...some writers, like
comedians, rely on explicit details for shock value when the story is
weak...
After more than twenty years in
PR and advertising, I joined B&H Publishing Group. It was a
little off-putting to be regarded a rookie, but I had no book
publishing experience. Undaunted, I tackled book publicity the same way
I approached PR for cars, flour, and college athletic programs.
First, discover what is unique
about your product. For us, it’s the books we publish. Of course, our
fiction books have Christian content. At the BEA trade show, we had a
signing for two fiction authors, and I had people ask me to explain the
difference between Christian fiction and regular fiction. I explained
that the development of characters, the subject matter in story lines,
and the emotional drama are the same. The only difference is that our
stories are told without explicit sex, violence, or language. When
comedian George Carlin died recently, the news re-aired an interview he
did with Bill O’Reilly. Bill had asked George why he felt compelled to
use the “f” word three times in every sentence. Carlin replied that I
think the case can be made that some writers, like comedians, rely on
explicit details for shock value when the story is weak. It is also
true that some readers like and expect those details in their novels.
If that is true, then it holds that writing Christian fiction is more
difficult because you cannot rely on the explicitness to cover for a
weak story line.
So I think it is important to
emphasize this to the readers: we offer the same compelling story and
complex characters as secular fiction but with a spiritual thread and
without the shock value.
Second, know who your audience
is. Locate titles like yours and Google those authors. Find out where
their books pop up and strive to be there as well. If your audience is
teens, men, or aliens, learn what other books they read and what Web
sites they visit, then target your publicity directly to them. More is
not necessarily better. To quote marketing guru Seth Godin, “Placing an
ad on Facebook may get you thousands of hits, maybe even millions of
hits, but when you look at who is on Facebook, are these folks really
your book-buying public?”
Third, I would approach
publicity like a yearlong (or two) PR campaign. You want to look at all
aspects of communication from print to broadcast to Web, and from start
to release to a year after release. When I came to B&H, Senior
Editor David Webb, fiction maven Senior Acquisitions Editor Karen Ball,
and I formed the “fiction team.” We “relaunched” fiction at B&H
to show authors, agents, media, and readers that we were serious about
Christian fiction. We put considerable time, effort, and
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money into the
relaunch. I approached it like a campaign: We designed a new logo (Pure
Enjoyment), created giveaway items, and acquired great writers. The
packaging was fabulous. The authors were avid self-promoters who helped
the overall effort by blogging, contacting friends and family for
signings, hosting Web sites, traveling and visiting bookstores, and
creating great point-of-purchase items for smaller independent
booksellers. I then kicked it up a notch by asking the authors to write
discussion questions so that we could market the books to reading
groups and libraries.
We also created an innovative
Web portal at www.pureenjoyment.com,
which is home to author
interviews, sample chapters, free downloads, and the very cool book
video trailers—not necessarily the approach others in CBA would take,
but I find that telling the story visually is compelling and may help
readers make a buying decision. Now several romance, suspense, and
thriller Web sites host video trailers. Check them out and let me know
what you think.
As our commitment to fiction
continues to grow, so, too, does my enthusiasm for trying new things in
book marketing. I’ll keep you posted on the successes and failures I
find along the way.
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