BOOK BLAST BONANZA!!! Hourly Giveaways as Seekerville Welcomes The Bethany House Marketing Team!

Today we have very special guests who are, IMHO, the very BEST at marketing in the Christian fiction world. The marketing team from my publisher Bethany House. Noelle Buss, Fiction Publicist, gives us some advice on how best to market our books.

Noelle and/or other members of the Bethany Marketing Team are hoping to stop in today and respond to your comments. So behave!!!

To celebrate their visit we are holding a HUGE BOOK GIVEAWAY. One Bethany book every hour on the hour starting at 8 am through 5 pm.

We are giving away:

8 am Out of Control--Mary Connealy
9 am Siri Mitchell--Heart Most Worthy
10 am Karen Witemeyer--To Win Her Heart
11 am Beverly Lewis--The Thorn (The Rose Trilogy Book 1)
12 pm Tracie Peterson--Hope Rekindled
1 pm Stephanie Grace Whitson--A Most Unsuitable Match
2 pm Laura Frantz--The Colonel's Lady
3 pm Janette Oke & Davis Bunn--Tomorrow's Dream
4 pm Falls Like Lightning--Shawn Grady
5 pm Out of Control--Mary Connealy

(PS because The Thorn is book one in a trilogy we chose it to give. HOWEVER Beverly Lewis's latest release is book three and if you'd prefer a later book in the series, claim it and it is YOURS...if you win that is!) Leave a comment to get your name in the drawing.
We will draw the winners all through the day, but announce them on Sunday on the Seekerville Weekend Edition

Here is Noelle Buss:
Marketing fiction books is largely about marketing an experience. Novels, at times, get a bad rap because people claim they aren’t directly useful items (exceptions found here) in the way, say, a bread-making machine or a car is, or even non-fiction.

Yet this aspect of “experience” is what, personally, I think makes fiction so powerful. Inspirational novelists often provide very beautiful experiences—ones that touch, inspire and uplift. Positive experiences create strong emotional connections, which in the world of books means loyal readers. So here are three suggestions to help you truly value and maximize this advantage.

1. Create a Brand: Brand does not equal a clever tagline that describes your writing style. When it comes down to it, your brand is what your author name represents. The names Beverly Lewis, Lynn Austin, Tracie Peterson, Francine Rivers all have come to be associated with particular kinds of emotional experiences. It’s often hard to break down into words what separates each author’s style from the next, yet readers can instinctively understand these differences once they become familiar with your work. So the best thing you can do as an author is to develop a distinctive writing style that is true to you and your interests. The more you solidify in your mind who you are and what you write as an author, the more consistent quality your books will be and the more individualized your brand will become.

2. Re-think Booksignings: Frankly, in most instances booksignings are not worthwhile. Sitting at a table in a bookstore for two hours and encountering only seven people—three of whom asked you where the bathroom was and two of whom were unwitting browsers lured by free stuff— just doesn’t seem like a worthy use of your time. Time is valuable to people, and they aren’t going to share it with you unless they are reasonably certain you’ll provide a worthwhile experience in exchange. So think of ways you can morph the traditional booksigning into an experience—incorporate an informative talk beforehand, include a fundraising component that will benefit a local charity, become a part of church or library speaking programs, or create a party atmosphere that includes treats, games, and other activities associated with your book. The options are endless, but the goal is the same: provide people with a unique experience that will make them feel like they’d be missing out if they didn’t attend.

3. Focus on Social Media: By focus, I mean specialize. Pick one or two things you enjoy doing or are interested in and learn to do them really well. Otherwise, unless you are Superwoman, you’ll be scrambling to update and keep fresh all your social media outlets, eating up your precious writing time and forcing your efforts to be scattered and rather superficial. Focusing will also let you cultivate a particular and dependable experience and ultimately a relationship with your readers online. Are people gathering to follow you on Twitter because you keep passing on great historical tidbits each day, or do they value the insights you offer on your blog about daily life and writing? Whatever it is, be consistent and share something meaningful.




Mary again...let's talk about branding, booksignings and social media today. Do you know your brand? Do you have booksignings, if you're an author, or go to them, and how involved and skilled are you at using social media? What are the tricks?



Let's talk MARKETING. And check in to put your name in for the drawings, the more you comment, the more chances you have to win.