Christian Writing & Reading Community discussion

Hi everyone -

Terri Gillespie is an author, speaker and book reviewer, She has published at least 10 books (including one devotional) that have received strong reviews. She also does short video "pre-reviews" of books she will later read in detail and review. My book was privileged to be the focus of one her video sessions - she calls them "The books I'm excited to read"!

If you have not yet read Joy That Renews, or you would like to get another person's look at the this devotional, please check out the URL below and you will get to meet Terri and see what she has to say in her pre-review of Joy That Renews.

https://youtu.be/Anu2IM8oVpo

I hope you take a few minutes to view this video! I will send out her book review when she has completed it. For more information about the book, and how it came to be go to joythatrenews.com

Steve Akerson

Steve wrote: "Hi everyone -

Terri Gillespie is an author, speaker and book reviewer, She has published at least 10 books (including one devotional) that have received strong reviews. She also does short video ..."

Congratulations on the video and website Steve!

Congrats Steve!

Thanks, David. I appreciate your message. If you would, please repost my message on your Goodreads platform and on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, if you happen to use any of these.

How is your book doing? Are you contemplating another?

Steve A.

Steve wrote: "Thanks, David. I appreciate your message. If you would, please repost my message on your Goodreads platform and on Facebook...
How is your book doing? Are you contemplating another?"

Hi Steve, I've now shared your post on Goodreads and Facebook.

Thanks for asking about my book The Psalm 23 Life: Experiencing the Love of God Every Day

It continues to sell on both sides of the Atlantic, which encourages me given that I have done very little to promote it for sometime, as I have been focusing on writing my next book:

"FOR HIM: Living Out Your Glorious Purpose in Christ".

I'm currently on the last chapter of the first draft, but there's a long way to go yet. "The Psalm 23 Life" focuses on the vital foundation of the love of God, and "FOR HIM" builds on that foundation going deeper into how we live out our discipleship and fulfill our purpose. It is a study and meditation on the wonderful book of Colossians.

It's good to see that your book continues to get traction and publicity. It would be interesting to exchange experience on the effectiveness of different approaches, some time.

Are you working on anything new?

Hi David - that's great - I look forward to reading your new book - if I can help with a review or whatever, please let me know.

I don't have anything in the plans right now. though I'm open to doing another book - nothing has caught my attention or imagination yet.

I've done a couple pod cast interviews - one was the post I sent out - the second is in process. I had some good, but small, success using Amazon Ads - at least I made more than my costs! I've done one book signing (with a small crowd). It was fun and I covered my costs. I just got my book on the shelves of the bookstore in my church. I've been doing a lot of giving my book away - to people who come to our house to do work, to selected people at church, and to ministries that I know and have worked with. In reality, sales are very slow - but I have not given up hope or working on it.

I think I'll start up another Amazon Ad campaign - it was fun to track sales numbers, even if they were small.

Steve

Steve wrote: "Hi David - that's great - I look forward to reading your new book - if I can help with a review or whatever, please let me know."

Thanks Steve, I will take you up on your kind offer.

I have wondered about Amazon Ad campaigns, but haven't taken the plunge yet, so it's interesting that you found it helpful.

I have done promotion on Goodreads and Facebook. There have certainly been some sales from those sources. But my main effort has gone into writing articles on the Medium platform. I started with the intent of writing pieces to encourage Christians and raise my profile with the hope of also generating interest in my book, but it has unexpectedly turned into a writing ministry of its own.

I have indeed written pieces to encourage Christians, but increasingly I have also been writing evangelistic and apologetic pieces in response to discussions I have had with a whole spectrum of non-Christians. It has grown slowly, but I have had around 800 reads of my articles over the last 2 years. I have had more evangelistic discussions online over the last 2 years than over the previous 40, so I feel very grateful for the opportunity. If you are interested, you can get a feel for my most read articles here: https://medium.com/pelos-press/archive

My articles are free for anyone to read, and although I am a member, I don't pay the fee for unlimited reads. Many people put their articles behind a paywall, which means that they get paid if other paying members read their work. It is the closest thing I have to a website. Have you seen much benefit from your website?

Hello David,

Here is a list I put together for Christian book marketing that might give you some ideas. Some links are to secular sites but that have a Christian audience. You can download the PDF from this LinkenIn post - https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kjsoze...

I highly recommend you check out email marketing. It is the most cost effective way to find targeted readers. Ads are good but an email promotion to Christian reader lists is the best way to market books.

BookBub is the best. I just did a promo with them this week. They have 700,000 Christian readers signed up on their email list. It is an easy way to become a best-seller on Amazon but it does cost more than other promotions. I broke even on the promo but got the Word out.

I highly recommend Jeremy at Gospel eBooks, Jeffrey at Fussy Librarian, the entire group at Written Word Media, Faithful Reads, and Book Gorilla. They all have reasonably priced promotions and targeted email lists for Religious or Christian genres.

There are other email services that send out general audiance emails to their entire reader list but I like to target Christian readers.

You can get down to 1 or 2 cents per click but most always below 10 cents. Ads are usually much higher.

Hope this helps.
KJ

K.J. wrote: "Hello David,

Here is a list I put together for Christian book marketing that might give you some ideas. Some links are to secular sites but that have a Christian audience. You can download the PDF..."

Thanks KJ, that is very helpful! The linkedin link looks very detailed, but I couldn't see a PDF to download. Am I missing something?

David wrote: "K.J. wrote: "Hello David,

Here is a list I put together for Christian book marketing that might give you some ideas. Some links are to secular sites but that have a Christian audience. You can dow..."

Looks like LinkedIn converted the PDF to a viewer. Here is the PDF from this link - https://kjsoze.com/wp-content/uploads...

K.J. wrote: "Looks like LinkedIn converted the PDF to a viewer. Here is the PDF from this link..."

Thanks KJ, got it now!