Margaret Marcuson didn’t come to me looking for a publishing deal. She came to me to talk through marketing options for a book she planned to self-publish.
About five minutes into our conversation, I knew we needed to think bigger.
Margaret has spent decades coaching pastors and church leaders through the hard parts of ministry — the burnout, the blurry boundaries, the impossible pressure of shepherding a fractured flock in a politically charged world. She’s not some fly-by-night influencer with a hot take and a big TikTok following. She has decades of experience, two previously published books, a loyal email list with open rates most marketers would sell a kidney for, and a client roster that spans more than 20 denominations across the United States and Canada.
She had everything a traditional publisher looks for. She just didn’t know it.
Seeing the bigger picture
With Margaret’s permission, I reached out to a couple of literary agents in the Christian market to reality-check what I was seeing. They confirmed it: Margaret had the credentials, the track record, and the numbers to support a traditional deal. The best path forward for her niche, they agreed, was to go directly to an academic publisher rather than pursue a traditional trade route through an agent.
So that’s what we did. We worked on her proposal together — not to puff it up, but to make sure it clearly communicated the relevance of her work in the current context. Because the timing couldn’t be more urgent. Pastoral burnout was already a crisis before 2020. After COVID, it got significantly worse. Add to that the pressure many pastors feel to publicly address — or actively resist — the rise of Christian nationalism, and you have a profession in genuine distress. Margaret’s new book, Sustainable Ministry: How to Lead and When to Nap (Bloomsbury/T&T Clark, July 2026) provides a solution.
Sustainable Ministry speaks directly to what so many pastoral leaders are feeling right now: that ministry has never felt harder, that the old playbook isn’t working, and that the weight of it all is crushing them. The book isn’t about technique or strategy. It helps pastors show up more fully for their congregations by first tending to themselves. For leaders who feel like they’re failing at something they were called to do, it’s the book that tells them the truth and gives them a way forward.
Margaret’s offer came after just a few months of queries. And her publisher — T&T Clark — is a perfect match. The Bloomsbury imprint goes back to 1821 and has a reputation for world-class theological scholarship.
What Margaret actually hired me to do
Once the deal was in place, Margaret brought me on to support the book’s marketing and launch, which needed to align with her values and style.
Margaret didn’t want a launch team. She didn’t want a coordinated social media blitz or a 30-day countdown campaign. She’s been around long enough to know that real revenue from a book doesn’t come from book sales. It comes from the doors the book opens. And major ad campaigns and social blitzes don’t usually yield speaking invitations, coaching inquiries, denominational partnerships, or deepen seminary relationships.
And at this point in her career, she’s less focused on revenue than on impact. She wrote the book to save good pastors from burnout so they can continue discipling followers of Christ. The legacy she is building is amplified through those served by the pastors who read her book and live out the advice it offers.
So we built a strategy around what Margaret is actually good at and what her audience actually needs — not around what marketing playbooks say you’re supposed to do.
The strategy we built
We focused on three lanes.
Guest articles. Margaret loves to write, and she has relationships with editors at publications her ideal readers respect. We leaned into that. A bylined article in the right journal does more for a pastor considering her book than a week of Instagram posts.
Podcast interviews. Podcast listeners buy books. Agents and publishers know this. But there’s another reason podcasts made sense specifically for Margaret’s audience: pastors dealing with burnout don’t want to be seen asking for help. They’re not going to show up to a public webinar or join a Facebook group where their congregants might notice. A podcast is private. They can listen in the car, on a walk, wherever. It meets them where they are without making them feel exposed. Margaret also created a playlist of her interviews, a convenience for her (easy to find episodes to share in her newsletter and with hosts she pitches) and for those who want to know more about her and the book.
Speaking and denominational outreach. Margaret has deep roots in theological training programs and denominational associations. A speaking tour is in the works. These are the rooms where her book will get recommended from the stage — which is worth more than any ad spend.
Early feedback from Margaret’s community
You can try your best to engineer an engaged community, but your success is most evident when it comes time to mobilize your members. Here’s a short list of the responses Margaret has gotten from readers in various denominations since Sustainable Ministry launched:
“I’m soaking up every word of your new book. You know how someone says after a sermon in the receiving line: ‘How did you know to say exactly what I needed to hear?’ Well, that’s how reading this book has been for me. I also know the answer to this question has as much to do with the content as it does my being in a place to take it all in.”— Nathan Detering (Unitarian Universalist)
“Working on chapter 3! Finding encouragement to do the things that were already there to be done.”— Chad Parmalee (United Methodist)
“I really appreciate that you recommended reading a chapter a day sitting with the questions. Normally I would have blasted through the book in one sitting. But this challenge is getting me to actually engage with the material and do the work on myself.” — Tom Albinson (Episcopal)
“I’m reading the book. It’s you, and you are good. I enjoy receiving your newsletter, and this is like a whole packet of them on a specific topic: how to be in ministry in the 21st century and stay in love with it. Thanks for writing for those of us who are trying to do this pastoring thing. It’s a help!”— Zach Bay (Baptist)
The real lesson from Margaret’s book launch
Here’s what I want you to take away from Margaret’s story, because it matters regardless of whether you’re a pastor or a product seller or anything in between:
Margaret’s advice for pastors and ministry leaders in her book, Sustainable Ministry, is also great advice for authors who want to connect with their readers.
Margaret doesn’t have a massive social media presence.
She’s barely active on most platforms. Her email list has about 1,200 subscribers — not 12,000 or 120,000. By the metrics most online marketing “experts” would use to evaluate her, she shouldn’t be able to pull off a successful book launch with a prestigious academic publisher.
But she has something that follower counts can’t buy: she knows her people.
She knows that pastors need permission to rest. She knows they carry guilt about their own limits. She knows they’re often isolated in their struggle because their role requires them to project strength. And she has spent her entire career showing up for them in ways that are credible, specific, and genuinely useful. Her people are more than a marketing channel to her. They are a community.
And that community is why her newsletter open rates sit between 40 and 50 percent. It’s why subscribers forward her emails to colleagues and include them in church newsletters. It’s why clients come back to her year after year and why she nearly earned out her advance in preorders alone.
Marketing at its core is driven by relationships. Not algorithms. Not funnels. Not follower counts. Relationships.
Margaret is proof that when you spend years genuinely investing in the people you serve, the marketing part becomes a matter of showing up and letting what’s real speak for itself.
That’s the kind of strategy I love to build. And those are the clients I love to work with.
And if Margaret’s story sounds familiar — the part about having spent years building something real and not quite knowing how to translate that into a marketing strategy that fits — I’d love to talk.
I work with people who have done the work, know their audience, and are ready to grow in a way that feels true to who they are. Reach out here and let’s figure out what that looks like for you.
Have you ever wondered how to launch your book without a launch team?
One way is to try a different type of book launch: The free book model.
Launch teams are great and they can be highly effective, making the whole launch process fun for the author while promoting their new book far and wide. But a launch team isn’t the right promotional strategy for every book or every author.
You might not have enough people in your network who can devote the time or energy to be on your launch team. You might not want to ask for favors. You might not have the resources to manage the team.
Or, maybe, you aren’t a big fan of social media, and you know your readers aren’t either.
Whatever the reason, it’s possible to successfully launch your book without a launch team if you understand the various book launch models, and plan your marketing strategy around the one that fits you, your book and your audience best.
If you are looking for alternative strategies for your book launch, so you can get those coveted online reviews and expose your book to a wider audience, there IS another way.
Launch Your Book with a Free Offer
Offering your book for free can create massive buzz and get copies into the hands of thousands of readers who might not otherwise take a chance on picking it up.
Depending on how you execute your free offer, you can also use this model to build your following and cultivate relationships with key influencers.
This method IS NOT for everyone, but it pays to make an informed decision when planning your book launch. So let’s dive in and discuss WHO can benefit from the free book model, WHAT options exist, and HOW it works.
Traditionally vs. Independently Published Authors
Before we move too deeply into the topic of using free books to create buzz about your book, we need to address the differences between independent authors and those who work with traditional publishers.
When published traditionally, you don’t have autonomy when it comes to the distribution of your book. That is your publisher’s area of responsibility. This means that your publisher can control how you distribute your book and the price at which you distribute it. Everything shared here in this article needs to be reviewed with your publisher to make sure it aligns with your contractual agreement.
If you’re an independent, or self-published, author, you have complete autonomy over the distribution of your books. You can determine retail outlets, pricing and even whether you only want to offer ebooks or if you want to have audio and print versions as well. You also have full responsibility for all other aspects of marketing your book.
Getting your book into the hands of readers is all on you.
Free book promotions can benefit traditional and independent authors, but it’s unlikely a publisher will consent to offering a book for free during its initial release. Still, some publishers are willing to offer buy-one-get-one deals (Buy a copy and show proof of purchase to get a second copy for free), or to deeply discount the book for a brief period of time. It never hurts to ask.
What is the ‘Free Book’ Launch Model?
The free book launch model is a campaign that provides your book for FREE to the public in order to generate interest and exposure.
Offering your book for free might seem counter-intuitive, but it’s a strategy that can work with thoughtful execution.
This strategy isn’t specific to the new release of your book. You can use it any time you want to create a publicity event around your book. As an author, it’s hard to generate more excitement than when you make your book — which can cost anywhere from $5 to $25 — for free.
You may have heard the concept of a free book funnel. That’s what we’re talking about here, but to have a “funnel,” your book has to be part of a longer journey readers take with you.
Not all authors have comprehensive journeys for their customers — a path from free content to paid content and services at various pricing tiers. For some authors, the only offer or product is the book they’ve published.
So we’re looking at leveraging a free book offer as part of your book launch, whether you have a funnel or not. In this case, you have two common options:
You can offer a free print copy of your book, charging readers the cost of shipping.
You can offer a free digital copy of your book.
Each has its merits, depending on how your book fits in with your overall business strategy.
Free with Shipping Launch Model
Like the name implies, Free with Shipping means you offer your book for free, but pass along shipping costs to the reader.
Flat-rate shipping is the easiest to implement. Offers like this can carry shipping charges between $5 and $20. Usually, though, shipping is $5 to $10 for U.S. residents (if the author is in the U.S.) and $20 for Canada. Rarely is this model applied globally because international shipping rates vary so widely, and not all countries have reliable delivery systems.
Authors who use this type of strategy include Russell Brunson (Traffic Secrets) and Ruth Soukup (How to Blog for Profit). These are not affiliate links. I’m sharing them so you can see how each author chooses to execute the “free with shipping” model for their books. Shipping for Brunson’s book is $10, while Soukup’s is $7. You’ll find a variety of differences between the two as you move through their offer process.
Since the offer is “free with shipping,” you have to provide a print copy of your book. Books take up space. For this model to make sense, you have to be able to buy and store inventory of your books. It can work if you have a relationship with an on-demand printer who will print any number of books per run but to save on printing costs, bulk orders are favored.
Even with a free book, you still have to find a way to attract readers. Readers can’t take advantage of your offer if they don’t know about it.
Because shipping print copies of your book carries hard costs (purchase of the book and shipment of the book), this model is best applied when combined with other money-making offers. When you have bigger offers for your readers, you can afford to pay for people to discover your book and also to delivery that book to them.
In addition to fulfillment costs (printing and delivery), you might also have marketing costs in the form of social media ads, giveaway programs or priority placement with online retailers.
Generally, authors who offer books free with shipping will use paid ads to drive traffic to the book offer. Therefore, it’s ideal to have other products readers can buy to offset your marketing costs. This is where you start hearing folks use the term “funnel” in relation to this strategy.
Here’s what a “free with shipping” funnel could look like:
Ads drive traffic to a page with the book offer
Reader buys book, entering payment information
On the purchase confirmation screen is another offer, such as “Your book is on its way but if you want to start reading it today, get the ebook for just $10.”
Every additional purchase takes the reader to another slightly higher offer, until they finalize their purchase.
Additional offers might be made via email after the purchases closes.
I recently worked my through a funnel like this until reaching an ending offer of $997. Even before that, though, the “free” book ended up costing me $200 after agreeing to some of the complementary smaller offers.
So, if you have the ability to invest in paid marketing strategies and you have other products you could sell at incrementally higher prices, the “free book with shipping” model could work for you.
Free with Kindle Launch Model
As the name implies, this model is focused on distributing ebooks instead of print copies. Kindle isn’t the only way to distribute ebooks for free if you want to adopt this model, but it’s one option.
If you want to use Amazon to distribute your free book offer, you’ll need to be enrolled in KDP Select. This allows you to offer your ebook for free for up to five days out of each 90-day KDP Select enrollment period. You can offer the book for free in all Kindle marketplaces, but your title might not be available in all countries.
You can also offer your ebook for free through other channels, such as BookFunnel or Smashwords. The drawback is that these books might not be available in Amazon’s marketplaces and there are some restrictions on what content you can publish.
So here, we’ll focus on setting up your free promotion through KDP Select.
Authors who use this model include Angela Sue Garvey (Tiny Homes and Tummy Tucks), Lisa Bloom (The Story Advantage), and Danny Iny (Online Courses). These books aren’t currently free on Kindle, but linking to their Amazon pages lets you see their reviews and rankings.
This model works really well if you have a network of people who have sizeable networks of their own. Even with a free book offer, you have to find a way to make sure people know your book is available AND it’s worth taking the steps to get it from Amazon.
If you know 10 people who each have a network of 100 people, that gives you a potential audience of 1,000 people.
This type of offer lends itself well to collaborative relationships because most people who have audiences love to share great offers with them. Speaking for myself, I will share just about any free book offer I encounter with my audience. Though I don’t know which specific genres my audience favors, I know they love to read and appreciate hearing about new books.
At the most basic level, this offer is as good as creating a free book promotion during a specific window of time on Amazon. But if you do that, drive traffic directly to Amazon, you”ll succeed in getting book downloads but you won’t know who is downloading your book.
A better option is to drive traffic to a landing page with the free book offer that collects email addresses before sending folks to Amazon for the book.
It’s an extra step for readers, but it’s the only way you can ensure you have a way to know and reach those who have taken advantage of the offer. By collecting email addresses from those interested in the book, you can stay in touch with them and even ask them to post reviews on your behalf.
There are some drawbacks to this model, however.
As mentioned before, Amazon might not make your book available for free in all countries. Also, it’s easy for folks to accidentally sign up for Kindle Unlimited (a paid subscription service) when they are trying to get your free book. In both situations, readers might feel like the offer wasn’t an honest one, especially if they don’t know you well.
One way around this is to educate your potential readers, so they know exactly which button to click on Amazon and how to follow the process. You can offer an instructional video or screenshots to help.
Another potential challenge is that not everyone has a Kindle device. This isn’t a problem, though, because the free Amazon Cloud Reader can be downloaded to any computer or mobile device. The Cloud Reader app allows anyone to read Kindle books, even if they don’t have Kindle devices.
How Free Book Offers Affect Reviews
Does making your book available for free affect your reviews?
Generally, the more people who have your book, the more reviews you get. But everyone knows Amazon prioritizes verified reviews over unverified reviews. If you’re offering your book for free through KDP Select, reviews from those who download the free book will be considered verified.
However, if books are bought directly from you and shipped to the consumer, Amazon has no way to verify the purchase or the review. This is the same if readers buy books from brick-and-mortar retailers or other online stores and go to Amazon to post a review.
So, as much as verified reviews are important, every review counts. I wouldn’t let fears over unverified reviews stop you from considering a free book offer to support your launch. And keep in mind that if you want to get your book reviewed, you’re going to have to ask for it. That’s why it’s so important to do what you can to get email addresses for those who take advantage of your promotion.
Which Book Launch Strategy is Right for You?
Offering your book for free to drive interest and get a higher number of people with your book in hand, so they can review it and recommend it to friends is an option for you to consider. As mentioned before, it’s not right for everyone.
But if you’re someone without much of a network to staff a book launch, leveraging the people you do know to help you promote a free offer related to your book could yield better results than a straight book launch.
Many authors ask that question, and the answer is surprisingly simple: Ask for them! But how can you go about asking people to read and review your book without seeming like a shameless self-promoter?
In this article, we’ll discuss six ways to get more book reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. These methods will help you build credibility and visibility as an author, which leads to more opportunities from publishers, agents, and readers alike!
One reason authors shy away from asking for reviews is that they don’t understand the value themselves. Do you? Maybe you’ve been to a writer conference and heard peers talking about reviews being important, but you don’t quite understand why.
Aside from helping potential readers make informed purchasing decisions, book reviews are essential to the success of a book. The average consumer assumes that a high number of reviews indicates popularity and quality. It’s the equivalent of testimonials on a consultant’s website — we all want to know the experience of other buyers before we invest in a product for ourselves.
Behind the scenes, book reviews have a huge impact — mainly on Amazon. For promotions, books usually need to meet certain review standards to qualify. Promotions get your book in front of a wider audience, which means more sales and — hopefully — even more reviews. We assume 25 interviews is the minimum to qualify for promotions, but we know for a fact there is no such thing as too many book reviews. More is always better.
2. Know the Rules for Amazon and Goodreads Reviews
If you’re focused on getting online reviews for your book, you need to know each website’s rules.
Over on Amazon, you can’t review any products — including books — unless you’ve spent at least $50 using a valid credit card or debit card on the site in the past 12 months. Promotional discounts don’t qualify toward the $50 minimum. Reviews from verified purchasers (people who bought your book through Amazon) are prioritized by Amazon’s algorithm, which is something to keep in mind when you’re looking at your reviews and average star rating.
On Goodreads, any registered member can review any book, but there are standards of conduct to follow. Read through each site’s policies so you know what you can and can’t ask readers to do, and also so you can educate them on how to satisfy review requirements.
Though you can use giveaways and contests to promote book sales and social sharing, you can’t reward people based on reviewing your book.
Both sites have strict rules against conflicts of interest. Amazon doesn’t allow you to incentivize reviews. You can’t offer anything in exchange for a review, including entries into a prize drawing, gifts, purchase rebates or invitations to special events. You also can’t review books written by relatives or anyone who has shared your home address. Sometimes, Amazon will allow reviews when the potential conflict of interest is explicitly revealed in the review.
For example:
I’ve worked with John Doe for several years and it’s so nice to finally see his business philosophy and practices captured in a book that anyone can read and review.
3. Use Your Email Signature to Invite Book Reviews
The simplest way to make sure you’re asking for reviews often and consistently without being pushy is to add an invitation as a P.S. in every email you send. You can include it as part of your automated signature or copy/paste it as a P.S. at the bottom of your emails.
Your email signature is a great way to get more reviews because it’s passive. It doesn’t take any extra time or effort. Whenever you send an email, the recipient will see your invitation for a book review and may be inclined enough by curiosity or goodwill to either leave you a review or at least check out the book for themselves.
Here’s one approach to try:
Have you read my latest book, [insert title]? If so, consider leaving a review on Amazon [insert hyperlink] and Goodreads [insert hyperlink]. If not, you can check it out here [hyperlink to purchase page on Amazon].
4. Recruit a Launch Team to Support Your Book
Launch teams are a great way to get your book out in front of several people all at the same time. The more people who know about your book, the more people who will buy it. And more buyers means more people qualified to review your book.
Usually, launch teams are created with the specific purpose of getting online reviews published. You can choose to communicate with your launch team entirely by email, text messages or you can gather everyone together in a pop-up Facebook group that only opens for the launch period and closes afterward.
Most authors or publishers offer launch team members a free copy of the book to read and review. Printed advance reader copies used to be the standard, but not any longer. Now, launch teams usually get a digital copy in the form of a PDF, graphics for sharing on social media and closer access to you as the author.
I enjoy using pop-up Facebook groups for launch teams because it’s creates a centralized location to communicate with launch team members and to share resources and information with them. Readers get excited when they are in a Facebook group with the author, especially when the author takes on an active role in posting, commenting and hosting live video broadcasts exclusive to the group.
Asking launch team members to buy a copy of the book so their reviews get the highly regarded “verified purchaser” is becoming more common, but not everyone likes this practice. I’ve encountered several people who’ve served on launch teams for years and are taken aback by this new era of book promotion. I don’t mind explaining the business end of book launches (and importance of verified reviews) to grumpy launch team members, but you have to do what feels most comfortable to you.
5. Get Creative on Social Media
Socializing the message of your book and getting it seen far beyond your own personal network will require thoughtful promotion on social media.
Rather than a never-ending cycle of “buy my book” posts, take advantage of the natural opportunity for creative marketing.
You can mix up promotional content by sharing graphics that feature your book cover, title, or quotes.
This builds both name and brand recognition for your book, and boosts your credibility. Share these images with hashtags relevant both within social media circles (e.g. #bookstagram and #readers) and within your niche (e.g. #crimefiction, #historicalromance and #biblestudy). Choosing a branded hashtag for your book can help you stay organized and aware of how others are talking about your book on social media.
Social media is a great way to get more reviews, but it can also be used as an opportunity for creative marketing.
Vary how you share links to buy the book. Mix it up between putting the link in a post, in the comments of a post or through direct message with people who comment on posts about your book.
You can also share screenshots of reviews and your Amazon ranking on social media to boost your credibility.
Whenever someone comments that they love your book or shares positive feelings about it on social media, make sure to leave a comment thanking them for being a reader and asking if they’d be willing to copy and paste those words into a review on Amazon and Goodreads.
This is an example of a social media shareable graphic that features the book cover, quote from the book, author’s name and branded hashtag.
6. Manage Your Own Expectations
Every author wants a 5-star rating but that’s not how the world works, and it’s not even that important. The only thing to focus on as an author is the number of reviews you get. Everything else is subjective.
Goodreads reviews tend to be a bit more critical than Amazon reviews. Don’t be surprised if your rating is 1 to 1.5 stars lower on Goodreads than on Amazon. On both platforms, you can mark reviews as “helpful” or “unhelpful.” Asking readers to mark positive reviews as “helpful” influences how Amazon displays reviews in the “top views” section, so it’s a task worth asking folks to do.
When it comes to asking for reviews, keep in mind that not everyone who says they’ll leave a review actually does it. Even on book launch teams, where the whole goal is to get book reviews, you’ll find only about 25% of the members follow through on leaving a public online review of the book.
Why? People get busy, distracted or lose their momentum. Sometimes, they don’t finish the book or don’t like it and are too embarrassed to say anything.
The reason doesn’t matter. Your job is to keep asking.
Successful authors understand that getting book reviews is an ongoing process. It’s a big mistake to only focus on reviews during your launch period, because your book has a longer shelf life than that. If you want people to continue buying your book, you have to keep asking for reviews.
Think of it from a book buyer’s perspective: Would you rather buy a book that hasn’t been reviewed in the past three years or one that has more recent reviews?
This is why we say getting reviews is a long game. You will get more reviews when you understand the value of reviews on Goodreads and Amazon (so you can communicate that value to others), know the rules for leaving online reviews, leverage your email signature to ask for reviews, consider recruiting a launch team, get creative with your social media promotion and manage your own expectations.
There is no time in the lifespan of your book when reviews won’t be important. Do what you can to make the experience enjoyable and stay consistent.
But try as she might, the words wouldn’t come. Digging down, Bobbie interviewed other writers to figure out what was holding them back. In surveying the results, Bobbie realized time was never the issue — it was much deeper than that. So much so, she published a report on her findings titled, 10 Reasons Christian Writers Don’t Write and 1 Compelling Reason They Do.
In most cases, Christian writers aren’t much different than secular writers when it comes to what holds them back from focusing on their writing. They get too busy, they worry about rejection, and they aren’t sure anyone actually cares about what they have to say.
However, they also have some big differences from secular writers:
Christian writers pray — Prayer can accomplish what striving cannot.
Christian writers have faith — They might have wavering belief, but they have faith.
Christian writers write truth — They don’t write their own version of truth; they write God’s truth.
How to Make Time to Write
Though being a Christian writer means you are called to write, you might still have a full life that makes finding time to write difficult. In cases such as this, Bobbie encourages you to consider that each of us experiences different seasons in our lives. In some seasons, we can sit down and write hundreds of words in a day. In other seasons, though, we might need fit our writing into small fragments of time. In those more hectic seasons, Bobbie suggests doing what you can when you can, even if it’s just for a few minutes a day.
Practical ways to get your words down, even when you don’t have time to get them all down at once include:
Para-writing — Jot down phrases or ideas on sticky notes, so that you have your ideas gathered together when you can focus on your writing.
Journaling — The practice of getting your thoughts on paper, even if it’s not in a publication-ready fashion, still moves you toward your goal.
Record your ideas — Several people talk faster than they can write. Using a voice notes app on your phone, or a messaging app like Voxer can help you to record ideas for later transcribing.
How to Write When Life is Hard
All stories have dark parts, Bobbie says. Having a difficult season doesn’t mean you can’t write or shouldn’t write. It might mean, however, that you’re not in a place to write for publication. Time adds perspective. In many cases, you need to write to process through your emotions but that doesn’t mean that writing serves readers.
When God calls you to write, it might not be to write a best-seller, blog post or even a book. But, the call to write is powerful and profound — and it’s one all writers of faith are compelled to answer.
If you’re feeling the pull on your heart to write, but you don’t know where to begin, Bobbie can help. She offers a short Bible-based course, Eating the Scroll, which offers two weekends of inspiration, encouragement and support in responding to God’s call for you.
Eating the Scroll will give you the tools you need to write with confidence and joy. Find out more at www.YummyScroll.com.
[socialrocket-tweet quote=”Book giveaways & contests can grow your social media audience — if you take a strategic approach.” tweet=”Book giveaways & contests can grow your social media audience — if you take a strategic approach.” style_id=”default”]
If you want to grow your social media audience, book giveaways and contests are important tactics to add to your marketing strategy.
Since we care more about connecting with the followers that count than counting followers around here, you might be surprised to see me suggest using book giveaways and contests to grow your social media audience.
Giveaways make strategic marketing sense, though, because book contests attract readers — and readers are the followers who count for you as an author. The best way to grow your online audience is to make yourself known to the people most likely to buy and read your books. Book giveaways accomplish that goal.
If you’re not a published author, you can still use this strategy to grow your social media audience but your contests and giveaways will look different.
If you have one or more books already published, however, these suggestions are all worth considering.
Set a Goal for Your Giveaway
There are two ways to grow your social media audience: Increase followers and increase engagement.
If you want to be strategic about your giveaway, you need to choose a goal. Though you could create a giveaway to increase both your followers and your engagement, it’s wiser to choose one target to track and measure and use to define your success.
Increasing your follower count is a vanity metric, but it’s a goal that makes sense if you’re close to an audience milestone, like trying to get to 10,000 followers to earn the coveted “swipe up” feature on Instagram.
Contests designed to increase follower counts will require participants to like or follow specific accounts to qualify for the prize. People who follow you to enter your giveaway are unlikely to be engaged followers, and they tend to unfollow you after the contest ends unless you develop a reputation for regularly hosting contests. If you don’t intend to give away stuff regularly, plan for the drop in followers and don’t take it personally.
Increasing your engagement is a goal that makes sense on any algorithm-driven social media platform because the activity helps the algorithm decide which users and types of users are most likely to appreciate and engage with your account. Increasing engagement also builds up excitement around your giveaway. Who doesn’t like to see a post with hundreds of comments? If that doesn’t motivate you to suit up and show up for your followers, I don’t know what will.
Though your engagement rate will naturally go down after a giveaway, you can often keep the interest of your followers if you regularly publish high-value content specific to the needs of your followers.
How to Make the Most of Your Book Giveaway or Contest
Anything worth doing is worth doing well, and that’s true for social media giveaways and contests. If you’re going to invest time and energy in creating a book giveaway, you’ll want to do everything within your power to make the giveaway successful.
Once you’ve chosen a goal for your giveaway it’s time to plan your contest. Your planning doesn’t have to be elaborate but there are a few key decisions to make at this stage:
Choose your channels
Specify your contest rules and prizes
Set your contest deadline
Promote your giveaway
Host your giveaway
Announce the winner(s)
Some of these decisions are quick to make and others require thought but the time you invest in the planning stage will pay off in both success and time saved later on by not having to make split decisions while your contest is underway.
Choose Your Social Media Channels
Where you host your contest influences what you can and can’t require of participants who want to enter your contest.
Facebook, for instance, doesn’t allow you to leverage the friend networks of participants for your contest. You cannot host a contest that requires participants to share posts or tag friends in a post to enter. You also can’t offer bonus entries for these behaviors. You can, however, require participants to like or follow your Page, comment on posts or sign up for your email list.
Twitter has rules banning contests that cause users to create fake accounts to enter more than once or flood the channel with the same tweet or almost the same tweet over and over again.
[socialrocket-tweet quote=”If you want to use a social media contest to promote your book, don’t over-complicate it. You can’t grow your audience if you make it too hard on people to enter.” tweet=”If you want to use a social media contest to promote your book, don’t over-complicate it. You can’t grow your audience if you make it too hard on people to enter.” style_id=”default”]
Specify Your Book Contest Rules and Prizes
Once you are clear on what you can and can’t do on the social media channel where you’re hosting your book giveaway, it’s time to set your contest rules and prizes.
Easy-to-follow, low-commitment contest requirements tend to have higher participation than ones with several steps. They may also attract entries from people who aren’t actually interested in what you have to offer. They might just want to get something for free.
At the same time, a complicated entry process with multiple steps might turn off even your most ideal reader if they get frustrated by jumping through hoops. The only way to know for certain what’s best for you is to test requirements over a series of giveaways to find out which requirements come closest to achieving your desired outcomes.
If you already know you’re hosting a book giveaway, picking prizes should be easy. However, it still makes sense to decide now whether you will have one winner or multiple winners and whether you’re giving away a single book or a book bundle.
Make sure your prize and your requirements align. A complicated entry process would need a high-value prize to entice participants, while a simple entry process leading to a simple prize is well received.
Set Your Book Giveaway or Contest Deadline
Deadlines create a sense of urgency, which is why every contest needs one. The duration of your contest, though, varies on where you’re hosting it. Goodreads, which charges authors to host book giveaways, recommends a 30-day contest period for maximum awareness and interest. Though you can choose any length of time you want, shorter contest periods tend to increase interest and participation on Instagram and Facebook.
Promote Your Giveaway
People can’t enter your giveaway if they don’t know it’s happening. Promoting your book giveaway is a step you can’t afford to skip, and cross-promotion is key. No matter where your giveaway is taking place, you should notify your email subscribers and your followers on every social media channel where you actively participate.
Amp up the energy when you’re promoting your giveaway. Make it exciting and no matter what your prize is, use language like it’s the greatest gift anyone could ever receive. Enthusiasm is contagious and if you’re enthusiastic about your contest, your audience will be as well.
Host Your Book Giveaway
When you’re ready to kick off your giveaway, make sure you have the time and resources necessary to support its success.
Giveaway contests are not a passive marketing tactic. You can’t launch a giveaway and go off the grid for the weekend. Every person who enters your book giveaway is a potential book buyer, email subscriber and social media super-fan. Treat them as such.
Respond to comments (ignore the spammy ones), thank participants for entering and answer questions daily during your contest period. Not only does this keep your entrants engaged throughout the contest period, it also amplifies your reach and keeps the contest top of mind for everyone involved.
Announce Your Winners
Once the contest ends, you’ll want to announce your winners. It’s important not to let too much time go by before announcing your winner. Remember, you want to keep everyone engaged as much as you can, and the momentum that comes from hosting a giveaway can be leveraged.
Announce your winners on the channel where the giveaway took place, and make sure to notify everyone you promoted the giveaway to that a winner has been selected. Instead of naming the winner in your off-channel announcements, direct people to the official announcement post.
There are free tools that make contest announcements fun for you and for participants. Wheel of Names is a site that puts participant names into a wheel you can spin to have the winner selected at random. Comment Picker is a tool that makes choosing winners from social media post comments easy. It doesn’t have the visual appeal of Wheel of Names if you’re sharing your screen to publicly broadcast the winner selection via live video, but it makes sense if you have a higher volume of entries. The video above shows the Wheel of Names in action on a book giveaway hosted on my Facebook page.
Measure Your Results
Once you’ve concluded your book giveaway and announced the winners, it’s time to assess the success of your contest. You don’t need fancy tools to track, measure and analyze your results.
What you need to know more than anything is the number of new followers you’ve gained during the contest period and the number of reactions, comments and shares on your contest post. All of that data is available within each social media channel.
Your first giveaway might not be a huge success, but remember every contest you host can serve as a data point to tell you what resonates with your ideal audience on each channel.
Wondering whether you should host giveaways and contests to grow your social media audience and promote your books? Borrow my brain for 20 minutes so we can explore whether giveaways should be incorporated into your marketing strategy. You can book your free session here.
[socialrocket-tweet quote=”Created specifically to attract book lovers, #Goodreads offers a wealth of benefits for writers in its author program.” tweet=”Created specifically to attract book lovers, #Goodreads offers a wealth of benefits for writers in its author program.” style_id=”default”]
To fully harness the power of Goodreads as a social media platform, you must make a Goodreads author page and learn to effectively use the author program.Not everyone qualifies to become a Goodreads author, but the bar is within reach for any author whose book has an ISBN.
Benefits of the Goodreads Author Program
Created specifically to attract book lovers, Goodreads offers a wealth of benefits for writers in its author program.As a Goodreads Author, you get:
Access to the Goodreads Author Dashboard — The dashboard centralizes your author resources so you can see your stats, account settings and marketing options in a single location.
Access to the Authors and Advertisers Blog and the monthly Goodreads Author newsletter — If you want to succeed on any social media platform, you have to go all-in on the tools offered by that platform. The blog and newsletter are how Goodreads helps authors make the most of their time on the social media platform.
Insights and advice on how to best connect with readers on the platform — Like any social media platform, Goodreads is a social network with its own rules of engagement. Learning how to best connect with readers on the platform will make the most of the time you invest on Goodreads.
Opportunities to participate in Goodreads contests and giveaways — Everyone loves a good giveaway, and book lovers are no different. As a Goodreads Author, you can get your book featured in Goodreads contests.
Advertising options within the platform — As with any marketing effort, paid advertising makes sense when you get a return on your investment. Advertising on Goodreads allows you to target people who are known book buyers, increasing the likelihood that your hands will result in sales.
The Goodreads Author Dashboard centralizes your author resources so you can see your account settings and marketing options on a single page.
Are You Eligible for the Goodreads Author Program?
Goodreads allows anyone who has published books or is in the process of publishing books to join its global author program.Authors with books for sale on Amazon.com or other booksellers will likely get their applications approved faster, but independently published authors can and should apply to the program as well.
How to Make a Goodreads Author Page
If your book is part of the Goodreads database, you will already have a Goodreads Author Page but it won’t actually be “yours” until you claim it.
How to Claim Your Book on Goodreads
Follow these simple steps to set up your Goodreads Author Page:
Create your Goodreads account. You can’t be present on the platform if you don’t have a profile, so your first step is to go to www.goodreads.com and set up your account today.
Find your books. Use the Goodreads search bar to search your name. Your published books should already be listed. If you don’t see your book in the database, you’ll need to add it. If you have trouble adding your book, you can ask for help in the Goodreads Librarians group.
Find yourself and claim your profile — If your book is in the Goodreads database, you can click your name to find your basic author profile page. The author profile page is separate from your member profile, and must be claimed before you can make any changes to it. One you find your basic author profile page, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click “Is this you? Let us know.” You’ll be directed to a request form to claim your account and join the Author Program. It takes a few days to confirm your application. You’ll be notified by email when your request is approved.
How to Customize Your Author Page
Consider your Author Page your Goodreads welcome mat. This is where members will go to find out all about you and your books.Make time to build out your Author Page with a professional photo, compelling bio and don’t forget an inviting call to action. Help members stay connected to you by linking to your website, your blog or your email subscription form. Make your Author Page more interesting by uploading additional photos and videos. If you have a blog, you can connect it to your Goodreads Author Page using an RSS feed. Make sure to turn on the “Ask the Author” feature to increase your connection with readers.
[socialrocket-tweet quote=”Pro Tip: Make it easy for #Goodreads members to find you off the platform & for followers on other social networks to find you on #Goodreads.” tweet=”Pro Tip: Make it easy for #Goodreads members to find you off the platform & for followers on other social networks to find you on #Goodreads.” style_id=”default”]
How to Build Your Authority on Goodreads
The Law of Reciprocity teaches that you get out of something what you put into it. If you want to get the most out of Goodreads, you have to invest in it.Invite your friends from Facebook, Twitter and GMail to connect with you. Add books from your Amazon account to your Goodreads bookshelf, and start rating the books you’ve read and the ones you’re currently reading. Vote in polls, join groups and take part in reading challenges. Have fun on Goodreads and you’ll build authority and trust in the community.
How to Use the Goodreads Author Program to Market Your Book
Like any social network, Goodreads rewards you most when you take full advantage of its features. Answer questions from readers, respond to reviewers (skip the negative ones; nobody wins a keyboard war) and update your blog regularly. If you link your website blog to your Goodreads Author Page, it will automatically update every time you post.
Cross-pollinate your network as much as possible. If you’re planning a Facebook Live broadcast, add it to your Goodreads events, along with conferences you’ll be attending and other opportunities to see you live and in person. Make sure to connect every social media platform you actively participate in with your Goodreads account.
Simply put, make it easy for Goodreads members to find you outside of the platform, and make it easy for followers on other social networks to find you on Goodreads.
When you’re ready to pay for exposures on Goodreads, consider all options. For as little as $119, you can host a Goodreads giveaway for either Kindle or print versions of your book. There are other advertising opportunities, but giveaways are a great way to start promoting your book in a way that puts it in the hands of more readers.
Wondering whether Goodreads is the right place for you to grow your audience and promote your books? Borrow my brain for 20 minutes so we can explore whether you should include Goodreads in your marketing strategy. You can book your free session here.
“What is the best social media platform for authors?”
That question comes up for me almost daily — writers ask me via Facebook Messenger, in my free Facebook group, by email and especially when I speak live at conferences and retreats.
And though most people who ask want to know whether to focus on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Pinterest, the real answer is none of the above.
Goodreads is the Best Social Media Platform For Authors
More than just a directory and review site, Goodreads, to me, is the best-kept secret hiding out in plain sight.
Since we know that people are most likely to make purchasing decisions based on recommendations from friends, it’s important to have reviews posted online before your book is released.
Goodreads allows readers to review books before they are publicly released AND they allow readers to update their reviews. This means a reader can post a review even before they finish the book based on their early impressions, editing the review to update it once they complete the book.
Goodreads helps you to create buzz around your book among people who are already known to buy and read books.
Goodreads is like Facebook for Book Lovers
Launched in 2007, Goodreads is the largest website for book lovers and book recommendations. According to co-founder Otis Chandler, the entire mission of Goodreads is to help readers discover and discuss good books.
As an author, don’t you want a piece of that?
Here’s a taste of what you can do:
Promote your books
Develop relationships with readers
Connect your blog to build a bigger platform
Share updates with your readers
Connect with other authors in your genre and readers who like similar books
Advertise
Participate in sponsored giveaways
I consider Goodreads to be “Facebook for book lovers” because it’s an expansive community of readers, boasting 90 million members, a catalog of 2.6 billion book titles and 90 million reviews.
Half of the world’s population might be active on Facebook, but on Goodreads, you are guaranteed that every single member loves books. They love books so much that they read them, talk about them and hang out with other people who want to talk about books.
Goodreads is where you find people who know the difference between science fiction and speculative fiction or between Christian inspiration and Christian lifestyle.
Like Facebook, Goodreads will send you notifications to keep you updated with what’s happening in the community even if you’re not checking in regularly. You can also join discussion groups, send and receive private messages and connect with your offline friends and friends from other social networks.
The platform hosts book giveaways (usually paid promotions) and reader challenges to entice readers to try new books, new authors and to explore different genres.
You can recommend books to your friends based on mutual interest or even have a little friendly competition on who can read the most books in a year.
You can also connect with like-minded members in groups. There are book clubs, reading challenges and even groups devoted to reviewing books by Goodreads authors (ahem…you know how important reviews are, don’t you?).
As a Goodreads author, you can host “ask me anything” sessions, connect your blog to the platform to expand your audience and have direct conversations with people who review and recommend your books. They even have articles to show you how to maximize the platform to promote your book.
The Edge on Amazon
You don’t need to know much about the publishing industry to know that online reviews can make or break a book’s success in the market. However, authentic believable reviews can be hard to come by — and keep live.
You can’t review books on Amazon unless you’ve spent at least $50 with the company in the last year, and you have to buy the book from Amazon if you want your review to have the authority-boosting “verified purchaser” badge.
The biggest limitation with Amazon reviews, however, is that you’re not allowed to review books until the date of release. This poses a problem for authors who are traditionally published because pre-order campaigns are crucial to the overall success of a book.
5 Steps to Getting Started on Goodreads
Spend an hour getting to know the culture of the platform — Since Goodreads is like Facebook for book lovers, the tone members use is quite different than on other social media platforms. Sign up for an account if you don’t already have one and start exploring. Click around the site, read reviews, blog articles and check out the discussion area.
Add the books you’ve read — When Amazon bought Goodreads in 2013, the sites were integrated. You can connect your Amazon account to Goodreads to add your Amazon purchases to your Goodreads bookshelf and to keep track of your Kindle reading. Adding the books you’ve read to Goodreads might take a little time, but it will help to connect you to readers with similar interests.
Connect with your friends — You can send invitations to friends through Facebook, GMail and Twitter. By connecting with friends on Goodreads, you can create a community where the only thing you talk about is what you’re reading.
Join discussion groups — Like on any social media platform, Goodreads members expect authenticity in their connections. Don’t join groups to shameless promote your group (unless that’s the purpose of the group). Join groups to build real relationships with readers. Groups are a great way to get inside the heads of super-fans within your genre and to see what is trending among your ideal readers.
Apply to the Goodreads Author Program — Not everyone qualifies to become a Goodreads Author, but the bar isn’t impossibly high. If your book has an ISBN or ASIN, you qualify. The process takes some time, but once your application is accepted, several doors open up to you on the platform, including opportunities to advertise, participate in contests and host “ask me anything” author sessions.
A Word of Caution About Goodreads
Like any social media platform, establishing yourself on Goodreads will take time and energy. Instead of dabbling, make sure you have the capacity to lay a strong foundation on Goodreads before you get started. An intentional investment of time now will pay dividends later.
Though I believe every author needs to be on Goodreads, make sure you have a thick skin. Goodreads members tend to be more critical than Amazon reviewers. Expect Goodreads ratings to average 1.5 stars lower than Amazon. Because Goodreads members are book lovers, they tend to have a wider perspective to draw from than Amazon reviewers. Don’t take it too personally if your book on Goodreads averages 3 to 4 stars.
Just because Goodreads members are more critical in their reviews doesn’t make them right. Example: I launched a Christmas book that received 3 stars from a reviewer who felt “lukewarm” about the numerous references to faith and religion. Did I mention the book was about Christmas? Maybe that’s a story for another day.
Wondering whether Goodreads is the right place for you to grow your audience and promote your books? Borrow my brain for 20 minutes to explore whether you should include Goodreads in your marketing strategy. You can book your free session here.
Writing a book isn’t a solo endeavor. Gone are the days when authors would hole up in a cabin out in the woods or a beachfront getaway to write their bestsellers in total solitude. If an author wants a bestseller, he or she needs to write what audiences want to read. That’s why manuscript development teams are a savvy author’s secret to a bankable book.
I’m not saying some solo writing doesn’t occur, but books that sell well tend to be written in community. There are different ways to write in community: you can join a writers’ group for workshopping, cobble together a group of friends to brainstorm ideas or host peer-review groups on Zoom.
Partnering with a manuscript development team leader allows an author to get the needed feedback on their work without slogging through endless comments. A team leader collects and curates reader feedback into a workable action plan for improving the manuscript.
Manuscript development teams are a savvy author’s secret to a bankable book because:
They keep the author on track
They invite readers behind the scenes
They allow authors to road-test their content
Manuscript Development Teams Keep Authors on Track
In my experience, a lot of great books never get written because the writing process stalls. Too many times a book falls short of its potential because the author rushes the process instead of embracing it. “Time is money” is an undeniable fact in the publishing world. Authors can’t afford the consequences of missed deadlines. A rushed manuscript will never be as a good as one that’s been written thoughtfully, and blowing a deadline when you have a hard publication date means you’re robbing from your marketing timeline. Manuscript development teams keep authors on track by maintaining a consistent series of deadlines for each chapter. We’re all better at keeping deadlines to others than we are at keeping deadlines to ourselves. In the case of writing books, healthy manuscript development teams apply the right kind of external pressure by giving the author a reason to stay on track without being overwhelmed to the point of creative paralysis.
Manuscript Development Teams Invite Readers Behind the Scenes
Manuscript development teams aren’t typically a random selection of participants. Authors partner with the leader of their development team to strategically curate a group of readers within the book’s target market. This content is straight from the author’s keyboard to the team’s screen after a quick run through spell-check. It might be a bit disorganized. It will be far from perfect. And that’s exactly as it should be. A manuscript development team accepts an invitation into a writer’s (sometimes messy) creative process and starts a foundation for the launching and marketing of the book being birthed into the world. Having this team behind you will give you greater confidence and greater success when it’s time to launch.
Manuscript Development Teams Allow Authors to Road-Test Content
We’ve all experienced situations where we struggle to transform the thoughts swirling in our heads into a coherent written narrative. Manuscript development teams help authors organize the chaos by providing feedback on what works, what doesn’t, what could be cut and what could benefit from further explanation. A manuscript development team’s role is not to edit the manuscript text, it’s to help the author refine — and sometimes, redirect — how they illustrate the key concepts in their book.
If you want to make money from your book, a well-written manuscript is non-negotiable. And we’re not talking about typos and grammar. We’re talking about narrative flow, organization and pacing. I led a book study once where the members couldn’t get past a certain part of the book. No matter what I said or tried, every single person just couldn’t push past the same chapter. If the author had a manuscript development team in his corner, this problematic section of the book could have been identified and rectified prior to publication, leading to better reception by the readers.
By now, it’s clear how authors benefit from help from manuscript development teams, and why they are a savvy author’s secret to a bankable book. What about the team member? What is the benefit of being on the development team? (In other words, how do we convince readers to help authors?) Actually, the benefits parallel those of the author!
Aspiring authors find great value in getting a front-row seat to the writing process; by seeing how the sausage gets made, you’re better prepared for the experience of writing your own book. You also get a clearer understanding of what makes a book bankable. I think we all paint aspirational pictures in our minds of what it means to be a published author. Participating in a manuscript development team helps to align that vision with reality.
But you don’t have to want to be an author to enjoy the manuscript development team experience. Book fans get great satisfaction from having a hand in getting a book they love out into the world. Even on teams where you don’t have close access to the author, manuscript development teams feel a sense of ownership over the books they’ve helped shape and refine. I love seeing books I’ve supported on spinners at airports and on the shelves at local bookstores.
A manuscript development team should never have to wonder if its work is worthwhile. The whole team needs to know the impact of their efforts on the author and his or her creative process. The author can express appreciation for team members through the leader with weekly messages. Some authors will meet with their teams for Q&A sessions once or twice during the project. Others might share a video expressing their gratitude and the value they’ve already received from the team’s feedback. Regardless of how it’s communicated, what’s important is that team members understand the value of their input.
How a Healthy Team Works
I run my manuscript development teams through Facebook and pay close attention to culture and climate. Healthy manuscript development teams have a well-defined scope and are facilitated by experienced leaders who understand how to help – not hinder – an author’s creative process. The manuscript development team manager works for the author and with the author. This means detailed conversations early in the process so the manager understands what motivates the author and what sends the author into ostrich mode, terrified of ever writing again. The team manager protects the author, delivering the team’s feedback in a productive and useful way.
I’m not suggesting authors are delicate, but I am suggesting that manuscript teams work best when everyone has a clearly defined role. No author thrives while feeling pecked to death by a thousand chickens, which is what can happen if the author is receiving all the feedback from each member of the team. This is why a team manager is so important. He or she works as the filter between the team and the author, making sure all feedback is delivered in a way that’s both honest and useful.
When I lead a manuscript development team, I manage it like any critical time-sensitive project. I like to partner with an analyst who can dig into the data so I can focus on the people parts of the project. Together, we work to ensure the team understands its role and that the author receives meaningful feedback with our recommendations in an action-focused plan. This prevents paralysis of analysis and enables the author to know exactly what to do with the team’s feedback. The implementation plan gives the author concrete next steps that keep momentum going to present a polished manuscript on deadline.
More is not always better, and that’s certainly the case for manuscript development teams. Your goal must be quality over quantity. I personally prefer teams of around 40 members. More than that gets unwieldy, making the feedback data difficult to aggregate. Any fewer and you might not get enough feedback to provide the author with useful recommendations.
A good manuscript development team manager keeps the author a safe distance away from the team and what individual members think of the book. Authors should never be in a position to get direct, unfiltered feedback from the team. We all like to think we have tough skins, but writing a book is one of the most vulnerable experiences any creative could possibly undergo. Your book is your baby. Those are your intimate thoughts, beliefs, experiences and perspectives you’re committing to the page and sharing with the world at large. Nobody wants to hear that their baby is ugly. What’s worse is hearing your baby is ugly before it’s even been born. None of us is served if the book never gets written because the author was discouraged by hearing harsh words from hypercritical team members.
On the topic of hypercritical team members, manuscript development teams need to be carefully curated. Anyone who says they want to join the team because they love editing, are passionate about grammar or are irritated by seeing writing errors send up instant red flags. (These are real-life examples from applications I’ve reviewed.) Why? Because answers like these are indicators that the prospective team member doesn’t understand the purpose of manuscript development. This is not the place or time for line editing or proofreading — that comes later. Manuscript development teams should focus entirely on evaluating concepts and refining the message the book aims to convey.
It’s also important to keep the manuscript development team working at a steady pace. Like any community, everyone is most engaged when the goal is front of mind. I find that it’s best when the team receives manuscript content each week over six to eight weeks. This keeps everyone focused on the task at hand and engaged in the content. Doling out a batch here and there over months is a surefire way to have team members start to drop off because they fail to see the value of their participation.
Planning for YOUR Manuscript Development Team
Done well, a manuscript development team creates a relationship between reader and writer that lives beyond the individual project. People support that which they create, and I find that manuscript development team members are eager to help launch the book later when it debuts. Development team members are already familiar with the content, and they are a great resource for mining marketing ideas from how they are applying lessons from the books they’ve helped create. With their permission, we save these testimonials to share when the book launches — this is marketing that you can feel good about! Not only does this make marketing easier, but it’s so much more convincing when you can point to real, live readers who have experienced real, live transformation from the book.
If you’re a savvy author who wants a bankable book, a manuscript development team is a wise investment. Whether you decide to hire a professional to run your team or take a grassroots approach, I’d love to help. Visit the Services page for more information or email info@tonyakubo.com. Want to join my list for manuscript development and book launch teams? Fill out this online form.
Tonya Kubo helps communicators build close, connected relationships online by leveraging the power of social media. She leads book launches and manuscript development teams for authors, manages online communities and provides coaching/consulting services. Find out more on the Services page.
With Margaret’s permission, I reached out to a couple of literary agents in the Christian market to reality-check what I was seeing. They confirmed it: Margaret had the credentials, the track record, and the numbers to support a traditional deal. The best path forward for her niche, they agreed, was to go directly to an academic publisher rather than pursue a traditional trade route through an agent.
