Cover Reveal: Christ's Gifts to Women

I’m extremely excited to post the cover of Christ’s Gifts to Women. (Cover Art by Howard Lyon) Like all books, this one has been in the making for awhile. It's almost exactly a year to the day when I was first approached by Angela Eschler about co-writing this book. I wish I could show you the interior since it is probably the most gorgeous interiors I have seen. There are 25 paintings inside. But you'll have to wait until release date, March 2012.

Below, I’ve included a rundown of the project and how it all came to be:

On September 25, 2010, Angela Eschler emailed me about a project she’d been working on for awhile. She’d already pitched it to her publisher (which was also my publisher), but because she’d had a baby and was running a home business, she was having a hard time completing the project.

I had great respect for Angela, and we’d actually worked together on one of my books before—she was my editor for a short time—but I had recently turned down other co-author projects because they weren’t a good fit for me. So I wanted to make sure it was a project I could be passionate about and not do it because I was flattered by the invitation.

I agreed to look at what Angela had done so far, and by the time I finished reading it, I knew 2 things. I could help her, and I was excited about the project. The focus was on the women who knew and/or interacted with Christ during His lifetime and had received special gifts from Him. Then the book would answer the questions of how those gifts can be embraced by women today.

We decided to organize the book into two portions. Angela focused on the Intro and the first two chapters, and I focused on the last three chapters. The book wouldn’t be long, only about 35 pages of text. We foresaw it as a gift book for women, something that would make a good Mother’s Day book.

The New Testament “year” was just around the corner as well. We thought it was probably too late to make an early 2011 release, even though the book was short, and even though the publisher was expecting the full manuscript soon. And of course we didn’t want to wait until 2015 (the next NT year). The solution we came up with was that it didn’t need a “New Testament year” push, but would focus on the women who knew Christ (who happen to be in the New Testament), and how their experiences could be applied to ours.

Right away, Angela and I started working on our chapters, trading emails and quotes back and forth. We worked together pretty quickly, and I was surprised that I did have some things to say about my assigned “gifts.” We finished the first working draft in October and sent to three readers to gain feedback. Overall, we were told the book was a great concept, and we just had to work out some of the nitty gritty details.

By the first of November, we were happy with our manuscript. We put together a cover letter explaining the book concept (of illustrations, singling out certain quotes, and how this book can now be a general release).

Below is the general outline of the book’s process (slow but steady):

November 2, 2010: Submitted to publisher, Covenant Communications

January 18, 2011: Committee requested revisions before contract can be offered

January 26: Submitted request to the LDS Church’s Intellectual Property Reserve for permission to use Church General Authority quotes

February 3: Submitted revision

March 24: Official acceptance; release date assigned: March 2012 (one whole year away!)

June: Final editing/copy editing with publisher

July 12: Permissions to quote Church General Authorities granted

September 27: Cover finished; interior ready for final proof