I am no guru, but I think I have existed long enough on this earth to know what is

boring.

You, me, and most others on the internet are advertising our businesses, sharing posts we wish others to react positively to, and highlighting the skills we have that has produced a product or a service.

Some of you are cake makers, others are artists, fitness trainers and dieticians, offering weight loss/muscle gain plans. Some are into interior design, and others do amazing things with wool, thread, card and glue. Then we have nail technicians, fashion designers, furniture sellers, hairdressers and other services pertaining to health and beauty.

But here’s the thing. I know quite a large bunch of book writers and they are not in such a fortunate position as those of you in the professions above.

You see, a photographer can display their shots. A carpet fitter can show you their rugs and underlay. A cake decorator can show the designs they have done and anyone looking at their photos instantly know, “I want something like that for myself.” The same is true for those displaying nail art and hairstyles. It doesn’t take much viewing to know if what they have is what we want.

But books, sweet books. Nobody wants to see pictures of an author stood holding copies of their latest novel. 

“Good for you.” I think, when somebody piles their books high and takes a photo. It doesn’t serve to spur my interest because – and here’s where I agree with the business gurus – it’s boring.  I want an excerpt – better still, the entire chapter, so that I can have a full understanding of how they write and what they write about.

I am so fed up of LinkedIn posts from authors showing us the snazzy front cover of their latest title. It doesn’t give me any idea that I will enjoy what is written inside and to be honest, as much as I admire the artwork, I’m tempted to fetch my bouncy pillow and have a  good kip.

“Open the pages and let me into your world!”

People need to know:

“What’s in it for me?”

“How is this going to help me?”

“Is it going to entertain me, or make me laugh?”

“How do I know if this is a good service/product to give to a loved-one or friend?”

“Will it solve a problem of mine or will it help somebody I know?”

“Is this something that’s going to benefit my life?“

If people cannot visually sample a product online (okay, you can’t smell perfume or taste food, but you know what I mean) they have no obligation to hang around. I certainly don’t linger where there are no juicy tasters.

For those of you who write books and are scared to let people prod and poke, please stop worrying about having your work stolen from you. Even if you placed watermarks on your pages, an avid plagiariser would painstakingly just copy out your page. Book stealing doesn’t happen that often, but when it does, there are ways around proving you are the original master of your work. To Christian writers I simply say, take it as a compliment, leave the problem with God and move on.

But you really must cease getting into a flap about copyright, ownership and the like. Just give people samples of your book and if they read the entire thing online instead of buying it, so what? One day they may be inclined to purchase a copy for a friend when they remember how it blessed them – in the meantime, quit feeling cheated!

So this is why I take immense pleasure in sharing my books with you. You can dip in and out, viewing snippets that take your fancy, or you can go full steam ahead and read an entire volume, from Preface to Epilogue. You will probably find that some chapters are more applicable to you than others. These you can happily share with people who you feel will be blessed by them.

“But I don’t want people just reading my books online for free!” says the author who ardently disagrees with me.

My gracious reply to you is, firstly, how are you going to know what anyone is up to, and if you do find out, how are you going to stop them? When Christian singers share the songs from their albums, have you then gone and purchased all their CDs? It’s nice to be blessed in this way, but if somebody’s offering something for free, they are ultimately relying on the Lord to bless their ministry, not mankind. There’s one more response to this angst:

You are not a cake decorator – nobody is going to point to the art on the front cover of your book and say, “Ooh, I want that!” Your icing flowers are your quotes, chapters and snippets of prose and without them, people are just going to see a proud writer who thinks they are sassy because their name is in print.

I want to thank you for being here right now, reading this. It has given me immense pleasure creating this excerpt website for you and I want you to know that I am happy to be able to provide you with a cost free way of sampling my books or reading them entirely. There are no grubby finger-marks for me to worry about and there will be no dog-ears because you’ve lost the umpteenth bookmark.  You don’t have to worry about who sneezed on the page before you touched it, or forking out a shed-load of cash to purchase a Kindle. So grab yourself your favourite beverage, cosy blanket if you are somewhere chilly, or parasol if you are somewhere that makes me jealous.

Happy browsing,