Me? Market My Books (Again)?
A not-so-funny thing happened in Blog-lala-land.
I had a nifty badge [note past tense] where you, my sweet sisters in Christ, could subscribe to this very blog for the Christian woman who want to change the world because Christ has changed them. How you changed the world isn’t the big deal, but that you proclaim the excellencies of Christ: through blogging, writing books, waiting on tables, cutting hair, heading a Fortune 500 corporation, whatever.
Well, guess what? In trying to inspire women to change their world because Christ has changed them, I discovered something nasty: My subscription service provider wasn’t letting you subscribe. Err.
So here’s one of my readers’ favorite posts [the readers came here via Twitter or Facebook] from March. If you sometimes read this blog, please subscribe. If you’re stumbling on it today, please subscribe. I need encouragement!!! Honest.
You’ll find the FeedBlitz subscribe box in two places.
I’m not taking any changes. Lesson learned.
Of course, if you are not a Christian or never plan to change your world, subscribe. Yeah, you heard me. Subscribe anyway. You just may someday. = )
I’ll zip my lips now. Here’s the original post:
A strange thing has happened in publishing. 
Authors are expected to sell their books. Writing itself scares my pants off – I love the process but am jittery to have “me” out there, if you know what I mean – but then I found out that I must help sell books by having a platform. Even scarier!
Platform? What’s that? And if I need one, how do I get one?
I first heard this term at a Christian writers’ conference in June. Every other person was buzzing about it. The writers, the editors, the agents – everyone.
Feeling stupid and bold, I asked a writer friend at the conference to put this word in context.
“It’s your built-in audience,” she chimed.
“Huh?” That was the best I could muster.
As I eavesdropped when editors chatted and read marketing materials once I returned home, I felt frustrated, confused and hopeful as I made the decision to build my platform.
What a change from the 1990s!
Back then, when my first three books were published, the publishing houses did the publicity and promotion for the books and we writers showed up to book signings and radio shows. Most important to selling books were one’s credentials and experience. So using this model – outdated but I didn’t know it – I enrolled in the pastoral care to women program at Western Seminary, Portland, Ore., and finished my online classes a year ago. Getting a seminary degree would certainly help me land another book deal, I had figured.
And it will. Credentials still matter. But a platform matters more.
I began to build it. First I worked with a webmaster to get a high-quality website. At the same time, I developed an online ezine called Cup of Joy. (I started with a couple dozen subscribers and now have more than 575 – in four months. . .it boggles my mind.) Then I got on Facebook and Twitter to make contacts with other writers and with potential book-buyers. Remember, this is marketing. I also discovered this wonderfully encouraging online place called Christian Women Take Root and met more people and made more connections.
Now I’m blogging. I have two blogs on my website: Real Hurts, Real Hope and The Sisterhood of Beautiful Warriors. I also have a blog called Counselors’ Coach that appears on the Christian Women Take Root website.
Together, all these contacts (and the ones on Facebook and Twitter as well as the women I meet at my speaking events) make up my platform, my built-in audience.
The reason why a platform matters to publishers is book-buying has changed. Years ago, most people bought books at bookstores; now a huge chunk (at least 50 percent) are sold online. When a writer has an online presence, she is more likely to get a book deal and sell books.
This is the way things are, like it or not.
Before I decided to do things the new way – i.e., get a platform. . .yesterday – I asked myself the most important question: What does God want me to do? I knew the answer in my heart.
You see, seven or eight years ago, God gave me a call: to offer the hope to Christian women who hurt and to the people who love them through counseling, speaking and writing. To reach many hurting Christian women, I must work with publishers in the Internet age.
And if this means building a platform, and spending more time on marketing than writing, I will.
