OCTOBER: Videos and Christmas Cards

Last month we launched the Gospel of Matthew in the USA and Canada, and next month will see the global official release of The Book of Jonah in English and Spanish too! Sales are rolling in but we need to continue to get the word out so please recommend the comics to a friend, write a review or a blog and help people hear about it.

You can preorder your copy of Jonah on the website now.

Matthew's Gospel Research Videos

To celebrate the release of the Gospel of Matthew into the USA and Canada I have made available several of the first in-depth videos created for Patreons about 2 years ago available on Facebook, Instagram and Youtube! There is actually about 3+ hours of content on there already if you'd like to check it out:

New Christmas Cards

Last year our Christmas cards were a great success and sold out! This year we will have created 3 new designs and we are reprinting last years set for those who missed it! Our cards include:

• a Bible verse with a relevant image

• a second colour image on the inside

• an opportunity to introduce people to the Word for Word Bible Comic and the possibility of getting them reading the Bible this Christmas ;)

Note: We are telling you about them now so our US and international readers can order from us in the UK in time, as the economy postage option can take 6 weeks.

Please add a review

I really appreciate all those of you who have added a review to the Gospel of Matthew on Amazon etc. but we need lots more, please.

Good reviews online help:

• retailers to decide whether to stock the future books in the series

• encourages people to go ahead and buy a copy

• affects the book's ranking in searches within the seller site

Interview with Christian Comics Art Society

I recently did a livestream interview with the guys at the Christian Comics Art Society. You can view it on Facebook in our group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/wordforwordbiblecomiccommunity

Prayer

The USA and Canada Launch: Now is the time! This is God's project and the good it could potentially do reaching new people with the gospel is also for His glory. So, please help us as we pray he'll take hold of the project and get it in front of all the people in the USA and Canada who will benefit from it and that might be keen to publicise it!

Prisons: We've started to see cracks in the wall keeping the comics out of prisons. We've gotten over 100 into prisons in the UK and USA in the last month thanks to the OPTIM charity. We are now praying that this will be a foot in the door and open opportunities to reach these inmates most in need of the gospel. Please help us as we pray the God will open this door and get his word into more prisons across the world.

September: The Big Launch into USA and Canada in English and Spanish

SEPTEMBER NEWSLETTER

The time has come for the Word for Word Bible Comic Series to conquer America and Canada. Today the books launch directly into the market with Matthew's Gospel and El Evangelio de Mateo! Now you'll be able to find it in high street shops, church bookstalls, libraries and even Walmart. If they aren't there just ask them to order it in for you.

We want to thank everyone who has supported the project up until now with Kickstarters and Patreon and in prayer. Getting the deal with the NIV and the US distributor, printing all the copies, fixing the misprints and shipping them 5000+ copies has taken a lot of work and now it is launch time to see how it the results.

Can you do this favour to give us a leg up?

This launch is a huge moment for us and if you are a fan of the project we'd really appreciate your help making it a big success. This is important because the success or failings of the first book in the series will positively or negatively affect all those that follow.

Like you, I get frustrated that every time I buy anything or use a service online the provider wants me to leave a review. That's not exactly what I'm asking you for. I'm not just asking you to just "rate your experience". I'm asking that if you've enjoyed the books that you take several minutes to do me a favour and add a positive review to the Word for Word Bible Comic books on Amazon and other platforms in order to give them a significant leg up in the US and Canadian market.

Good reviews online help:

• retailers to decide whether to stock the future books in the series

• encourages people to go ahead and buy a copy

• affects the book's ranking in searches within the seller site

On some of the retail sites, like Christianbooks and Books-a-Million, it's possible to be the only "Bible Comic" with 5-stars and this will put it head-and-shoulders above the rest.

Let's not leave it looking like this...

Click this button to go to my blog where there is a list of places to cut and paste your review into.



Lanzamiento del libro en español

This is also the official launch of the Spanish copies of the books worldwide with El Evangelio de Mateo worldwide. The name in Spanish means "verse-by-verse", which not only has its straightforward meaning but is a movement within the preaching of the Word in Spanish to be more expositional and leave nothing out.

Below you can download a 20-page preview PDF. If you have friends whose first language is Spanish why not forward them this email so they can check it out!

Download preview PDF

You can buy your copy in the new Spanish online store:
https://www.wordforwordbiblecomic.com/tienda-espaola

Share the news

Please help us get the word out by heading to our main announcement video post and giving it a like, a share and some comments. Aside from your friends seeing it, all these "engagements" help Facebook bots realise it's an important post and serve it to more people. There are similar on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and more.

Click the image to go to the FB post.

Prayer

The USA and Canada Launch: Now is the time! This is God's project and the good it could potentially do reaching new people with the gospel is also for His glory. So, please help us as we pray he'll take hold of the project and get it in front of all the people in the USA and Canada who will benefit from it and that might be keen to publicise it!

Other Languages: Recently we've begun negotiations with a reputable Portuguese publisher in Brazil, so please pray that works out well for everyone. Please also pray for opportunities in French, Romanian, Dutch and in Ukraine where we've had some interest already to make the Bible Comic available to even more people around the world!

Reviews really HELP!

To help us make the best impression and rise in the online rating and rankings we’d dearly love you to write a quick review of the books, please.

You can use the links below to easily navigate to a list of all the books. On some sites (not Amazon), you can even cut and paste your honest review of the series making it even easier.

Amazon

The number one is, of course, Amazon. From my author profile, you can see all the titles in the series.

★ My Amazon Author Profile USA

★ My Amazon Author Profile UK

Other Big Chains

There are many other online stores carrying the titles each with its own review function. While these are smaller it seems few books have reviews so being the only one with a 5-star review puts it head-and-shoulders above the rest!

★ Barnes and Noble

★ Christianbooks

★ BAM - Books-a-Million

★ Koorong (Austalia)

Lastly, Goodreads is a book review social media platform. Some shopper (and even some online shops) take their reviews direct from there.

★ Good Reads Author Page

The difference of even a few reviews…

Want to buy a copy?

If you’d like to buy a copy the best way is to do so while supporting the project is to buy directly through our website. Doing so means we’d receive 50%+ of the RRP whilst buying on Amazon etc only gives creators less than 20%.

AUGUST: New Shop, New Products, New Team Member!

Hi everyone. This month we are launching The Gospel Coloring Factbook (see below), opening new online shops and more

NEW TEAM MEMBER

Please welcome our new colourist Maaike Ross to the team! Though Maaike lives in the Netherlands I met her in the UK, face-to-face at the Big Church Day Out event! In her free time, she loves hiking, working out & cooking, and is currently writing and drawing her own comic which is soon going to be released on Webtoon.

EXCLUSIVE GOSPEL COLOURING FACTBOOK

For anyone who missed this in the Jonah Kickstarter, we are now releasing the Gospel Colouring Factbook to buy on our website! This item will only be available directly through us. This first edition has no ISBN or barcode and will not appear on Amazon or in shops.

This gospel-based colouring book features illustrations from the nativity and ministry of Jesus, including his death and resurrection. Alongside the colouring pages are details and examples of the historical period, as well as facts and biblical points of interest relevant to the events pictured. Finally, each event has all the bible verses so you can compare the accounts and meditate on them as you colour!

You can buy a single copy for just £3.99p

We believe these will be great for youth work, small groups and church gifts so we've also created an extra special price for those looking to buy multiple copies! You can buy 5 for just £14.99 (£3 each), or 10 for just £19.99 (£2 each).

The age category is labelled as PG. Parental guidance is advised as there are images from the crucifixion that may or may not be too much for under 10s.

The book has 32 interior pages plus two colourable inside covers. The pages are sturdy 150gsm paper.

USA & SPANISH SHOPS OPEN

I've just opened two new shops on my website! One specific to shoppers in America & Canada, and one "en español". This feels like a big step forward and also means you can now preorder your books in the USA and Canada and both Spanish books too! The USA release of Matthew's Gospel as well and the worldwide release of El Evangelio de Mateo is September 1st!
https://wordforwordbiblecomic.squarespace.com/buy



⚠ YOUR JONAH KICKSTARTER REWARDS!

There are still 17 people who are set to receive physical rewards that have not completed the survey to give us their address. If that's you, head over to...

• https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/word4wordbiblecomic/the-book-of-jonah-word-for-word-bible-comic-niv-and-nvi

T-SHIRTS: If you are awaiting a t-shirt, these are getting ordered this week and should be within a week or two.

PRAYER 

Prisons: Thank you to everyone who has prayed so far. We have got books into two prisons as a trial and we hope to get good testimonies from these in order to open it up to the other prisons. Please continue to pray for the Comics to be allowed into UK jails and that they will transform lives with the gospels.

The USA and Canada Launch: Please pray the shipping containers to arrive safe and sound and in time to get the books into the shops. Also, please continue to pray that we make the most of the opportunity to launch into the USA and utilising the Spanish versions reaching a whole new section of people with the Gospel in comic form!

Other Languages: Thank you to everyone who has prayed for this, we have a new option with a Portuese publisher which we are exploring and we hope to obtain many other languages with Riggins Rights working hard to licence the publishers around the world. so it's still all to pray for ;)

Kintsugi in the Word for Word Bible Comic

This blog is contributed by guest writer Clarie Miles, an ambassador for Kintsugi Hope, a UK movement of Kintsugi Hope Wellbeing Groups, creating safe and supportive places for everyone to grow and flourish.

Kintsugi in the Word for Word Bible Comic

Kintsugi (金継ぎ, "golden joinery"), is the Japanese art of mending broken pottery with gold lacquer. The cracks shine in the repaired article, drawing attention to the preciousness of the item to its owner, and bringing a new beauty to the mended piece.

We are all scarred by our journeys through life. Situations, circumstances, and other people hurt us and can cause deep damage, changing who we are as people. Often our temptation is to paper over these cracks – we put on masks and pretend to ourselves and to others we are still the undamaged people we once aspired to be. Kintsugi art challenges this notion that only unblemished is beautiful, and only perfect is good enough.

As Christians, our very faith resides in the cracks. In our brokenness and in our scars we find our need for love, for security, for forgiveness, for God. And when we come to him for healing and restitution, he doesn’t insist we come unblemished and clean. Instead, he sent his son, Jesus, to become scarred for our sake – to identify with us, and to win our salvation with his sacrifice.

After his resurrection, when Jesus appeared to his disciples, his scars were still visible. It was in the very wounding of him that our salvation was won, and he wore his scars openly to his disciples. The marks on his side and his hands tell us a story of his love for us.

Our scars also tell a story– just as wrinkles tell of cares and joys past or a mother’s stretch marks speak of her pregnancy. The places in us where we are most broken and where we are irrevocably changed by our pain are the places which also speak of the deepest truths and the greatest loves.

Behind the scenes of the Word for Word Bible Comic is also a great story – a story of calling and gifting, and of frustration and waiting. It’s a story of trusting for provision, of struggles and prayers, of moments when it has all come right – and moments when it has all gone wrong. From the wrong size of cardboard box to delivery mix-ups, stretched budgets to inopportune vet trips**, most of the time these mistakes are behind the scenes and never seen. But a black box which should be filled with text right in the middle of Jonah?

So the husband and wife team behind the book have taken a bold move. Rather than the industry standard decision of hiding the error by pulping the entire print run with all the included waste and cost to the environment, they have chosen to make the error a feature. The text has been printed on a holographic sticker to enhance the book, drawing attention both to the error and to the text. “When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.”

It is indeed Kintsugi, it is the message of Jonah and it is also our gospel. The books’ creators did not destroy their blemished texts, God did not destroy the Ninevites, and he also does not destroy us. Instead, he sees our scars, our blemishes, our faults, and lovingly, carefully, and wondrously, accepts us home and redeems us with his precious son’s blood. In the end, all our scars will shine like gold.

Clarie Miles is an ambassador for Kintsugi Hope, a UK movement of Kintsugi Hope Wellbeing Groups, creating safe and supportive places for everyone to grow and flourish. She is also a good friend of Simon Amadeus Pillario and has been witness to many of the behind the scenes struggles mentioned.

** = Source of inopportune vet trips.

JULY NEWSLETTER: Overcoming, Flashsale and Kintsugi

Hi everyone. This last month has been very busy, as we've been trying to arrange the printing of 9 titles (new ones, Spanish ones and reprints), which would then be sent out to 5 different locations including international freight services over to the USA. With so many variables and criteria that must be met some things were bound to go wrong. Especially with me organising things, I'm an illustrator, not a logistics expert! While I did do a pretty good job with my colour coded spreadsheet, there were mistakes from the printer, from the haulage company and by me too. We had stuff delivered to the wrong place, accidental damage to cargo and all sorts but the most significant is detailed below...

KINTSUGI: PROBLEMS AND OVERCOMING

The most significant of all the issues is that there was a print error in the Book of Jonah. A whole verse did not come out in the English and the Spanish, due to the settings and I did not catch it on the digital proof! GAH!

Here's how it was supposed to be and how it came out:

This is, arguably, the most pivotal verse in the whole book so it can't be left out. But what can be done? Throw away 5,000 books and just reprint it?

We did not want to throw away 5,000 books, not because of the money but because of the waste and extra impact on the environment with the extra paper, cardboard printing and transport. We believe in make-do-and-mend but we didn't want these books to be subpar, as even adding a sticker with the missing verse didn't seem good enough.

But then my wife, Siân, came up with a great solution, and it links to the art of Kintsugi.

Kintsugi (金継ぎ, "golden joinery"), is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold. As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the journey of an object, it reminds us that something can break and yet still be beautiful, and that, once repaired, it is stronger at the broken places. This is an incredible metaphor for healing and recovery from adversity.

So, what we are doing is getting a beautiful holographic sticker with these pivotal words and adding them as a bonus feature of these first-edition prints. It will take a lot of work but then the books will be extra special rather than flawed. Here's how it'll look in the Spanish version...

Follow our Facebook page or group for updates on how it's going and to see photos of the new books!

⚠ YOUR JONAH KICKSTARTER REWARDS!

There are still 26 people who are set to receive physical rewards that have not completed the survey to give us their address. If that's you, head over to...

• https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/word4wordbiblecomic/the-book-of-jonah-word-for-word-bible-comic-niv-and-nvi

50% OFF FIRST EDITION JUDGES

To make space for all the new books coming in we've decided to have a flash sale on the last 40 copies of the first edition Book of Judges! As you can see in the picture it is of an extra-large size compared with the second edition. This was our first ever title and print, each one is numbered, so they are like a piece of history!

Size: 11.2" x8.6" x 0.55" / 30cm x 21cm x 1cm

Special link: https://wordforwordbiblecomic.com/shop/the-book-of-judges
Discount Code: JUDGESFLASHSALE

OTHER KICKSTARTERS: DELIVERANCE

Here is a little shout out for Lowen Games, who've created this new board game on Kickstarter based on spiritual warfare "Good & Evil clash in this epic tactical adventure about angels, demons, & the saints caught between". Their campaign in its final week and they're about 500% funded and have nearly 2,000 backers!

Check it out here using the WfWBC referral link-

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lowenhigh/deliverance-board-game?ref=aviu24

PRAYER 

Prisons: We are still in the process of trying to get the Bible Comic into Prisons across the UK. We have hit some roadblocks in getting approval from the Chaplaincy headquarters. We truly believe these visual Gospel presentations could be key for some of these prisoners to be born again, and that some of the opposition could be spiritual (considering the territory we are trying to take the Gospel into). Will believe this may have to be won in prayer before we see any wheel move on the ground, so please join with us in intercession for the UK prisons. We also hope that by gaining success and good testimonies in the UK we can open this up and get them into USA prisons too.

The USA and Canada Launch: Please also continue to pray that we make the most of the opportunity to launch into the USA and utilising the Spanish versions reaching a whole new section of people with the Gospel in comic form!

Other Languages: We've just received the first Spanish copies but we have Riggins Rights working hard to licence the publishers around the world. There are a few strong leads in Portuguese, French, Romanian, Dutch and in Ukraine currently. Please pray these publishers to decide to take on the project and make the Bible Comic available to even more people around the world!

June: The sins of Nineveh, Kickstarter rewards and your feedback.

JUNE NEWSLETTER

Hi everyone, thanks so much for being on the mailing list, below we have a look at some exclusive content, a reminder to complete your Kickstarter backer surveys and a request for your feedback...

THE SINS OF NINEVEH

I was originally considering making the Kickstarter colouring book about Jonah (instead of the Gospels). Below are two sample pages with the colouring page and then the fact page that would have accompanied it. These pages did not get used because colouring demonic idols, witches, occult priest and implements were pointed out by my wife to be "not ok for kids" *tut*. I dunno, what's the world coming to.

Nevertheless, the facts page will be something that interests all of you...

PLEASE HELP: CUSTOMER SURVEY

I know filling in surveys is not super exciting but we are about to embark on an advertising campaign to promote the books in the USA and Canada as they will be fully distributed into highstreet bookshops, libraries and online retailers there from September this year. We’d love your help in order to create effective adverts that will spark people's interest and help them “get” the concept as quickly as possible. So the easiest way is to ask you what your experience was like and try to replicate the best parts of that! Sometimes what we think you value the most is not the thing you actually value the most, so it’s good to get the answers from you directly :)
It's not a long survey, so please could you help out and share your thoughts here:
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/JS8CJJW

YOUR KICKSTARTER REWARDS!

A week ago we sent out the backer surveys where you add your address details and state whether you'd like to be credited by name as a backer in the book. If you don't fill in the form I can't credit you or send you anything so it's really important. Well done to everyone who's done so but there are still 32 people who haven't completed it. (If you know that your address will change in the next few months, please use your family/friend's address instead.) Head to the KS page and at the top one of the options is to view or complete the survey.

• https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/word4wordbiblecomic/the-book-of-jonah-word-for-word-bible-comic-niv-and-nvi

URGENT: We're going to compile the thank you page very soon so please don't miss out.

PRAYER 

Please continue to pray for the print run which is happening this month, that everything goes right and there are no misprints.

Please also continue to pray that we make the most of the opportunity to launch into the USA and utilising the Spanish versions reaching a whole new section of people with the Gospel in comic form!

May: What was Nineveh like?

May Newsletter

NINEVAH

In this image, you can see a little example of how the comic is drawn from archaeology. In this case, the great walls of Ninevah have left their ancient footprint in the modern-day city of Mosul, Iraq and I have used this (among many other sources) to create an elevation of the city. The line art here is on its side but you can see the colour image above in the banner.

Watch this short video I posted in the FB group for a lot more info and examples like this about how I created the image of Nineveh for the book...

Finally, hit it the button below to see a satellite image of Ninevah/Mosul on Google Earth. You can zoom out and see the whole city or even use Streetview to have a little wander around. There's even a mosque dedicated to Jonah.

KICKSTARTER FULFILMENT

Most of the digital rewards have already been sent out and the Spanish digital versions will be following soon. We are booking in the print run for mid-June and will be putting them into the post by the end of that month and they should arrive with all of you in good time!

Prayer 

We will soon be printing our first co-edition books in English and Spanish, it's a tricky process so please pray it goes right and there are no misprints, the last thing we want is 5,000 books we can't sell due to errors.

Secondly, we are currently working on how to spend our marketing budget to reach people in the USA. Please pray the Lord is with us, to make good decisions and that (as advertising is always a bit of a gamble) he blesses the efforts and gets the ads in front of people who will benefit from God's word in this format!