George B. Gilbert

Hi dear Author Family:

My name is Rosemarie Prelinger.

The book that I would like to introduce to you " Forty Years A Country Preacher" by

George B. Gilbert, was first published in 1939 by Harper & Brothers. It was listed on the

New York Times Best Seller List.

I became aware of its existence when I joined Emmanuel Episcopal Church, called The Little Church in the Wilderness here in Killingworth, CT. It lay, dusty and forgotten, on a shelf, way-up in a closet, together with old prayer books and hymnals.

I love books and I love to read, especially historical accounts. So, I absconded it. My reading time is bed time, after I am all done with all my various chores. I started to read it and was absolutely fascinated. I could not put it down till my tired body, mind and eyes forced me to. I did manage to finish it the next evening. I was delighted and charmed by the direct and unadorned style of writing and by the wonderful, at times, funny, at times sad, at times infuriating, stories. So many of the issues and problems amazingly contemporary.

Surely life has changed since the early 20.Century. We live in a very different world. But so many of the same problems the people then struggled with, like poverty, ignorance, discrimination, predators of all kinds and in many disguises, exploiting utility companies, crooked politicians, liars and cheats!

Rev. Gilbert took them all on.

It is the story of a life well lived. A life of dedication, sacrifices and service to others. It is a story that will perhaps inspire the reader to do likewise, to emulate.

Maybe, just maybe, it will point the reader to a path that could lead us out of today's world of mistrust, treachery, lies, racial and social discrimination, injustices and disparity. It is a story of

love - of treat thy neighbor as you wish to be treated. To dedicate one's life to helping those less fortunate.

As you can tell, I was totally taken in by this story. I decided right then and there that this jewel of a story needed to be republished. The path to its re-issue was difficult. I think that all of you who have published your book will nod your heads. It went up and down, backward, forward, around many sharp turns and almost came to a dead end.

I first contacted publishers. No interest there at all. Then I heard about Amazon's self publishing site, KDP, and embarked on my journey. The first hurdle I had to climb was that I had to have the whole book scanned. So, as we all do now a days, - I googled scanning a book.

To my amazement quite a lot came up. One site caught my eyes immediately. It offered to scan the book for $13 if I submitted it by the end of that day. All others listed where way out of

my (the church's) financial league. So, without delay , I submitted the book.

The resulting scan came back in timely fashion. It contained quite a few gremlins, but I had a start. Thank God some of the members of my congregation helped with the proof reading.

Then came the grueling and difficult task of formatting, size of book, paper color, margins, quality of pictures, etc. So much more to tell. But after about 3 years, I clicked on my bookshelf and there it was LIVE! It is hard to describe my relief and my joy. All of you know what that feels like.

I just completed the Kindle version. Part of that endeavor entailed that I had to submit a picture of the cover. The first try failed. The longest side of the picture had to have 1,000 pixels.

What in the world are pixels and how do I do that? Well, I learned and I succeeded.

The Kindle version is LIVE.

I am sure that all of you encountered similar issues on your self-publishing journey. I congratulate you on your perseverance and ultimate success.

My next challenge is to make the book available as an Audio version, and of course,

the biggest one is how to publicize it. If you have any advice for me, I would appreciate it.