It began with overwhelm.
As a new author trying to learn how to market my book well, focused on serving my readers and meeting their needs, I was overwhelmed. Publishing a book was a new endeavor for me. The entire writing industry was new for me! Without a team to guide and support me, each new aspect of writing, publishing, and marketing my book required me to learn a LOT!
Thankfully there are thousands of resources for new authors like me available for free online. The hard part wasn’t finding what I needed for the next step in my writing process. There was plenty of information available! Instead it was choosing what not to do next.
Like anything else, book marketing goes through trends. Depending on who you talk to, what your goals are, and even your genre, there are a handful of different ways to market your book. As a new author, I hadn’t tried any of them yet! Should I start a book club? Should I host an online launch party? Would it be better to offer an online membership community? Maybe I should turn my book into a course and sell that as an additional resource?
Cue the overwhelm!
With so many opportunities before me, none of them reflective of who I am and what my goals as an author are, I stopped researching what to do next. I started eliminating and reformulating the trends to fit me and my book. I morphed the market into what would work best for my ministry. Through this process the 21 Days of Gratitude Challenge was formed.
I followed the lead of others, modeling this challenge after what had benefited me:
- Legacy Roots Co’s Scripture Reading Challenge
- Dr. Alicia Britt Chole’s 40 Days of Decrease
I started to think about the impact I wanted my book to have and how I could reasonably accomplish it. There’s a fine balance between giving content away for free and sharing my words with the world. Nevertheless, I knew at this stage in my writing career it was more important for me to be generous with the work I’ve done for the sake of helping others. There is a season for everything; we must lean in, trust the bigger picture, and enjoy the process.
I began with a loose plan to share a piece of each of the 21 devotionals from my book online in a similar way Dr. ABC did on her Instagram. This plan morphed to add in some extra resources and include a few friends. Then it grew into something really beautiful and way beyond anything I could have planned on my own!
I’ll share more about how it came to be in the next two blog posts. Be sure to subscribe to the newsletter, and if you want to sign up for the 21 Days of Gratitude Challenge, leave a comment below or send me a message and I’ll add you to the list!
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