I have really enjoyed creating and publishing journals for various reasons. I published reading journals for my daughters to record all of the books they read, adventure writing prompt journals for some writing fun with my daughters, and field trip journals to record all of our field trip adventures.
Below is a picture I took last month. One of my daughters was filling out her field trip journal for the field trip we took at an airport while my other daughter was filling out her reading journal for the latest Who Was book we had read together. (You can see the list of Who Was series books we have read together so far on my Pinterest board here if you are interested.)
Now, I am in the process of publishing a sermon notes journal. I received the proof yesterday. For those of you who don’t know, a proof is the physical copy of the journal (or book) I receive to review before publication. The proof says “Not for Resale” across the front cover, but the actual copies will not have that banner.
Below is a picture of the cover of the sermon notes journal proof. I chose to use a matte finish on the cover, which I think turned out well. All of my other books and journals have had a glossy finish, but I think the matte finish suits this journal better.
This easy-to-carry 5.5″ x 8.5″ softcover sermon notes journal allows the journal owner to record and reflect on sermon notes, prayer requests, upcoming church events, and more. The journal is about 1/2 inch thick and should be small enough to fit inside a Bible case.
I considered publishing the journal as a spiral-bound journal instead of a softcover journal because I thought that would make writing in them even easier during a sermon. Unfortunately, I had some issues with this idea including the fact the cost would be substantially higher.
There is a page for the journal owner to write his or her name. I also included a customizable table of contents. (Journal owners can write the name of the sermon title and/or date of the sermon on the line next to the appropriate sermon number in the table of contents for easy reference.)
I have space for 52 sermons which is enough to write one for each week of the year. I considered doing a few extras for additional sermons around the holidays but decided to stick with 52.
Each of the 52 weeks has the same repeating four pages.
The first page of each week provides space to write the date, speaker, scripture reading, sermon title, upcoming church events, and prayer requests/praise. (The text in the journal appears much clearer than it does in these pictures. Sorry about that.)
The second and third pages of each week provide space for the actual sermon notes and reference verses.
The fourth page of each week has space to write personal application/thoughts from the sermon and further study/read for next week.
The end of the sermon notes journal includes “a call to action”.
I also included a page for all of the image credits for the images I used throughout the sermon notes journal.
There are a few things I would like to update in the sermon notes journal before officially publishing it. My goal is to have it published and available on Amazon by the end of March 2020.
I’ve got some more ideas for other journals, which I hope to create and publish yet this year. I’m also still working on Aah! Blown Away, Crash! with my daughter, the first draft of an adult nonfiction book all about self-publishing basics, and a secret project.
I hope to share information about the secret project with you before the end of this month. Stay tuned! (You are welcome to join my email list to receive a monthly e-newsletter to stay current with all of the fun extras, journals, books, and writing projects.)
Brigitte Brulz 