Next Installation for Marketing

OK, I wanted to tell you a little more about what I've been doing to get the word out.

I should have mentioned this yesterday, but before you start marketing, really before you start writing your book, you need to come up with a good 15 to 25 word sentence that describes your book. Polish this until it shines, and then whenever asks you what your book is about, you just say "It's-about-a-small-military-team-that-travels-back-in-time-to-film-the-theft-of-Jesus'-body-from-the-tomb," or whatever your personal zinger happens to be. Trust me on this one.

We ended yesterday's blog entry right after my writer's conference, that took place a week after my ARCs had arrived. A few days later, I had a booksigning (!). I recognized at the time that maybe I should wait, but heck, can you blame me? The person who hosted the booksigning, Tammy, was so anxious to do this for me, and I couldn't resist.

This was so exciting. Tammy runs about the *best* Curves affiliate in the country. It is so fun for all the ladies to chat (or not) as we go around the circuit, and no one cares one whit how droopy the hair or baggy the workout clothes are. The comraderie is wonderful and fluid as different combinations of people show up every day. Tammy runs many fund-raising events, especially for the American Cancer Society, and fun in-house competitions, prize drawings, jewelry making, and so forth. So of course she wanted to have a book signing for me :-)

I got back from the conference on Sunday, and Monday was my book signing. It was advertised for about a week beforehand, and at 8 o'clock I showed up, books and a plate of cookies in hand. About three hours later I'd sold close to thirty books. As the Curves ladies read the book and talked about it, more ladies bought books over the next month or so, and I ended up selling a total of about 80 books! Wow. This money was first fruits, and it was very exciting. I bought Tammy a nice bottle of wine, and wrote a big thank you note to all the ladies.

What a lovely start! But now, I had to hunker down and use this prepub time to best advantage...

I will continue tomorrow. In the meantime, again, if you want to consider voting in the ACFW book club please do! The link is HERE. I've summarized both books HERE and pray whichever book is selected, Lever or Gallimore, God's kingdom will be advanced. I'm OK either way. Still I can't help admitting I'd like to win :-)

Have a great day!