Christian Marketing: Is it different?

By Iola Goulton

We've been looking at marketing this month. There is a lot of information available on marketing in general, and on book marketing in particular. A lot of this information is aimed at the general market, not specifically the Christian market, which leads to an obvious question:

image via www.lightstock.com

Is there any difference?

No. And yes.

No, because the principles of marketing are the same, regardless of the product or service you are marketing.

But yes, because there are a lot of shoddy or unethical marketing ideas and practices out there. Some of these ideas are promoted, endorsed and practiced by Christians (or people who call themselves Christians). Personally, I believe that as Christians we are called to a higher standard, not just to abstain from evil but from the appearance of evil.

Yes, because I believe that, as Christians, we are called to stay away from any appearance of practicing or endorsing marketing practices that contravene the policies of the websites we are using (e.g. Amazon or Goodreads) and to hold ourselves to the highest standard.

Yes, because there are wolves in the market. Christians are often too trusting of other Christians, and get caught in scams or using unethical marketing practices because they don’t know better. We need to educate ourselves so we do know better.

Product

The kingdom of God is not built on second-rate work. As Christians, I believe we have an obligation to give our best for God. I've recently been reading Leviticus as part of a read-the-Bible-in-a-year challenge, and that makes it quite clear that God demands our best.

Giving our best means taking the time to ensure our books are the best they can be, utilising beta readers, critique partners, competent editors and proofreaders to give feedback and enable us to improve. It means gaining external professional assistance for any part of the writing, publishing or marketing process that we are unable to perform ourselves (and we should always get external assistance with editing. No one can edit their own work. We just don’t see our own mistakes). It does not mean publishing a book only days after we finish writing it. That’s not a book. It’s a first draft.

There are wolves in this area, especially in the realm of ‘self-publishing’. Narelle introduced this in her posts on Publishing Models, but self-publishing is when you do it yourself, not when you sign a contract with a publisher for them to do it for you. This is an area of the market which is full of scams like:

• The Christian publisher with a ‘self-publishing’ imprint that charges between $999 and $6,499 (plus optional extras, such as professional editing), and is operated by the notorious Author Solutions.
• The Christian publisher who will publish your book, but requires that you pay a ‘marketing’ fee of approximately $4,000.
• The Christian publisher who will publish and market your book, but requires that you purchase an unspecified number of your books. I estimate this will cost in the region of $10,000.
• The Christian publisher who will publish and market your book, but requires that you purchase a minimum of 2,500 books for cost plus $2 per copy.

I have two issues with these kinds of ‘publishers’:

What I have seen of their product is sub-standard. Their covers are less than inspiring, there is little or no sign the books have been competently edited, and their marketing is basic (it usually consists of Amazon and Ingram listings, and a standard website). On the plus side, the proofreading and interior design of the books is good. This kind of self-publishing does not represent value for money, and I don't believe it represents good stewardship of our talents.

These publishers, especially Author Solutions, make their money by selling products to authors, not by selling books to readers. You, the author, are paying the full cost of production, so they have no financial incentive to ensure your book is a success. And without book sales, you won’t be getting any of the royalties mentioned in the contract.

I am all in favour of authors who choose to self-publish. But not this kind of self-publishing. Remember, money flows from the publisher to the author. Not the other way around.

Place and Price

As far as I can tell, the issues surrounding Place and Price are the same for Christians as for everyone else. Ensure your book is categorised correctly and priced competitively. Keep watch on your sales and on the market in general so you can adjust categories or price as necessary.

Promotion

This is where it gets hard. The interwebz is full of ‘experts’, Christian or not. Some give excellent advice; others don’t. I'll be back next week with an overview of the best books I've read on book marketing (and some I don't recommend—and why not).

What do you think are the challenges facing Christians in marketing their books? Do you have any specific questions you'd like me to answer in a future post?

By Iola Goulton. I am a freelance editor specialising in Christian fiction, and you can find out more about my services at my website (www.christianediting.co.nz), or follow me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/christianediting), Twitter (@IolaGoulton) or Pinterest (http://pinterest.com/iolasreads).

I love reading, and read and review around 150 Christian books each year on my blog (www.christianreads.blogspot.com). I'm a Top 25 Reviewer at Christian Book, in the Top 1% of reviewers at Goodreads, and have an Amazon Reviewer Rank that floats around 2600.