Consider Large Print

ACFWAdvice, Authors and writing, Friends of ACFW, writing 1 Comment

By Lynn Hobbs

One of the first lessons I was taught in years of attending writing workshops was to identify your writing audience; female, male, or both? What age group? What genre?

After deciding, it was stressed to continue with your choice. Advantages are obvious.

  1. You keep your same readers.
  2. You built an e-mail list of those readers to inform them of your progress, your new release, or details of a book signing in their area.
  3. Your readers often recommend your books by word of mouth if you keep them informed.

True statements, yes, but something is missing.

As with anything in life, you cannot lump everyone into the same categories.

One size does not fit all.

I point this out because I want you to consider large print for a publishing option.

A large print book or short story is not exclusively written for senior citizens, nor is it strictly for male or female, or a certain genre.

Did you know the Guideposts magazine and Readers Digest are available in large print?

I had received countless requests from church members, community leaders, nursing home residents, and friends who had various eye strain problems to publish my next book in large print. I prayed about it in earnest. I had recently completed a Christian Fiction series in regular print. The Running Forward Series consists of three books and all three won first place awards in Religious Fiction 2013, 2014, and 2015 by the Texas Association of Authors. I gave God the glory, and I felt drawn to write a biography about the life of my mother. She had sixteen siblings, and her own mother passed away when she was seven years old. I wanted others to follow her journey from a motherless child to an inspiring woman of faith.

Yes, I did it, my first large print book. “Lillie, A Motherless Child” has large print for the paperback and regular print for Kindle. I still have a lot of feedback from my readers today who enjoy the large print. I am astonished at how well received the book has become. I even won an award on it, 1st place in Biography 2016 by the Texas Association of Authors. Again, I gave God the glory!

My new Christian Fiction series is titled, the American Neighborhood Series.  Book one is “Eyes of a Neighbor” and yes, it is published in large print. I am currently writing book two, “Heart of a Neighbor”, and will continue large print with it as well as the third book, “Mind of a Neighbor”. I have had one secular author give the book (Eyes of a Neighbor) a review of 3 out of 5 stars on Amazon because as she stated,  “perhaps it was the format.”

You cannot please everyone. If someone doesn’t like large print then no large print book will ever be enjoyed by them.

I am comfortable with my decision to try large print on this series.

Whatever decision you make concerning large print, keep in mind there is a great need for the product.

Happy writing!

Lynn HobbsLynn Hobbs is the author of the Running Forward Series: Sin, Secrets, and Salvation, River Town, and Hidden Creek, and won 1st place Religious Fiction in 2013, 2014 and 2015 by Texas Association of Authors. She is also the author of Lillie, A Motherless Child, which won 1st place Biography 2016, TAA, and the American Neighborhood Series: Eyes of a Neighbor. Visit Lynn on Facebook, Twitter, and her website.

 

Comments 1

  1. That’s a great idea to serve our readers. It’s to our advantage, too, to make our books available in as many formats as we can – digital, audio, regular print, and now large print, too!

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