I had a chance to interview my longtime friend and writing mentor, Nancy I. Sanders, about her latest book, Master Books® World History Encyclopedia: Creation to the Roman Empire, Volume1. Nancy has been writing for 40 years. Not only does she have a wealth of experience, but she writes with the purpose of reaching others for Christ. She’s an inspiration to all Christian writers, whether you have been writing for decades or are just starting out.

1. You were part of Write2Ignite for a while, but many newcomers may not know you. Can you give a brief summary of your writing background?

Hi! I’m Nancy I. Sanders, a children’s author of more than 100 books with publishers big and small. I write board books for babies, picture books for little ones, nonfiction for middle grades, and educational resources for teachers to use with students. Lately I’ve also been blessed to work on Bibles for both adults and young readers. My passion is to share the Gospel and tell others about the great big God of the universe Who loves each one of us as His very own.

As a writer, I always like to be working on 3 projects at the same time:

1 to get published

1 to earn income

1 for personal fulfillment

I call this the Triple Crown of Success and it has been the pattern I’ve followed during my writing career that has helped me achieve success. I tell more about it in my book, Yes! You Can Learn How to Write Children’s Books, Get Them Published, and Build a Successful Writing Career.

It’s available on Amazon at It’s available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Childrens-Published-Successful-Writing-Career/

2. Your latest book, Master Books®World History Encyclopedia: Creation to the Roman Empire, Volume 1, was just released. This is a wonderful history supplement written from a Christian perspective. Can you share a bit about your research and writing process for such a huge undertaking?

Step 1: Create an Outline

The first thing a publisher needs for a nonfiction book is a working outline. But how do you create an outline before you’ve even researched your huge project? The first thing I do is search online for three or four books I want to use for my research that will be similar to my proposed book.

Then I look at each of their table of contents. Usually, on Amazon, you can see a sample of most books and that sample often includes their table of contents.

I create my working outline from those table of contents before I ever do any research. This gives me the direction I need to go, knowing that I can always change things as I progress and learn more about my topic.

Step 2: Create a Bibliography

Next, I order in my key research books. Some I purchase as used books on Amazon. For some projects I have gone to local university libraries and borrowed stacks of books. I immediately create a bibliography and put all those titles into my bibliography so I can quickly copy and paste their citations into my manuscript as I write. As I work on the project, I continue to add to my bibliography.

Step 3: Create 2 Notebooks

Next I create 2 notebooks to use for the project. I use blank composition notebooks. I write in a table of contents in the front of each book so I can easily find what I need.

In the first notebook, I glue in a single page calendar that includes the weeks leading up to my deadline so I can track my progress and make sure I am working at a pace that will get me across the finish line. I glue in a copy of my outline and my bibliography. I write down my prayers for this project, contact info for the editors I’m working with, writing tips to keep my creative juices flowing, and anything else pertinent to my project.

In the second notebook, I write down my research notes, listing sources for each tidbit and fact I find. Sometimes I fill up this notebook and then fill up more as I work on a big project like this encyclopedia.

Step 3: Write the First Draft

Then I write my first draft by hand. I keep a clipboard with blank paper on it to write the first draft of my manuscript as I do my research.

I do all of this by hand because so much of the work is done on the computer that this gives my eyes and back and hands a break from the rest of the day, which is working on the computer to write all this up and look online for more references to cite to support what I wrote.

Step 4: Edit and Revise

I’m always editing and revising my work until the very end when I submit the manuscript. It’s always helpful to have someone critique your work as well. Over the years, I’ve had my manuscripts read by critique groups, writing friends, and my husband Jeff, who is a retired elementary teacher. For this encyclopedia, Jeff was my main critique editor. He read the entire manuscript and really helped with feedback on the tougher spots. Since he worked with kids for so many years, he always has great feedback, especially on how to write for my target audience of middle graders.

3. This volume contains lots of charts and beautiful illustrations. Were you involved in any way with directing some of the artwork or images?

With this project, I wasn’t involved with the initial art, design, or images. Diana Bogardus did the cover and interior design, and she did an outstanding job! At times, she took some of my text and divided it into charts and other times inserted some of her own charts and graphs that complimented the text. As far as I know, she found all the images, too. When they sent me the pdf files as proofs to look over, I gave a little bit of feedback and suggestions, but Diana really made this encyclopedia shine!

I have written nonfiction books for other publishers, such as Frederick Douglass for Kids and Jane Austen for Kids where I had to provide all the photos and images myself. I worked with museums to purchase some of the photos and got permission to travel to various historic sites to take photographs of my own to use in the books. For nonfiction picture books I’ve written such as The Very Oldest Pear Tree, the artist does all the illustrations without any of my input.

But for Master Books, Diana Bogardus is the one who designed Volume 1 of this encyclopedia as well as my other book with them, Out of This World Devotions. I feel very blessed to have her as part of the team that helped bring these books to life.

4. You are a wife, mother, and grandmother. How do you stay focused for such a major project when you have "life" to deal with?

I’ve worked on big nonfiction projects before, but this is probably the biggest! For a project this size, I live and breathe it. This means I wake up early to do research and write my first draft. As I’m playing with grandkids or going grocery shopping, I’m carrying the current paragraphs around in my head, thinking of ways to tweak them or make them more exciting for kids. Do I find myself with 15 minutes between feeding the cats and making breakfast? I’m jotting down ideas for the next paragraph or reading one of my research books. I carry my research notebook and blank paper with me everywhere I go. And of course, I have to have blank hours for writing most days, but I’ll also take off a day or two to have fun with friends and family. Then in the evening, you’ll often find me with my nose in a research book, jotting down research notes and ideas. I get so immersed in my project that often, during the night, my brain writes paragraphs by itself or fixes a sentence or two that I’m having problems with so that when I wake up, I’ve got it!

5. You have been a follower of Christ for many years. How has your walk with the Lord affected your writing career?

God is a big part of my writing day. Sometimes I read my Bible, worship, and pray in the mornings before I get started. Sometimes I take a break from writing for my worship time in the middle of the day. And sometimes I spend my time sitting at God’s feet just before I go to bed. I look for Scriptures that I can write in my notebooks to encourage me along my writing journey. I ask God to shape my thinking as I’m writing so that I’m writing words “for such a time as this.” I feel called by God to write for His glory and spread the Good News about Jesus to the next generation. And whether I’m writing for the general market or the Christian market, I always write with a biblical worldview because I believe that the Bible is trustworthy and true.

6. What encouragement can you give to up-and-coming writers who want to break into nonfiction?

Start small. Write nonfiction articles for free or no-pay to learn your own rhythm for researching and writing. Find magazines or work-for-hire book projects who need writers but may not be able to pay more experienced authors with agents. It’s like being an intern so you can learn the ropes of working with editors, citing bibliography entries, and submitting outlines for a proposal. What you might lack in income will gain you invaluable experience! As I worked for smaller publishers, sometimes their editors took me with them as they got better and better jobs in the publishing world. One magazine editor I started with recommended me for book projects along the way as she climbed the ladder to become a top executive of a prestigious book publishing company!

7. Where can people purchase Master Books® World History Encyclopedia: Creation to the Roman Empire, Volume 1?

There are encyclopedias of the Bible for kids. There are encyclopedias of world history for kids. But this is the first encyclopedia for kids that places Bible history in the context of world history! Starting with the Creation account in the Bible, this encyclopedia is written with an apologetics style to help kids know they can trust what the Bible says about Creation, science, and history and stand strong in their faith.

You can support a Christian publisher by purchasing the encyclopedia directly from Master Books.

To learn more about the encyclopedia (and take a peek inside the book!) visit the publisher’s website here, where you can also read the reviews that are starting to come in:

https://www.masterbooks.com/master-books-world-history-encyclopedia-vol-1

Or you can find it on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com/Master-Books-World-History-Encyclopedia/dp/1683443837/ref

Catherine L. Osornio has written inspirational articles for a women’s ministry newsletter, over 200 leveled reader stories for a school’s reading program, fiction and nonfiction articles for Clubhouse and Clubhouse Jr. magazines, The Declaration of Independence from A to Z, Thunder Comes a Rumblin’, Mosquitoes Infect!, Danger on Martin Mountain, plus various work-for-hire projects.A former elementary school librarian, Catherine is passionate about sharing the love of reading. She enjoys cartooning, illustration, and reading kids’ books. Email her at CLOsornio@verizon.net or visit her at www.catherineosornio.com.

All photos in this post are courtesy of Nancy I. Sanders and Master Books®.