The Plight of the Christian Author in 2015

 

Like any product, marketing is the key to successful book sales

I read a lot of Christian writers, both fiction and non-fiction. Add to this, that I am a Christian writer, both in that I am a Christian who has a number of published books under my belt, and that two of them were specifically written for the Christian market. To make my authority on the subject of this post even more clear, I am a marketing consultant with over 45 years of marketing experience. Finally, most of my books have been quite successful, and those books have been published through everything from Warner Books to me.

As a marketer, I have ushered thousands of new products to market. I have seen fantastic ideas go nowhere, and I have seen average products make millions. If I could summarize the primary reason for the failure of the great products, it would be lack of marketing expertise or lack of funding to execute a good marketing plan. In other words, you can offer gold at $5 an ounce, but if nobody knows about it, there's no chance it will sell.

Up until 10 or so years ago, the only realistic way an author was going to get his book in front of large audiences was through the traditional book store model. That meant selling the book to a publisher who could then get the book onto the shelves. Even then, new authors had almost no chance of moving the product off the shelves unless there was a marketing campaign behind the book. Almost no publishers spent money then or now on new authors. It was up to the author to use publicity, advertising, reviews, radio, book signings, and speaking engagements to get books sold.

That has not changed at all!! No matter if you are self published or published by Random House, an author has to provide marketing backup to have an significant chance of success.

What has changed are the avenues open for marketing. The internet has created a form of democracy for authors. A new or relatively new author can theoretically find an audience through online efforts just as easily as the established author. What this potential has created is authors who wrongly believe that an internet only approach will result in great results for their books. There has even sprung up any number of companies that will be happy to help fledgling authors to pursue this unlikely route to success. And the money spent on these approaches is rarely recovered in book sale profits.

I self published my latest book, "God Called - He Needs Your Decision!" about one year ago. The total cost to make the book ready for sale and to buy some soft cover copies was close to $5000. That included a top-of-the line editor doing a full professional editing job.

I have now sold around 500 copies of the book, which is the second least of any book I've ever penned. I have depended on the internet, including this blog, to create sales. I have used huge amounts of Twitter and done some YouTube videos. But I have NOT done any speaking or advertising. My reviews are only those on Amazon. I have NOT worked to get any newspaper or magazine reviews. I have NOT done any radio or even tried to get radio shows.

Bottom line - there are many, many, many fine Christian books out there. To be sure, there are many so-so one's, as well. Any author today who wishes to sell their books must still get the word out through the very same channels, publicity, advertising, reviews, radio, book signings, and speaking engagements, as before. PLUS the internet.

P.S. Of course, you can sell your book to a publisher, but then you will still need to do all of the very same things to move the book, and you will make far less for each book sold. The advantage is that the publisher pays the upfront costs. The advantage is even greater if you get a substantial advance.

How an author's world view impacts your children's minds.

Recently, I was told by a friend that my book home page should have just images of my books since those are my products. (She sells ballet skirts.) But I realize that she and I sell two different products that have totally different impact on a person’s mind.

If you bought a skirt and tried it and didn’t like –either for yourself or for your kids, it’s easy to do a reverse—either return the skirt for a refund, or give it away to Goodwill.

You might argue that it could be the same with books.

Technically, yes. But psychologically it’s not so easy. When you read a book, or give one to a child (since my books are meant for kids and teens,) the message of the book sticks to the readers. As a homeschool mother carefully guarding what my children are exposed to at every age of growth, I am concern with the books they read.

Why? When I was growing up I had friends (boys) who were normal and dated and so forth, but then as literature students in college we were exposed to different books. Some of these same friends became homosexuals. The books they read –our literature professor was gay—influenced them and changed their minds--forever. Such is the power of books. Especially fiction.

When you read non-fiction you are seeking out knowledge. The logical part of your brain is engaged and you can evaluate the facts and ideas that are being placed on the page. You consciously, or subconsciously, throw out things you don’t believe in and accept ideas you already hold on to.

Things are different when you read fiction.

Imagine a young person reading fiction—his guard is down and he’s just enjoying the story and plot. Things get exciting, the plot thickens, he’s involved in what he’s reading until he reaches the end. But at the end of the story he just didn’t get a story. He also got the author’s world view. He got messages sent to his brain about what is deemed right or wrong. He might not even realize this while reading. When he reads enough of such messages—that may reinforce one another, or might contradict one another—he begins to form his world view. Questions arise in his heart—like “Does God really exist? The main characters in the books he read didn’t think so.” Or, “It’s okay to have sex before marriage, after all, those incredible heroes and heroines of the fiction, all did it. And they were the main characters. They saved the world,”  etc.

Which brings me to the authors of those fiction books.

Who do you trust for your children to read? Like it or not those authors have leaked out a small, or in some cases, a lot of their world view and values on those pages.

Which was why when I started homeschooling I liked the idea of my children reading classics and I encouraged them to do so. For the most part, most authors before the 20^th century hold conservative, biblical values, even if they are themselves not Christians.

But, frankly, sometimes my boys, who loved adventure and mystery and the thrill of the chase or being chased, sometimes got bored with classics written a century ago. The language is a little different and the details bogged down the action. Of course the classics are of tremendous value. But I wanted them to love to read and not force them to read hundreds of pages that would kill their love of learning. They were, after all, just twelve or thirteen. Given enough time they would read the classics—perhaps in their late teen years or early adulthood. But until then, what? 

So, I went about collecting lists of good books used by homeschool curriculum. You can find them all here. We read a lot of books then.

I also got to thinking about the kinds of books my young teen boys (and girls) liked. And I started writing my Keeper Of Reign series. (That’s how I got into writing fiction for children.)

I hope that explains somewhat why my homepage isn’t just about books that I sell. I feel that as a parent it’s important for me to know a bit about the authors of fiction books my children read. It gives me peace of mind to know that the authors share the same world view as myself, and will not throw unchristian and loose morals at my children when my kids’ minds are susceptible to receiving these moral standards and wild ideas.

I realize that it’s a free world and parents are free to choose whatever path they want for their children. As for me and my house I like to be more conservative with our choices. Not at the expense of adventure and thrill that readers get from reading books, of course, but I like to know where the author is coming from, and where the subtle messages will lead my children