Even before I had completed writing Prayer A to Z, I was contemplating also putting the entire work together as six smaller books. I had gotten some comments about how large the book was and so I began to think that people might be more willing to purchase it as a series of smaller books. So, I began the process.

First, I started brainstorming on possible book titles. I needed six titles that would take in all of the topics I had in Prayer A to Z—forty-three topics, plus the five chapters on all the prayers of the bible. It didn’t take too long. After only a few hours I came up with six book titles: Basics of Prayer, Purpose of Prayer, Principles of Prayer, Joy of Prayer, Service of Prayer, and Zenith of Prayer. The next step was to fit all 43 topics, plus the prayers of the bible, under one of those six titles. And since the titles were quite general, it was an easy process. I just went through each topic and picked the book title that fit best. It was like a puzzle, and I love puzzles.

Somewhere along the line I met Preacherwin. That was (is) his blog name (he is a preacher in a church in Pennsylvania). His name is Win. At least that’s what he calls himself. I can’t remember how it all happened. I think it was when I was impressed with some of his blogging. Well, anyway, he found out that I was interested in getting my prayer books published and he recommended Lulu, a publishing company that would assist me in publishing my own work; and they would print and bind it for me at a very low cost. So, essentially, I would be a self-publisher with Lulu’s help. And they would also give me my own book website.

Well, I was kind of interested; but I became much more interested when I saw all of Win’s books that he had published through Lulu. From then on, we began emailing each other—mostly, I was emailing him with my questions. And he was so willing to help.

My first book project was Basics of Prayer. Win kept telling me that all I had to do was to go on to Lulu’s web site and they would walk me through the entire publishing process. So, one day I mustered up the nerve to do it. It was kind of scary but also adventurous. Let’s see, first I had to choose what size of book I wanted (I chose 6 by 9), then what kind of a cover I wanted: hard cover or paperback, then what would be the title.  After that I had to download a pdf version of the book to them. I found out that that was the hardest part, because they had certain requirement—a list of them. On my first try my download was rejected. What a downer. I emailed Win. Help! Eventually, with Win’s encouragement and after a few adjustments, my download was accepted.

Next, they gave me an ISBN number and a bar graph. And the last step was to do a book cover. I could either let Lulu do it for me—I just had to send them a picture of myself and a picture to go on the cover; or, I could design it myself. Win encouraged me to do it all myself, and he helped me. I’m glad I did it that way. It was harder, but it looked so much better.

After I published Basics of Prayer, I went on to the next book, Purpose of Prayer, and then the next one, and the next, until they were all published, all six books. They were all published in 2011. After that I began working on Prayer A to Z. That took me a little longer, but finally got it published in 2013.