To Kindle or not to Kindle, that is the question.

Dear Reader, I need your help to answer this question.

I am in a quandary. For a year or so now I have wanted to bring out Dernier Publishing books and booklets in digital format – to join the e-book revolution. Not because I love e-books, but because we are here to serve our customers and they want them.

Our aim is to encourage and inspire young people in their faith and show non-church kids what they are missing – anything we can do to reach more young people has got to be good, hasn't it?

Or has it . . . ?

Certainly going digital is essential. If kids are reading digital books, we must provide them. So that's not the issue; it's the format of the books which is giving me a headache. Hence the title of the post . . . to Kindle or not to Kindle.

Because it seems to me that there are two choices:

E-pub format, or Kindle format.

There are pros and cons of both (unless I have got this completely wrong, and do please tell me if I have).

The big plus of e-pub format e-books:

They can be sold anywhere, from any website. We have control over where they are sold, which can include bookshop websites – we are dedicated to supporting 'bricks and mortar' bookshops where we can, although we must of course first and foremost supply as many books as we can to as many children as we can because this our reason for existence.

The big plus of Kindle format:

It is relatively easy to do – I can do it myself. I could start this weekend and have a booklet up and for sale by Monday. And if I make a mistake, the file can be edited at any point . . . plus Amazon do all the sales. Simple!

Well, kind of simple. Because there are cons with the Kindle model too.

Here are the two major problems as I see it:

1. We sincerely want to help high street bookshops in their struggle to survive (Kindle books are sold solely through Amazon)
2. I don't like Amazon's monopoly on the market. I am also uncomfortable with their aggressive business philosophy of taking over the world, no matter how many shops (real people and livelihoods) they walk over in the process.

If we had the money and the resources and the expertise, there's no doubt about it, we would go down the e-pub route, where the e-books can be sold even by bookshops.

But, sigh, I'm increasingly veering towards thinking just going for the Kindle right now, and work towards making enough money to pay for resources and expertise to do e-pub books in the future. Because we just don't have the money, time or expertise to do e-pub books right now. Which is why we still don't have any e-books right now . . . and also means that we just won't have e-books in the near future.

So, to Kindle or not to Kindle . . . what do you think?

Please do feel free to leave feedback, I would be most gratefu.

With many thanks for your support,

 Janet

10 Reasons to buy Christian fiction for children

10 good reasons to buy excellent, relevant,fun Christian fiction for children

1. Children make sense of their world through stories - and most of them love reading a good book!

2. Stories with Christian characters can encourage and inspire children in their own faith

3. We remember stories better than straight information - Jesus told stories!

4. It's great to encourage children to read books with Christian values

 

5. A novel is a non-threatening gift for children from non-church families

6. Kids who know all the Bible stories see faith being outworked in up-to-date situations

7. Children can lend books to their friends (for no extra cost!)

8. Like to have spiritual input but can't due to distance? A Christian novel is the perfect gift!

9. Like more family time? Read a Christian novel together, then discuss the issues

10. Words are powerful – a book may sow seeds that will bear fruit in years to come

Buy one today:

www.dernierpublishing.com/youthf.php

From £4.99 Free p+p to U.K. addresses.

Or visit your local bookstore

July 2012 Newsletter

Welcome to the July 2012 newsletter from

Dernier Publishing!

They're not leeks . . . are they triffids? :-)

Remember this photo from last month (left)? I thought it was leeks that had been planted in the field opposite our house . . . haha, well I was quite wrong, it is in fact maize and boy have the plants shot up - my dog is only small but you get an idea of the scale (below)

 . . . which makes my recent musings on children growing up so quickly seem even more relevant! ( If you missed the musings – scroll down to entry 12^th June 2012.)

 

Anyone else read 'The Day of the Triffids' by John Wyndham? The maize plants look a lot like I imagine triffids to be, and when there's a bit of a breeze they 'rattle' like triffids too, although they don't get up and walk! It's surprising how much comes back to you from books you have read - let's make sure the kids we love have exciting, inspiring Christian books to read so that in the future they will have lots of good things to remember :-)

Church School Awards

The annual Church School Awards took place in London last month – it was a privilege to be there and to present three of the awards. I met television presenter Kirsten O'Brien and some amazing pupils and teachers from church schools all over the country, who do the most amazing job. I also met some great people who work in education and have been put in touch with the National Children's Adviser for all the Church of England schools in the UK, with a view to her recommending our books toschools. She now has a copy of all our books - please pray!

 

Encouraging news!

If you follow us on facebook you will know that all our books are for sale at the Keswick Bible Convention, in the bookshop! Author Mary Weeks Millard (right) returned home from the first week having had an excellent time. She writes, “I did have a great encouragement. We went to church in Ambleside and met a young family. Books came up in the conversation and the mum told me that her six-year-old daughter had just had a birthday and was given this wonderful book called The Birthday Shoes! When she found out that I had written it she began to cry, and told me the book had really touched her when she read it to her daughter, and she was just amazed to have met me 'by coincidence!'” Isn't that so encouraging! Please do keep praying for all the children and their families who receive our books as gifts. And if you have birthdays coming up, why not buy a book or two? Who knows what seeds you may be sowing? Visit your local bookshop, or buy p+p free from www.dernierpublishing.com/youthf.php

 

More great news!

Author Eleanor Watkins (right) has also been out and about! She writes, “We visited the Lighthouse bookshop and coffee shop in Cupar, Fife for lunch today and were pleased to see Dernier books on the shelves. The lady in charge met Janet at CRT [Christian Resources Together] this year and says the Beech Bank Girls books are selling really well.” The Lord is at work! But don't stop praying because . . .

There's still so much more to do

Ayeisha George, who stocks some of our books in her bookshop in The Gambia, was also away recently. She writes, “We have had a very restful time in Senegal and are back in The Gambia now since last Tuesday. Just before leaving, I was able to visit a couple of villages under the sponsorship project of Inter Senegal Mission. In one of the villages I saw several children crowding over one children's story book. Its a pity that Mary's books are not yet translated into French or am I wrong? It will be nice to get some copies for distribution or sale in Senegal. Do let me know about this possibility. I have visited one of the Christian bookshops in Dakar (Bibliotheque Dieu a Parlé) and that would be a good outlet.”
My initial reaction was hopelessness in the face of such enormous need – we are so small - what can we do? We just about have enough money coming in for day to day needs, but nothing extra. There are so many more children we could reach with the “message in a story” if we could translate into other languages. It would take a miracle though! As I sighed and prayed over this dilemma, I remembered the Lord is able to do miracles. As we sung in church on Sunday, Our God is a great big God! If I think of how far we have already come, we have already witnessed a miracle, with books for sale not only all over the UK but in a few shops abroad too. A few years ago, that seemed like an impossible dream!

It still feels like a big gulp, but please keep praying with me that one day we will be able to reach children from many more peoples and nations - every child deserves to be able to read good Christian books in a language they can at least understand.

 

Prayer – just do it! booklets

Don't forget our 'Prayer – just do it!' booklets, if your prayer life needs a bit of a boost: www.dernierpublishing.com/prayer.php

And I've run out of room! Still, August's not far off, so not long until I can regale you with the next installment in our exciting adventure – please do stick with us! :-)

 

With love to you all,

Janet

P.S. The photo is of me in the triffid field :-)

P.P.S. Where have you seen our books? Free book for the best photo!

Trials

Life is a battle. Nothing new there, we all know that to be true – some people seem to be more cushioned than others, but nobody is exempt from trials and difficulties.

Since the fall of Adam and Eve, every one of us has been battling against the elements and against the temptations of our own evil desires, which the enemy at times seems to willfully and skillfully put in our path. It's not hard to trip us up, is it? Someone knows all our weak points - better than we do, possibly. And then there are the terrible events and day to day problems that happen to us over the course of our lives over which we have no control. Bereavement, rejection, abuse, natural disasters of many sorts (I'm talking globally here) and of course the final enemy, death, which not one of us can cheat. How many of us have not known the crushing ache of the soul because someone we love has died, rejected us, or left us for someone else? How many of us have not been in a dark tunnel of some sort, desperately seeking light at the other end, holding on to nothing but the hope that we need to keep living?

 

If it was not for the incredible love of God, none of us would, or could, survive. If He decided to withhold the rain or the sun from us, or send a plague, or stopped lifting us up when we fall, we would have no hope. If our Father in heaven had not sent his only Son, Jesus, to take on himself our sins and take the punishment that should have been ours, we would be dead even though we are alive. There would be no hope for us.

But because of God's love and his justice, demonstrated at the cross, and because of his power shown at the resurrection, and because light shines in the darkness and the darkness can never put it out, we can now live in peace – not just peace with God, but we can know the peace of God. We even have His Spirit in our lives as a guarantee of our inheritance! Death to life. Despair to hope. We can now receive comfort, guidance, joy and forgiveness, and start to understand the true meaning of love. But even then, there is still a battle to be faced, daily.

 

So what does all this have to do with Dernier Publishing, you might be asking yourself? :-) Fair question! Well, it was a daily kind of trial that made me think of writing this blog – concerning the simple (hehe) task of sending some boxes of books to IVP, who are running the Keswick Bible Convention bookshop. Peanuts really, in the whole scheme of things, but nonetheless a trial. I have previously used Royal Mail to send boxes of books, but with the recent increase in cost, I looked into alternatives. To cut a long story short, we now have an account with City Link, but too late to send the books for Keswick. So I drove the books to Nottingham myself, which meant a long drive there and back, battling sudden downpours of rain, spray and poor visibility, an 'incident' on the A52 going into Nottingham (standstill), a confusing google map, the slip road to the M1 being closed coming home, a flooded road in Derby (diversion) and one exhausted me by the time I got back to Kent.

Compared to having your house flooded, seeing your family hacked to pieces by Boko Haram extremists, facing famine and losing your children one after another to preventable diseases, this doesn't reach high up the scale. But it's nonetheless a battle. Another headache we have been facing is our new PO Box – don't let me start on that one! (Apologies to anyone who has sent us mail recently.)

So to cut to the chase, we have to keep looking up daily, keep praying, keep on keeping on, because if we did stop, it really would be a disaster . . because we have a job to do; we need to get our books out to the children who might not otherwise know that they can look up. May the Lord be gracious to us and keep fighting our battles with us and for us. As King Asa prayed when faced with an army way too big for him to deal with, 'There is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty.' Amen to that.

Growing up so fast!

Everybody knows that children grow up ever quicker as we get older. You only have to turn round and they have grown another couple of inches, or even feet . . . (apologies for those who use metric measurements!) You visit a baby one month and the next she's sitting up. Little boys seem to become gangly teenagers overnight . . . and is it possible that my four year old grandson is starting school in September? Surely not!

In the field opposite where I live the farmer is growing wheat. It's been a source of delight, having been a townie all my life, to watch the wheat grow from short stubby leaves to a beautiful crop of waving corn. When we first moved in, in March, we didn't even know if it was wheat! Then when the farmer planted leeks in the field next to it (we think its leeks!), it was a thrill to see the first tiny shoots popping up through the soil on what had been a completely bare field - these too are now getting higher and stronger with every passing day.

It reminds me how quickly time flies, and while we (or the farmer in this case!) sows the seeds and cares for them, it is the Lord who grants the increase. Both have a job to do.

It will be harvest soon - we're looking forward to watching the combine harvester! We too must plant and sow and care, while we can - who knows but that God will grant an increase, ready for the harvest?

John Wesley famously said:

“Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.”

 

May the Lord help us to be faithful workers, making the most of every opportunity we are given.

Prayer - just do it!

I was reading through our prayer booklet introduction today and thought it might be good to share it here on our blog, just in case it might be useful to anyone . . . I guess we all need a bit of help from time to time! The intro is the same in all four of the booklets.

Before you begin . . . Suggestions for Prayer

 This booklet has 30 prayer pointers, one for each day of the month if you wish.

You may like to use the prayer pointers for group prayers; there is power in praying with other Christians (Matthew 18:19). However, if you are on your own, be encouraged that many other people all over the world are praying with you, albeit unseen!

Find a regular time and place for your prayer time, if you can. Guard this time jealously. Few things are more important than prayer. You may like to keep a prayer diary, to jot down thoughts, news items, prayers and answers.

A 'prayer time' is like an arranged meeting with a friend, brother or boss. It is also good to pray whilst walking with the Lord throughout the rest of the day.

Try not to fill your day with unnecessary noise and activities which hinder communication.

Make sure that you are right with God before you start to make requests. Confess and repent of sin, settle unresolved issues and forgive others. The Lord's prayer is an excellent beginning to any prayer time.

Rest assured that it is not the eloquence or length of our prayers which matter. Our Father delights in answering the simple prayer of faith; He is not impressed by posh accents and religious words!

Keep in mind whilst praying that the Lord is powerful and mighty; He is able to do much more than we can ask for or even imagine (Ephesians 3:20). So let's pray bold prayers, keeping our minds fixed on the greatness of God rather than on the difficulties. Nothing is impossible with God!

Prayer is two way. Pray with God, listening out to what the Holy Spirit is saying and pray humbly. Keep in mind that our Lord is Almighty God, not a servant to grant our every request.

Remember to praise the Lord and thank Him for answered prayer.

God has chosen, at least in part, to meet the needs of His people through the prayers of His children. That's an awesome responsibility. So determine to persevere in prayer, even when you don't feel like it.

Use prayers from Scripture as part of your prayer time. There is tremendous power in God's word. If you have the gift of tongues, use it.

Learn to pronounce blessings. Read out blessings from the bible or make up your own, but use this God-given source of power.

Proclaim verses from Scripture out loud. There are some wonderful promises and triumphant expressions of faith, which will thrill you, glorify God and make the enemy flee!

Enjoy God's company. He's not a big, bad wolf hanging over you, waiting for you to get it wrong; he's a caring Father who loves being with you!

Copyright: Dernier Publishing.

All our booklets are available from our website:

www.dernierpublishing.com/prayer.php

You can read more about the booklets in a blog post I wrote in January, or if you have any questions or comments, or if there's anything you would like us to pray about, please do contact us :-)

Janet 

Christian Resources Exhibition

We were at the Christian Resources Exhibition at Sandown park in Esher last week, with a stand downstairs in the Esher Hall. It seemed quieter this year than in previous years, but still it was lovely to meet so many people who were interested in our books, booklets and posters, in order to be able to encourage their young people.

Eleanor Watkins came and signed the Beech Bank Girls books for us on the Friday morning, which was fun!

We met mums, dads, grandparents and godparents, Sunday School teachers, ministers and youth leaders looking for books for the young people on their hearts.

Please pray for a harvest from the seeds that have been sown!