Jon Ferguson, Eric and I had a great conference call with the gang from Zondervan and Leadership Network. The book we are writing, The BIG IDEA is being published by Zondervan and is a part of the Leadership Network Innovation Series. The BIG IDEA is the third out of nine books to be published in this series. The two previous books are The Multi-Site Church Revolution and Confessions of a Reformission Rev. Both of these books are outstanding books!
The conference call was to discuss the marketing strategy of the book. And I have to say I was totally impressed! Mike Cooke and the crew at Zondervan and Greg Ligon and his team at Leadership Network are connected with everyone. So, I think when this book is finally released at the end of January lots of people will know about it.
Jon, Eric and I will be connecting with some of you to see if we can get bloggers to post a review and get the word out in the coming months. We are trying to work it out so we can give away copies of the book to people who will post a review of The BIG IDEA. If you got other ideas about how to get the word out - let me know. Since this is the first book that any of us have written this whole experience is pretty cool.
Get in contact with stores like Johns, or Family and maybe even Borders and Barnes and Noble. Have book signing, author appearances... etc. Some people, especially in the "religion business" would probably love to meet you guys and see what this Big Idea is about anyway. Good luck Dave!
Posted by: Shelley | October 12, 2006 at 11:40 AM
Zondervan will have it in all those stores and will be available online (at least) to Borders and Barnes and Noble. Shelley, keep the ideas coming.
Posted by: Dave Ferguson | October 12, 2006 at 12:33 PM
Perhaps an interview on K-Luv if they do interviews, radio interviews can get the word out a little and we already know that you sound good on microphones and I am sure some of the local stations would like to have a local author (or one or a team of them) speak especially for a local area station. Good cross media promotion, and if it is during the morning or afternoon traffic, you could get alot of exposure to your target audience.
Posted by: Janus | October 12, 2006 at 12:42 PM
- come up with a series of wickedly funny 30-second video shorts. post them on youtube and google video.
- create a myspace for the book
- run ads during the ALCS... (GO TIGERS!)
just kidding on that one, it is fun to be able to take baseball shots at chicago people for once...
Posted by: david | October 12, 2006 at 01:02 PM
David, I like it! (Not the Tigers part...as White Sox fan I'm still hurting. Now I understand what it's like to be a Cub fan - couldn't resist!) Do you have any examples of authors who have used either of those ideas? I'd like to check those out and learn from them. Or did you just come up with that? I like it!
Posted by: Dave Ferguson | October 12, 2006 at 01:08 PM
Pastor Dave,
I think getting everyone who reads your blog a copy for a review is your best bet. Look what happened to Mark Batterson and his book "In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day": His Amazon.com rank jumped to 48 the day the book came out, and so many people ordered it that the ship date was pushed back to December (since rectificed).
And my motivation is only slightly because I'm counting down the days until I can get my hands on a copy of your book, through whatever means needed!
Posted by: Clayton Bell | October 12, 2006 at 01:25 PM
Clayton. Thanks! When we talked to Zondervan yesterday they really liked that idea.
Posted by: Dave Ferguson | October 12, 2006 at 01:28 PM
Put it in Bible college book stores, give it to Bible college students like me to sprend it around. Word of mouth is probably your most powerful tool.
Posted by: Alison | October 12, 2006 at 02:08 PM
Alison, good idea. We have presented the BIG IDEA process at a couple Bible Colleges with good reception. Thanks!
Posted by: Dave Ferguson | October 12, 2006 at 02:12 PM
Oops! I just found out I was a couple days late on the birthday wish....hope it was happy! I know a marketing guy, so I'll ask him for ideas on your book! :)ph
Posted by: Pam H | October 12, 2006 at 02:37 PM
dave,
i don't know of anyone who has done those things... sorry. they just popped into my head.
my guess is that your creative team could probably put out something pretty good...
it seems that if you can use blogs to create the buzz that is exceptionally effective (someone above mentioned batterson's book). imagine that kind of push using video!
Posted by: david | October 13, 2006 at 09:32 AM
Thanks David, Good stuff. I think you are right. I'm going to work on it.
Posted by: Dave Ferguson | October 13, 2006 at 09:42 AM
So many great suggestions already--especially the nontraditional ones!
Here's a link I found about book publicity: http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:iqhjmnLh5NcJ:www.iuniverse.com/tips-for-authors/get-reviewed.htm+getting+publicity+for+my+about+to+be+published+book&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1&client=firefox-a The suggestion I liked best was getting lots of feature articles in publications read by people you'd be targeting. Send an excellent press release; that's your foot in the door.
Have a huge book-signing party at CCC and invite all your contacts.
Take your books to all the conferences you attend.
Looking forward to reading it!
Posted by: lorinda | October 14, 2006 at 12:49 AM
Dave, get me a copy and I'll review it on my blog and on amazon. No problem.
Posted by: Brenton Balvin | October 14, 2006 at 01:01 AM
Dave, I like the party at CCC idea :) Of course I like any idea that get's people together with food!! Does staff get an autographed copy????
Posted by: Katrina Pelters | October 14, 2006 at 12:01 PM