The newest way to educate authors on marketing their books is being introduced by the John 3:16 Marketing Network. If you are a member, go to [private link, John 3:16 Members only] to get started. The first step is to fill in your
name for the cell group in which you want to begin. If you are inexperienced at
social networking, or if you are new to the network, I would recommend you
start in the “Review Cell.”
The order of the groups will be the
same for everyone, but where you start will be different:
Standard
Cells
·
Reviewers
·
Bloggers
·
Special Activities (Facebook, Pinterest, Rafflecopter,
HootSuite, Marketing Research and writing blog pieces for the John 3:16
Marketing Network Blog)
·
Twitter (Will learn how to use Tweet Adder 4), Lorilyn
Roberts will teach.
·
Q&A and Mentoring – for Those Who Want to
Excel at Marketing.
Alternate Rotations:
·
Book Launch
·
Sabbatical
Permanent
·
Prayer Cell
Let me give you an example of how this will work. If you start out in the “Twitter Cell,” the next cell (after four months) that you would rotate through would be “Q&A and Mentoring New Members.” Then you would go to “Reviewers,” followed by “Bloggers,” and “Special Activities.” Then your rotation would start over. During that rotation, if you wanted to do a “Book Launch,” you would rotate into that group for four months After those four months, you would return to your regular rotation.
After two rotations, or eight
months, I will encourage people to rotate off and take a four-month sabbatical. This
will work well if you have a major writing project going on or other things in
your life that need to take priority, though none of these rotations should
take a significant amount of time. You are doing these things anyway, and now
you can learn how to do them more efficiently. That is why I came up with this,
to train authors in how to become better at marketing. After you rotate through
all the rotations, you will have a pretty good handle on marketing, and you
will have developed many relationships along the way, which is very important
for an author. As I have said in the past, writing is a solo journey, but you
can’t effectively market your book without the help of others.
Each cell will have anywhere from 12
to 18 members. Your first responsibility in the network is to those people in your
cell. For example, in four months, in the review group, you would be expected
to review some of the books of the authors in your cell. I don’t want to say
how many because it won’t be the same for everybody, but what you can do
comfortably. Everyone has a different comfort level. Each cell will have a
leader and a co-leader that will be responsible for the cell. The leader after
four months will rotate off and into another cell. The leader will pick the
co-leader, and when the leader rotates off, the co-leader will be the leader
for the next four months, and he or she will pick a co-leader to lead the next
four months when he or she rotates off.
The leaders and co-leaders will spend eight months in a group instead of
four months. The idea is to develop leadership skills within the network which
will help you to be on the other side of helping authors—you always learn more
when you lead, and everyone needs to learn how to be a leader.
We will not grow as a network unless
we develop a leadership team. We are limited by my time and my own experience,
and we can do much more if others step up and assume some of the
responsibility. You can add this to your resume, and mostly, you can learn and
grow and feel used by God.
Now, if some of you just don’t want
to participate in the cells, you have two options. You can just be inactive,
which means you are out of the loop on everything. Or you can pay a $5
membership fee which will be put back into the network for book launches and
other benefits to members. For example, you want to host a book launch through
the network, but you don’t want to rotate through all the cells – maybe you
feel overwhelmed with other commitments right now. You can either start out
with a four-month sabbatical, or you can pay a $5 a month membership fee.
However, I would strongly discourage anyone to take a four-month sabbatical and
then do a book launch. That is not a good way to build relationships in the
network, and as I said, marketing is all about relationships.
As far as participation, after four
months on the first rotation, if a member has not adequately participated, per
the leader, then the leader will need to let me know so that I can talk with that
member and see what the issue is so we can help him or her. We want you to be
an active member. Otherwise, I have to ask, why did you join the John 3:16
Marketing Network?
You have an opportunity to learn a
lot rotating through the cells, not just from me, but from others. You have an
opportunity to give back. The biggest issue with the network right now is only
a few people are participating. I truly believe it’s because people don’t have
a job, or they don’t know what to do or how to do it. I can’t expect people to tweet for book
launches if they aren’t on Twitter. I can’t expect people to host people on
their blog if they don’t know how to upload stuff on their website. Recently I
asked some people to host me – two people didn’t know how. Two people didn’t
know how to open my document. Two people didn’t know how to upload pictures to
their site. So here is an opportunity to spend four months and become a better
blogger, for example. You will be responsible in the blogger group for hosting
people in your cell on your blog.
Now, suppose someone in the “Blogger
Cell” wants people in the “Twitter Cell” to twitter for him? It will work just
a little differently, because you are in different cells. You will exchange “services.”
For example, you would offer to host some in the “Twitter Cell” on your blog in
exchange for them tweeting for you. That
way you get crossover, and more help, and it’s not one person doing all the work.
There is an exchange, and hopefully this will help everyone to get more
involved.
Now, I will be first to say I haven’t
worked out all the details. But we won’t
start this until January. We have the next four months to get all of this
worked out. Right now you are signing up for what cell you want to start in for
JANUARY. If you would be willing to be a leader for a cell, let me know. I will
be leading the "Twitter Cell," but the other cells are open for leaders.
“The Prayer Cell”: This is a non-rotating group—which means it’s
a one-year commitment. The idea is you are committed to praying for the members
in the network. I would love to see our once-a-month prayer meetings return.
This would be a great opportunity for our pastors in the network, particularly
if they don’t want to rotate through the other cells, but anyone can be in this
group. Members of the network would direct their prayer requests here, and I
hope that maybe we can have a once a month email with prayer requests and
praises. Our connection here must be
centered on Jesus Christ. That is what makes everything else possible.
Let me know if you have any
questions. Make sure you go to [private link, John 3:16 Members only] and in the document put your name and email in the empty block underneath the
cell you want to start in. Each person’s entry should be on a separate line.
That way, I can easily go down the list and import those names into other
documents. Again, if you have any questions, let Lorilyn Roberts know.
If you are interested in becoming a part of our dynamic marketing network, you can listen to Lorilyn Roberts on a CACC Spotlight at http://lorilynroberts.com/john_3_16_marketing_network.html
