"Publishing My First Book" by Garris Elkins

Yesterday, I sent a book manuscript to my editor - Anna Elkins, my daughter. Anna will do the final copy edit in preparation of publication. While it is easy to give a manuscript to your daughter (she loves her dad), the reality is that submitting something for a wider audience to read is a vulnerable thing. I am learning that if you are going to step out and say some things about anything spiritual, you had better be ready for people to say what they think about what you put down in print.

I never realized fully what it meant to write a book. There is the actual writing, the proof-reading, the multiple revisions, the publishing process, buying the ISBN and all the rest. To be honest, I am not interested in chopping down another tree to make the pulp required to create the substance of just another book. I am hoping someone, somewhere, will have their life adjusted by something I have written and that my writing will make a difference in their life because something of God's heart was revealed.

My book is about prayer - a subject that I still have so much to learn.