Recommendation

My good friend, Jeff Doles, has formatted more than a dozen books for me. Every book has a unique beauty from cover to cover. Whether he creates the cover from scratch or with a photo I send him, he has a knack for combining color and text and producing an unforgettable cover. From the best prices to the quickest production time, Jeff has impressed me over and over with the quality of his work. I have never once been disappointed.

— Ben R. Peters, author

President, Open Heart Ministries

Design Portfolio

Samples of Interior Layouts. 
View with Amazon's "Look Inside" feature.

• The Kingdom of Heaven on Earth
  
• Miracles and Manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the History of the Church
  
• God's Word in Your Mouth
• The Faith Log
• Praying With Fire
• Healing Scriptures and Prayers
• Walking Barefoot

Christian Writing Online

• Christian Writers - Online community of Christian writers. Features discussion areas and workshops. Membership is free.
  
• Faith Writers - Online community of Christian writers. Features writer forums, areas to post articles and poetry, opportunities to have your writing critiqued, free writing courses. Membership is free.
  
• Spirit-Led Writers - Free articles to help Christian writers from beginner to advanced.
  

Books On Writing

• Birthing the Book Within You by Ben R. Peters - Writing and publishing your own book has never been easier, thanks to computer and digital printing technology. Ben Peters has been down this road many times, and now in this book, he shows how you can do it, too. With spiritual insight and inspiration, he offers many practical tips to help you give birth to the book within you.
  
• The Christian Writer's Manual of Style by Robert Hudson - A definitive guide focusing on the unique demands of anyone who writes or publishes religious materials. Updated and expanded edition.
  
• The Little Style Guide to Great Christian Writing and Publishing by Goss & Goss.
  
• The Elements of Style by Strunk & White - "Composition teachers throughout the English-speaking world have been pushing this book on their students since it was first published in 1957. Co-author White later revised it, and it remains the most compact and lucid handbook we have for matters of basic principles of composition, grammar, word usage and misusage, and writing style."
  
• Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss - Recent bestseller on punctuation and grammar.
  
• Write His Answer: A Bible Study for Christian Writers by Marlene Bagnull - Encouragement for Christian writers who are struggling with procrastination, discouragement, rejection, self-confidence or writer's block.
  

Writing Children's Book

• Writing Children's Books for Dummies by Lisa Rojany Buccieri  and Peter Economy
  
• The Business of Writing for Children: An Award-Winning Author's Tips on Writing Children's Books and Publishing Them, or How to Write, Publish, and Promote a Book for Kids by Aaron Shepard
  
• The Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Children's Books by Harold D. Underdown
  
• How to Write a Children's Book and Get It Published by Barbara Seuling
  
• The Everything Guide to Writing Children's Books: From Cultivating an Idea to Finding the Right Publisher All You Need to Launch a Successful Career by Lesley Bolton
  
• You Can Write Children's Books by Tracey E. Dils
  

Book Publishing and Marketing

• Christian Writer's Market Guide by Sally Stuart - A reference tool listing over 1,200 markets for Christian books, articles, stories, etc.
• Writing and Publishing for the Charismatic Market by Julia Loren
  
• Get Known Before The Book Deal: Use Your Personal Strengths To Grow An Author Platform by Christina Katz
• The Self-Publishing Manual: How to Write, Print and Sell Your Own Book by Dan Poynter
  
• Complete Guide to Self-Publishing: Everything You Need to Know to Write, Publish, Promote, and Sell Your Own Book by Tom and Marilyn Ross
• Book Publishing DIY: The Do It Yourself Guide to Self-Publishing using Lulu and CreateSpace by Tony Loton.
  
• Print-On-Demand Book Publishing:A New Approach to Printing and Marketing Books for Publishers and Self-Publishing Authors by Morris Rosenthal
• Perfect Pages: Self Publishing with Microsoft Word, or How to Avoid High-Priced Page Layout Programs or Book Design Fees and Produce Fine Books in MS Word for Desktop Publishing and Print on Demand by Aaron Shepard
  
• Aiming at Amazon: The NEW Business of Self Publishing, or How to Publish Books for Less, Sell Without Hassle, and Double Your Profit (or More) With Print on Demand and Book Marketing on Amazon.com by Aaron Shepard
• Red Hot Internet Publicity: An Insider's Guide to Promoting Your Book on the Internet! by Penny C Sansevieri
• Jump Start Your Book Sales: A Money-Making Guide for Authors, Independent Publishers and Small Presses by Tom and Marilyn Ross
  
• Guerrilla Marketing for Writers: 100 Weapons for Selling Your Work by Levinson, Frishman & Larsen
  
• You Can Market Your Book: All the Tools You Need to Sell Your Published Book by Carmen Leal
• The IndieAuthor Guide by April L. Hamilton
• Plug Your Book! Online Book Marketing for Authors by Steve Weber
• 1001 Ways to Market Your Books: For Authors and Publishers by John Kremer

Printing Options for Self-Publishers

• Lightning Source Inc. - This is a POD (Print On Demand) operation. It has close ties to Ingram / Spring Arbor book wholesalers. Ingram supplies for the secular bookstores; Spring Arbor supplies for Christian bookstores. Lightning Source supplies to Amazon.com, BarnesAndNoble.com, and many other online booksellers.
  
• Self-Publishing.com - Broker for both offset (traditional) and digital (POD) printing. Also offers services for editing, interior formatting and cover design.
  
• Lulu - Simple to use. Fairly priced for very short runs. If you don't have professionally formatted manuscript, you can create a basic one using Microsoft Word. If you don't have a professionally designed cover, Lulu offers simple, generic ones.
  
• CreateSpace - POD owned by Amazon. Simple to use and gets your book listed on Amazon. Must have properly formatted PDF files for interior and cover.
  

Publishing for Amazon's Kindle Reader and Mobipocket

More and more people are getting Amazon's Kindle Reader and it is pretty simple, easy and inexpensive to get your book into this digital format. Kindle 1 blew off the shelves. Kindle 2 is even better. Mobipocket is a digital format that can be read on Blackberry and a number of other PDAs, as well as on desktops and laptops.

Amazon also owns the Mobipocket system as well as Kindle, and offers free software to convert your book file into both the mobi and Kindle format (they are really both the same format, just different distribution systems). The free Mobibook Creator software is easy to use and can convert your Microsoft Word, RTF (rich text format) or html file into the Mobi/Kindle format.

Here is a good resource to help you get into this digital publishing revolution:

• Publish Your Book On The Amazon Kindle: A Practical Guide by Michael R. Hicks

Blogging as Publishing

Consider blogging as a of publishing your creative work. It is inexpensive and can have a wide reach. More than one book public these days started out as blog posts.

• Blogger.com - Popular blog  site creator owned by Google. Immediately indexed by Google. You can set up your own blog site very easily, and for FREE. Visit my blog site, The Faith Log, for a sample of what you can do.
  
• Wordpress - Another free blog creator that is popular and easy to use.
  

Bible Permissions

Many Christian writers ask about how to get permission to quote the various Bible translations of the Bible that are copyrighted. It's easier than you might think. Follow these links for publishers' quotation policies. They are very generous in how much they allow.

• Amplified Bible (see just below NASB)
• Contemporary English Version
• English Standard Version
• Holman Christian Standard Bible 
• King James Version - The KJV is in the public domain. No publisher permission is required.
• The Message
  
• New American Standard Bible
• New Century Version
• New International Version
  
• New King James Version
• New Living Translation
  

Legal Aspects of Writing and Publishing

Here are a couple of helpful resources concerning the legal aspects of writing and publishing:

• The Writer's Legal Guide: An Authors Guild Desk Reference by Tad Crawford and Kay Murray - A survey of the business and legal aspects of writing.
• Ivan Hoffman - This is the web site of Ivan Hoffman, an attorney with experience in the law as it relates to publishers and writers, including copyright, trademark, design and intellectual property law. He has many informative articles (for free), including special sections for writers and publishers and recording artists and songwriters.
  

ISBN

ISBN - ISBN stands for International Standard Book Numbers. You apply for ISBNs for your books at this site. Whoever holds the ISBN for your book is the publisher of record.

Royalty-Free Stock Photos

Here is a good, inexpensive source for royalty-free stock photos for your book cover.

• Big Stock Photo - Great source for low cost royalty-free stock photos.
• iStockPhoto - Low cost royalty-free stock photos and videos.
• Dreamstime - Low cost royalty-free stock photos.
• Shutterstock - Low cost royalty-free stock photos.
• Fotolia - Low cost royalty-free stock photos. 
• Ark Stock Photos - "Family Friendly Stock Photos"
• Christian Stock Photography
  
• PhotoGen - FREE royalty-free stock photos.
  
• Free Stock Photography -FREE royalty-free stock photos.
• Morgue File - FREE hi-rez digital stock photography for personal or commercial use.
• NOAA Photo Library - FREE photos from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
  
• stock.xchng - FREE royalty-free stock photos.
  
• Image*After - FREE royalty-free stock photos.
• Pixel Perfect Digital -FREE royalty-free stock photos.
• Free Photos Bank - FREE royalty-free stock photos.
• E-Cobo - Offers some FREE royalty-free stock photos.
• ImageTemple - FREE royalty-free stock photos.
• BigFoto - FREE royalty-free stock photos.
• Creating Online Stock_Photos - FREE royalty-free stock photos.
• Free Stock Photos - FREE royalty-free stock photos.
• PD Photo - FREE royalty-free stock photos.
• Free Digital Photos - Lo-rez are FREE. Medium-rez are $5. High rez are $10.

Please read and observe all terms of use.

For best image results, use digital photos that are high resolution (300dpi - basically, this is 300 dots or pixels per inch). So, for example, for a 6 x 9 inch finished image, the stock image size should be at least 1800 by 2700 pixels (or 6 x 300dpi by 9 x 300dpi).

Fonts/Typefaces

Here are some links for various fonts and typefaces to add interest to your text layouts and cover designs. Many of these are free.

• Larabie Fonts
• Misprinted Type 3.0
• Manfred Klein Fonteria
• Gentium "A Typeface for the Nations"
• Phil's Fonts

Design Software

• Adobe Indesign CS3 – Excellent page layout software (updated from Pagemaker). A bit expensive, and takes a little while to learn, but can be worth the time, effort and expense.
  
• Adobe Photoshop CS3 – Latest edition of Photoshop. Like Indesign CS3, it is a bit expensive, and takes a little while to learn, but can be worth the time, effort and expense.
  
• Microsoft Publisher 2007 – Okay page layout software. Less expensive and a bit easier to learn.