Dear Author: Is it God’s will for you to sell a lot of books?
To some, that question illustrates the complexity of understanding God’s will. To others, that question illustrates the complexity of understanding book sales. Either way, when it comes to successful marketing, there seems to be a strange dance between skill and luck, hard work and good fortune. Or to spiritualize it — there is a give-and-take between the book’s creator and the author’s Creator.
Have you noticed that marketing often gets a bad rap from Christian writers? Don’t get me wrong, I’m no marketing whiz. Like most of you, I am much more comfortable writing than selling. Nevertheless, it puzzles me how some Christian writers approach marketing. It goes like this:
I’ll do the writing, but God must do the marketing.
In her post Why Do We Think Jesus Will Do All Our Marketing?, Mary DeMuth quotes Randy Ingermanson:
I’m hesitant to say this because I know I’ll immediately hear from people who say that I have no faith, that I am sacrilegious, or that I am Not A Real Christian. But somebody needs to say this. So here goes:
The worst advice I have heard is “Jesus will do all your marketing for you.”
Let’s be clear that Jesus is on my management team and I consult him often when making big decisions. But in my experience, Jesus has never typed a press release, called a radio station to set up an interview, posted a blog entry, fixed the CSS on a web site, or written copy for a sales page. (emphasis in original)
Randy’s POV takes aim at a perilous but pervasive mindset among many Christian writers: We’ve come to see writing as “spiritual,” and marketing as not. Marketing is the “ugly” part of writing, the “worldly” dimension of being an author, the “necessary evil” you must tolerate, the downside of being published, the greens in an otherwise tasty meal.
This bifurcation is symptomatic of the sacred / secular mindset suffered by many evangelicals. It goes like this: Church is sacred, work is not. Praying is sacred, doing the dishes is not. Reading the Bible is sacred, reading Robert Frost is not. Serving at the homeless shelter is sacred, volunteering at the art gallery is not. Thus, writing is sacred, marketing is not. Which is why
- We over-spiritualize the writing process, and
- We under-spiritualize the selling process
One of the unspoken (but perhaps intended) results of such a compartmentalized view of writing is this: We can always blame poor book sales on God. “I am proud of my book,” we say. “It just wasn’t God’s will for it to take off.” Heaven forbid that an author blame themselves for poor book sales.
Please do not misunderstand me: Just because you approach marketing with vigor and savvy is no guarantee your book will do well (and really, what is “doing well”?). There are multiple 
factors to a book’s success — like good writing, hard work, the right publisher, market trends, endorsements, platform, etc. (see self-published phenom Amanda Hocking’s post entitled Some Things That Need to Be Said.) And having all those things in place is still no guarantee your book will perform well. Nevertheless, the person who sees God as having “called” them to write can inevitably stick God with the blame if their book tanks.
For this reason, I’m starting to believe it is helpful to see writing and marketing as flip sides of the same calling. If God’s “called” you to write, then He’s “called” you to market.
I’m thinking of The Parable of the Talents (Matt. 25:14-30). In this classic tale, not only did the master entrust his servants with different sums of money, he held them responsible for their management of said sums. Those two elements are the crux of the lesson: (1) Gift and (2) Management. So for the writer, that looks like this:
- Writing is your gift / talent.
- Marketing is your part of the stewardship of the gift / talent.
No, marketing is not the only part of stewardship. Nor is it probably the biggest part. I faithfully manage my writing talent by trying to write better, not just trying to yell louder. Marketing is just one way to “multiply” my talent, which seems to be a big deal for the master in the biblical parable.
Another interesting spin on marketing from a biblical perspective could be this: Your talent is intended for others, not just you. This may sound supremely arrogant, as if you are “God’s gift” to others. Nevertheless, Scripture teaches that our talents are not meant entirely for personal gain. Take this verse: “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms” (I Peter 4:10 NIV). So…
- Your talents are a gift from God
- Your talents are given to serve others
The point being: If your writing gift is intended for others, how else are you going to deliver besides, um, just writing?
Of course, if a Christian writer’s sole purpose in marketing is to “get rich” or “become famous,” they probably missed the gist of their “gifting.” This isn’t meant to imply that prospering from your talent is wrong, but that the heart of marketing (from a biblical perspective) is sharing, not getting rich, it is connecting with others, not just advancing your “brand.”
So for the Christian writer, getting an agent, growing in the craft, employing an editor, expanding your platform, studying trends, jumping through hoops, may not seem very “spiritual,” but they can all be parts of being a good steward with your talent.
And parts of selling more books.
Yeah. Writing is a lot more fun than marketing. Marketing can be a grind, it can be distasteful, it can bring out the absolute worst in a person. Nevertheless, marketing can also part of “good stewardship.”
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Question: Do you agree that marketing gets a bad rap from writers? Should it? Do you tend to see marketing as the “un-spiritual” part of writing? Do you think it’s God’s will for writers He has “called” to sell books? What are some signs that a person is going overboard with marketing?
I think you’ve nail the issue pretty squarely. To some degree, this is a business. If you make your living from it, it most definitely is a business. And that means working to get the work before people’s faces that they might buy it. And you have to earn a certain amount to feed the family, a God-given responsibility according to Scriptures.
But for sure, if God has called us to write, it is to share something with others that might be a blessing, help them spiritually, or even just entertain to help them escape the stresses of this life and experience another perspective through a character. Even entertainment itself is a ministry (another aspect that tends to get secularized). To share means to market in some form or fashion.
But I think there are also some offsetting issues that this doesn’t address. I know for me personally, it isn’t so much an aversion to marketing, but a question of what is worthwhile to invest one’s limited time into. Without ways to measure results, other than if our books appear to sell more, we could be spinning our wheels for all we know, or getting our book before someone who has the influence to really get sales rolling. You never know. I think a lot of authors look at the vast array of opinions and ways to market one’s books and it becomes so confusing that it becomes easier for the author to decide it’s just too hard, and go back to writing.
And then some advice, like what Dean Wesley Smith gives, is to do minimal marketing, putting it on your website, Facebook, etc., and he considers the best marketing to get back to writing the next book.
Many writers tend to select a small handful of methods they think they can use and invest in those, hoping they work. And maybe that’s really where those who say Jesus does their marketing is really a valid point. Not as an excuse to do nothing, but to do what we think is most fruitful, and then leave the results to God. Doesn’t mean we don’t reevaluate what we’re doing when no results seem to come from our efforts, but in the end, it will be up to God to get our message out. But we have to give Him something to work with. Anything. And that’s where many authors fail at times due to the reasons you state. It is easier to ignore that aspect and say God didn’t call us to that.
Great comments, Rick. I have done what you call “minimal marketing.” These seem to be the basics: book trailer, Facebook presence, Twitter presence, some giveaways, book signing, interviews, and blogging. I think conceding these elements is the least we can do. Still, I am surprised by how many aspiring and published authors do those things (1) so infrequently, and (2) so poorly.
Your acknowledgment of the need to market, part of our God-given calling, is the divide I’m addressing here. We can debate methods of marketing. I just trouble over authors who frame marketing as the “dark side” of their calling. Thanks for your comments and congrats on your new book.
This applies to all manner of creative endeavors. Most artist don’t fail because they’re bad artists, but because they’re poor business people.
As to your question, I don’t know what other writers’ think. For myself, I recognize marketing as part of the package to creating a book – one that I’m admittedly less familiar with. I find myself praying for more wisdom, because, like it or not, marketing is part of the calling. What I have to do is confront it creatively (like the writing part) and not view it as drudgery or a ‘necessary evil’. After all, “sowing/reaping” is one element of stewardship.
Being clever, justly proud, or trendy is one thing, but writers go overboard when they become underhanded and disingenuous, faking reviews, belittling other authors, spinning or compromising their convictions for sales.
This has needed to be said for a long time, and you did an excellent job. What too many Christian writers (and many secular writers too, I would imagine) don’t realize is, unless you are writing for your own personal enjoyment, marketing is an integral part of the writing process. Gone are the days when a publisher produced the book and gave it a pretty sizable marketing budget. The writer is now a marketing partner with the publishing company. Marketing is as much a part of the writing process as brainstorming, doing the market research and writing the book.
I am fortunate in that my book is the first in a new fiction line, so the publishing company is putting a lot of effort into marketing. But … had I not agreed in the initial negotiations to be an active participant in the marketing process, I would still be shopping the book around.
In short, though it’s not scriptural, it IS true that the Lord helps those who help themselves. And that means marketing. After all, if it is of God, don’t we WANT someone to read it?
Thomas Smith
Author of Something Stirs
“Do you agree that marketing gets a bad rap from writers? Should it?”
I don’t know these writers, but they’re probably out here with the rest of us. I know writers like myself that find it difficult because as one of the gentlemen mentioned above, there are no concrete sales results from nearly all of the methodology used to create sales. The current trends of book trailers–maybe too soon to tell–but a lot of people don’t view them for book selection. Figuring out what genuinely works to advertise your product effectively is a maze. So, in effect, it isn’t marketing per se that “should” get a bad rap, it’s the techniques which have yet to be determined as a good means for selling your particular product.
“Do you tend to see marketing as the “un-spiritual” part of writing? Do you think it’s God’s will for writers He has “called” to sell books? What are some signs that a person is going overboard with marketing?”
I don’t tend to see anything as the “‘un-spiritual’ part of writing”. I think the different calls for writers include those who write for a small audience, but if He makes it clear to go for the royalty publishing gig, then He’s making it clear you’re going to have to do the whole measure of what that entails. Once you do all that you can, and many authors do this, the sales results are up to Him. It’s not a slam dunk to think the world’s view of success will be the result of your endeavors.
An overboard author dominates every media expression with advertisements about their work. It’s a constant barrage of pitch, pitch, pitch, sell, sell, sell. It’s all about them. Recently an author wrote a thank you in a blog review but immediately plugged her next book in the series. Thanks but no thanks.
Appreciate your thoughts, Nicole. I’m not sure I’d agree that “there are no concrete sales results from nearly all of the methodology used to create sales.” Yes, the product is what ultimately determines sales. And different marketing methods will be better suited to different products. But in virtually every field, I think it’s pretty well established that marketing is a necessary part of business.
My book trailer for The Resurrection probably didn’t persuade anyone, single-handedly, to buy the book. However, taken in context with my overall web presence, I think I gain points. We could debate whether or not book trailers matter. A relevant debate. But for an aspiring author seeking to gain traction, I think it’s better to try a whole bunch of marketing things rather than get caught up in the minutiae of debate regarding “what works.”
Thanks for your comments. Nicole. Have a great week!
(Mike, I was speaking strictly about marketing fiction, not marketing any product in general. And, yeah, I don’t see any “harm” in making a book trailer or trying all methods. I’m just saying many things are a waste of money which isn’t good stewardship so prayerfully we can find what works best for us.)
Great thoughts.
Yes, I’ve looked down my nose at marketing. And I still struggle with the “pride” issue of promoting myself. But I think you are spot on and I should probably bookmark this post so I can read it again when I get discouraged with my marketing endeavors.
Bifurcation? Wha? I have to look that one up…
As far as I’m concerned, you’ve hit the nail on the head.
Writers tend to be introverted magical thinkers. As such, its very easy for us to huddle in our writing rooms, churn out the stories and then presume that the Bestseller Faerie is going to take care of seeing that the books get sold.
Unfortunately we Christian writers also have a tendency to confuse “faith” with magical thinking. We like to run our shirking through the car wash of faith and thereby abdicate the hard or distasteful parts of life to God. As Ive grown older I have adopted a sort of rule of thumb. Faith is believing in gravity. Magical thinking is believing you can fly. God has ordained the
mechanics of this world and created our bodies to work within that
framework. So the all too popular mindset of “let go and let God” twists into a stunted life for many Christians.
As I said on Facebook part of that attitude is the dangerous and gravely wrong mental framework which says that all work done outside an official ministry channel is less of a ministry, if indeed it can be considered a ministry at all. So you have Christian writers who seem to think the only true writing ministry is in the CBA or Lifeway or Guideposts and that the printing, binding and marketing aspects of bringing a book to the public are not a ministry at all and not worth their time.
Marketing your book is an essential part of an author’s duty. I understand it is one most of us don’t care for. But every ministry has areas we’d rather not have to deal with. Writing your book may be your triumphal entry whereas marketing it may very well be your time in Gethsemene. But they are both crucial parts of the whole.
Rick: “I know for me personally, it isn’t so much an aversion to marketing, but a question of what is worthwhile to invest one’s limited time into.”
This is probably the biggest issue for me. I’ve got a day job, a family, one kid in college and another one coming up. Time and money available severely limit my options for staging a marketing blitz, traveling to conferences/conventions, etc. Networking technology helps, but it can only do so much, and even managing that can become all-consuming, to the detriment of my writing and everything else.
Nicole: “An overboard author dominates every media expression with advertisements about their work. It’s a constant barrage of pitch, pitch, pitch, sell, sell, sell. It’s all about them.”
There’s the flip side of electronic marketing–you potentially reach millions, but you also run the real risk of becoming a spam cannon, and it can be hard to tell when you’ve crossed that line. Frankly, I’ve never been marketed so hard and so often as I have within the Christian fiction community. And when they’re not marketing, they’re angsting about marketing. I pulled out of ShoutLife for that reason. Everybody was trying to sell me something. I’ve not seen that level of obsession with marketing in the secular writing communities I frequent.
Mike: But for an aspiring author seeking to gain traction, I think it’s better to try a whole bunch of marketing things rather than get caught up in the minutiae of debate regarding “what works.”
I think there’s some merit in the idea of throwing the plate of spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks. Like Rick and Nicole observe, it’s hard to figure out which noodles are worth putting onto the plate to begin with. I was preparing to set up a Facebook “author” page the other day and suddenly realized it was totally redundant. Everything I post on my writing blog already cross-posts to Facebook and Twitter, and echos on my publisher’s website, so adding another layer of essentially the same information didn’t make any sense.
For me the problem is as follows: Writing is something I’m good at. Marketing my writing seems to be 100% composed of stuff I really really suck at, like meeting people, communicating with people and the like.
So, yeah, I’m really tempted to go all spiritual and let Jesus do it all— but hasn’t He done enough for me already?
I hate cooking, and I’m also pretty terrible at it. I could take classes to make me an adequate cook for my family, but I will never be a top chef. Ever. I feel the same way about marketing. I might be able to ditch my personality–that of the reclusive, curmudgeony hermit–and learn some marketing skills. I might become adequate at it. I might. But wouldn’t it be better to hire someone who has talent? Wouldn’t the publisher be better off? I would never ask God to do all the work for me. I would, however, ask that he provide me w/ either a good marketing team OR give me the ability, despite myself, to do what I normally can’t do. One or the other has to occur.