Saturday, May 16, 2015

Bookmarks Coming from my Busy Person’s Prayer Book

Quite a few years ago, I had a dream of publishing a book filled with helpful little 4-line prayers. I managed to get one self-published, the Busy Person's Prayer Book

My dream, however, was to also get those little prayers to as many folks as possible, to anyone who wanted them – and, to do it at a very low price. The self-published paperback, however, because of how print-on-demand works, costs too much for it to be really effective. In seven years, I’ve only sold about 40 of them. I’ve given away a dozen or so. 

Meanwhile, I keep writing a prayer here, and one there, depending on my needs and concerns. 

Suddenly, yesterday, I realized that I have been overlooking one very obvious way of getting those prayers into an everyday buyer’s hands, at a low price – digital bookmarks! Even after I offer them as a digital download, it will be easy to print them, laminate them (now that I have a neat little low-cost laminating machine), and add a ribbon. So, I can offer them both ways. And cheaply.

Hopefully, I’ll start with two sets – one will include prayers for dealing with four of our most common daily concerns and issues. The other set will concern not ourselves, but others. 

The odd thing about this epiphany of mine is that I have been searching for my digital camera for almost two weeks in this double-wide mobile. I have things I wanted to photograph and put into my Etsy shop. 

This morning, I realized that maybe He has been holding the camera back, waiting for me to take charge of our prayers (I say “ours” because many of them did not come from me, but from Him). I would almost bet that once I create those first bookmarks and put them in the shop, I will suddenly find that camera, and in a very obvious place.

They say everything happens no according to our timing, but according to His. I believe it. Back when I first self-published that book, I did not know about Etsy. I did not have the bookmark template I have now. And I did not know some other things, then, that I do now. 

I guess the time has come.

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