Marketing

It is about a month until my book, The Bible’s Most Fascinating People , is due to arrive on store shelves. One of the things that publshers expect of authors is that they do a bit of self-promotion and marketing. For me, thus far, that has meant mostly talking to people about my book, one way or another. I set up a website for myself, an “official author’s webpage” largely because I’ve noticed most authors have such things and secondly because my author friends have told me that it’s something I should do. So, back in July, I registered Nettelhorst.com and created a simple site about my books.

A month or so ago I was asked to speak at the High Desert Baptist Association’s annual meeting, where a few hundred pastors, deacons and other church leaders and staff got together. In addition to my standard seminar, I talked a bit about my forthcoming book and handed out bookmarks and flyers about it.

Today, I made a pilgrimage to the local Barnes & Noble and approached the customer service desk. The young man standing there went from smiling to a nervous wreck as soon as I let him know I have a book coming out next month and was wondering about setting up a booksigning. I handed him a flyer and explained that Reader’s Digest was publishing it. He became even more nervous.

He looked around for his manager, paged her, and then ran about the store for several minutes looking for her. I spent my time looking at a few books. The young man eventually returned and babbled that she was in a meeting and apologized profusely. Then he took my card and promised me that she would call me back.

I must admit to finding it a bit weird to know that I had made someone nervous. But I suppose they don’t get the authors of the books they sell showing up in the flesh all that often. Of course, I can’t help wondering if I’ll really get a call back. The manager might not be so impressed by me as he was. If not, then of course I’ll make another trip to the store. I want to make sure they order my book, besides arranging for the booksigning.