Every Great Book Makes One Promise. And Dangit, That Means ONE! I work with a lot of authors. I mean, a lot. Most of them suffer from the same thing: fear that they aren’t saying enough. They know many things.

Things learned in painful ways. Lessons they don’t want to waste.

Insights they bled to gain.

But that’s a problem. Good books don’t tell you everything. They tell you a few majorly important things.

Great books tell you one thing, and they tell you in such a way that you can’t help but learn it, apply it, and tell everyone else about this book that changed your life.

When you’re wrestling with God’s call to write a book, you’re wrestling with a change God wants to see in your readers.

Maybe He simply wants them to come to Him and surrender.

Maybe He wants to heal the wounds of their trauma.

Maybe He wants to equip them with a spiritual gift and show them how to use it.

With all my clients, I help them drill down to one reader promise: If you read this book to the end, you will…

Heal your marriage…

Overcome fear…

Find your calling…

Gain freedom from the lies of Satan…

Or any number of wonderful promises.

If I read your book, what changes? What one thing?

How will I be transformed?

That’s the most important thing for you to know as you begin to write your book.

Then…

You need to know how you are going to structure the journey from where the reader is starting to where they will end up…transformed.

And this brings up my EXCITING NEWS! Keep reading.

There are lots of decent frameworks for writing a transformational Christian book.

What I mean by transformational is a book that promises a change. If the reader reads it all the way through, it should make them different.

There will be some kind of hook at the beginning where the reader’s problem or pain is described, usually in stories about the author who has been there and back.

Then, there will be the statement of a core thesis. If the reader believed it, they would change on the spot.

After that, the author will take the reader on a journey through the various stages of achieving the transformation build on the truth of the core thesis.

My favorite model is the classic hero’s journey, which is something like this:

Ordinary Life

A Call to Adventure

Resisting and Then Accepting the Call

Crossing the Threshold

Meeting the Mentor

Facing a Series of Challenges

Approaching the Deepest, Darkest Cave

Fighting the Dragon to Win the Treasure

Experiencing a Death and Resurrection

Returning with the Elixir or Treasure to Share with the Community

If you write the book on the hero’s journey, your reader’s hero’s journey, not yours, you will have a powerful, transformational book. I’ve written over 100 of these for my clients over my time as a ghostwriter.

For years, my team at Indie Christian Book and I have led authors through a 10-week process that takes a story or message and turns it into a reader-focused book.

We’ve used this process to help publish dozens of books.

It’s the same framework I’ve used to Ghostwrite over 130 Christian books at ChristianGhostwriting.com.

This fall, instead of offering it as a separate program, I’m opening it to our paid Substack community.

Beginning in August, I’ll teach the entire framework live over ten weeks.

We’ll meet twice each week, and I’ll teach the same lesson at both times, so you can attend whichever works best for your schedule.

Mondays: 7:00–8:30 p.m. CST

Tuesdays: 11:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m. CST

Over those ten weeks, you’ll learn how to:

• Develop your core message.

• Craft a compelling reader promise.

• Build an outline and structure that takes readers on their own hero’s journey toward the transformation your book offers.

• Write every chapter in a way that grabs readers and keeps them turning pages.

• Begin building a community around your message.

In short, you’ll learn how to write a reader-focused book with the potential to change lives.

But this isn’t just a class.

Each week, you’ll receive thoughtful feedback on your work from me, our team, and the other writers in the group.

We’ll encourage one another.

We’ll pray for one another.

We’ll celebrate one another’s progress.

And, Lord willing, we’ll help one another finish and fulfill God’s call to write a book that transforms lives.

If you’ve been carrying a book around in your heart for years, I’d love to help you get it onto paper.

The only requirement is a paid subscription to the Newsletter for Christian Writers (7 measly dollars a month).

Upgrade before August, and you’ll receive the Zoom links along with a simple NDA so everyone’s work remains protected, including yours.

If you have any questions, just send me a message.

I’d love to have you join us.

Jeff

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