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These are exciting at Sowjourn Publishers.  Our first book, Songs of Singleness, has been well-received and the author of that book is working on new books that hopefully will be available by the end of the year.  We are working with several new authors which we anticipate will publish their books in the very near future.

Against the backdrop of these two exciting facts is the reality that we are planting seeds.  Our intention is for those seeds to confirm our mission to provide works that entertain and inspire.  For us, the thought that there are people out there who have never heard of us will be uplifted by our books and their lives forever changed in positive ways is what most gets our juices flowing.

If you are a prospective writer and you want to join in on this excitement, contact us at kmorgan@sowjourn.com.  We would love to see if our paths are truly meant to cross.

Why did I write Songs of Singleness? In addition to my other responses, here is what I have to say on this subject.

There are not a lot of good book on Christian singleness. In fact, if you “google” Christian singles, over 95% of what will be displayed will be dating services related. Nevermind that Christian singles have cars that need repaired or are struggling with how to make upcoming mortgage or rent payments or are looking for a better paying job or are dealing with the death of a good friend. The focus of the “googlers” is how to find a boyfriend/girlfriend or husband/wife. Most books on singleness share that same limited focus.

Many books on singleness ignore or downplay the role of spirituality in the lives of singles. Instead of the question being “How can I grow closer to God?“, the focus of many singles books is “How can I grow closer to a prospective romantic partner?“. Unfortunately, God is an afterthought, which is kind of ironic because He is the source of all good things, including a romantic partner that is a spiritual complement to you.

Songs of Singleness is not written from the perspective of “You better do this” and “You should not do that“. Rather, it starts with the premise that our singleness in and of itself is neither good nor bad. Secondly, it does not take any great leap of spiritual wisdom to label one’s singleness as good or bad. The awesome display of spiritual muscles comes in when we can link our total singles experience with the implementation of God’s will in our lives and in the lives of those we interact with. That’s when gold medals are given out and championships are won!

So, readers of this book should be able to identify with the emotions behinds the experiences described therein.  At some point, we all will deal with loneliness, platonic friendships, sexual desire, blind dates, bad singleness days, breakups/heartaches, single parenting, unexpected tragedies and so on.  Songs of Singleness should be viewed as a book of clues that point out the hand of God in all of our experiences as a way to help us deal with the good and bad events that will come and have already come our way.

If you have ever considered becoming an author, then our short story contest may be just the thing to jump start your writing career. For a small submission fee, you can test the waters to start on the path to becoming a published author.

You can either submit a portion of a full manuscript that you have developed or you can write a short story. The advantage of doing the former is you can use something you have already created and tease the reading public with a selected portion of your work. The advantage of doing the latter is you can come up with a concept that is self-contained in work specifically designed to be a short story.

If I were entering this contest, I probably would do the latter, but either way can be effective.

The 4 or 5 winners of this contest will be have their chosen short story included in a book that helps to introduce them to the reading public. Also, these winners will receive a pro-rated portion of the royalties and also save on future publishing projects with Sowjourn Publishers.

So you think you can write? Well this short story contest is one way you can prove it!

Which do you enjoy more, speaking in public about your books or writing your books?

I really don’t enjoy one over the other. I probably stress myself more concerning the public speaking part, but that is balanced out by the opportunity to discuss important issues with people face to face.

One of the things that help me in my reading is that I like doing research.

So, I guess both the speaking and the writing aspect of what I do hold different but equal appeal for me.

How do you come up with the ideas for your books?

That’s hard for me to explain. I have no formula that I use. In my interactions with people, sometimes book subjects or themes will jump out at me. Other times, it could be my observations of how people interact with each other. In general, I think my ideas for future books arise from my desire to help people relate to each other in positive ways.

How long did it take to write this book?

That depends on when the clocks started running. The concept for this book started at the same time I was doing the research for my first book, God of Our Single Years. So from that perspective, which would mean this book has been in the works for about six years.

How is this book different from your first book which is also geared to singles?

My first book was written specifically for African-American Christian singles and is very research heavy. It is the kind of book that is not meant to be read in one setting. It should be used a resource book that you refer to from time to time. It also incorporates our history, our culture, the application of Christian principles and the borrowing of concepts from psychology.

Songs of Singleness is written for all Christian singles. It cannot be over-emphasized that this book is not just for a particular segment of the singles population. As a single person, if you have ever pondered your spirituality or went out on a date or had a romantic relationship end or suffered through a period of depression or loneliness or spent time as a single parent or dealt with sexual desire; then this book is for you. It does not matter if you are Black or White, young or old, rich or poor or whatever; there is something for you in this book.

In an earlier post, I stated that most publishing companies are more likely to give out a “no” than a “yes” in response to author submissions. I called this the No approach to publishing.

Well, do we at Sowjourn Publishers subscribe to the same approach? Certainly not! That is not to say that we will have to turn away some prospective authors. But, our approach will be different from many of the so-called mainline publishers in that we will aggressively seek out authors. In that aggressive approach, we will interact with people who do may not necessarily fit the traditional definition of authors. For example, where someone may only see a housewife or a teacher or a teenager entering the next grade in high school; we may see an author with a lot of potential and upside.

Is there risk with this approach? Yes, but if we are going to act and believe like every other publisher, we should not bother with opening our doors. Staying with our slogan of “Sowing the journey and Reaping Our Destiny”; we are convinced there are good authors (diamonds in the rough) who have some worthwhile things to say and the world will better off if they are given a forum to raise their voices.

So, what is our meaning? Maybe we can be described as a voice crying out in the wilderness. But that sounds a bit melodramatic. Perhaps it is better to say that we looking to bring order in a world of chaotic words. Hence the “s.o.w.” in Sowjourn stands for “spiritually organized words”. There are a lot of words out there, maybe an overabundance of written works; but we are dedicated to locating those words that are organized for our spiritual benefit.

How did you come up with the title of “Songs of Singleness”?

Actually, I came up with that name when I was working on my first book. That book was also about singleness and a lot of research and statistics went into it. This book was intended to be a “lighter” or less research heavy work. By Songs of Singleness, I wanted to write a book that peeked into every aspect of being single. It is less of a how to book and more of an “it is what it is” look at Christian singleness.

What are some of the major themes of this book?

The overall theme of this book is that there is a spiritual flavor for everything that singles deal with. So, whether it is about dating or depression or blind dating or single parenting or loneliness or sexual frustration; these things can be processed from a spiritual standpoint.

Although this is only your second book, do you have a niche or specific area of interest as a writer?

Not really. If I have a niche, it would be “Christian living/relationships”.

Both of your books deal with being a Christian single, is that your niche?

Singleness is something I am very familiar with and perhaps that is the reason why my first two books were on that subject. But my real “niche” has more to do with how people relate to each other. A lot of what I have written about, researched and will write about will examine ways that Christians can interact with people, saved and unsaved.

In the process of trying to determine the mission of my publishing company, I have also wrestled with my meaning. By meaning, I am seeking to identify what makes my publishing company unique. There is no denying that there are a lot of publishing companies out there, so does the world need another one?

If my “meaning” turns out to be the same as that of other publishing companies; then the answer to the above question is no. But what I have confronted as an author is that most publishing companies are more likely to respond with a “no” than a “yes” concerning author submissions. I understand why they do that because it has a lot to do with the quality of works they are saying no to. But there are several problems with the “no” approach to publishing.

• It is subjective. What one person thinks is good will very likely be different from what someone thinks will fit that standard. To make matters worse, that same one person may have different and changing views of what is good from moment to moment. Then it really becomes a matter of time. You can submit your work on Monday at 3:00 PM and the publisher may judge your work as “bad”. But send that same work (with no changes) in on Wednesday at 8:30 AM, that same person may determine that your work is now “good”.
• It is a numbers game. Now as a small publisher, I fully understand this. Given the limited amount of time, resources, interest and several other resources, it is viewed as a wise use of one’s discretionary powers to knock some authors’ works out of the box as soon as possible. This usually works against new authors. But suppose THE Stephen King or THE John Grisham submitted a work that was determined to be “bad”? In most cases, there would be some effort to transform that “bad’ work into a “good” work. In essence, the numbers games works against new authors and in favor of established authors. Whether that is right or fair is another issue to discuss at another time.

In light of these two problems with the “no approach” to publishing, what is my “meaning” for my publishing company? That is what I will try to address in an upcoming post.