4 Common Mistakes of Christian Authors
I work with a lot of Christian authors, and I noticed that most people are confused or don’t know about four particular things. Since these unique aspects only apply to this genre, they aren’t that well known. If you’re a Christian author, refer to God in a religious context, or quote any Bible Scriptures in your book, you’ll want to read this blog post!
1. He/Him Pronouns
I know this one might hurt some of you: Pronouns for God (he/him/his) don’t need to be capitalized. In fact, the Christian Writer’s Manual of Style suggests you don’t capitalize those pronouns. Many Bible versions don’t use capitalized pronouns (including the KJV), so know that it’s pretty common not to do that. It’s actually seen as outdated most of the time to capitalize the pronouns. (But if you’re going for that Victorian feel, great!) Keep in mind that this one is just a suggestion—a style preference; you can capitalize if you want!
You should also be lowercased for consistency’s sake if you choose to lowercase he/him/his. And even if you decide to capitalize he/him/his, always lowercase who and whom when referring to a deity.
If you lowercase all pronouns when referring to God but quote from a source that capitalized God pronouns, keep it as is (and vice versa). Don’t change the capitalization of pronouns in a source to match your book.
2. Citing Bible Verses
When you quote from the Bible (or any other source), you need to cite it. Non-negotiable. To learn about citing sources that aren’t the Bible, read this post! There are two ways to cite your Bible verses: you can spell it out before the verse (first and second example below) or put the verse in parentheses immediately after the quote (third example below).
In the first chapter of John, the second verse, John wrote, “The same was in the beginning with God.”
In John 1:2, John wrote, “The same was in the beginning with God.”
“The same was in the beginning with God” (John 1:2).
Notice that in the third example, the period goes after the parentheses, not before. Even though that verse ends with a period in the KJV version, take it out and move it to after the parentheses. Unless the verse ends with a question mark or exclamation point, omit the end punctuation to instead put it after the parentheses. If you quote the verse like the first or second example and end the sentence with the quotation, end the quotation with a period, question mark, or exclamation point (however the verse ends). If there isn’t end punctuation or it ends with a comma or dash or colon or semicolon, replace it with a period or whatever punctuation corresponds with your overall sentence. For example, 1 Kings 4:18 KJV says exactly,
Shimei the son of Elah, in Benjamin:
That ends with a colon, so if we were to quote it in a sentence, it might look like this:
In 1 Kings 4:18, Jeremiah wrote, “Shimei the son of Elah, in Benjamin.”
Jeremiah wrote, “Shimei the son of Elah, in Benjamin” (1 Kings 4:18).
3. Bible Versions
You might notice (or maybe not) that the examples above don’t include a Bible version. What was I quoting? King James? NIV? NLT? Who knows? It really defeats the purpose of citing your sources if you don’t include the entire citation. . . . I didn’t include them up there to keep those examples simple, but let’s talk about it now. We have to know what version you’re quoting.
If you only use one Bible version throughout the entire text, this is easy! Just put a notice on the copyright page saying that all Scriptures come from that version. Done. If you quote from more than one version but predominantly use one version, put a notice on the copyright page saying any Scriptures without a version label are one version and all others are labeled. Then, in the text, label all versions that aren’t your predominant version. If you use a few versions equally, you’ll have to label them all.
Here are the examples above but with versions labeled; see the different options.
In the first chapter of John, the second verse, John wrote, “The same was in the beginning with God” (KJV).
In John 1:2 KJV, John wrote, “The same was in the beginning with God.”
“The same was in the beginning with God” (John 1:2 KJV).
When labeling Bible versions, use all caps and no periods. No commas are needed between the verse and version.
4. Credit Lines and Permissions
You need to include a credit line when quoting the Bible (any version), and you might need to ask permission too. This one is often overlooked, and it can get you in real trouble if you don’t adhere to the guidelines of each Bible version. Luckily, it’s not hard. Each version has different guidelines, so I’m not going to list them all out here, but you can find credit lines and guidelines online for each one. Most versions don’t need you to ask permission to quote them unless you quote 5,000 words or more, 500 verses or more, 50 percent of the text, an entire book, or something else like that—it depends on the version. But you can see that this would require some extensive quoting from the same book to need permissions. Nevertheless, you can look up guidelines online for whichever version you’re using.
Credit lines are really easy to input; you can find them online too. You just need to copy/paste the line that applies to your book on the copyright page for each version you have. For example, if you quote ESV, NIV, and KJV in your book, you’ll need a credit line for each one on your copyright page.
There are normally multiple credit lines for each version, so just choose whichever one matches your book. Here are three different credit lines for KJV. (You’d only need one.)
Scripture quotations marked (KJV) are taken from the Authorized (King James) Version. Rights in the Authorized Version in the United Kingdom are vested in the Crown. Reproduced by permission of the Crown’s patentee, Cambridge University Press.
Scripture quotations taken from the Authorized (King James) Version. Rights in the Authorized Version in the United Kingdom are vested in the Crown. Reproduced by permission of the Crown’s patentee, Cambridge University Press.
All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Authorized (King James) Version. Rights in the Authorized Version in the United Kingdom are vested in the Crown. Reproduced by permission of the Crown’s patentee, Cambridge University Press.
The first credit line says you have a few versions quoted throughout the book and you label each KJV verse with the version. The second credit line says all Scriptures in your book are from the KJV and you don’t label each verse because it’s assumed it’s KJV. The third credit line says you don’t label KJV verses because it’s assumed to be from KJV, but there are other versions quoted and those are labeled.
Keep these four things in mind while writing Christian works and you’ll be golden! If you have questions about any of these tips, feel free to reach out! And if you’re looking for an editor for your Christian nonfiction book, email me for a free sample edit and quote!
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