7 Essential Steps Toward Marketing For the Christian Author

These seven steps toward book marketing for the Christian author may seem obvious, but sometimes we need to be intentional in our thinking about what's most important. Please comment. Let me know your thoughts on this topic. Agree or disagree. Add to or subtract from this list.

1.  Pray for guidance.

Prayer for guidance has to be the first, and single most important marketing "tool" for the Christian author. 

Finding a market for our books is like finding the proverbial needle in the haystack. Unless you believe in luck, there's no way to find that needle in today's marketplace without specific guidance. Every step of the journey in the writing of my book, so far, has been taken prayerfully, and I have convincing evidence that my steps have been directed. Why would I now expect to take the marketing steps on my own, without that guidance?

Remember those times you asked the Lord to help you find something you'd lost?  Do it again. Ask Him to help you find your audience. The Bible says, "Your ears will hear a word behind you, 'This is the way, walk in it,' whenever you turn to the right or to the left." (Isaiah 30:21). Commit your way to the Lord and then tune your ear to 'the word behind you.'

2.  Proceed gently.

Proceed gently, probing patiently for that jewel of a connection that will bring your book to the attention of readers. 

Just as the writing of the book was a process--a series of small, seemingly insignificant steps down a long and dusty highway--so will be the marketing.  Think of the marketing goal you are pursuing as if it were a rare orchid, or a precious archeological find. You wouldn't go after either of these treasures with a bulldozer.  

So, too, in your marketing endeavors, don't rush headlong in every direction.  Listen for the quiet Voice and obey, even when it looks like you're going nowhere.  Even when you don't see a clear destination.  Even when you're tempted to forget that you're following an all-knowing Guide.

3.  Value every step.

Not every connection you make, through social media or personal contact, will necessarily lead to a viral presence on the internet, but every connection will be meaningful. 

Every person you connect with is an eternal being, of great value to God.  Each person is, in fact, more valuable than the piece of writing you are promoting, even when the writing has an eternal purpose. 

Never let your goal of promoting your work overshadow your goal of interacting with and loving people to the glory of God.  And remember that people can sometimes be angels unawares.

4.  Listen to advice from wise persons.

Others who have been on the journey before you are great resources.  Collect tips from successful writers and publishers and follow up on the ones that seem most relevant to your situation. 

Michael Hyatt and The Passive Voice are two blog sources of marketing/publishing information that I read constantly for help on this journey.  Michael Hyatt is helpful because he speaks from great experience as a publisher, but he never lets his experience overshadow the wisdom of the Great Communicator.

The Passive Voice is useful because The Passive Guy collects the best information from a variety of other sources and puts them in a form that is easily accessible.  I don't have to surf for the best information, particularly on self-publishing. 

Look for your own favorite sources and pay attention to them.

5.  Use your own common sense.

God anoints common sense that is attuned to the sound of His voice.  Advice from wise persons may not always be wisely applied to your own situation.  Sometimes your own instincts are better. 

Pay attention to your own inner instincts.  If you are following all of the above steps, your common sense will be a reliable source of wisdom, and a gold mine of inspiration for the journey.

6.  Trust your Guide.

Anointed common sense may or may not follow logical or worldly-wise road signs.  It might lead you on detours that take the long way around.  That's okay.  In marketing, as in writing, the journey is part of the destination.  And you have no way of knowing what time-consuming obstacles those detours might be saving you from. 

Trust your Guide to use your instincts to accomplish the right purposes.

7.  Journal your journey.

Keep track of the progress you make, the steps you take and the places those steps lead you.  Do this for two reasons: 

First, so you can look back one day and see how beautifully you have been led. 

Second, so your journey can be an encouragement to others who are coming along behind you. 

You are in the process of becoming one of those "wise persons" you are now listening to.  Record the wisdom, for your sake and for the sake of others.  For the sake of God's Kingdom.

So the gist of this advice?  Pray.  Be patient.  Listen to the right voices. Enjoy the journey.  You will never pass this way again, and this way is glorious.

Looking for more specific, practical advice?  Next post will give 7 Practical Ways to Market Your Self-Published Book.  

I'm not promising when that post will go up, but I do promise I will plod doggedly down the road toward that next little writing goal!

May God bless you as you do the same.

Top Thirteen Things I Learned During my 36-hour Trip to Denver

This is a report on my ACFW conference experience last weekend. And, yes, the number 13 is significant.

What I learned on the way to the conference:

1. If you’ve had radiation treatments any time in the last three months, you may set off radiation detectors at the border that will delay everyone within a two mile radius while the officers try to discover which one of you is trying to smuggle uranium into the United States.

2. Never even hint to a border crossing officer that you might be missing your flight in Seattle. It only slows them down.

3. Twenty-year old Buicks can cruise along very nicely on the straight-away at 65 or 70 miles an hour if they have to, even though they might be burning up the gas faster.

4. Best Value is a good, cheap motel on International Boulevard that also offers shuttles to the airport 24-hours a day.

5. If you want to fly standby, you have to arrive at the airport two hours before the first flight (which goes out at 6:00 am) to give the airlines people time to figure out what you’re doing and arrange it.

6. All flights are always full, and everyone who has paid for their ticket shows up, often at the last minute just as your hopes for a successful stand-by ticket have risen to new heights. Everyone, that is, except people who have missed their flights the day before because of border delays.

7. Do not eat chili at any time during a 12-hour layover in any airport, even though it seems like a good idea at the time.

8. If you want to read or sleep during 12-hour layovers in airports, don’t strike up conversations with race car mechanics sitting next to you in the gate area. But if you would enjoy meeting interesting characters like Les, who has a daughter named Summer Breeze (named after the song) and a son named Talon, and if you would like to learn a whole lot of other interesting things on a 12-hour layover in the airport, go for it.

9. The reason you have to change the oil in your car often is because oil contains additives that keep your gaskets supple. The additives burn up after awhile, so you need to change the oil to get fresh ones.

10. If you’re smoking anything with your buddies around a campfire in an empty lot anywhere near the Seattle International Airport runway (or any airport runway, for that matter), and it occurs to one of you that it would be a good idea to add some old tires to your campfire, don’t. It scares the tower people when they see their planes descending through a cloud of black smoke.

11. If you haven’t played Sudoku in a long time, you’ve lost your edge and will have to learn to win it all over again.

12. Coffee should be consumed only when you want to stay awake for a long time after you drink it.

13. No obstacles in your writing journey will prevent God from doing what He wants to with your writing, and one ten-minute conversation with an editor can make the whole trip worthwhile, even if you arrive when the conference is half over.

Stranger Than Fiction

My trip home from the ACFW conference was an eleven-hour “planes, trains and automobiles” affair. I flew from Minneapolis to Seattle, took a shuttle from Seattle to downtown Vancouver, and then rode two city buses to get to my front door. It was a good trip. Gave me time to debrief my conference experience and make plans for the next “final” revisions. Gave me time to pray about publication perplexities. I wasn’t disappointed that I hadn’t found a publisher. I’d been through the process before and knew what not to expect. But it had been a long writing journey and the conference had seemed like the last opportunity for publication. I was out of options. Angie Hunt’s exhortation to walk obediently, day by day, trusting God with our dreams, was a comfort.

I arrived in Vancouver, midnight-tired at 10:00, and boarded the first of my two city buses. It was crowded. I dropped into one of the few available seats, behind the driver and across from a lively little man—one of “God’s odds.” He grinned at me.

“What’s the suitcase for? Goin’ away somewhere?”

“No, I’ve been. I’m heading home.”

“Where’d ya go?”

“To a conference.”

“What kind of conference?”

“A writing conference.”

“Oh. You’re a writer, are ya? What’d ya do at the conference, write?”

“No, I went to workshops and talked with editors to see if they wanted to buy my book.”

“Did any of them want it?”

“No. No one wanted it.”

“Why didn’t they want it? Not good enough?”

I was sure our fellow passengers were thinking, like I was, that this was too much information, but I didn’t know how to stop the flow without being deliberately rude.

“No, it’s good enough. They just didn’t want it.”

The dialogue continued, covering such diverse topics as: My husband: “Why would he let you go off by yourself?” My blue jeans: “Everyone can wear blue jeans. Old people. Young people. Doesn’t matter.” My kids: “Why does your son live so far away? Don’t ya get along?”

I finally reached my stop, said a fond farewell to my new friend and thanked the driver, who grinned up at me as I left. The second bus was not crowded, but for some reason I ignored the larger empty spaces and sat down next to a young woman.

“You did a good job talking to that man,” she said. I hadn’t seen her get off the other bus. “I was interested in your conversation about writing. I’m a writer too.”

We traded pitches. After hearing mine she said, “I’ve got a friend who’s a publisher. I think he might be interested in what you’ve got. He publishes books with spiritual themes. I’ll introduce you to him if you like.”

Later that night I sat at my computer, checking my e-mail. Her midnight posting, giving me her publisher’s web address, was at the top of the list. I looked at his offerings. Several fantasies—not too dark. An historical or two. And another book about a gay man who “stops at nothing to find a perfect love, and hope for a perfect peace.” I’d love to tap into this market audience.

I have a strong suspicion this publisher won’t want me either, but it’s the thought that counts. God’s thought. I see his hand so clearly in the serendipity of my bus encounters. He’s showing me that he can pluck a publisher out of a hat in my backyard if he wants to. He’s reminding me that a loving God is at work in our world. His purposes will be fulfilled, through the small, everyday occurrences of our lives. I’m warmed by the thought, and delighted by the unexpected reminder, on my way home, that God’s ways can sometimes be stranger than fiction.