I was once asked how I knew I was called to write. I answered, “Because when I write, I feel God’s pleasure.” It was a reference to that famous line in Chariots of Fire when missionary Eric Liddel was asked why he ran. It was also a hilariously pompous thing for me to say.
I started my writing career in Christian circles — a Christian critique group, Christian writing conferences, Christian writer friends, all seeking to be agented and published in the Christian book industry. Back then, getting published was viewed by many as an act of Providence. The “experts” taught us how to hone our craft, write our novel, submit it to the appropriate publishers, and trust God with the outcome. I’ve heard many “testimonials” about authors who believed God would guide their manuscript through the maze of agents and editors, into the perfect hands. That their story would be published at the perfect time, by the perfect place. After publication, the Christian author often looks back on these twists and turns and appreciates the hand of Fate steering them toward an appointed end.
Unlike publishing, marketing feels a lot less spiritual.
I’m in that phase of my writing career where the “spiritual” sheen has long faded. I’m not saying I don’t see my talents as God-given and want to do my best with them. Nor am I suggesting that I no longer trust God to guide my writing career. I’m simply in that phase where marketing matters, where you have the need to check professionals at https://the-indexer.com/digital-marketing-agencies/ to see the way they manage things when it comes to marketing. And what I am learning is that it’s a lot easier to spiritualize the publishing process than it is the marketing process. It is a lot easier to trust God to find a home for my book, than to trust Him to get my book into homes.
Maybe it’s because marketing is so pragmatic, so logical, so mechanized, so distasteful to us normal folks, so… UNspiritual. Just Google “marketing your novel” and you’re greeted with a gaggle of do’s and don’ts. Successful marketing, so they say, involves some combination (if not all) of the following: maintaining a blog and/or website (SEO optimized), a Facebook presence, active Twitter account, promotional videos, author endorsements, author interviews, guest blogging, newsletter, bookmarks, book signings, business cards, giveaways, and the list goes on. So instead of sitting back and trusting God to maneuver my story into the proper hands (as I did when I was seeking publication), now I must “play god” and return the favor.
In this way, marketing seems to contradict Providence. As if God only cares about me writing the story. Hawking it is not His bag.
It leaves me feeling pretty conflicted. I mean, does God sell my book, or do I? I trusted Him to guide my talents, inspire ideas, and strengthen me to tell the tales. So should I now trust demographics, network tools, ad campaigns, and market savvy? Now that I’m published, does Platform suddenly trump Providence?
Does prayer actually affect a book’s sales?
When I preach, I often approach sermon planning like that of building an altar. You put the sticks in place and assemble the sacrifice… and then you step back and pray like heck for fire. Sometimes fire comes, and sometimes it doesn’t. But either way, I do my part and trust God to do His. In a way, marketing is a lot like building an altar: Your role is to build it, His role is to light the flame.
Other than that, “spiritual marketing” seems like a complete oxymoron.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, with a new book coming out in October. I am a reluctant marketer and promoter. I know the importance of it in the publishing world so I have been doing all the right things: sending out advance review copies, running giveaways, approaching influential bloggers, etc. But I’ve been unexpectedly balking at some other expected promotional avenues, particularly book-signings. It feels like book-signings are essentially a way of saying “Look at me! I wrote a book!” Yet I have felt all along that I couldn’t have written this book without God. Am I the victor in this endeavor? No one can read my book and fail to see what God did for me in the two years following my husband’s death. God IS the victor in this story of grief. Instead of book-signings, I’ve decided to offer presentations and speaking engagements that can possibly help those who are facing a dark period in their life, and bring my books along, just in case someone wants to buy one. (My book is about finding hope in the darkness of loss. I lost my mother, husband and young grandson in the space of three years) I am so much more comfortable with the second approach. It takes the pressure off, too. If I do a talk and sell some books afterwards, great. But the talk is the point then, and helping others,not the sales. Obviously this approach works better with non-fiction than with fiction, but no matter what we write, we need to prayerfully consider what God would have us do with our books. If he led us to write the book, we need to believe that he will also lead us in getting the book in the right hands, that he will help us sell it. I was seriously worried when I found myself giving away my cancer memoir more than I was selling it the first month after it was released, and then an interesting thing happened. People were sending me twenty dollar bills, and the book didn’t even cost $20! I was also being asked to speak at cancer groups or on caregiving, another unexpected development. So, yes, marketing CAN be spiritual. I pray for discernment as to where I should be sending advance copies and which bloggers I should approach. I am doing my part: putting the book “out there,” and then praying some more. The book isn’t going to sell itself, but I do believe that God CAN help us sell it.
On the subject of book signings: I’ve only just this year published a book in paperback, it’s not even launched yet, and it’s only my second book. Aka, I’m really not well-known outside of my friends and family. And yet, the biggest question I’ve gotten from people (and this includes people I’ve literally just met) who’ve bought advance copies is: “Could you sign it?”. And, when I’ve talked to people about launching my book, one of the biggest questions I’ve gotten, after when it’ll be launched, is “Will you be doing book signings?” Again, this is coming from every direction, not just the people who know me well and who I know well.
The moral of the story: People want book signings for books they’re interested in. They want to go to them. They want their book signed. They want that kind of experience, and they don’t care if you’re not über famous yet. What they care about is that you wrote a book, and they like that book, and they would be tickled pink to have you write your signature on it. How many other of their books have received that kind of special attention? Not many. And, even if they did go out of their way to get all of their books signed by the authors, they would still love it. Because it’s special, and makes them feel special.
You mentioned that you don’t like the idea of book signings because it makes you feel like you’re putting all the focus on you. And certainly that can be done if you really want. But it’s clear you don’t. So, instead of looking at it from an author point of view, look at it from a reader point of view. And then figure out how you can make clear to them that your book signings are about them, and making them feel valued and appreciated. Trust me, people will want to come back, bring friends, and buy more of your books because of it.
I still hate sitting at a table and waiting for people to come to me. I want to go to the people with presentations and workshops, and just bring my books along with me. I got this idea from New York Times bestselling author, Cecil Murphey, who told me he did not like book-signings but preferred presentations, workshops or discussions. I’d set up book-signings for my first and second book. Yet I sold so many more (and yes, signed copies) when I did presentations. With this third book, everything feels different, and I am following my heart and the gut feeling that it isn’t “all about me selling a book,” but instead, all about those I hope to help with my words. I am setting up speaking engagements and “discussions” with an opportunity for signed copies of books afterwards. When a bookstore contacted me for a book-signing the other day, I said I would like to do a discussion on grief beforehand.
This is most assuredly not my area of expertise, but is there not a biblically moral and upright God pleasing path of marketing in this industry? If so, then use it and trust God that exactly who and how many will buy your work. If not? You’re in the wrong industry.
Marketing is really blech to so many writers, but I suppose it’s a lot like publishing. You trust God to help you find an agent and publisher, and you also send out query letters and book proposals and compose pitches. Both marketing and publishing have a logic, but they also have a magic, if you will accept the term, in which you can’t predict results. Success often depends on the right person reading your work at the right time: stumbling on the right editor when she’s in the right mood; stumbling on the right audience you didn’t foresee; having the right reviewers review your work at a crucial time. Taking the obvious logical steps + something indefinable that could be viewed as spiritual (esp if you’re a Christian!) = success. Many of us are afraid to tempt fate, though, and don’t even take those first necessary logical steps.
I like the analogy at the end of your building the altar. I think working hard to write a book and taking all the necessary editing steps (hard work) and then just “letting it go,” expecting people to see it in a sea of books, is sort of like forgetting to build the altar. I guess I follow that “whatever you do, do as to the Lord” policy in that for me, if God wants me to be doing by best writing/editing I can, then surely He wants me to do the best I can in the marketing arena too, and not complain when my books aren’t selling because I didn’t make one effort to get them visible.
I feel like if I believe in my book’s value enough to take all the time/effort to publish it, I should believe in it enough to tell people about it who might ENJOY it. Now, once it’s out there, marketed, and people decide to give bad reviews or, conversely, to become avid readers…that’s in God’s hands. He will get those books to who needs to read them, and I pray over that every time I do a freebie, etc–that God will get my books into just the right hands. Which really SHOULD be our Christian marketing approach–get the books to readers and pray they will hit the readers God wants them to.
On the other hand, yes, it can take up all your time and quickly become an idol–checking sales, etc. This is where I think we have to figure out time management that works for us to CONTINUE using our writing, instead of getting hung up looking back on what we HAVE written and lamenting it’s not selling like we want.
Just my take. I just know if I worked so hard to write/edit/format/upload a book, I would kick myself up and down if I didn’t make nearly every possible effort to market it. I do try not to spam people, but I think letting your readers/friends know when your book is out, when it’s on sale or free, is sharing info and most are glad to keep abreast of deals with authors they enjoy.
So I don’t think I’d say it’s spiritual to market, but maybe it’s using your gifts fully to reach the maximum number of people possible (many of us incorporate our gifts with our talent of writing).
There are definitely Biblical principles at work in excellent marketing, and they make it the kind of marketing that your conscience feels good about. Like, really good. Here’s the two that form the essential core of “spiritual” marketing:
1) Love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.
2) Love others with all your heart.
Love is about showing value for people. For treating them as if they have value. If this is how we are to treat people in all areas of our lives, then that means that this is how we are to treat the readers we are marketing to. We must talk to them, learn what they value, and how they expect to be treated. We must learn how they want to be treated, what actions and words will communicate to them the clearest that we value them. That will help to guide our specifics from the general principle of love and all the fruits of the spirit that come from it.
Ok, but what about us, who need to make money? What we need to keep in mind is the reaping and sowing principle. We reap what we sow, right? Well, if we sow, if we give that kind of honest love, then that is what we will reap in return, often in greater measure than what we gave out. It’s a Biblical principle, and it’s also a psychological one. If we give to people, they will tend to give that kind of thing back, and they will generally give more than we gave them. We treat them with value (however we do that), and they will treat us with value (buying our stuff, talking about us and our books honestly and positively, coming back for more, doing whatever they know can communicate value to us). The thing is, the only way for this principle to work as God intended is if we love without expecting to be loved in return. We are to simply love and let God take care of the rest. And he has told us, over and over and over and over again, that he will.
So, that’s all the theory and stuff. Here are some books and websites that I’ve found that have been super helpful, and at least 90% in line with what I just said (all caps will be used where I would prefer to use bold, but I can’t figure out how to do that):
-THE MYTH OF EXCELLENCE: Why Great Companies Never Try to Be the Best at Everything, by Fred Crawford and Ryan Matthews (this is hugely focused on values and treating customers with value)
-THE MIDDLE FINGER PROJECT: themiddlefingerproject.com (contains NSFW language, but also a huge focus on making the customer feel valued. Do read with a Biblical lens firmly in place, though, as they only half understand how the law of sowing and reaping is most effective, and so are often as others focused as they could be. Also has some excellent resources on website design, copywriting, and just generally selling online)
-PLATFORM: Get Noticed in a Noisy World, by Michael Hyatt (the best-quality book specifically on book marketing that I’ve found so far. Although he does seem to have an obsession with Twitter)
-HOW THE WORLD SEES YOU: Discover Your Highest Value Through the Science of Fascination, by Sally Hogshead (this book has completely changed the way I think about people by not only helping me to see my own value, but also the value in others around me. Even if I don’t like them very much)
-HOW TO FASCINATE: howtofascinate.com (this goes with the book above, but I’m listing it separately because there’s a test on there that costs money if you don’t have a code of some kind. I have a code that will work for about 100 people, or until September 6th, whichever comes first. Please do use it. I’ve found the results of this test invaluable in nearly every area of my life, not just in marketing. This is not something I say lightly: If you end up only using one of these resources, use this one. This is what will make all the others really work. The code is: BL-Irionuib )
Heh. So there’s my rather enthusiastic dump of all the things that have been coming together for me lately on the subject of marketing. I hope it’s useful for you. It definitely has been for me. 🙂
I haven’t finished my first book yet, but I’m getting close and so I’ve been doing a lot of research on the marketing side.
This was a humbling post. I’ve never really thought about the “spiritual” side of marketing. It really does seem devoid of spirituality.
It is nice to see that I’m not the only one who sees it that way. I’ll have to remember to keep prayer in my marketing as well as my writing!