Ministry leaders should also be authors.
It’s a natural (and profitable) fit.
Whether you’re a pastor, preacher, teacher, evangelist, or any other kind of public speaker, your primary mode of communicating your message is through personal, live-spoken presentation.
Your audience, your church congregation, your class, or other groups who invite you to speak gather together in one place for a live event. You’re there, they’re there – ‘there’ is where it’s at.
Your ‘product’ is your sermon, your teaching session, your speech, or your message. That’s why your audience has come, to hear you speak.
So why do you need a book?
Six Ways Having a Book Benefits Your Speaking Career:
Selling books at your speaking venue creates additional revenue:
Revenue from selling your books from a table at the ‘back of the room’ after a speaking engagement often exceeds the honorarium you will receive. If your venue doesn’t provide an honorarium or the situation can’t afford or doesn’t call for an honorarium, your book revenue may be the only recompense you receive. It’s remarkable (and admirable) that so many ministers accept non-paying speaking opportunities, covering the cost of time and travel out of their own pocket. Indeed, that’s the intended ‘cost’ of the gospel – free. Selling your books to a grateful and interested audience provides revenue that allows your ministry to continue.
Your book gives your audience a ‘What’s next?’ step:
You inspire and challenge your audience with your words, but what happens when the speaking engagement is over and your audience goes home? Are they going to be able to remember and apply your words? Your book gives your audience a resource to take home and continually apply your message to their lives, long after the speaking engagement is over.
Being a published author lends credibility and validity to your resume.
You may think that judgments like this shouldn’t affect your credibility and validate your message, but that thinking simply isn’t reality. Those who consider inviting you to speak and those who come to hear your message look for evidence for why they should consider you or your message, particularly if a personal relationship doesn’t already exist. Being a published author sends a powerful signal to those looking for ‘proof’ that you and your message have already been validated by a wider audience.
Ready to discuss your book? Just click here to schedule a free, non-obligation manuscript consultation!
Being a published author can make you a better speaker.
Having a published book doesn’t necessarily make you an expert, popular, dynamic or even worth listening to. But having a published book does mean that you have been through the process and that your publisher believes in you and your message enough to put their name on your book. Going through the process, in most cases, does make you more of an expert. The author/publishing process can sharpen your thinking, clarify and organize your presentation and make your message more dynamic.
Being a published author can increase the amount and quality of your speaking invitations.
If your host is the pastor of a church or the organizer of a public event, they want the best possible experience and result for ‘their’ people. Having a published book means that you’ve most likely done your homework on the subject. Your book helps your host to understand and vet your message upfront and gives your host confidence in sharing your message with their audience.
Being a published author makes you easier to find.
Let’s face it, one of the first things a potential host does when considering a speaker is to do an Internet search. This is the most common validation step in the vetting process. Your online footprint should appear on the first page when some one searches the internet for your name, the name of your book, your website, or your Social Media. Having a published book, by a reputable tech-savvy publisher with a strong distribution infrastructure adds significantly to your online footprint. Even if you have a ministry website, blog and Social media accounts, the online ‘places’ and frequency with which your book can be found dramatically increases your online ‘findability.’
Looking for a ministry partner that works 24/7 to reach the world with your message?
Seven Questions You Must Answer Before Publishing Your Book
Let me send you a FREE copy today!
Save thousands of dollars and months of frustration by professionally publishing your book.
Seven Questions You Must Answer Before Publishing Your Book
How to define success, choose a publisher, and reach your audience.
Where do you start?
Read Seven Questions You Must Ask Before Publishing Your Book
These seven questions have the power to reveal the real reason for your book – your reason for writing it and the reason your audience will read it. These questions will walk you through the jungle of finding and building your audience and the maze of publishing choices you’ll have to make. Finally, these questions will cover the real cost of publishing and marketing a successful book, whether in dollars or blood, sweat, and tears. Publishing a successful book and sharing it with the world isn’t easy or cheap, but it’s possible. And because it’s your book, your story, even your legacy, the rewards it can offer are beyond what you may imagine.
