By Cassandra Laymon
The author of I Found Jesus in the Stock Market, through Cassandra’s book marketing she has been booked on a nationally syndicated radio show–among other things–since publishing in 2016.
I am not your typical author. I never dreamed of penning a best-selling book, or even writing a book at all. When friends would mention this goal on their “bucket list” I would call them crazy! By nature, I am a math and science girl, and avoid writing when I can.
When I did finish writing my last book at the prompting of a mentor (my second book, but who’s counting?) I thought the hard work was over. In truth, it was the beginning of an amazing journey that is shaping up to be another great adventure in my life.
Keep the End in Mind
The most important thing I would share with any aspiring author is to begin with the end in mind. I was clear from the beginning about the what I wanted to accomplish with this book. I am a CERTIFIED FINANICAL PLANNER™ by trade, and I never intended for this book to become an income stream for me. In fact, all proceeds from book sales are donated to the Blue Ridge Women’s Center, our local crisis pregnancy center in Roanoke, VA. My goals for this book were two-fold:
- Educate Christians about the fact that they may be investing in business practices that oppose their faith values.
- Demonstrate our company’s expertise in faith based investing, providing an opportunity for potential clients and financial advisors to do business with us.
That’s it. I did not have a sales goal or a revenue goal. I did want to make sure that the book got into as many hands as possible, but I was more than willing to give them away to make that happen.
One of my favorite quotes by Goethe says, “At the moment of commitment the entire universe conspires to assist you.” That is certainly descriptive of what happened for me as I started to market my book.
Coming out of last year’s Winter Writer’s Weekend, I realized that I had not prepared enough for the launch of my book. My book was published, but several weeks later I had not started promoting outside of being a vendor for an event for Christian Financial advisors.
At that event I met Nicole Loughan, who you will also meet at this Winter Writer’s Weekend 2017. While our books are vastly different (she is a best-selling author of southern mysteries) she showed me how to do promotions on KDP Select. After my first promotion, my book hit #1 in the Stewardship category on Amazon. Using some very precise strategies, my book was getting attention.
Note that my promotion was very specific to my niche. My book is a Christian financial book. I did not market to a general financial market, and I did not market to a wider Christian audience. I specifically focused on Stewardship, because these are the people with whom my message resonates.
At this year’s Winter Writer’s Weekend I will share the rest of my story, including the steps I took to get booked on nationally syndicated radio shows which resulted in prospective client and advisor inquiries that continue to roll in months later!