Using Newsletter Marketing to Shine in 09

Good Wednesday Morning. This Month we are having our Shine in 09 1question interview series. You are welcome to participate. You can email me, DM me on Twitter, Facebook me, send me an Utterli response or leave your comment here, in the forum or link back your response from a blog post.

The question for the month is:

In this New Year what goals have you set and how do you plan to accomplish them?

Today Jennine Arena, Owner at Mark Anderson Productions, LLC, a Minneapolis-St. Paul Area, Minnesota communications firm that specializes in: media relations, media training, events communication and video project management responds...

I plan on getting more involved with Linked In and answering questions like this. Especially if there is an opportunity where it will be posted elsewhere, as a public relations avenue. My company will continue sending out its monthly e-newsletter that is a quick tip and showcases one of our latest projects. Another goal for 2009, for myself personally, is to write about my experience with my father's fight with lung cancer, and how we made the most of the last few months of his life. Where will it be published? I don't know if it ever will, but I want to have the opportunity to write it, not only for myself, but to give others hope and ideas while going through such a difficult situation.

How to keep the Marketplace from Squeezing your Juice

I have ten days left to enter a writing contest. Had I not told my writer's group or my friends on Twitter, my blog and my family about my master plan to enter this contest I could pretend like I never planned to enter. But I didn't. I opened my big mouth, and now folks are depending on me to deliver...not just any story but a good Dee Story. To be honest, I'm depending on myself, too. Dee hadn't been writing a good Dee story in a while. I want to see if I still have the juice.

Continue reading "How to keep the Marketplace from Squeezing your Juice" »

Book Marketing: The Hezekiah Effect for Writers

By Sherryle Kiser Jackson, Guestblogger

Someone estimated that everybody gets about 15 minutes of fame. It would suggest that the recognition we receive as writers for our works will ultimately subside to make way for someone else’s time.

When does that 15 minutes begin? Is it when you have crystallized a theme or idea in your mind and proudly announce to friends and loved ones, “I am writing a book?” Is it the minute you learn to juggle the creative and business side of writing, shopping your completed manuscript and securing a publishing deal? Or does it happen much later when you see your finished product properly bound with your name prominently on the packaging?
As writers, we are all somewhere in that process. Even though we may not have submitted our offerings for recognition and fame, we ultimately want someone to read it, right? I mean, we did have something to say. Somehow we are lead to believe that our book’s release date is the starting time and like a Domino Pizza delivery guy we are hell bent to deliver in 30 minutes or less.

Is the clock ticking on our book’s relevance? Does the amount of time our books sit on the shelves before being noticed and appreciated by the masses diminish its poignancy? Don’t we all wish that we have written a classic and definitive novel in our particular genre that will receive steady sales that leave our publishers with no other choice but to go into a second, third or fourth reprinting?
New authors, especially those not use to running into that phone booth as a mere citizen of the creative world and emerging as a book marketing expert, are particularly concerned about their book’s shelf life. They may still be on hold with the publicity department trying to figure out what their publisher is going to do to help market their book for them or in the line at Kinko’s printing out a thousand homemade flyers. What is a press release?
In Biblical times, Hezekiah, the King of Judah faced the end of his life. The prophet, Isaiah was sent to tell him, “set your affairs in order, for you are going to die.” A premature death was prescribed to Hezekiah. How does a man face his last and final days?

Hezekiah had a mild breakdown, similar to the one many authors have when they think of the thousands of books in the bookstore, or worse, in their living room, that they have no idea how to move. Hezekiah didn’t accept the timeline given to him. It is written that on his sick bed, he turned his faith to the wall and prayed to the Lord, reminding Him at the same time of how faithful he had been.

“Father, remember the countless hours I have spent, writing, researching, editing and re-writing this novel. I got up every morning and completed my morning papers like Julia Cameron suggested in The Artist Way. I cut my ties to the literal and tried my best to show-not-tell as outlined in the Elements of Style, by Shrunk and White. Not to mention the money I spent in conferences, writer’s workshops and retreats. I understand its all part of the deal. The books are not going to sale themselves. Please don’t let them send my book back to the publisher. Please, Lord, I’ve got to make back my advance.”

The Lord heard Hezekiah’s plea and agreed he was indeed faithful to his craft. God promised he would heal him and added fifteen more years on to his life. Another fifteen. What could we do with another fifteen minutes of fame. Maybe we could truly make a coast to coast book tour. That might be just enough time for the producers at Oprah to unearth your book from the slush pile of perspective Oprah Book Club picks. Heck, you need that extra time just to explore the infinite possibilities of on-line marketing-the real new frontier.

So we can learn a thing or two from Hezekiah: don’t let critics mark the time of death for your book, stay faithful to your craft, and take a kneel beside your laptop or PC, stare at that that wall cluttered with pin ups of character sketches, outlines and literary contacts and pray for mercy.

Sherryle Kiser Jackson is a fresh new voice in Christian Fiction. Her style is an honest commentary on her life with Christ. Soon and Very Soon is her debut novel from Urban Christian. Experience her christian chronicles that are Biblically based and out-the-Christian-box at the same time.

Pick a Book Cover

Which vocer do you prefer? Complete the survey, then run to the bookstore on New Year's Day 2008 to see if your pick made the cut. Click here to make your pick.

Preorder One More Sunrise Here.

Is Recognition Our God?

Kathy Griffin's acceptance speech at this weekend's Creative Arts Emmy Awards had Christians in an uproar.
Her words were so off color that the TV Academy and E Channel will censor her speech before its telecast this weekend.

"A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus... This award is my god now!"

-Kathy Griffin's speech after winning a creative arts Emmy for her television show, Life on the D-List.

I like Kathy's show, but I don't like her statement. I don't like what it might say about us. I have interviewed many Christian artists, ministers and authors. I have provided marketing support for a few. Lately, what I have witnessed is more of us are believe that recognition and popularity equates to a successful ministry. Although our hearts are in the right place, we are not leading our lives with out souls in mind.

Honestly, I think we are a little confused about what barometer we should use to monitor ourselves. Sure we have taken Christ's conversation with Mathew, the tax collector in the fig tree and tried to apply it to our lives. Based on that passage it is easy to believe that a Christian artist's success is measured by the fruit the art bears. But what is this fruit we're looking for if not recognition or popularity?

I would love your thought to help me compose my Sept. 24th article for The Master's Artist

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