, the result is that you lose concentration (my disease).

To be candid one cannot achieve full potentials if he relies on inspiration. You have to learn to take charge of your mind and compel your body to obey you and write something down

Intellectual Writer

This kind writes from his senses based on what he knows, studies he has had and what he believes. His writings may be a product of several books he has read or something he has heard or practiced severally and concluded on its success. Novelists, playwrights and poets fall into this category.

Anybody can fit into this class, that is if he is ready to read book, attend conferences and seminars and most important dare to write something down. Even a dullard call develop into this class if he remains in the company of authors while they discuss their works.

Research Writer

This kind resorts to researching already written materials; they may copy them and quote sources. Academic books and legal documents fall into this category, especially lecturers.  With the advent of internet functioning in this class is very easy. The one challenge here is that laziness plays a lot of role because somebody who is too lazy to use his mind will just copy things and paste them as he got them. This is not research but intellectual robbery. There is nothing wrong with you reading other people’s materials, getting some information from them. But there is everything wrong with your not interpreting what you gathered in your own words, which is piracy.

Journalists, historians, archeologists among many others can function here. I once asked a university lecturer, “Have you written a book?”

I was shocked by his response, “What for? Everything is on the internet. I just ask the students to download materials online”.

Unfortunately, this is the attitude of most lecturers. They fail to understand that those things on the internet are other people’s labor. They don’t know that they are robbers of intellectual properties. In another case, I tried to encourage the Head of Department of a particular school to gather teaching notes of all the lecturers in his department so we can publish them as books. This is because there was no textbook for that subject in all of the country and they were buying a textbook from Nigeria. Years have come and gone but nothing has been done.

If not for money, why not write to leave a legacy?

My Journey to Becoming an Author 8

Discovering the office of the Book-maker

In most cases a book maker is working as publishing manager in a publishing company; he is the one the managing director hands your manuscript and he takes a careful look at what you have written and ask himself some questions regarding the manuscript.

Does this manuscript have publishable information? Not everything put down on paper is worth the publishing; some information are destructive to society and will negate the essence of publishing a book. Here is one danger in self-publishing because censor board don’t have control over self published books. The reason for ISBN is not just to give numbers but to give numbers to approved literature but unfortunately this purpose has been overlooked.

Has the author exhausted what should be part of this manuscript? While working on my book, Prayer that God Must answer, the publishing manager of Scripture Union Press and Books Ltd called to alert me that there was need to add one more chapter and an additional paragraph to another chapter in the book. It is his duty to read through the lines of the manuscript with his professional mind trying to see if the author has been consistent in passing across the message he initiated.

Will the title given by the author sell? Here we come to discover that the author does not have autonomy to determine the title of the book because in the process of his inquiry he may discover that the title given by the author does not suit the message he was trying to communicate. He will also want to know if the title coincides with another book and if the titles are similar, what will be the effect on this book, especially if his client is a new author.

Does this manuscript and its message agree with the policies of his principal – the publishing company he represents? Many young authors are disappointed when there manuscripts are turned down. They approach the company with confidence and walk away depressed. They see it as a death sentence to their script. This should not be the case; you should understand that the publisher is a business man and has target market. He cannot push money into manuscripts that will just tie down his money. In fact, only sincere publishers turn down books, others will encourage you to put in your own money. Every good bookmaker will compel you to face the facts. One publisher, Overcomers Christian Publishers, Aba told me that books are not foods and so not very essential, hence he warned me to give careful thought before putting in money. Some make same mistake in opening a bank account; every commercial bank in your city has policies different from the other. Most times they don’t point it out until you make a particular request. So with publishers, the bookmaker has the duty to this regard.

Reader Friendly, Market Friendly and Pocket Friendly – These phrases are not often used but they are very crucial to book printing and publishing.

Reader Friendly - The size of the characters and the arrangement of information so that the reader is relaxed while reading and the information pops out on the reader without struggling

Market Friendly – the book should be such that customers can easily notice it in the midst of many other books in the market. Size of book and kind and size of font, and also color of cover design are the focus here. There are some book titles that have more than one size and design. It is the bookmaker who determines this bearing in mind customers of different purchasing power.

Pocket Friendly – It is no good when books of same size are selling cheaper but that is often the case when a professional did not contribute have in making the book. So he determines the price the book should be sold.

All three of these factors play important roles in how books are received in the market and the bookmaker has the assignment to see they are in order. You can now see why their services are inevitable. There are owners of publishing companies that have bookmaking experience.

Excerpt from my new book, My Journey to Becoming an Author

My Journey to Becoming an Author 7

Factors that Kill budding Authors

Lack of patience

Well, I don’t know how possible it is for a budding author to overcome this “disease”? Yes, I say this because we all feel excited when we have a new revelation and we want to share it. What you call new may be very outdated stuff to somebody else. So, young authors are often in haste to publish their book. There are occasions one is trying to help him put things in order for better audience attention and he avoids you to turn over to those who are urging him to publish fast.

This is more on the part of inspirational writers, who will likely argue that they got the revelation from the Holy Spirit. The result is that a book is pushed out and within six months the young author is stunned that nobody likes to read the book. I have taken some books from young authors and getting home was not able to go through the first five pages, owing to errors and/or wrong phrases and unsubstantiated statistics ( eg. 80% of Nigerians are poor). And then the young author keeps calling on me to help push the book into the market. Of course, I will not and he concludes that I am envious of his great achievement as a writer. It will take some time before he begins to see that his book was not as wonderful as he felt. This shocker may discourage the young author so that he may never write again

Lack of guidance

One thing is for somebody to lack guidance and another thing is for he to understand he needs some guidance. Our authors’ coach school has been raised to guide young authors and fill in the gap for mentoring which is very essential not only for the author but for every area of life.

He will need guidance in grammar usage, proofreading, research and the best way to publish his book and get the best result. Here is the place of Book Maker which I will be discussing later in this book.

Lack of Finance

The place of money cannot be overemphasized in all life endeavors. One may have a very good manuscript but absence of money can kill it. I have read several instances where an author was published after he was dead; somebody discovers the manuscript after the author was dead. The reason could because there was no money to publish while he lived.

I will be saying more about funding the publishing of your book in later pages.

Misunderstanding the concept called Book Writing

In as much as the focus of this training program is to help an individual write a book or novel we would not have done justice to our subject on book writing if we neglect some very important facts.

When we talk of book writing many people understand it to mean that you must personally put pen on paper and others conclude that they must write on subjects others are writing on. This is wrong understanding of the concept called writing.

The Stenographer - You may use the services of a stenographer, in this case you dictate and somebody does the writing. It may be a story you have to tell in form of a novel or history of an event. Preachers and public speakers can take advantage of this process. An example is that I am not good at posing for pictures like my wife does. Her best pictures are taken when she puts herself together and poses for it but most pictures I posed for are bad. So what do I do? I let the camera man capture me while I am not concentrating on him. In the same way, some people may not be good at putting things down on their own but can dictate to somebody who can. This can be done under a special appointment in special days and time, or the stenographer captures an audio/video message and puts it down as a manuscript. The author can now review what has been done and make corrections. Most of the books by great preachers are done through this process.

Ghost-writing is another process; in this process the author has just the subject he wishes to write on and somebody writes and it is published in his name. There are professional ghost-writers who may want to sell their manuscript and have it published in the name of the buyer. This may sound absurd to some people but it happens in every field of life. Some footballers are bearing the name of their sponsors, likewise musicians. This is one area in book writing which someone may take advantage of.

Excerpt from my new book, My Journey to Becoming an Author

My Journey to Becoming an Author 6

On Your Marks! ..Set? ….Wri-i-t-t-te!

How to start writing a book

Yes, all talk and no writing makes teaching waste of time or even boring. We need the face the challenge headlong because that is why you started this training in the first instance. This training would amount to nothing if it does not lead you to start writing something. But the first step to becoming an author is gathering information and of course that is why you are reading this material. So that brings us to the number step to start writing -

1. Read books – merely reading this material has given you some insight on communicating while writing, you have noted the punctuation, the chapter system and command of imagery. That means when you start writing you have to take advantage of the knowledge you have gathered. So, reading is one way you prepare yourself as a budding author and you will still need to keep the habit when you are more matured. I mentioned how I “devoured” the books in Dr. B C Mbata’s library, I had also read many novels and magazines before then. All these formed the foundation for what I am teaching now.

Note that even though I encourage you to read, you must not read things that do not edify you. Simply, don’t read non-sense. You can do yourself more good if you read books relating to the field you wish to write on. Read blog posts, read novels and don’t forget to read your bible well if you want to be a Christian author. I feel bad when I read people quote the bible out of context or cross from one version of bible to the other. Stick to one version while writing and make sure you copy and paste when using bible references. So your references will be accurate.

If you must write well, you must also be a reader.

2. Discover the kind of writer you are – You don’t just start on a subject just because others are writing about that. I read one pastor’s book on FAITH and in a book of less than hundred pages he quoted David Oyedepo more than twenty times. In my own understanding he demarketed himself. First David Oyedepo is an authority on the subject FAITH, again he does not have what it takes to write on that subject. You need to be original and that is why I told you to read and try to discover your field and develop that area. We will talk more on this ahead.

3. Create an outline – This will go a long way to help you take off, and if possible, also create each chapter heading. You not follow it strictly because as you write revelation will grow but it gives you a take off point and will guide you on your journey so that you don’t lose direction. There are books that you start at one point and then get lost in between; having outline will prevent that kind of ugly situation.

4. Don’t try to write a big/small book. Just put down what you have – I repeated myself on this point so much but it is such an important point that I cannot overdo it. You are passing information to targeted audience and they want to receive what you have. Just give what you have. Don’t preempt the size of the end product. There may be times your work is too skeletal just was the case with my first book. In that occasion the bookmaker will point it out as SUPBLtd did with one of my books. That is not what we are talking about this time. We are talking about a case when the author picks up one big book, counts the pages and then commences to write a book of that size. He will likely write out of point. Some authors will go online, copy and paste other people’s work. PIRACY! We will discuss that ahead.

5. Discipline yourself as to when to sit down and work on the book. It is difficult controlling yourself when you are your own boss but you must learn to bring your mind and body under control. You do this by choosing time and location for your writing. I used to run out of my home to a solitary place to write. It will be helpful if you tell your family/staff how you want to work within the set time. You may have to silence your phone, get a special laptop (if you can afford it) and a special desk. To be candid, unless you take very strict measures you will never be able to achieve anything

6. Conclude every writing you ever started - Make sure you conclude every book or writing you start before jumping to another one, leave nothing half done. Understand that it will likely take some time before you conclude the book but have it as a policy that you must finish it before you start another work. I have come across people who keep jumping from one manuscript to another; this not going to help you. One of the factors that could lead to this is Writer Block and I addressed it in this book.

7. Get others to read your manuscript and solicit their advice, but expect some to talk you down and others to flatter you, but both cases should not distract or discourage you. I post mine on my blog and Facebook and then watch for readers response. It is a good idea to use the services of paid proofreaders; they give professional touch to your book, especially because they are paid for it. They can also bring their wealth of experiences into your manuscript.

8. Join a writers club and where there is one, also join a coaching class – There is one group online, Authonomy; it is a group for budding author which I belonged. Publishers also go there to search for manuscripts they may adopt. I remember somebody asking to publish my book but when she discovered it was on religion, she backed out. In schools and universities there are often such groups. We run a coaching class for authors and will be glad to have you on board.

9. Get your book to a publisher that understands book-making. If you belong to a coaching class this will not be a problem. This may cost some money but it is a sure sign that you are determined to get published. We will say more about the Bookmaker ahead.

10. Get published no matter how small your manuscript is. This point is where most young authors make mistakes because they keep their manuscript with them and keep adding things. Some of the manuscript lose the original message and become a collection of confusing ideas, because they have missed-up the original idea with other things. Publish your work! It is one principal step forward.

Excerpt from my new book, My Journey to Becoming an Author

My Journey to Becoming an Author 5

Must everybody write?

The plane truth is that anybody can become an author because everybody has a story to tell. In Africa most grandmothers in the villages are illiterates, so one may ask me, “What can such an old woman have to say?”

Let me remind us that such aged persons used to pass-on folk stories and stories of wars fought long ago. They also tell history of each village and what life was like before civilization came. May I add that their journey from childhood to old age will make a wonderful read. They can also share the challenges people in the villages face.

Having said thus far, we can now see that there are many things that people who claim that they have nothing to offer can write about.

The CEO of an organization can put down the history and goals of the organization down as a book to guide the staff and those that will take over from him

Teachers can put down their lesson notes as textbooks.

Pastors can put down their sermons and teachings as books and bible study outlines

Politicians can put down their vision and manifestos as books and their biographies will make interesting read if properly put together

Communities and unions can publish their progress report in a book form.

Students can write short stories and novels. I wrote my first poem while in the primary school

There are really so much that can be written, the challenge though is that most of these things that can be put down are left to go down the drain of time. The result is that it profits no one.

Discover yourself

It is necessary to point out that all writers are not the same because their experiences and background are different. People will act from the background of who they are and the grace of God in their life. No one is inferior to the other, so no one should struggle to give what he does not have. It is not wrong to improve on your potentials or, as the bible puts it, desire more spiritual gifts. But it is important to first understand what we are, who we are and the potentials that we have.

I am an inspirational writer and many of my followers marvel at the fact that I can speak for hours without taking a glance at a note book. Yet, that does not make me better than some very great servants of God who must have their messages written down and mount the pulpit with a note.

Inspirational writer – this kind of writer relies on spiritual inspiration to write. We find this class among Christian ministers; once the inspiration comes he can write a whole volume in an hour that ordinarily cannot be done in a week. Like I said earlier, I fall into this category.

The challenge with this kind is that your mind can play on you and you won’t know when the inspiration comes, or the inspiration comes while in a place where you cannot start writing. A lot of materials are often lost because if you don’t discipline yourself by carrying paper and pen around you may never be able to write a book. In some cases, something upsets you while writing, the result is that you lose concentration (my disease).

To be candid one cannot achieve full potentials if he relies on inspiration. You have to learn to take charge of your mind and compel your body to obey you and write something down

Intellectual Writer

This kind writes from his senses based on what he knows, studies he has had and what he believes. His writings may be a product of several books he has read or something he has heard or practiced severally and concluded on its success. Novelists, playwrights and poets fall into this category.

Anybody can fit into this class, that is if he is ready to read book, attend conferences and seminars and most important dare to write something down. Even a dullard call develop into this class if he remains in the company of authors while they discuss their works.

Research Writer

This kind resorts to researching already written materials; they may copy them and quote sources. Academic books and legal documents fall into this category, especially lecturers. With the advent of internet functioning in this class is very easy. The one challenge here is that laziness plays a lot of role because somebody who is too lazy to use his mind will just copy things and paste them as he got them. This is not research but intellectual robbery. There is nothing wrong with you reading other people’s materials, getting some information from them. But there is everything wrong with your not interpreting what you gathered in your own words, which is piracy.

Journalists, historians, archeologists among many others can function here. I once asked a university lecturer, “Have you written a book?”

I was shocked by his response, “What for? Everything is on the internet. I just ask the students to download materials online”.

Unfortunately, this is the attitude of most lecturers. They fail to understand that those things on the internet are other people’s labor. They don’t know that they are robbers of intellectual properties. In another case, I tried to encourage the Head of Department of a particular school to gather teaching notes of all the lecturers in his department so we can publish them as books. This is because there was no textbook for that subject in all of the country and they were buying a textbook from Nigeria. Years have come and gone but nothing has been done.

If not for money, why not write to leave a legacy?

Excerpt from my new book, "My Journey to becoming an Author

Prayer Network for Universal Revival: My Journey to Becoming an Author 5

Prayer Network for Universal Revival: My Journey to Becoming an Author 4: Why Most People Don’t Write Negative attitudes of people - This sounds hard when we consider many seemingly honest outcries against help...

My Journey to Becoming an Author 4

Why Most People Don’t Write
Negative attitudes of people - This sounds hard when we consider many seemingly honest outcries against helplessness of those who would otherwise wish to write but their circumstances won’t permit them. I mentioned in the introduction my own struggles with family pressures, financial constraint and perhaps I forgot to mention snobbish dispositions of those who tried to talk me down and explain why no reasonable person will waste his time reading writings of a half-baked literate and unknown author. One bible school lecturer told me that I was not popular enough to attract readers. Perhaps he was right but at least I attracted him because he read my book and acknowledged my skill in communication. Dr. Fyne Nsofor in commenting on my second book said, “Well, you managed to write a good book with a bad title”. Dr. Gary Maxey in commenting about the same book said, “How can you use the phrase Must Answer while referring to God” but he ended up speaking in the conference held in honor of the book. I did not try to force him to agree with me; I just let him speak his mind. Towards the middle of his message in trying to discuss the book he said, “Brother Emma, I can’t help but to agree with you that there are prayers God has no option than to answer”.
A pastor of a church in Port Harcourt told me he only reads popular authors. Another one told me that when he will write, it will be world class. None of the two have written a tract to my knowledge almost twelve years after. A university professor said I was writing for money hence won’t pay for the book but told me he was preparing to write a bigger volume he will share for free. More than ten years have passed, please, if you see his book let me know. One other Pastor in Port Harcourt said he won’t sell my books in his church because the titles were scary, like Confronting Witchcraft in the Neighborhood. Well, I personally caught an evil bird in his church and that church made news as a church infested with witches. On the first count there were more than ten families without fruit of the womb in their midst, the founder and this pastor inclusive.
My reason for pointing out this is to show to you that I was there, so you can see that all that is not excuse folding your hand. One may say, “Emma everybody knows you are a gifted author”. That is a lame excuse. Were you able to read and write the first time you went to school? Yet, you soon learnt the art. In the same you can learn the art of writing if you discipline yourself. You have to make up your mind to write because it is a wonderful pastime ant it is worth the trouble. Today, there are many more ways to disseminate your writings on the internet, so you cannot say you that have audience.
What will I be writing on? Do I just writing? We will answer that question later.
Laziness – I wish I can write specifically on this vision killer called, LAZINESS. As a believer I have believers disciplined for all killed of sins but not one person for laziness. Yet, the bible said that a lazy man is brother to the devil (Proverbs 18:9). But have you seen a man who acknowledges that he is lazy? Most lazy people take cover under something else.
I am too busy – Most pastors give this excuse but you see them idling away time. You meet a man chatting on the road while going up and meet the same man at the same spot two hour later on the same spot arguing on l politics or football. Some youths have all the name of premier league players of top European clubs off hand and position of each club on the league table. They then follow league and championship programs religiously through every year. Yet, same person argues that he has no time.
Procrastination (I do it at a convenient time) – Days come and go and nothing is done. While preparing for JAMB my daughter asked her instructor if she will be permitted to go out and ease herself during the exams and he said, “Why not but just understand that the clock did not stop because you left the exam hall”. I am fed up with people tell me of a great book they will write some day. I want to see a pastor and he told of more than ten books he has to publish. With excitement I asked to see the manuscripts and he should me some cover designs he had done. “but what about the manuscripts?” Well, I have not seen any and four years have passed. Procrastination is the voice of laziness
Perfectionist Syndrome – It sounds like this, “I don’t like it when I see people with books full of errors or seeing a pamphlet presented as a book. I will take time and write a real book.” Most people who talk like this never ended writing any. Most books you see today voluminous were first published as small books and as time passed the revelation of the author grew and the book was re-edited or reversed to a bigger volume. I told you how my first books were initially eighteen page books. Somebody wanting to follow me by trying to write the volume I write today will be pursuing shadows. Start small.

Excerpt from my book, "My Journey to becoming an Author"

My Journey to Becoming an Author 3

Somebody He-e-e-e-el-l-lp!  My Brain is not working!
There are times a writer experiences what is known in some circles as Writer Block, in such instance you cannot just write a thing because your brain is not working. It is not only authors but every other person on the street.
Why Writer Block?
The human body is a complex machine that operates more than seventy percent independently with its Central Control Unit (CPU) in the brain. There is very little you can do to control your brain whose activities include directing blood flow, intestinal movements for digestion, excretion, backing up information and signals received through the eyes, ears and touch. It is also concerned with the repair and renewal of cells and alerting the body to rest and relax.
In the face of these enormous functions there are times the brain have things to do which it considers more important than write a novel or textbook, or it feels that it has done enough and need to relax and backup information of what it has already done. Failure to do so could lead to a breakdown of the body system and lead to sickness or in extreme cases, death. At such moment it stops obeying commands from the conscious mind. Observe that the brain does this because it cannot trust the conscious mind to do some things right. This is one good reason to prove that man was designed by God and not a product of evolutionary process. An atheist told me that the reason man thinks about God is because there is an organ in the brain that causes that. He was of the opinion that if that organ is removed man will automatically stop thinking about God. But that is also strong evidence that God created man and put that thing in the brain so that man can never feel fulfilled until he remembers his maker. There are more than just one of such vital organs in the brain; just think of what life will be like without your eyes, ears or nose. Man is fearfully and wonderfully made and God’s wisdom manifests in every area of nature. Indeed, there is God.
This is one of the factors that could lead to Writer Block. I always advice people to learn to understand their body function and obey body signals. My children are often bewildered when I tell them that my brain is not working. This may be in the face of very simple arithmetic on their home work and they have learned to let me be in such moments. Whatever you want to do and the brain or the body frame indicates it wants to rest, try to permit it, even if it is ten minutes. I do that in my bible study, prayer time or teaching session. If you rest you will come back refreshed to do more and better. You will also make room for more inspiration and thoughtful writing. If you insist on continuing you will write non-sense and even confuse what you had written in a saner state of mind.
When not to obey your brain
There are times you know that your mind is getting polluted and unnecessarily distracted and you waste quality time doing nothing or the wrong things. In such instance you cannot just organize yourself; this is a malfunction and you must rise up with your conscious mind otherwise known as self-will and take charge of your brain and body frame and bring them under control and do what you know is right.
Abnormal Writer Block; The Idiot-mind
Somebody defines the subconscious mind as IDIOT who accepts whatever signal it receives repeatedly as the pattern for life. So if you go out drinking every evening, your subconscious mind will begin to remind you about that as your daily itinerary. Let’s say you usually go drinking by 6pm every evening, your subconscious will backup it and remind you every day that it is time to go drinking. That is one of the factors that lead to addiction because the subconscious mind reports it as abnormal if you don’t drink by 6pm any other day. This goes for everything we repeat consistently over a long period of time, be it watching football, eating, taking a walk, sex, watching movies etc.
Now you can understand why changing from one lifestyle to another is a struggle. So now you want to develop your mind as an author as against any other lifestyle you deem wasteful to your mental development, there will be struggle. Your mind will want to lock up and try to force you to return to the status quo. In such cases some think they need to wait for inspiration, and the result is that the inspiration will never come because inspiration is not the problem and even if it comes, your brain will block it as abnormal.
 A basic knowledge of the functioning of your computer will be helpful here; have you ever tried to download a very important App or file you are very sure is not harmless to your computer and your computer sends a warning signal like this, “This file maybe harmful to your computer and cause other programs to malfunction”? That is a very good example of abnormal Writer Block. But you will also notice that the system will give you two options, “Download as exception” or “Block Download”. You see now that it depends on you as to whether to adjust your mind and begin to reprogram your mind to write books or to relapse into your old ways of wasting time on things that will not enhance your mental development as an author.
Time to Push
When you discover that you have abnormal writer block, you know that it is time to push forward. I will be teaching in subsequent sections of this material some steps you must take to overcome your mind when it wants to go out of control. One of them is that you must WRITE.

Excerpt from my new book, "My Journey to Becoming an Author"

My Journey to Becoming an Author 2

My experience with Self-publishing my books

I started self-publishing because I could not reach any publisher who was interested in my books. One thing I discovered as I matured as an author was that I was always in haste, the result is that my books were always full of many mistakes. One time I gave somebody my typed out manuscript and he asked me if I went through the manuscript before bringing it to him. This was because of the obvious mistakes I could have seen and corrected myself. Another time somebody who was going to buy the second edition of my first book commented that the first edition was better than the second.

It is either that I never knew that there were professional editors or I preferred the hasty editing my friends and family did for me. Then I will rush to a printer whose only interest was the money he will make. He has no technical knowledge about books. He will look at the manuscript and quote a price while I am emphasizing that I must have the book by xxx date because we are having the anniversary of my ministry. Then I will negotiate and I cannot remember anyone turning down the book, they simply gave me what my money was worth and that is by their definition. The cost was always more than I could afford and that will lead to the second side of the gamble; “Ok, pastor, bring what you have (meaning money), I will print the book for you and give you as much as your money is worth or a little over (by his estimate); when you have sold you can come and take more after paying your debt”. So I will hit the street trying to make more money for the printer. When I started self-publishing, I discovered that my first installment had covered his production cost and he was only waiting for additional profit.

I had some experience as a printer, so added that up. I gave my manuscripts to typists in a business center and you already know the story. With very meager income it took me a long time to produce the book. Take a look at the kind of thing you read in my finished book those days –

“So Goat said to Elijam, get us from where you ate siting ans speak thus to Arab

So Elijah sold to te prophet of baal, fire came down”.

I know you would be wondering what level I stopped my school to write so poorly. But wait let me show you what I actually wrote for the typist –

“So God said to Elijah, get up from where you are sitting and speak thus to Ahab.

So Elijah said to the prophets of Baal,…………

There were omissions and the typist continued from where she liked. Anybody who tried self-publishing in those days will obviously have similar story to tell. Luckily today things have changed. All over the internet there are those who will help you in self-publishing and there are software programs that will help minimize such errors. To my joy today I type my books myself on my laptop or PC.

Another challenge with self-publishing is marketing; let me confess that God really assisted me in marketing my books. How to Be Delivered and Remain Delivered was eighteen pages at its first edition (it is a bigger book now). The initial title was How to be Delivered but Dr. B C Mbata added, AND REMAIN DELIVERED. Prof. Fyne Nsofor did for me what I do for authors today; even though I was ready to run to the press, he told me that my book was just skeleton.

He said, “Emma this is only skeleton, go and give flesh to your book. The information is good but will rarely make sense to your readers”.

That was the first time I heard that kind of comment. All others who saw the book screamed and said, “Emma, this is great! When will you print it? Please I will like to have a copy.”

Having printed after obeying Prof. Nsofor’s instruction I went out to try to market. A brother in St. James Anglican Church, Uzii Street, Moses Mbagwu who was doubling as leader of the Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion (EFAC) and Scripture Group leader was the first person to introduce my writing to Scripture Union. I gave out many for free and those I gave appreciated with cash. Within three months the one thousand copies were gone but to be candid they were not all sold out. Some were lost in circulation; I got tired of following up for payment for some. Yet, the money I got for encouragement covered my cost.

Most authors will confess they were not so lucky. Rev Okey Akiri of Oil of Joy Ministries Port Harcourt decided to write a book when he observed how his members rushed for my books. He printed five hundred copies for a trial. One day I went to visit him;

He said, “Brother Emma, please can you tell me how you market those books of yours. The five hundred I printed are still intact, save for the ones I gave out free”.

I have to point this out because I believe God’s grace followed my books. Besides God’s grace there are technicalities in book writing, making and publishing which enhance sales. Some of the books that are above hundred pages today were eighteen page books. In the view of my critiques I sold them expensive but they don’t know why people will buy eighteen pages book for hundred Naira but will not pay fifty Naira for two hundred pages book.

Some of these secrets I will be teaching in my coaching classes for young authors. Confronting Witchcraft in the Neighborhood, How to Overcome Spirit Husband/Wife Problem, Right Ways to Fast and Pray were all eighteen pages books which I sold for hundred Naira. They were written while in Port Harcourt. They neither were full color nor digitally designed but they sold fast.

Most young authors think that all they need to get their books sold is to make it beautiful. How wrong they are. Again what amateur mind may call beautiful may be disgusting to a professional.

One last thing before we move over, even if your books have no problems in packaging, self-publishing can only assist you when you have few copies. As my writing ministry grew so were the demand and the cost for reprint. Sometimes people will call from a far away city asking for ten copies of my books. In this case the cost of transport will be far above the cost of the book. But if you cannot get the book there you only make room for pirates. One day Prof. Kontein Trinya called to tell me he saw my book, Pastor Lucas’ Church in Ibadan and I asked him to buy some copies. There were other callers from Lagos and other South West Cities of Nigeria.

I remember that I sent self-published copy of the book to Scripture Union Press and Books with the help of Rev. Cefas who was heading SU regional headquarters in Port Harcourt then. I proposed we discuss terms for publishing but before I knew it was in the market. They wanted God’s Word to run fast but I point out that due process should not be taken for granted.

I will be pouring out my heart in this coaching process, I will reveal all my secrets and guide you on how to take advantage of who you are, where you are and what you know and develop yourself into a successful author

Tighten your seatbelt.

Emma your brother @PNUR