You may have noticed that I have not been posting nearly as frequently over the last month. The reason is that Jon and I have spent almost every free moment (except for a vacation last week - which was great!) working on a new book. We are about 80% of the way done and we are both really pumped about it. This is a book for anyone who loves the mission of Jesus and wants to see it accomplished where they live. Very practical and I think inspirational. The working title is "The Reproducing Church: How You & Your Friends Can Start A Movement.
Today I have a meeting today with Chris Fann and Ryan Pazdur of Zondervan to talk about marketing the book. They asked me to start brainstorming ways to get the word out about this new book. So, I thought I would see if you could help. Leave me a comment with your thoughts or answering these questions: How would you market a new book? What creative ideas have you seen for getting the word out about a book? Are there ways that you would like to help us?
give away a number of copies, i.e. to radio stations WMBI for example...or me:)
Posted by: Mike McAleese | July 08, 2009 at 07:04 AM
Well, I think you are off to a great start - social media - free and effective. I am not sure what your book is about, but based on the title, I have to wonder, "Why not market the book the same way you would start a movement?" Make your book a movement.
I also think that Christian radio interviews are awesome, especially if you are friends with Christian DJ's. Offer to send the radio stations free books for giveaways.
Take small excerpts or your book and make blog posts out of them. I am assuming you already have a website for the book?
Start a Facebook fan page. We know that women are the fastest growing group on Facebook and they are the ones who love to read.
Tweet excerpts of your book on Twitter and post a link to where we can all go and buy the book.
Do a You-Tube Video about the book.
I could brainstorm many more ideas, but this is already long, so....I hope this helped.
Posted by: Vicki L Lyons | July 08, 2009 at 07:07 AM
I think you should allow bloggers to read and blog about it. I would be more than willing :).
Posted by: Chad Miller | July 08, 2009 at 07:17 AM
Have you considered the use of pURL's or personalized URL's? I have seen them used very effectively is some areas.
Posted by: Joey Bridgers | July 08, 2009 at 08:04 AM
Do what Anne Jackson did with Mad Church Disease.
Posted by: wvpv | July 08, 2009 at 08:24 AM
Give a bunch of them away free. I got a "Tribes" book by Seth Godin from a friend who attended the Catalyst conference. I liked that book so much that I read his blog everyday and I would now buy any books that he releases (and even some books that he just mentions in his blog)....and I only read four blogs.
Posted by: Tim Boyd | July 08, 2009 at 09:08 AM
1: e-mail blasts
2: promote on facebook
3: release parties at your campuses
4: send copies to upcoming conferences as giveaways
5: attempt to get interviews with key magazines and websites
6: bulk discounts
Posted by: Ryan Motsinger | July 08, 2009 at 09:51 AM
Activate your tribe! (Which you are already doing.) Your tribe--and it's bigger than you may think--will "buzz" the book to their own tribes and world. Who are the key leaders--both geographically, within networks and cultural "go to" people you'd like to share the book with? Challenge them
(dare them!) to share the book within their world....and watch what happens....
Posted by: Daniel Serdahl | July 08, 2009 at 12:48 PM
Give each book a unique serial number inside the cover and encourage readers to give the book away in the spirit of multiplication. As they give it away, make part of the intro/chapter one for the person to log online to the books personal site (see permalink/personalized link comments by Joey above) and register their copy and upload a camera phone shot of them with the book in hand. Then track the book as it passes from person to person within communities. Maybe even hold a contest to see which book travels the most miles in one year. Or for every 10 readers, send the initial reader a free copy to pass on again, or hold on to (since they gave theirs away)
Last though, minor tweak. change the title. "Reproducing" is a 20 year old term with connotations of the mega church model. How about Hatch or Engender as synonyms with more life to them. Even replicate has more life left in it I think.
Posted by: Jon Ritner | July 08, 2009 at 01:44 PM
5 words.
"Sandwich boards and a bullhorn". I think Jon would look lovely in them.
Posted by: Jeff | July 10, 2009 at 04:59 PM
1) Do a ning thing like Mac Lake http://leadingmultisite.ning.
2) Record a section of the book read by (and maybe discussed by) you and Jon and post the audio ... 5-10 minutes. Kind of like the DVD commentaries they have now.
3) Hey, and a free copy to a couple of your twitter followers wouldn't hurt:)
Posted by: Mark | July 11, 2009 at 10:23 AM
One thing I think might be great would be to offer a PDF version of the book to anyone who has a real copy, so that they can have it on their computer to search, quote, and put on their eBook reader if they have one. Plus if you want people to spread it around, you could tell people it was okay, and it would be less costly than giving away a bunch of copies of a physical book that had to be printed.
Posted by: Cary Grant | July 13, 2009 at 05:24 AM
Hi Dave
Don't know if this is helpful. But the sub-title 'how you and your friends can start a movement' really inspired me.
I wonder if you could do a short videos of how you and your friends started the church. And then maybe do it with others - hybels, groeschel, etc. But get people sharing their story and remind people that they can have a crack.
Anyway - can't wait for the book. Thanks for all you do in inspiring us!!!
Mark Broadbent
Brisbane, Australia
Posted by: Mark Broadbent | July 16, 2009 at 09:34 PM
Take a look at Seth Godin's site on building tribes. http://www.squidoo.com/tribebuilding He also has some good stuff on publishing with both an e-book and a paper book. He says that starting things going with a free pdf of the book starts a wildfire so that the paper book sales really take off. I was looking for his link about that but did not find it. Have a great time. Love to see the book since I work in CP movements in Europe. Is there a list I can sign up on to get a copy?
Posted by: PaulDZ | July 17, 2009 at 03:57 PM
Send a book free to every leader that you have contact with..your tribe, then if they blog about it send them another to hand to a friend.
Put a chapter in there that can only be read by people who purchase more than one book...so for people who buy more than 5 to give to their friends, give them a user password for a special chapter.
After they do that, add their picture to a website in which they can be a part of the "leadership book movement" with its own community.
For people who purchase 15 or more give them online resources they could log into each month with new leadership dialogue and discussion maybe live web calls with you and jon each month for a year...
Posted by: casey cariker | July 21, 2009 at 09:55 AM
Just a small idea (lol) Preach about it... introduce it to your small groups... If you want people to talk about it they have to get close to it...Leave a chapter or two on "Self-Healing" to that Pastor who just author-ed the book "Need Wrists To Do That"! Maybe he could share a point or two given the three pointer he stumbled over. Sorry---could not help myself....
Posted by: Kristine Knight-Holzwarth | July 23, 2009 at 05:54 PM
Check out what Edward Tufte has done with his books at "http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/courses". He self-publishes the books and then sells a one day seminar and you get the books for "free". Slick. He schedules a hotel ballroom downtown. Sends out thousands of mailers. Provides coffee in the morning. And then rambles for about half a day. You walk away with his books.
Posted by: John Eubanks | July 26, 2009 at 08:58 PM
a. Facebook - - you can actually set your facebook up as a group where people can join and comment on it … maybe market it with a kick-off date/when it becomes available to the public
b. Twitter it… link it to your facebook and get as many people to join and pass the word (make it exciting)
c. Magazines….if you can afford it, advertise it in magazines (not just Christian magazines… any book that instills change is exciting).
d. Book signings….talk about it in local book stores, autograph, etc. I can’t tell you the times I’ve gone to a book store, heard an author talk about a book and walked away with it in my hand (not stolen!)
e. Colleges….go to colleges, talk about church planting to the teachers/professors. For all you know, a professor may add it as required course reading/materials
f. Minister to other churches about church planting and make the books easily available (like on-site vs. a link where they can purchase it)
g. Maybe create a sharepoint within the CCC website that allows readers chat about the book? Inspire readers to inspire others? This is actually a great way to spread the word about the book
h. Maybe SEO (Search Engine Optimization) so when someone is looking for information on “church planting”, your name/book pops up first in google/yahoo
Posted by: Abby | August 06, 2009 at 12:48 PM
Okay Dave, how big of a budget am I working with here?!
Put your book to the test by doing a highly publicized online TV mini-series where you plant a few churches in different parts of the country, train their leaders, and track their progress. It's like reality TV, but with less drama and more hugs.
Posted by: Jay Brock | August 06, 2009 at 05:50 PM