Pastors come to ask me HOW THEY CAN WRITE A LOT OF BOOKS. They expect me to start telling them several principles and methods. But I have just a statement for them: TEACH A SERIES, RECORD AND GET SOMEONE TO TRANSCRIBE”. If you do that, 70% of the job is done. A series on faith for instance can give you three books on faith. Even if you don’t want to extract up to three, it will give you at least one. Then, you take another series on Prosperity and turn it into a book. That’s how it is done. If you see Baba Areogun, ask him. Many of Bishop Oyedepo’s books today are a product of his recorded seminars (series).
GET A RECORDER.
I was given a budget of 500k in 2015 if we want our messages recorded. After spending 75k on a PA System that they said has a recording feature only to realize it was ineffective, I got a digital mobile recorder for!!! Guess? 6k. Yes. Six Thousand Naira. Today, it costs 11k. I got one this month. Just type “Digital Voice Recorder” on JUMIA. You will see varieties. Ensure you get the one with a microphone and always use it with the mic. It makes lots of difference. The battery can last for several hours or days. You should charge only with a power bank or laptop. The recorded audio clip can also be transferred to the laptop for further editing on Audacity or whatever software you are used to.
SERMONIZED TRANSCRIPT
There’s a difference between a sermon and a book. Many pastors do not realize this, especially the whites (because they write more). If your sermon is transcribed, the person is likely to have sermonized it. Thus, it may become unnecessarily bulky or filled with repetitions. That is why some books bore you when you read them. You shouldn’t let your book look like a sermon. It shouldn’t just be a “copy n paste”.
I will tell you how to get it done properly and other details.
TRANSCRIBERS
There are three categories of transcribers. The first is NON-GRAMMATICAL TRANSCRIBERS. They don’t care much about the English. They just write what you said. They may not punctuate correctly. No paragraphing, headings and so on. If you work with such a transcript, you still need to rewrite it. You may also have to overwrite in many cases.
The next is BROADCASTING TRANSCRIBE. In this case, the person is grammatically inclined. They will include proper punctuation and even add some headings. This is what most people turn into books immediately after editing and formatting. Of which it shouldn’t end here. It makes books unnecessarily bulky and full of repetition. That’s why you get bored when reading some books. They sound more like a sermon than a book. There should be a difference between books and sermons.
The third is EDITORIAL TRANSCRIBING.
I just give them names to make the explanation clearer. There are few professionals that can get this done for you. The first is a book writer. They transcribe as if they are making the book already. They will delete repetitions, rephrase, paraphrase, add headings, sub-headings and even some formatting. Another person that can do this for you is an experienced book editor.
When you’re done with the transcribing, move to editing, formatting and publishing. Refer to my previous article to do it yourself or appoint someone.
Meanwhile, you can also transcribe your sermon by yourself. In fact, it may be more efficient if you don’t get the best hand. It will save you time as well. If you are doing it yourself while transcribing ensure that the only thing you do is transcribing and not rewriting. If you have anything to add, keep it for later.
I think say I don try. We will end the series here. Thus far, I believe have attended to all questions that ensued and I am still available to attend to more.