Ugh! Marketing…

“Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.

2Corinthians 10:17-18 ESV

Marketing. It should be a four-letter word, but I’ll express it in three: Ugh!

marketing… noun… the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service

Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.

I’ve been approached by companies, representatives of marketing companies, with offers to promote my book. However, their words sound empty when they have no concept of the book or its content or the heart behind it. Their main purpose in the call is to sell a marketing tool. Packages of promotion with the promise of increased book sales. Mostly, these calls feel devoid of honor and highly focused on meeting a sales quota.

Call me cynical. Or naive. But my vision of a marketer or desire for an agent is to have someone who believes in the message of what I’ve written. Not me. Not just to sell books. Make money. I want someone who sees value in it for others, promotes it for the sake of what’s in it. Not a means to increase their income.

So I find myself, like most indie authors, left with the only other method at hand: self-promotion.

Self-promotion for me is a nauseating prospect. I’m introverted. Extremely introverted. Not only that, I know I don’t deserve any hype. No attention whatsoever. It’s all about Him, the One who created and inspires and fuels me. you. the world. with energy to do. All we are gifted with — life — is to be used to glorify Him. Boast in the Lord!

The best advice I’ve received in the last couple of years in this venture of self-marketing is a reminder to promote the message. Not yourself. Not your product. So that’s what I strive to do here in this undertaking of marketing via an author website: carolbweaver.com. Use it to point people to Him as I share my journey in shining for Him.

the ordinary following the Extraordinary

Recently, I was introduced to Medium.com through two guys who offer support to those self-marketing and writing in their teaching at ContentCashCreator.com. They teach how to use the uniqueness of Medium to not only drive people to your sites and products, but also as a place to create new medium through re-purposing content you have already created.

It’s been an interesting journey so far. I’ve only posted once, but a plan is forming for how to use Medium to share my message of Jesus without so much pointing to me or the devotionals I’ve created thus far.

My heart’s desire is to boast in the Lord. To do all for His glory. Whatever that may be.

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

1Corinthians 10:31 ESV

I pray you see Him, not me.

Who are what are you promoting?

Does it deserve the glory?