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Kingdom Writers: A Podcast for Christian Writers of All Genres

Welcome to Kingdom Writers where CJ and Shelley Hitz help you take a step of faith to finally finish your book. This podcast is filled with spiritual encouragement as well as prayers to help you overcome the resistance you face as a writer. Your story matters! We believe that you have a specific role to play in the kingdom of heaven to impact lives for eternity. And because of this, we will pour out our lives encouraging writers like you to not only tell your stories but to take the courageous step of self-publishing your stories in books that will outlive you and leave behind a powerful legacy. This podcast is sponsored by our membership Christian Book Academy where we help you give birth to your books. We invite you to join our community of Kingdom Writers!
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Kingdom Writers: A Podcast for Christian Writers of All Genres
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Now displaying: May, 2021
May 26, 2021

“Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians‬ ‭12:8-10‬ ‭NLT‬‬

God is creating weakness in our lives in order to drive us to Him. Our weaknesses are meant to create dependence upon Him alone. He’ll spend decades cultivating weakness in our lives. 

There is only one hero in this story we find ourselves and that hero is Jesus Christ 

Brother Lawrence gives us a picture of almost pathetic weakness and dependence during his time as a cook and dishwasher for a monastery in the 1600s.

“He was a great awkward fellow, who broke everything.”

“When he had failed in his duty, he simply confessed his fault, saying to God, I shall never do otherwise if Thou leavest me to myself; ‘tis Thou must hinder my fallings, and mend what is amiss.’

Brother Lawrence was lame which made simple tasks much more difficult, including traveling to Burgundy to buy the provision of wine for the monastery. On many occasions, he could hardly remember how the task was accomplished except God helped him moment by moment. 

“He accustomed himself to do everything for the love of God, and with prayer, upon all occasions, for His grace to do his work well.”

“We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, for He regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.”

“The higher perfection a soul aspires after, the more dependent it is upon Divine Grace.”

Before setting about his work in the kitchen, he prayed, “O MY GOD, since Thou art with me, and I must now, in obedience to Thy commands, apply my mind to these outward things, I beseech Thee to grant me the grace to continue in Thy Presence; and to this end, do Thou prosper me with Thy assistance, receive all my works, and possess all my affections.”

Closing Story: Whitewater rafting trip in West Virginia with Youth For Christ. Almost lost our foreign exchange student from Hungary when a girl grabbed onto him for dear life after their raft tipped over. She was just a little thing but her fear of drowning drove her to cling to anything or anybody within reach. Her utter helplessness and weakness caused her to grab ahold of the exchange student. “I’m going to die unless someone else acts on my behalf.”

As Kingdom Writers, we MUST cling to Jesus with all of our beings, knowing how utterly weak we are. He will uphold us one word at a time, one sentence at a time, one paragraph, one chapter, one finished book at a time. HE’S the hero of the story, not you & I.

The Power of Having a Weekly Business Meeting with God

Learn the simple steps you can take to implement a weekly business meeting with God. This is one of the most important actions you can take as a Christian writer to ask God for the strategies to write, publish, and market your books successfully.

Get access to the video and PDF download now here: https://www.trainingauthors.com/businessmeeting/ 

May 19, 2021

Turn Your Passion into a Platform

Are you one of the many people who long to ditch the cubicle and go to work for yourself, on your own terms? What's holding you back? Self-doubt, fear, technology challenges, the feeling that there are already too many other people doing what you want to do? It's time to face those things head-on and transform your passion into a thriving business. Why? Because 

Your Message Matters.

His most recent book is Your Message Matters: How to rise above the noise and get paid for what you know.

Get a free copy of the book and just pay shipping at: https://www.yourmessagemattersbook.com/

100+ Places to Market Your Christian Book

Want some recommendations on where to publish your Christian book? Check out our list of over 100 places to consider here: 

https://www.trainingauthors.com/100-places-to-promote-christian-books/

May 12, 2021

We talked about publishing short Kindle books last month. If you publish short books, I recommend creating a Kindle series around your main topic.  Your series title can be related to your main topic.  Then, each small book can focus on a specific problem within that topic.  

Publishing a book series helps you build authority in that niche; people will eventually know that you know your stuff.  

One of the first series that I created was my vegetarian cookbook series.  There were seven books in the series and they sold really well.  Each book in the series then promoted the others. 

Instead of having one cookbook with ALL the recipes, I broke it down by topic as follows:

  1. Breakfast Recipes
  2. Lunch Recipes
  3. Main Entrees
  4. Appetizer Recipes
  5. Salad Recipes
  6. Soup, Stew, and Chili Recipes
  7. The Ultimate Guide to Vegetarian Cooking with ALL the recipes

By now, you should be getting the idea.

What seems to work best is when you have six or seven books in the series.  That seems to be the sweet spot, where Amazon starts promoting the other books for you and doing some advertising for you. They do this by displaying your book on “Customers who bought this also bought” or sending out promotional emails about your books. 

You may think that six to seven books sound like too much work!  However, if you think about writing 10,000 words per book or 60,000-70,000 words for the entire series, this is less content than some full-length novels.  Therefore, when writing a Kindle series, think about it as if you are writing one big book in small chunks of six or seven smaller eBooks.  

It is powerful. 

I want you to really consider writing a series and finishing one book per month.  If you do this, your entire series will be finished in less than seven months.  

And the benefits of publishing your series can last a lifetime.  Here are just a few of the benefits possible to you as a Kindle author:

  • Credibility
  • Authority in your niche
  • Exposure for your business 
  • Reach more people with your message (even internationally)
  • Get leads for your business, 24/7, on autopilot
  • Find new clients for your services
  • Diversify your income
  • And more!

Download Your Publishing Map

If you want to write and publish a book but don't know where to start, this Publishing Map is for you. You will learn Shelley's 9 simple steps inside her publishing map that will help you gain clarity on your next steps.

Download it now for free here: https://www.trainingauthors.com/publishing-map/ 

May 5, 2021

Since taking up running over 13 years ago, I’ve (CJ) learned the importance of a proper warm-up. Whether I’m preparing for a key speed workout or long run, my rule of thumb is to keep the first two miles nice and easy. Rather than forcing my legs to move faster in the beginning, I simply put one foot in front of the other and allow my legs to gradually warm up and get acquainted with movement.

I’ve had many days where I wanted to bail in the first couple miles of a run due to “not feeling it.” But if I stick with it, the legs and body usually turn a corner and I’m rewarded with a delightful run. Some might call it tapping into the “runner’s high.”

As a Christian writer, I’ve also learned the value of a good warm-up. It can sometimes take 30 minutes to allow our spirits to calm and the outside noise to quiet down. Just as an athlete needs a proper warm-up, Christian writers can also benefit by easing into a writing flow. 

Rather than coming out of the gate charging hard, why not play some peaceful music while prayerfully inviting God to lead us in our thoughts. We might even imagine Jesus commanding ‘Peace be still’ as he calms the storms within us.

Our spiritual enemy tries to tempt us to bail on our writing in the first few minutes. We may be tempted to say, “I’m just not feeling it today.” But just like in running, things could turn a corner if we’ll just stick with it and push through the negative feelings.

Give yourself some grace in the beginning of a writing session by including a writing warm-up.

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Download now here: https://www.trainingauthors.com/writingwheel/

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