by Cara C. Putman This spring has been a whirlwind of book marketing. With novellas in January and May and a trade in April, it’s taken a lot of time. A friend recently called me a networking superstar, and I almost spewed my sweet tea across my computer monitor. When it’s time to call for help marketing a book, I …
Who is my Reader?
Let’s untangle the web surrounding the question, “Who is my Most Likely Reader?” Think of your story. Who are the central characters and what are their ages? What is the theme of your story? To clarify, let me use my first historical romance as an example. Promise of Tomorrow is a historical romance set in Johnstown, PA during the flood …
Ten Tips for New Authors
by Suzanne Woods Fisher So…you’ve got a book contract. Congratulations! But now it’s time to sell your book. Your publisher has a marketing plan, but the focus is on retail outlets. You want to try to help your book gain altitude. But how? By thinking small – book by book, reader by reader. You can make a difference! You are …
Backlinks and Blogs
As a freelancer who provides SEO work for websites and blogs, I am woefully aware that many ACFW writers treat links in blog comments as spam. Knowing how the search engines index these comments, I spend much of my time educating bloggers on the value of these links. The internet is a monster of sorts: a ‘spiderweb’ of information. The …
Privacy and the Digital Age
by Cheryl Wyatt Since authors have been ushered into the digital age in terms of marketing expectations, I sought advice from Frank Ahearn, renowned skip tracer, privacy expert and author of How to Disappear, a book popular among novelists. Cheryl: While most novelists prefer to remain in obscurity, the publishing trend toward digital marketing doesn’t allow for that. Have you …
My First Booksigning Tour
by Rose Allen McCauley As I began this piece about the Georgia trip my husband I made Oct. 28-Nov. 6, 2011, I was reminded of how well our trip turned out, in spite of the many changes along the way. I know that was because God had His Hand over our trip guiding us much better than our TomTom did! …
A Different Approach
by Dani Pettrey “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 7:12 God’s Word is replete with wisdom and this verse is no exception. As writers we have the privilege of coming into contact with a vast number of people and I’d like to …
Marketing and Promotion: Got Moxie?
by Janice Hanna Thompson Got Moxie? Remember the story of the cowardly lion from The Wizard of Oz? He couldn’t summon up the courage to be the very thing he’d been called to be: the King of the Forest. Fear held him bound. Dorothy did her best to give him the tools he needed to overcome, but he still ran …
Don’t Imitate Others — Follow God’s Directions
By Lena Nelson Dooley In 2005, so many people were starting blogs. I had no idea what a blog was, and I didn’t know if I was supposed to do one. I asked some other writers I was connected with what they blogged about. Someone told me to blog about my journey to publication. That was something I could do, …
HUMILITY OR APATHY–The aversion to marketing.
ACFW Blog posting by Christine Lindsay author of SHADOWED IN SILK, winner of the 2009 Genesis for Historical. All of us in ACFW know the writing of Christian fiction is a ministry. And if we’ve been at it for a few years we know it is not for the faint-hearted. We know the perseverance, the faith it takes to write …