Mixing Evolution and Christianity

I just watched a YouTube presentation entitled The Collapse of Intelligent Design featuring Dr. Kenneth Miller, a Brown University biology professor and researcher, addressing a university crowd. I was intrigued by that title since I was under the impression that ID is just gaining momentum. The talk started off with a prayer beseeching our Heavenly Father to help in finding the truth. I find that ironic when the talk was designed to help people understand that God didn’t design or create the world. Miller, a professed Catholic, stated he was praying right along with that benediction, which did not end with “In the Name of Jesus” (surprise, surprise). How Miller can be fighting so hard against the rights of people to bring up Intelligent Design as an option for the origin of our world and the teeming life within it baffles me.

Miller starts out talking about Answers in Genesis and showing a drawing that depicts two warships at battle with the word “Satan” underneath the one entitled Evolution. He gets lots of laughs from the crowd making fun of the AIG mentality. I am well familiar with that drawing. However, last time I checked, AIG was not an agency espousing Intelligent Design. They totally emphasize 6 day creationism. How the ID movement featuring a total focus on scientific arguments and a total exclusion of specific mention of religion from the agenda is confused with the Creationism movement is a real fascinating area of study. Talk about your red herrings. I’ve come to the conclusion that evolution proponents have so turned off their minds to anything that detracts from Darwinistic philosophy that they don’t even hear the arguments being laid out by ID proponents. That is really frustrating because we argue against someone who isn’t listening and have to listen to claims of how they’ve debunked intelligent design when they don’t even know what it is they’re trying to debunk. I object on the grounds that the answers and questions are irrelevant and immaterial. No doubt the Judge will overrule my objection (they have in just about every venue where this topic has come up). Even more painful is hearing evolutionists talking about proofs of evolution using examples that don’t even fit into the Darwin hypothesis of slow undirected changes.

Miller is a good speaker, charismatic, humorous, and glib. However, those qualities don’t alter the amount of truth in the content. The best liars on earth have been very convincing. Let’s just look at the Satan aspect. Miller ridiculed the idea that the theory of evolution has been a plot of Satan and has caused several social problems. Let’s look at this analytically. If Satan does exist (Miller believes in Jesus Christ as the son of God according to his own claims so surely he must believe in the devil that Jesus mentions on numerous occasions) what would his modus operandi be? What is his original title? Let’s see – something about the great deceiver, right? How do deceitful people work? They use partial truths, act charmingly, elicit laughter, and distort reality. Satan wrote the book on the topic. If Satan is at war with God, wouldn’t the foundation of his game plan be to get people to deny that God (and even the devil himself), does not exist? That only sounds logical to me, but maybe we’re not allowed to use logic in this discussion since after all it is just a product of evolution.

One of the tactics used to stir up people against intelligent design is mentioning the “war against science.” Helllooooo. Intelligent Design (and not even creationism) is at war against “science”. Most of the people on the front lines are scientists. They’re at war with a false religion called Darwinism masquerading as science. The battle is not with the scientific method but rather with the Darwinian theory which somehow obtains exalted status in the world of science despite the fact that the scientific method cannot be deployed to test any of the speculations that arise. Until this is understood, evolutionist scientists are going to be totally involved in defending their turf and refuse to listen to any scientific rebuttal of Mr. Darwin.

I’ve had communication with Dr. Miller in the past. He laughs about those who tell him his eternal destiny will be hotter than the Mojave Desert in summer. I didn’t say that in my letters to him, but I did suggest that if Darwin’s work has been a tool of the devil that Miller was just a pawn in Satan’s army and finding that out on judgment day will be a bit of rude (and perhaps unpleasant) shock. If you truly love God, how would you feel to find out you have been giving support to his enemy?

Let me end with a little analogy from science. There is a certain parasitic worm called a brainworm which reproduces inside of sheep. The method they use to enter a sheep is very interesting. The worms gain entrance to the abdomen of an ant by being swallowed. After several of them are cozily snuggled away, one of the worms crawls to the brain of the ant and somehow gains control of the ant’s free will, causing it to climb to the top of a grass blade and just sit there until a sheep comes along and eats the grass, thus giving the worm entrance to the sheep. What goes through the ant’s mind as it gets controlled like a puppet on a string to perform an act that leads to its own destruction? Does it mock those ants below who cry out to him that he is being deceived and that unless he returns to the ground, he will perish? I haven’t mastered the art of intercepting ant communications yet so I can only venture a guess on the topic. However I think the same type of brain altering scheme allows a brilliant scientist like Kenneth Miller to fight to deny people the right to discuss intelligent design in school or even put labels on books labeling them as containing material that needs to be considered carefully while at the same time believing in God.

If God didn’t design life, then in what way is he God? Why would he need to send his son Jesus to earth to die a cruel death and suffer the mocking of inferior mortals to save something that he didn’t design? I don’t know if God created the world in six literal days, and I don’t get hung up on that detail. I do know it didn’t create itself using natural laws which themselves would have to be created, and life didn’t come along by itself. If God had any hand in how we arrived at where we are, that means it is designed. He has placed his signature in multiple places on this portrait known as the universe. How Miller can profess God and deny Intelligent Design is absolutely contradicting.

A man named Richard Bozarth once said, ‘Atheism is science’s natural ally. Atheism is the philosophy, both moral and ethical, most perfectly suited for a scientific civilization. If we work for the American Atheists today, atheism will be ready to fill the void of Christianity’s demise when science and evolution triumph. Without a doubt humans and civilization are in sore need of the intellectual cleanness and mental health of atheism. Christianity has fought, still fights, and will fight science to the desperate end over evolution because evolution destroys utterly and finally the very reason Jesus’ earthly life was supposedly made necessary. Destroy Adam and Eve and the original sin, and in the rubble you will find the sorry remains of the son of God. Take away the meaning of his death. If Jesus wasn’t the redeemer who died for our sins, and this is what evolution means, then Christianity is nothing!’

Somehow Mr. Miller and other theistic evolutionists are convinced they are doing God and mankind a favor by being missionaries against creationism and Intelligent Design. I can only take a swag at the level of gratefulness that the Lord will express in the afterlife. Call me crazy, but maybe Mr. Miller would be less popular with the world and more endeared to God if he stood up to the Bozarths and Richard Dawkins of the world and spoke out for his faith in God and not his faith in Charles Darwin.

Check out my Slide Show!

The Queen of Edgy Christian Fiction is Coronated

Also known as the Edgy Inspirational Author, Michelle Sutton reads a LOT of books and writes reviews for a variety of blogs and websites as a media reviewer. Along with reviewing fantastic Christian fiction, Michelle has written 9 novels in a variety of genres (YA, Women’s fiction and romance for starters.) She sold her first book, It’s Not About Me, to Sheaf House, a new CBA/ABA publisher taking fresh voices in fiction. Michelle is the mother of two teenagers and has a husband of 18 years. She also serves on the ACFW Operating Board, is the Marketing Director for Sheaf House, is Editor in Chief of Christian Fiction Online Magazine, and is a social worker by trade, hence the edgy content in the fiction she writes.

For more info go to her website at http://www.michellesutton.net
or her Blogger blog @ http://edgyinspirationalauthor.blogspot.com
or her MyCCM.org profile @ http://www.myccm.org/michelle
and check out the new Christian Fiction Online Magazine here…
www.christianfictiononlinemagazine.com

Michelle was one of the first people I met when I got into the writing business. She let me read the first couple of chapters of her latest manuscript about a year ago. On September 1 that same manuscript entitled It’s Not About Me hits the streets as Michelle’s debut novel. There were a lot of people pulling for Michelle to break through. She has aided a multitude of writers in her role as a reviewer. It was her time to be in the spotlight instead of holding it. However, I’m pretty sure Michelle will grab that spotlight away and shine it on Jesus, because after all, it’s not about her. Here’s an interview I did with Michelle today:

DJP: Michelle, when I first met you I tabbed you as the most famous unpublished writer in the world of Christian fiction. How did you get into the position of being a reviewer for all the big names in the industry?

Michelle: LOL! My agent says the same thing. Before I sold a book she said she’d never met a more well-known unpubbed writer. I just love to read and when I really like a book people buy it because they read my review. My readers know I won’t lie about a book either. So the floodgates opened and the next thing I knew there were truckloads of books coming for me to read from authors, publicists, publishing houses, etc. and some of them I never even knew about. Yet people STILL sent me their books to read hoping I’d like them. Oy! I’ve learned to say NO a lot. But for every five books I turn down I take another two because I REALLY want to read it. My hubby says I REALLY want to read everything. Um…yeah, I do!

DJP: I hope you realize that once your book is on the streets, you’ll have to work harder than you did writing it to promote it. Do you have any special plans you can share with us how you hope to penetrate the marketplace?

Michelle: No problem. I’m a marketing maven. It comes second nature to me. How do you think I ended up with so many books to review? I’m using word of mouth, blog interviews and tours, church contacts, business cards, postcards, bookmarks, contests, sending my book to strategic review sites and reviewers, book clubs, all of my social networks like Shoutlife and ECFL to name a few, mailing lists, lined up several book signings in a variety of cities and, um, the magazine, which is HUGE. I started my marketing strategy back in December and I have my book and/or me featured on over 60 sites BEFORE I even do my blog tour. I’m selling a lot of pre-orders as a result.

DJP Your available time for reviewing is going to be cut drastically. Are you going to shed tears at passing the crown of premier reviewer to someone else so you can chase the dream of being a top echelon author?

Michelle: Um, so far I’ve kept my usual pace of 6-8 books a month and I’ve been doing to mag, promo and edits, plus more proposals and marketing, and building websites, and I haven’t had to cut back on my reading yet. I just get three times the amount of emails that I did even a month ago. So as a compromise I’ve learned to type faster. Yeah, technically I am getting more behind every month on my TBR pile, but I’m doing the best I can.

DJP: How will you select the books that you do take time to review?

Michelle: Close my eyes and spin around? Actually, my husband tends to read the scarier and more suspenseful books that come to the house. So I have him tell me what he loved about the story and I write it up and call it hubby’s review. That way I can still post a review even if it takes me another year to actually read it myself. He just finished Melanie Wells’s three book series and totally loved it. we’ll be writing up a three book review (of the whole series) this weekend.

DJP: Compare birthing a novel as opposed to giving birth to a baby.

Michelle: The developing of the story was fun, just like my pregnancies were both great. I loved being pregnant and felt beautiful and like a million bucks. The labor process was not so fun. Then when you hold your baby the first time….well, there is nothing like that feeling. So in comparison to writing, the story development was a blast, final polishing not too bad, final edits a bit painful and more of a drag–also took longer than I’d like. But the final product was a beautiful book that gave me an exhilerating feeling just like holding my child the first time.

DJP: You have to be the most active person I have ever met. You review, you write, you blog, you are on every social network in the world, you are involved with Christian Fiction Online Magazine. And on top of that you even answer e-mails! How do you find the time to do all of this? Do you have any time left over for family, friends, and funstuff?

Michelle: I always make time for family, friends and church. Tonight I’m doing a chick night with my girlfriend at her house. Tomorrow night I’m going to a concert. I never put my social life on hold for my “tasks” and rarely do I miss something because of a deadline. I go to parties, rodeos, movies, etc. with my family and friends whenever the opportunity arises. I even try to fit some exercise in there.

DJP: You shared a story on the ACFW loop about your mother, her struggle with MS, and the impact on your family. Perhaps you can share that here as well. I found it inspirational.

You mean the one on the bookclub loop where I said I doubt any of my siblings and I would know the Lord had my mother been healthy and not stricken with MS? I believe God knows what we all need to come to accept His grace and forgiveness, and to receive Him as our savior. Since my mother was bedridden for 20 years, all she could do was pray, but that was HUGE and most likely the reason we are all believers today. Not many parents pray for their children several hours per day every day. Though my mom couldn’t do anything physically, it was something she could do to store up treasures in heaven and she took full advantage of that by praying, “Whatever it takes, Lord.” Many of the stories I write have surrender themes and healing themes. Gee, I wonder why… LOL!

DJP: I know you have been attempting to get published for a while. Do you have any clue how many rejections you suffered through?

Michelle: Probably about sixty to seventy. I stopped counting after my third or fourth. I’ve written nine novels, so you can do the math. We didn’t submit everything to every publisher, but still… there were a lot. Very positive rejections, but still “no.”

DJP: Do you think that after that much longing to attain your goal of publication that it might be a little bit of a bummer to not have that carrot in front of you anymore to keep you giving your all?

Michelle: No way. I still have 8 more novels to sell. That will always be a carrot for me as long as I have a book to sell and someone who I can reach by getting it published.

DJP: After having so many books and so many rejections, how seriously tempted were you to self publish?

Michelle: Not really. If I had felt God telling me to I would’ve pursued it, but if He hadn’t that would’ve been taking things into my own hands. God wanted me with Sheaf House. It’s that simple.

DJP: Would you go that route in the future if you can’t find a publisher for some of your books?

Michelle: If I felt God leading me to do that, yes.

DJP: Can you share just a word of wisdom that you’ve gleaned in your journey to publication for those aspiring to follow in your footsteps with their debut novels.

Listen to the Lord and don’t get discouraged. His timing is perfect and He is always good. He’ll know when you are ready. In the meanwhile, be prepared to wait a LONG time. But honestly, the longer I waited the more contacts I made, and the more my name became known, the more books I will be able to sell. So that benefits not only me, but also the publisher, and my readership.

And the Truth Shall Set You Free

Pontius Pilate said, “what is the truth?” Chang, the grown up version of Grasshopper from Kung Fu, said, “Is not the truth the truth?” In the movies Jack Nicholson raged, “You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth!” Everyone seems to think they have the truth. I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone proclaim “This is what I believe, and I’m wrong.” There are many truths in life, but which is of the utmost importance? I think that’s a no-brainer: eternal life, don’t leave Earth without it. Intelligent, rational people soon understand the concept of planning for tomorrow. High school kids start planning college. University students start planning a career. Working people plan to provide a secure economic future and fund their retirement. Wise people are always thinking a step ahead with that sure knowledge that someday they’re going to reach that timeframe they’re planning for. How many people plan beyond retirement? I’m not talking about buying a cemetery plot and a stone in advance but rather about continuing their existence to infinity and beyond. Before you plan for a future you have to believe in one. Many people don’t. And Darwin’s theory of evolution is the reason why many are in the category.

Turns out that the questions of the origins of life are somewhat like a math test for which we don’t have a definite answer key. Lots of people ignore the test, believing it to be of no consequence. Others fiercely debate those who have put in different answers on their score sheet. And a few earnestly seek meaningful and thoughtful dialogue with others to determine the correct answers. That select remnant I refer to as truth seekers. Finding the truth is the goal, not just attaining feelings of smugness and self-satisfaction. Truth seeking is a lifetime process. I like to think I’m one of those. Dr. Kenneth Miller also thinks he’s one.

I recently had the experience of exchanging emails with Dr. Miller, an esteemed professor of Biology at Brown University and a leading spokesman against the Intelligent Design movement. Talking about tests, I’d like to give a test to people, including Dr. Miller, on what the term Intelligent Design entails. I have a sneaking suspicion that most will fail miserably. Most of the people who are leading the charge against allowing Intelligent Design to be discussed in the classroom are motivated by their atheistic and secular humanistic cravings to keep religion out of the public eye, especially in the arena of public education where young minds can be swayed by propaganda. Despite the efforts of people like Judge Jones of Dover fame and other staunch evolutionists to muddy the waters with such claims, Intelligent Design does not even mention God. I understand their tactic of using religion as an argument because it seems to be the most effective way of combating this theory of mathematical and common sense. To point out the fallacy of Specified Complexity they’d actually have to study it a bit and understand what it entails. It’s much easier to dismiss it as non-science, religion dressed in a disguise, and worst of all, anti-science.

I always find it interesting how the word ‘propaganda’ is applied. Reminds me of the guy illustrating the difference between himself and another guy. He’s stubborn – I’m tenacious. He’s judgmental, but I’m wise. He’s cocky, whereas I’m confident. I think you get the picture. We always stack the deck in our own favor. So both sides of a debate accuse the other side of dispensing propaganda while they themselves dole out truth. And so it is with the great Evolution debate, which has been going back and forth for almost 150 years.

Now back to Dr. Miller. I wrote to him questioning how he could be a Catholic and argue against allowing Intelligent Design to be discussed in the classroom. This man not only speaks out against and writes in numerous publications but actually travels to hearings around the country to throw his weight into the struggle to keep science safe from the heresy known as ID. Evolutionists mustn’t allow any discussion about Darwinism that might cast doubts in children’s minds. I strongly felt that God was leading me to speak bluntly to this man and try to enable him to see what solace he was bringing to the atheists who spearhead this movement. I posed a fairly simple question to him concerning logic. As a Catholic he recites the Nicene Creed (which he acknowledges) which starts out ‘We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.’ With that fact in mind, I asked him to look at the illogic of the following.

A. God exists and created all things – which Miller believes

B. people, animals, and plants are things – which everybody knows

C. There is no design or designer for people, animals, or plants, and anyone who claims such a thing is endangering the soul of America (according to the hype

for Miller’s new book).

Does anyone else see the lack of logic? This seems pretty straight forward to me. Anyone who believes that God created everything yet argues against design must be saying that God created it, but he didn’t design it. That’s sounds like as slippery a slope as any I’ve ever seen. Perhaps I’d not heard that scientists were allowed to speak like politicians – out of both sides of their mouths.

Ken sidestepped the question of logic but he did reply with a long letter. He wrote ‘As I drove to Church this morning, I thanked God for the beautiful sunrise that appeared in New England today after a stormy evening. When I acknowledge God as the creator of all things, that gorgeous sunrise is included. However, it’s a fact that the cold front sweeping through the northeast pushed out last night’s moisture, and that natural causes were the direct cause of the sunrise. We could
go further, and explain the beautiful reds and blues in the sky as the product of refraction and light scattering…. In other words, that sunrise had a natural cause. It was not created directly by God. Nonetheless, God, who is the author of all things natural, is ultimately responsible for it.’

There is some validity to that argument, perhaps. However he acknowledges that God is responsible for it, which means that the Creator at least designed the laws which bring about the effects we see. An analogy I would use here is a computer program to generate the visual effects for Microsoft Windows Media player. You’ve seen the whirling colors and patterns. A programmer designed that. He didn’t sit down and say, I’m going to create the specific color combinations that are displayed but rather creates a looping, random generating mechanism that rolls the artistic dice, so the picture keeps changing. You can argue that he didn’t expressly write code to get one circle that is navy, and another that is white, etc. But it was designed. Who knows how much thought God put into designing the natural laws that keep our planet in a stable orbit around a sun that is just the right distance from us. He probably didn’t arrange for the particular colors displayed that morning, which were based on the amount of dust in the air, the angle of the sun, the amount of moisture, etcetera, which are all variables producing different effects using the same laws. But he’s playing games of semantics if he maintains that God created everything but designed nothing.

Here is more of Ken’s rebuttal to my letter. ‘Try reading the book, Mr. Parker. I did not write that the ID threatens our country’s scientific future. Rather, I explained that the approach that ID advocates have taken, which attempts to make science just another culturally-driven relativistic discipline, is what truly threatens America’s scientific soul.’

That describes exactly what evolutionists have done to science? In addition Darwinists want their pet theory to be the only game in town. ID people are not averse to allowing evolution to be taught. Why are evolutionists so paranoid about competition for their theories? Could it be that they can’t allow light to shine on their smoke and mirrors?

As soon as someone shows me that microbe-to-man evolution is scientific in nature, I’ll shut up. Unfortunately for Darwin devotees, that will never happen because they deal in historical science which can not be reproduced by experiment or falsified in a test tube. And even more unfortunate for them – that is what the scientific method consists of – meaning that evolutionary theory, beyond the variations within a species, is simply conjecture based on circumstantial evidence and what I refer to as wishless thinking. William Jennings Bryan had the solution to this dilemma back in 1925. He suggested that the science classes just shy away from discussion of origins. I’m sure there are more than enough facts about the millions of species on this planet to stuff kids’ heads without bringing up points of conjecture. I shudder to think how much time and money are squandered by people trying to prove that evolution is true. Our world is in need of excellent scientists and science to find cures for diseases, new fuel sources, and better ways for feeding the inhabitants of the planet.

Ironically, in his letter Miller made his pitch to me for the truth of evolution by citing geological evidence. He’s a biologist. Why is he standing on the discipline of geology (which was fathered by a lawyer) and not his own research? Could it possibly have anything to do with the fact that biologists have no clue how the cell, which is more complex than the space shuttle, could have spring out of existence due to the chance combination of some proteins, which in themselves are complex structures. I simply asked him to consider the possibility that he was being duped by Satan into participating in the fight on the side of the ACLU, NAS, and other groups. If God truly is offended by men teaching that his creation arrived at its status quo totally by non-directed changes within nature, how is Ken going to feel when he faces God and has to account for his actions on Earth? I remarked that if Darwinism is a plot of Satan to prevent mankind from believing in God, then he is just a pawn in the devil’s hands. And so is Richard Dawkins. I don’t know about them, but I can think of few things worse than being deceived into thinking you’re a king while you’re being used as a peon(the French word). I don’t want to see Ken or anyone else flunk this test and miss out on any of the joys of eternal life.

Also ironically Ken Miller was featured in the novel I wrote recently called All the Voices of the Wind. He and Phillip Johnson were the two main people discussed by my characters, though Richard Dawkins’ name also came up a few times. I’m grateful that Ken answered my email. I have respect for Ken, and I wish to see him in God’s perfect will. By the way, I suggested that Ken read my novel (I offered to send him one). He hasn’t responded. He thinks I am misguided, and I am of the same opinion in the other direction.

I’ll close with a little blurb from my novel. Perhaps this will be food for thought for some of you.

“OK, moving back into our main topic, I had a question about pastors and other Christians who not only believe in evolution but stand up for it. What’s up with that?”

Maria nodded. “Excellent question, Julie. I’ve been seeking an answer for that one myself. Any comments?”

Ronnie sat down. “I see so many evolutionists out to destroy religion, and then I see these pastors stand up and argue for evolution. It doesn’t make any sense. If God didn’t use evolution to do his creating for him, these people have some pretty big explaining on judgment day. I can see where maybe they believe in evolution, but where is the reason to fight for it against believers?”

Luke retied a shoe. “It’s like they’re straddling both sides of the fence. We all know what happens if you’re doing that and your foot slips.”

Jeremy stood up and got some relief from his aching rear-end. “I see the evolutionists using the church people as their buffer against the creationist/intelligent design attack. I found a seminar on the Internet with some of the leading scientists. They were discussing how to do away with religion. Evolutionists may put up with the religious fringe in their group for now, but if they ever destroy the anti-evolutionist movement, I think they will turn to their allies and start convincing them they need to renounce their religion or else.”

And now we’re right back at the starting point of this essay – what is the truth? The funny thing is that we all get to decide what we think the truth is, but our opinions never change reality.

The ultimate in self-publishing – It’s a Lulu

Tons of people are out there looking for the ultimate self publishing solution. I think I have stumbled upon it. And it’s a LuLu – literally. www.lulu.com I looked at them for a long time before I jumped. I published my first book for about $2000 by the time I paid for revisions and expediting. I now pay to get a professional edit, create my own book cover the way I want it, and distribute for under $500. And it’s done on my timeline (except the professional edit).

There is a ton of documentation on their site – which can get confusing so let me boil it down to some relevant details. This is what you can do and how you do it on Lulu.

#1 – you can get copies of a book published just for the cost of the books you order (no minimum). Thus if you want to publish a book for some friends and family, this is the place for you. If you decide later, you wish to market it via Amazon etcetera, no problem. For $100, you can add that on later (which pays for your ISBN number). And when you buy that package, you can choose to publish as yourself instead of having Lulu listed as the publisher.

#2 – you can have total control over the process of producing your book, except for the wait in getting the distribution set up with the booksellers.

#3 – Set your own book price. (Make sure you do this each time you make a revision. They have default settings which always are applied when revising).

How do I do it?

Simply register as a user and create a project. Upload the text of your book in Microsoft Word. It will create a pdf file for you which you can download to your machine. Some people charge $20 a pop just for this service. Then you can use their templates to create a cover and have them put the ISBN number on it (if you buy the distribution package) or even better – you submit a one piece pdf file as the cover and they don’t make any changes to it. A month ago I would have asked, how do I create a cover. Now I have a wonderful solution.

The application BookcoverPro (www.bookcoverpro.com) costs $97 and is a little gem. It will put the ISBN barcode on your book for you – something that some services charge $15 just to create for you. You just add all the graphics and text you want and drag them around to where you want them and size them as desired. When you’re done, you can export as a pdf file. Then you upload that file to Lulu and you now have a book. Once you save those pieces, you are published! You can order a copy of the book to see how your cover looks, etc. Personally, I have a hard time proofreading on the screen. I just don’t see the boo-boos well. For $12 or so, depending on the size of your book, you can proofread a real version of your book – which means you’re not confined to your computer but can proofread in the bathroom, at the dining table, stuck in traffic, wherever. It’s the best thing since sliced bread.
PS: You can buy a more expensive version of BookCoverPro for about $50, but that doesn’t change the way the program works. You just get access to templates, images etc. that you can use in your covers. The jury is still out on whether it is worth the extra money or not – but at the price they charge, it’s a steal. I more than paid for the price with my first book.

OK, so now you have published your book and have a copy in your hand. You don’t like the cover (make sure you overlap the borders so you don’t leave any white) or you found change that have to be made in the text. No problem. Just go to Lulu, click the View All button on your MyLulu page, choose not, click the Approve or deny your proof, click on Create Revision, and start the process over again.

If you want to buy the distribution package, you have to wait until you publish, but you don’t have to buy a book before then. I printed my first copies before I got the ISBN, but I figured I was going to have to make revisions so it was no big thing. And I have an advance copy for a friend or family member or reviewer. You could actually print all advance copies to send to people to write reviews which you could put on the back cover – or inside the book. Whatever you want to do (with some limitations such as a blank page at the end, number of pages divisible by 4 etc.)

#1 – Publish (including an E-book which you also set the cost for).
#2 – Buy distribution package (Note: you can’t do that until your book is listed as General Access. I had to get help on this because I was listed under Private access. Their documentation does not mention this)
#3 – Revise – to add your ISBN number to cover and copyright page.
#4 – Publish again.
#5 – Approve when satisfied and the book is on it’s way to Amazon and all the other net outlets.

So if you aren’t going to buy the distribution package, there is no need to ever approve. Once you approve and then want to make changes, you have to pay more money (I think $49 is all) You can revise as many times as needed until you reach the point you are satisfied with your book.

So how do you make any money? Aren’t their books kind of expensive? Yes. You can set the price of the book to make as little or as much as you want. You own the rights to your book. I chose to publish as myself so I own the ISBN as well. I can ship the pdf file that I got from Lulu and the cover pdf to a printer, and have copies printed off much cheaper than Lulu sells them to me. So for a 188 page book that retails for $12.95, I buy 125 copies for under $6. That allows me to sell them on the internet and at book signings for a nice margin – even if I reduce the price. And my printer ships in 48 hours!! I hesitate to share their name here, because if they are deluged with orders from all of you, that 48 hours might transform to the 6 weeks that other printers quoted me. I’ll do this much though, check out my website – at www.donaldjamesparker.com?lulu
and send me an email and I’ll send you the URL for the printer. PS: The books came out even nicer than my subsidy publisher did them (and they were wrapped).

By the way, the books Lulu sends are really nicely done – wrapped in not only plastic but a Styrofoam blanket. They do not give you a phone number to call – which put me off. Then I discovered then have online chat Help available. That was wonderful. I am nothing but impressed with Lulu (except for their choice of orange on their website) Lulu does offer professional services to help you with the process if you’re not self-sufficient. They also list outside services. That is how I found my editor. What does Lulu get from this: They take 20% of your profits. So if you choose to sell your ebook for $5.00, they get $1.00. If your printed book will net a $4 revenue, they take eighty cents. It is a very fair thing. I hope they sell a million of my books!

What about marketing? You have to pay extra for that. I can’t give any insight or advice on how to proceed there.

So in summary: create your book at NO COST – except for the proofing copies you order. Distribute your book to the world for $100. And you’ll be in the LuLu bookstore on top of it (with a nice little margin for those books sold).

Note: This is not a paid advertisement: I’m just so pleased with this scenario that I had to share it with others. I don’t really have time to do this, but I wanted to spare other people the pain and expenses I went through trying to get my books self published. I pray this helps you. Just try it out for yourself and see.
PS: My editor charges $215 dollars to line edit a novel under 80,000 words. Double the price if over that word limit. I thought for this price I wouldn’t get much. Boy was I wrong. They made comments that a movie that I mentioned was actually a TV series and posed the question if digit clocks had been invented in 1968 and stuff like that. I was very happy. Took 6 weeks to get it back. If you just need a line edit, these guys were good  (thought some errors slipped by them ).
check them out at:
www.angelediting.com
www.lulu.com/angelediting

One caveat: Since I wrote this originally, Lulu has discontinued their chat help which was a tremendous aid. I had to wait several days to hear back from their help desk when I submitted help tickets. This is causing me to consider trying Create Space just for jollies. They supposedly are even cheaper than Lulu.

Carole Whang Schutter – movie screenwriter and novelist

Carole Whang Schutter

I met Carole on a social network named Shoutlife. She has a wonderful story to tell about her success in the arena of writing a movie script. Her first movie, September Dawn, is doing well in the rental arena. Here’s a little more about Carole.

Carole Whang Schutter was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. She graduated with a degree in Psychology from the University of Hawaii and is an evangelical Christian. A widow, Carole has been a motivational speaker to live audiences as well as appearing on TV and radio shows. She now occupies her time writing novels, screenplays, and inspirational books. “September Dawn” is her first screenplay written in collaboration with Director/Producer Christopher Cain. She has had an enduring interest in religion and has researched most of the major world religions. A skier and a hiker, she has found Aspen to be the perfect place for her interests and a wonderful place to write. Carole has just completed the novel based on the movie “September Dawn.” Currently, she is working on several screenplays and a historical novel about her home state Hawaii.

WIN A MOVIE POSTER!

With proof of purchase of my book September Dawn, I am not only offering a free ebook of the screenplay and the dbl blue one line shooting schedule which is the daily shooting schedule for the movie, I am offering to three lucky winners a free movie poster! Just tell me what you liked best about the book and movie, presently one of the top DVD rentals in the country, and I will have one of the investors in the movie, myself, and one other person judge the top three entries! All reviews should be posted on Amazon and/or Barnes and noble. Judging will commence after 200 entries are submitted to me via my website www.cwschutter.com Please include your proof of purchase. Thank you.