A Vision for the Future

As the time draws closer for the release of The Secret of the Lantern (my part-fiction, part-catechism book on the rosary), I have been studying best practices for marketing the book.  I confess I am good at writing, but I am still struggling to learn how to market my books on a $0 budget.  I know techniques to market that work quite well when you have $5000 to spend, but that isn't my situation and rather than seek to change the situation, I am trying to learn to "bloom where you are planted" as Mother Theresa would say and work with what I do have - a ton of creativity and writing skill and some handy-dandy Catholic connections.

I mention this because one of the books I am reading, How to Build a Powerful Writer's Platform in 90 Days by Austin Briggs, instructs you to visualize what a day in your life of having a powerful platform and thousands of readers who are fans would look like.  So, I did.  I began to visualize what I would do to connect with the thousand of Catholic kids (and parents) I hope to reach. How would I nurture their budding enthusiasm for the rosary which my book has inspired?

I imagine leading a daily recitation of the rosary over the internet, where kids and parents can join together with me in praying it.  I imagine developing a blog called Everyday Catholic Kids which will be a place for me to write stories for them, answer their questions or concerns about their faith or the rosary or the problems they face in their everyday lives. I imagine spending my morning printing out the fan mail I receive, recording the subject and the sender in a log book, praying over the people who sent it, and then replying to them personally.

It's not enough to give them a book that starts the ball rolling. Those who read it need more from me than that. They need me to help them keep the momentum going, to help them past the obstacles and the doubts and the questions that fill their minds.  They need to be reassured that what they are doing makes a difference in the world not only to them but to me and to everyone else, too, even if they can't see that right now.

As I'm writing this vision, I'm getting excited about it. I am excited about where it could head and what it could do. It may take me the next 30 days to build this up, and I'll keep you posted on the progress, but I have a feeling I'm finally headed in the right direction.  If you'd be interested in seeing this kind of resource for kids, comment below and let me know. I'm listening!