Some authors simply love to write for expression, and seeing the finished product is the primary goal, rather than getting it into the hands of as many as possible. Others write to put food on the table, so for them—regardless of how much they are passionate about the project—the main motive is to sell. The goal of Healing Hereafter was half way in between. I certainly enjoyed writing and love to bring together a lot of information for people in meaningful and helpful ways. However, because part of the project’s passion is to explore and teach, I also wanted to expand my audience as far as possible, certainly not for my benefit, but for my readers. And if not them, at least donating the proceeds to charity would aid others in need. So, I had to (gulp!) do some marketing.
Marketing, sales, and self-promotion are all terms that make me feel very uncomfortable. Although if I’m honest, I do like to be recognized for significant accomplishments, I am acutely aware of the way others may perceive any “Look at me!” messages I throw out there. Moreover, the absolutely essential use of social media blurs the lines between personal correspondence and project promotion in some good but some bad ways. I truly appreciated the accessibility and advice I received from my marketing team—especially as I was Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and website illiterate—and putting together a detailed, methodical plan to get the word out was exciting and satisfying.
And then came the launch: September 1st, 2013. An army of over 50 (awesome, wonderful, lovely, fantastic, and helpful) friends and family members and I blitzed the internet and our social circles with posts, likes, tweets, reviews, recommendations, and good vibes (the calendar above only contains book events!). I don’t ask for favors often, but in this one big way, I got to gratefully watch many of you pulling for me, and to those who came through, THANK-YOU! I know for people closer to me, your news feeds and inboxes have displayed my name way more times than you need to see, and I have made great efforts to be sensitive to that. Yes, they are effective, but I despise hashtags, timed/duplicated posts/tweets, and stock photos just as much as you might. But I also know that through such an effort, many have learned a great deal about God’s biblical and sensible plan for human destiny and understand him more clearly as a result. In the end, I don’t want to be known as the author of this book; I want to know that this book helps others know the Author of his book. That is a marketing campaign I can feel comfortable about, and I hope Healing Hereafter‘s did just that!
