#381: Marketing Minute: Summer Blues

Welcome to Kingdom Writers, where we help equip and empower Christian writers of all genres to share your unique gifts with the world. We're your hosts, C.J. and Shelley Hitz.

This podcast is filled with spiritual encouragement as well as prayers to help you overcome the resistance you face as a writer. Your story matters.

Welcome back to another episode of the Kingdom Writers Podcast. My name is Shelly Hitz, and I'm one of your hosts here. And in this marketing minute episode, I wanted to share about this topic of summer Blues. So in the summer, depending on the topic and the content and the type of book you have, you. You may notice a decrease in sales over the summer. I have been mentoring writers since 2010, and so 13 years of working with writers, and then we published our first book in 2008. So we've been doing this for 15 years. And over and over again, we hear from writers that they notice a little bit of a slump in their sales during the summer. So I just want to say don't get discouraged. There will be those ups, there will be those downs. However, some people may want to purchase your book to read it on vacation. Maybe you have a fiction novel and they. They want to read more fiction on their vacations. Or maybe there is something. Maybe your book is about gardening and it is a seasonal book and so you will have more sales. But if not, then just realize that this is a thing and that you're not alone. And that's one of the reasons it's so powerful to have other writers in your life. We have had a community of Kingdom writers since 2015, so it's been over eight years that we've had our membership Christian Book Academy. We would love for you to join us there. It's ChristianBookAcademy.com you can sign up. It's only $39. Honestly, there are programs similar to ours that charge thousands of dollars and people always tell me, shelly, you need to be charging more. But I just. I've asked the Lord and he's. He has not released me to increase the price yet. I mean, there may come a day, but for now, it's very reasonable. You can just jump in, get started. For $39 a month, we have our private group. You can ask questions once a month. You can ask me a personal question, one on one, privately. And we do that on Voxer. It's a walkie talkie app. It's free to download that app, but you can just send me a text or. Or an audio message and ask me your question. And you. You get that one on one coaching and you know that and done privately. That was something that people had been asking us for. So we've added that this year. And then you can join our zoom calls. We have a war room prayer meeting every month. We have two day virtual writing retreat. We have an accountability circle call. We have productivity parties where you can come and write just for an hour, get some writing done with some other Kingdom writers. We have so many things for. But I encourage you, if you're not plugged in, at least find one or two other writers. I know some people have found other writers on our conferences. So if you go to kingdomwritersconference.com, you can get notified of when we're having our next conference and people meet their accountability partners, prayer partners. You know, there's amazing things that happen and there's groups that are still going today from a couple years ago that started as a result of meeting each other at one of our conferences. So find at least a few people. A couple people. One, at least one. Right. And that way, you know, like, you know, you're not alone. But I, I just wanted to tell you like if you're feeling that summer slump, it's just take a deep breath, pray and ask for God's favor. I mean you can see things happen that are not expected when God is involved. We always recommend involving God in prayer. And actually month we're going to be having a conference on prayer. So stay tuned. If you want to get on the waiting list, go to kingdomwritersconference.com and if you want to see a little boost in sales this summer, you might consider doing a summer sale like a 99 cent Kindle ebook sale. And we're going to be doing a workshop on that in Christian Book Academy next week on the 22nd and so definitely encourage you to check that out. You can sign up again@christianbookacademy.com and we just want you to know like if that's a good fit for you, if that's something that would help you that, that you know, that we offer that. I think sometimes they don't talk about Christian Book Academy enough and so that you really know the value that you get. It is really incredible. So we're also just looking for ways to help you get things done and not just add more to your plan plate, but actually get things done. So I'm, I'm brainstorming and praying and asking the Lord for ideas. So stay tuned because we really have some neat ideas, you know, for you in the future to help you get some things done. So this was just going to be a short encouragement episode of Just saying if you're noticing a slump this summer, don't panic. Know that this is a typical thing for many authors and keep going. Friends, we love you. Let me pray for you. Lord, thank you for every Kingdom writer listening right now. I just pray favor and blessing upon their lives. I pray that you would give them God ideas as they come to you in prayer and in business meetings with you. That you would give them God ideas for marketing their books. That you would show them the next steps to take. And sometimes that means to rest in you, but sometimes that means taking courageous steps of faith. So I just pray that you would continue to lead and guide each one of us one step at a time. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. All right, friends, thank you for being here and I will talk to you in the next episode.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Kingdom Writers. We believe that you, as a Christian writer, have a specific role to play in the Kingdom of Heaven to impact lives for eternity.

And because of this, we choose to pour out our lives into encouraging writers like you to not only tell your stories, but to take the courageous step of self publishing your stories in books that will outlive you and leave behind a powerful legacy. This podcast is sponsored by Christian Book Academy where we help you give birth to your books. We invite you to join our community of Kingdom writers.