June 2011

We’ve all heard American jobs are going overseas, especially to China and India. But did anyone think that people in those countries are feeling pressure to learn English? And what effect does that have on them?

New markets opening

Evidently ChristianBooksWorldwide.com did. They are reporting not only are U.S. secular publishers taking note of the success of Christian books, but new markets are opening up world-wide for quality Christian materials.

They mention the explosion of Christianity in Latino and African markets, plus European Christians. In China and India, they’re talking outsourcing, like printing Bibles. And if these folks have to learn English, and they’re producing English books, I’m thinking they’ll become fans. Influence goes both ways and there’s a much bigger market out there than what we can see. I know I’ve said this before, but we, of all people, should be thinking global.

Guerilla Library Marketing Tips

I was blessed to get paired doing a workshop last month with Kristine Pratt, CEO of Written World Communications, a year-and-a-half-old Christian publishing house in Colorado.

During dinner, she shared about a meeting with the acquisition librarian for her county. She discovered, due to the popularity of Christian fiction, libraries feel the demand but don’t have time to seek out Christian fiction titles. So they buy Christian fiction requested by patrons.

Most patrons can request books that are not in the collection using the library’s website—and they may not even need their library card number. My niece, who is working as an intern with a small press in Georgia, verified this. She’s been requesting books for her small press and has library cards in several counties.

Kristine uncovered that there are more than 110,000 libraries in the U.S. Since we’re already paying for this, I plan to ask my friends everywhere to request my book for their local library. You can do the same. Why not?

Marketing Tips for Authors

1. Having trouble keeping up with social media? Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn—and the list goes on. Reminds me of the old days when you couldn’t send emails between online services so I had 10 email accounts to stay in contact with my editors. How to keep up?

Try Hoot Suite. This service allows you to link up to five social media accounts for free and see them all at once. You can also set up automated posts at intervals you select. If you have more than five accounts, expect to pay a low monthly fee.

2. Extra Tips: I was in the Colorado mountains last month at the home of writing coach Margie Lawson. We met to discuss marketing with former ACFW public relations officer Angela Breidenbach (right). I recommended Hoot Suite because Angie was frustrated she couldn’t monitor all her social media accounts during her speaking tour and on-line social media blitz for the launch of her new book, Gems of Wisdom.

It was not a surprise Angela had seven social media accounts, but she figured out she could still use the free version of Hoot Suite because she set up LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to mirror each other. So that put her at five, the limit for the free version. However, Angie and I learned the hard way you cannot be logged into any of your social media accounts when you set up Hoot Suite, or you’ll have to delete that account and start over.

One more tip: Angela bunched up her blog tours, scheduling four or more on the same day when possible. She did it on purpose to improve her internet presence for placement in search engines and her ranking as a personality on the Web.

God bless you and the work of your hands.