The adventure of publishing books

[DISRAELI]

Are you on any other social media sites?

Check to see if you can add a link to your books in a signature file (I don't do this with my own books because this really isn't the target audience).  I have a few sites where I'm active and have around 1500 followers (both sites combined.)  I usually see sales from announcements and updates there.  Not many, mind you, but a few.

No advice on the agent, however.

Well, I'm offering answers to questions on sites like the Reddit subforums and Biblical Hermeneutics Stack Exchange. On both sites, I have a Profile where my books are listed. I can't do much promotion on the main pages, of course, except when I can say "This is the argument used in my book", but I'm sure that just being active there at least promotes "brand recognition".  However, entering theological discussion brings as much notoriety as fame. Only this morning someone called me "Satan" for observing that Jesus named two commandments as more important than the others.

Thanks to the past history of the Rogue Nation group, I'm also the only active member on two otherwise abandoned Proboards forums. I've been plastering book promotion all over both of them, and they both get a small flow of daily visitors. I think there's a webpage somewhere alerting people to board activity and making them curious.

[quintessentone]

Well, I'm offering answers to questions on sites like the Reddit subforums and Biblical Hermeneutics Stack Exchange. On both sites, I have a Profile where my books are listed. I can't do much promotion on the main pages, of course, except when I can say "This is the argument used in my book", but I'm sure that just being active there at least promotes "brand recognition".  However, entering theological discussion brings as much notoriety as fame. Only this morning someone called me "Satan" for observing that Jesus named two commandments as more important than the others.

Thanks to the past history of the Rogue Nation group, I'm also the only active member on two otherwise abandoned Proboards forums. I've been plastering book promotion all over both of them, and they both get a small flow of daily visitors. I think there's a webpage somewhere alerting people to board activity and making them curious.

I find it disgusting religious people think it's acceptable to bully and call people 'Satan' instead of simply discussing their reasons why they disagree with an idea. But, I guess, it comes with the territory of putting yourself or your ideas 'out there'.

[DISRAELI]

Update. A Google search on Christian PR firms offered a number of options. The first non-sponsored entry (on reflection, I've just realised, i ought not to be ignoring the sponsored ones) was in Tennessee, which won't work for me on the other side of the Atlantic. The next had "Faith" in their name, and their site encouraged people to "put your faith in us", but it appears that Google has been wrong-footed and they do not specialise in religious matters. I haven't yet heard from the next one, perhaps because they are religious enough to want to check out my Christian credentials first. They call themselves "Catholic and Christian", in that order, and if they notice that my history of the prophets is written "from a Protestant viewpoint", that could be enough to put them off.

Not wanting to delay initiatives on my own account, my online activity before this one was making enquiries about exhibiting at the Christian Resource Exhibition in October. The rapidly filling plan shows that it would have been a mistake to leave it much longer.

Meanwhile, I have been sending out free copies of the book (carefully rationed, because I didn't get more than a couple of dozen). Review copies to Evangelical Times, Premier Christianity, Christianity Today, and The Christian Century. Used the supplied postcards as a kind of "compliments skip" (which may have been the intended use anyway). Also free copies, with some of the order forms, to the principals of selected Bible Colleges and Theological colleges, the stand-alone colleges rather than theological departments of universities (who will be more academic in their recommendations), and focusing on the more evangelical ones. This will resume when I've re-stocked on the right sizes of jiffy bags.

[DISRAELI]

The headline news this week is that I have booked myself in as one of the exhibitors at the Christian Resources Exhibition at Milton Keynes in October. I think there's a good prospect that even the event pre-publicity will be worth its weight in gold. Since the "name of company" field was mandatory on the booking form, I am now on their official spreadsheets as "Unorganised Individual", which ought to be a gift to anyone with journalistic instincts. I may be likely to appear at one end of "We have everybody from X to Y" statements.

I've been sending out remaining copies of PPP to various institutions and persons, including my bishop. Leaving one for myself and a spare, so that I don't find myself without a copy of my own book, like poor J.R. Hartley of "Fly-fishing" fame. Older UK television viewers will get this reference. I think that finishes the mail shots for the moment. I had thought of sending out order forms to rural deans, as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, then thought college Christian Unions would be a better idea, but now I'm holding them back for the display table at Milton Keynes. The same for the copies of the other two books.

And I'm now starting to build a small following on Twitter, by reviving my old practice of adding a different quote from the book each day, giving curious users a reason to come back and check the latest. At the moment, this is on the level of rising one by one from 40 followers to 50, but it's a start.

[DISRAELI]

Journal update.
Now that I'm an exhibitor. the first thing to do was get my place in the Visitors' Handbook sorted out. We are listed in categories, and I've sent in a very basic entry. I wasn't going to give away my home address or phone number. A couple of years ago I set up a dedicated email address for just such a purpose, and that's what I'm offering, so that my normal friends-and-family-and-business e-mail doesn't get swamped and spammed.

Also it was definitely worth my while to advertise. The smallest space available is half-page, but I suspect this is a compact page. I admitted to the head of sales that I had no skills to offer artwork, so he put me in touch with the Events Director who happens to do this work freelance. Of course I'm seizing on that opportunity. I've put together a compact message with a couple of images, saying the important things without crowding the space, so he should find it easy to arrange it on the page.  What fonts and background colours do I want? I don't know, just something simple.

Thinking ahead. I wasn't expecting to sell any books on the spot, because I'm not set up for it, technically or legally, but Google indicates an established Christian bookshop in the vicinity. Once the handbook is out (to confirm my bona fides) I might contact them to see if it is worth their while to send out a staff member with stock and a card-reader.

Also further down the line I will be expected to fill in a Risk Assessment form for my stand. I have no idea what to write. But if I go for the option of taking out an insurance policy for the event, they will surely do their own assessment and be able to advise me? Anyway, I can't do that until I've sorted out what the extra furnishings will be, so that must be the next task.

[DISRAELI]

Another update.

Next week, I’m going to be Stand E19 at the Christian Resources Exhibition in Milton Keynes. These are the preparations I think I needed to make, and I believe they’re complete.

The exhibition organiser helped me get the art-work done for the half-page advertisement in the exhibition hand-book.

Accommodation for three nights, of course. Reservation number (and hotel address) written down. Rail tickets bought this week. I have downloaded and printed off a copy of my Exhibitor’s badge.

It’s only a small space, so it was easy to work out that I didn’t need much furnishing. I’ve booked one set of shelving to go on a side-wall. The exhibition organiser has been urging us not to let our staff sit down looking bored, and recommends “bar-stool” type seating. But the aggressive selling approach won’t work with books or with me, so I’ve hired a table to display books and to sit behind, and two chairs in case somebody wants to sit and chat.

Not owning a car, I went out and bought an “exhibition equipment” luggage case that I can take on the railways. Though I would not take it on the Cornishman in August. So “I packed my bag” (the title, just remembered, of a TV panel show from the Sixties), “and in it I put…”

Multiple copies of all three of my published books, viz “Prophets, Priests and Politics”, “Silence in Heaven” and “The Unseen Husband”. I’m not going to be set up to sell them on the spot, so my target has to be “brand recognition”, and I may end up giving away complimentary copies. I contacted a Christian bookstore among the exhibitors but haven’t persuaded them to stock the books.

The publishers of PPP sent me some posters, and I had posters of the same size printed for the other two, so those can go on the back wall. I need to check on setting-up day what kind of fixing won’t damage the stand wall, but I’m hoping that Blu-tak will do.

I am rather proud of the table-cloth I had printed off, displaying all three book-covers, large size, along the top of the table and again on the front overhang, against a white background. I will be displaying all three books on the plastic book-stands I bought online.

A number of plastic folders containing material I devised and printed off at home. Four sets of one-page leaflets, one for each book and one giving information about myself and probable future books, especially “Christ died for the Ungodly”. A couple of folders with more details about “Christ died for the Ungodly”, in case a publisher or literary agent turns up and takes an interest. A copy of the manuscript of “Moses for Christians”, which needs re-drafting, to give me a more professional-looking way of occupying my time during the slack periods.

The publishers of PPP supplied me with other marketing materials which can fill up the table, bookmarks and order forms and post-cards.

I’ve also packed a neat little notebook (with “Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust printed on the cover, part of the stock of stationary inherited from my mother), which can be used to record any contact details I might be given.

Plus, of course, extra clothing and toiletries for the hotel stay.

If there’s anything I’ve forgotten, then I will know for the next time.

[Maxmars]

I offer you my best wishes and hope you meet with success and satisfaction.

Patience, as virtues go, seems to serve well in nearly any endeavor.

I hope you make many good contacts, and those who do engage your are more than simple merchant opportunists... but that at least some are.

Success to you...