Top 10 Christian Non Fiction Book Promotion Sites – Success Guide for Authors & Publishers (WriteZero)

This is part of the WriteZero Top 10 Book Promotion Sites Guide for Authors & Publishers

This Top 10 List covers the best book promotion sites for promoting Christian Non Fiction

The Top 10 – The Top 10 Christian Non Fiction Book Promotion Sites

Bookbub
1. Bookbub is the biggest book marketing & promotion site with 14 million total readers
2. Bookbub is also the largest and most effective Christian Non Fiction book promotion site. It has millions of Christian readers
3. Dedicated Christian Non Fiction list
4. Every book promoted with Bookbub Featured Deal does very well
  1. We recommend Bookbub Featured Deal. They also have other options. Featured Deal is the one you should go for
5. Bookbub is very selective and only takes 10% to 20% of the books submitted to it
Books Butterfly
1. The 2nd largest book promotion site with 4 million readers
2. The 2nd largest Christian Non Fiction book promotion site with 1.5 million Christian Non Fiction readers on its Apps, Email Lists, and Blogs
3. Books Butterfly has a dedicated Christian email list, Christian Apps, and Christian Blogs
4. A good choice and highly recommended for Christian Non Fiction authors
5. Takes between 10% to 70% of books submitted. Books must be professionally edited. Books must have a professionally designed book cover
6. Disclosure: Books Butterfly is our Sister Company which has successfully run $1.9 million of book promotion packages
eReader News Today
1. A very trusted site that has a very large readership and has been promoting and marketing books since 2010
2. Very reasonably priced, given the number of readers you will reach and the number of sales you will get
3. Dedicated Christian readers list
4. A good choice and highly recommended
Robin Reads
1. A very good book promotion site that is growing fast and is very selective. It only takes 10% of books submitted
2. Dedicated Christian List
3. A good choice and highly recommended
4. As they are very selective please don’t get discouraged if they (or another top Christian Non Fiction book promotion site) don’t take your book
  1. Improve the book cover, get better editing, and get more reviews
  2. Then apply again after a month or two
Buck Books
1. Buck Books specialize in Non Fiction book promotion and they are also very strong in Christian Non Fiction book promotion
2. A good choice and recommended
3. They use lots of innovative and new marketing methods and they go very well with the other book promotion sites on this list
Book Sends
1. Book Sends is a very trusted site with over 120,000 readers and has been helping authors since 2012
2. A good choice and recommended
3. Has a dedicated Christian email list
Free Booksy & Bargain Booksy
1. Free Booksy promotes free books and is a Top 5 choice for promoting free Christian Non Fiction ebooks
2. Bargain Booksy promotes paid books and is a Top 10 choice for promoting paid Christian Non Fiction ebooks
3. Dedicated Christian Lists
4. A good choice
Fussy Librarian
1. A solid, reliable book promotion site that has very reasonably priced packages
2. Has a dedicated Christian list
3. As the book promotion packages are very cheap, this is a good choice to add-on to your main book promotion
  1. It’s also a good choice if you want to test and see how your book does
To Be Finalized
1. We are evaluating various Christian Non Fiction book promotion sites and will update the #9 and #10 spots in the near future
To Be Finalized

We recommend all these sites strongly. They are the best and most reliable Christian Non Fiction book promotion sites

Honorable Mentions – Christian Non Fiction Book Promotion Sites that missed the Top 10

Free Kindle Books & Tips (FKBT)
1. A good site that works well for some authors
Genre Pulse
1. A unique book promotion site that focuses on Android App readers and email lists and has reasonably priced packages
2. Like Fussy Librarian above, Genre Pulse is a good choice if you want to test out your book (to see whether or not it is ready to be promoted)
Kindle Nation Daily
1. The oldest book promotion site and the original site that started helping authors promote their books to readers
2. Helping authors since 2008 and created many of the innovations that are now considered standard for book promotion
3. Has helped over 10,000 authors
Book Gorilla
1. The Sister Site for Kindle Nation Daily
2. Has over 150,000 readers
One Hundred Free Books (OHFB)
1. A good book promotion site which has very high acceptance criteria and works well for many authors

Christian Non Fiction is not an area of focus for most book promotion sites. In fact, even Non Fiction in general is not an area of focus. Over time, we expect more book promotion sites to start focusing heavily on Non Fiction and Christian Non Fiction and will update these lists then

Detailed Insights on the Top 10 Christian Non Fiction Book Promotion Sites

To Be Added Later

We will, later on, add special insights for each of the Top 10 Christian Non Fiction Book promotion sites

Increasing Your Chances of Getting Accepted at the Top Christian Non Fiction Book Promotion Sites

These are the 10 most important things you should do to increase your chances of getting accepted by the top Christian Non Fiction book promotion sites

These will also significantly increase your book sales. So look at these as an investment into your book and into your Author Career, and not as a burden

Please get the very best, professionally designed book cover that you can afford
1. Firstly, it must be designed by a professional book cover designer
  1. Someone with 10+ years experience of designing book covers
  2. Someone with at least a few years of experience designing book covers for Christian Non Fiction
  3. Contrary to what most authors assume, it cannot be someone who is good artistically with no experience or your favorite artistically gifted relative
    1. It MUST be a professional book cover designer who does it for a living
2. Secondly, you should get the best quality book cover that you can afford
  1. You can get world class book covers designed at each of the following price points
    1. $30 to $50 premades and $130 custom at www.GoOnWrite.com
    2. $100 or so premade at www.CreativeParamita.com
    3. $200 premade and $500 to $1,500 custom at www.Damonza.com
    4. World Class book cover designers exist at almost every price point
    5. Decide what price point you are most comfortable at, and then find the very best book cover designer you can find
3. Thirdly, you must let the book cover designer design a book cover that will make readers click on the book and will lead to sales
  1. It is imperative to not make a book cover to make yourself happy. You are not going to be buying the book, readers are
  2. It is also critical to not interfere in the book cover designer’s work. You have ZERO experience of what sells. Let the expert do their work without trying to impose your ASSUMPTIONS on to their EXPERIENCE and EXPERTISE
Please get a Professional Book Editor and a Professional Proof Reader and follow their advice and input
1. You have to get a professional book editor who has 10+ years of experience of editing Christian Non Fiction books
  1. A friend or fellow author cannot do this job
  2. An editor who has editing experience in non Christian categories cannot do this job
  3. Think of the Editor as the Director of your movie (and you as the script writer). You must get a professional editor
2. You have to get a professional proof reader who has at least 3 years of experience of proof reading Christian Non Fiction books
  1. This is absolutely critical because this is a skill that takes time to master
  2. It is quite difficult to be a good proof reader and catch all the mistakes the untrained eye would miss
    1. Hire only a professional
3. There are many places you can cut corners. A Professional Editor and a Professional Proofreader are not the places to save money as it drastically lowers the quality of your book if you do
4. That brings us to the toughest part for Authors – actually listening to what the Professional Editor and Professional Proof Reader are telling you
  1. Most authors think of their book as ‘their child’. It is NOT your child. It is a product that you are selling
  2. If someone is telling you how to improve your book they are not ‘hurting your feelings by telling you your child is flawed’. They are telling you how to make your product better so that it sells more
  3. LISTEN to the Experts
Write full length books as they do significantly better and most top Christian Non Fiction book promotion sites do not accept very short works
1. The contest is not to see if you can sell a short book in a world where readers prefer longer books
2. Nor is it a contest to provide the least amount of value for the money
3. It’s actually the exact opposite – You have to provide the most value possible for a reasonable price (lower the better)
  1. You have to create longer and longer books
4. Your chances of doing well with a Christian Non Fiction book under 50 pages are very low
  1. Even with books under 100 pages your chances are low
  2. You MUST go over 100 pages, and ideally over 150 or over 200 pages
5. Why this shift to Christian readers wanting longer books
  1. The first reason is that they want better value for money
  2. The second reason is that it takes them sifting through 10 to 20 books to find one very good Christian Non Fiction book
    1. If that book then turns out to be 27 pages, they get barely half an hour of reading pleasure
    2. A 150 page book, on the other hand, will give them 2 to 3 hours of reading pleasure
6. Most of the Top 10 Christian Non Fiction book promotion sites will not take books under 100 pages
  1. Even the ones that take books under 100 pages will have books over 100 pages do significantly better
Whenever possible, get book reviews for your book Before you submit your book to the top Christian Non Fiction book promotion sites
1. If your book doesn’t have reviews yet, then it must have an exceptionally good book cover or exceptionally good writing, or both
  1. 95% of authors won’t qualify because very few authors have exceptionally good book covers
2. On the other hand, if you have good reviews from readers (even if it is a few), your chances of getting approved go up dramatically
3. Please keep in mind that promotion sites take Christian Non Fiction books that are likely to sell well
  1. Reviews are one of the top 2 factors that increase sales (the other is a very high quality, professionally designed book cover)
Rewrite your book to ensure that it reads well and gives readers a good reading experience
1. There is no author on Earth who writes a great book in their first draft
2. Great authors do multiple rewrites until the book flows perfectly
3. Good authors do 2 to 3 rewrites and make sure the book has good flow and is a pleasure to read
4. Often the only difference between a good book and a terrible book is that the author of the terrible book thought that the first draft of the book is ‘good enough to sell’ and did not do 3 to 4 rewrites to make the book a great read
Whenever possible, discount your ebook to make it more enticing to readers. This will significantly increase your chances of getting approved
1. The approval criteria for higher priced books is more stringent than for discounted books
2. This is true across all book promotion sites. It is particularly true for the Top 10 Christian Non Fiction book promotion sites
3. A very polished book will sell even at higher prices such as $4.99 and $9.99
  1. However, most books are not polished
    1. A good rule of thumb is that if you have spent less than 3 months on rewriting, editing, proof reading, and book cover design, then the book is definitely not at the quality level to charge $4.99 to $9.99 for the ebook and $14 to $20 for the paperback
  2. You have to be realistic about what price readers will pay
  3. If you have spent a lot of time and created a very polished book, then you can charge a higher price
  4. If you have not, then you should adjust the price to something that readers find attractive
Read the specific acceptance criteria of each of the top Christian Non Fiction book promotion sites and try to adhere to these acceptance criteria
1. The various book promotion sites have their acceptance criteria and requirements
2. Whenever possible read through them and make sure your book qualifies
3. Mostly the requirements center around
  1. Professionally designed book cover
  2. Professionally edited book
  3. Certain Length Requirements
  4. Within a certain price range
Please make sure the book sample, the book description, and the book title are free of spelling mistakes, typographical mistakes and grammatical errors
1. This is something that is 100% under your control
2. You should make absolutely sure there are no errors whatsoever in your book sample and book description and book title
3. If readers see errors they will not buy your book
4. If the Christian Non Fiction book promotion sites see errors they will not accept your book
Please only submit a Christian Non Fiction book when submitting for a Christian Book promotion at the top Christian Non Fiction book promotion sites
1. This is painfully obvious and yet 25% of the time authors are submitting books that are not Christian and not suitable for Christian readers
2. Please submit only books that are Christian Non Fiction
3. Christian readers looking for Christian Non Fiction are not going to start reading non Christian books
Please deliver what the readers in a Christian Non Fiction book category expect
1. For every sub category and every category in Christian Non Fiction, there are some very particular genre conventions
2. There is something that the readers in that category expect
3. Please make sure to deliver that
  1. At the end of the day the readers should find the exact reading pleasure/reading value they are looking for

In addition to the above factors, the following factors also increase your chances of getting accepted

Exceptional writing
1. If you have a very, very well written book that has a significantly higher chance of getting accepted
2. Even though it is Non Fiction, the quality of writing matters just as much as the quality of content
Being a Bestseller
1. Only three Bestseller Lists matter – New York Times Bestsellers List, USA Today Bestsellers List, Wall Street Journal Bestseller List
2. If you are a bestselling author according to one of these lists, your chances of getting improved go up drastically
Having won a Big Award
1. Only large awards matter – National Book Award, Pulitzer Prize (for journalists writing a book), Booker, Man Booker, etc
2. If you have won a Big Award then your chances of getting approved go up much higher
World Class Book Cover
1. If you manage to get a world class book cover designer, and have him create his best work
2. Your book will almost always get accepted
3. As mentioned before, Book Cover and Reviews are the 2 biggest drivers of book sales
Exceptional Experience or an exceptionally well written Author Profile
1. If your Non Fiction book is written based on some exceptional experience and achievements, then it has a very high chance of getting accepted
2. Another less common case is when your Author Profile is very well written and powerful. That too will usually get you accepted
  1. Unfortunately, 95% of authors think the Author Profile is pointless, instead of seeing it as a rather important sales and marketing tool

Basically, the top Christian Non Fiction book promotion sites are looking for a Win-Win-Win scenario i.e.

Readers like the book and buy it (or download it)
Authors are happy with the results
Book Promotion sites are happy as both reader clients and author clients are happy

The single biggest determinant of this is whether or not the book sells with readers. So all the acceptance criteria revolve around the book being well polished and selling well with the Christian non fiction book promotion site’s readers

The acceptance criteria are basically a guide to making the changes that will lead to good book sales for your book

Christian Non Fiction Book Promotion Sites – Biggest Mistakes to Avoid

The two biggest mistakes Christian Non Fiction book authors make are

Putting their Christian Non Fiction book into a non Christian category
1. This does not lead to a ‘miracle’ or ‘people who are not Christian suddenly discovering they like Christian books’
2. It only leads to a waste of your marketing budget
3. Please make sure you out your Christian Non Fiction book into Christian book categories as those are the readers who will buy and read your book
Trying to market and promote a general Non Fiction book as a Christian Non Fiction book
1. This is the opposite type of mistake and this doesn’t work either
2. You have to have a Christian Non Fiction book written for Christian readers, for it to sell with Christian readers

These are fundamental mistakes which you should avoid

Now let’s look at 12 other mistakes you should avoid when promoting a Christian Non Fiction book

Writing for a market that does not exist
1. By far the biggest mistake authors make in Christian Non Fiction (and in all other book categories) is – Writing a book for an imaginary market. A market that only exists in the author’s head
2. BEFORE you even write a single sentence, you should FIRST do proper market research and confirm
  1. A Market exists for your book
  2. That Market buys the kind of book you are writing
  3. Both are critical (presence of the market; that market will actually buy the book you are writing)
3. A few additional things to keep in mind for Christian Non Fiction
  1. Women readers are a much bigger market than male readers
  2. This trips up a lot of Christian Non Fiction authors
  3. Christian Non Fiction aimed at women will usually out sell Christian Non Fiction aimed at men by 2 is to 1 or even 3 is to 1
  4. Every category within Christian Non Fiction is different, and has different expectations
  5. Make as few assumptions as possible
Not Knowing exactly what Christian Non Fiction categories and sub categories your book fits into
1. If you have done market research FIRST and decided on what to write based on what the market will buy, then you will have a very precise idea of what Christian Non Fiction book categories and sub categories your book fits into
  1. This is great
2. If not, you will have to figure out exactly where your book fits
  1. If you do not do this accurately and well, then you are giving you most of the book sales your book would get
Not Placing your Christian Non Fiction book into the exact correct categories and sub categories and not promoting it to readers in those exact correct Christian book categories and sub categories
1. After you know (or figure out) exactly where your Christian Non Fiction book fits
  1. You have to make sure you place it in those exact sub categories and categories in the ebook stores and the book stores
    1. This is absolutely critical
    2. Readers only buy from their favorite book genres
    3. You can’t just put a book anywhere and then magically expect the right readers to find it
    4. You have to place it EXACTLY where the right readers will find it
    5. If you were placing your book in a physical book store, would you place it just anywhere, and hope readers find it by accident?
      1. Then why are you making that mistake with the book stores online?
  2. You have to make sure that you promote it as the right category and to the right readers for your book
    1. The promotion and marketing must go to readers who buy and read Christian Non Fiction books
    2. The promotion and marketing (and the book page) must clearly state that the book is Christian Non Fiction and also its exact categories and sub categories
Not reassuring readers that your book is the right book for them
1. At the end of the day we are all human beings. We have our hesitation and our doubt and our fears
2. The reader does not know who you are (unless you are an established author). The reader does not know your book. The reader cannot get into your mind and see the hard work and effort you put into your book
3. Your Book has to reassure the reader
  1. It is the right category
  2. It is a well polished book
  3. It is worth their precious reading time
  4. It is worth their hard earned money
  5. It is something they will be glad they bought
Not making your Christian book categories and sub categories CRYSTAL clear to readers
1. Perhaps the single biggest fear readers have is that they will buy a book that is in the wrong category
  1. This is caused by a long history of some authors being careless and other authors being disingenuous about what category their book belongs to
  2. What that has caused is that readers are very fearful of getting a book from the wrong category and only finding out after they have already wasted 1 or 2 hours of their time
2. The best way to eliminate this fear is to very clearly specify what the book’s categories and sub categories are. You should make the book categories Crystal Clear
  1. The book cover (by following genre conventions for what a book cover in that category should be like)
  2. The book title (perfect if you put the book category in the title)
  3. The book description
  4. The book categories on the book page
  5. The Author Profits
3. You might think you are gaining some advantage by making the categories ambiguous. You might just have not thought about it. In reality, if you don’t make book categories crystal clear you are losing lots of sales and you are making things very difficult for readers
Cutting corners on Editing and Proof Reading
1. An author who ‘saves money’ by cutting corners on Editing and Proof Reading, is only reducing book sales and killing their book
2. You are selling a PRODUCT. You have to invest in the quality of the product
3. You cannot, and should not, create a half baked product and then hope for a miracle
Assuming the Book Cover does not matter, when in fact it is the single most important thing
1. A Book Cover determines whether or not the reader clicks on the book cover and goes to the book page
  1. That makes it the single biggest determinant of success
2. On the book page, readers assume that the quality of the book cover and the attention to detail in the book cover convey the quality of writing
  1. Even on the book page, the book cover is as important as book reviews, and these two are far more important than everything else
3. You can’t treat the book cover as an annoying thing you have to check off your To Do List
  1. A Book Cover is the biggest factor in whether or not a book will sell
  2. Even more so, a book cover determines whether or not readers will even visit your book page
Not asking readers for reviews
1. Readers live in this unique world where
  1. When deciding whether or not to buy a book, they give the most weightage to book cover and reviews from other readers
  2. After reading and liking a book, they almost never leave a review
    1. Even if they really, really like a book, they never think to leave a review
2. The Author has to make the reader aware that the author would like a review
  1. This is absolutely critical
3. If readers know that the author would like a review if they enjoy reading the book, they will leave a review
  1. If they don’t know, they won’t
  2. So it is up to you, the author, to ASK FOR REVIEWS
  3. Ask at least a few times
Ignoring the Quality and Fit and Finish of your Christian Non Fiction book
1. Christian Books (both Fiction and Non Fiction) are interesting in that most Christian authors (except Christian Romance) just totally ignore Fit and Finish
2. At the end of the day readers do want a book that is very polished and has a beautiful book cover and is well edited and is free of mistakes
  1. They are not going to accept a book with 50 errors just because it is a Christian book
3. Please put in the effort to polish up your book and have good, solid Fit and Finish
Promoting a Book that is not ready
1. This is a quick check list for whether or not your book is ready (it’s ready when you can check ALL the items on this list)
  1. Professionally designed book cover made by an experienced book cover designer
  2. Professionally Edited by a professional editor with 10+ years experience of editing Christian Non Fiction books
  3. Professionally proof read by a professional proof reader with at least 3 years experience of proof reading Christian Fiction or Christian Non Fiction books
  4. You have rewritten the book at least twice to improve the flow
  5. Length of 150+ pages (at least 100 pages)
  6. You have a good understanding of exactly what Christian Non Fiction categories and sub categories your book fits into
  7. You have placed/categorized your book into exactly these Christian Non Fiction categories and sub categories
2. After you have done all these things, your book is ready to be promoted
3. Now, you should take a few weeks or a few months to figure out where to promote your book and how to reach the right readers
4. Only after that should you start promoting
5. This is exceedingly difficult to do because authors are hungry to start getting their book into readers’ hands
  1. However, you must exercise patience and make sure you
    1. Get your book into the right readers’ hands
    2. The book is polished enough to delight these readers
Trying to put all your money and effort into your very first book
1. Ideally, you should put 10% of your marketing budget into your first book
2. Ideally, you should treat your first book as your first, rudimentary effort and not get too attached to it. Think of it as a beautiful experiment that will teach you how to write books and how to promote books
3. If you had to build your home, which option would you prefer
  1. Build 5 to 20 homes for other people and learn how to build a really beautiful home and build it well
  2. OR
  3. Build a home for yourself in your first try, and then live with that even if it has lots of first time mistakes and flaws
4. It’s exactly the same with marketing and promoting your book
  1. The first time you will know very little and have to make mistakes and learn what works and what doesn’t work
5. If you spend only 10% of your marketing budget on your first book
  1. You will have the remaining 90% for your later books
  2. For those books you will know what works and what doesn’t work
  3. For those books, your skills as an author would have improved and you would write better books
Falling in love with your book, or assuming it is perfect the minute you write it
1. Luckily this is not that common with Christian book authors
  1. It is still something to very carefully guard against
2. Under no circumstance should you fall in love with your book
  1. It is a PRODUCT made to sell to readers
  2. It is not your first born child
    1. It was not born perfect either
  3. It is not your masterpiece
    1. Only Masters in their craft can make a masterpiece
    2. You cannot just start writing books and write a masterpiece in your first attempt
3. Most successful authors have DECADES of experience of writing books and learning the various skills required to market and promote books well
  1. You have to come in with some measure of humility for that hard work and experience

Please avoid as many of these mistakes are possible. We’re all human and we make mistakes. That does not mean we have to keep repeating mistakes of previous authors

If we can learn from the mistakes authors before us made, we can not only save a lot of money and time and effort, we can also significantly increase our chances of doing well as authors

Christian Non Fiction Book Promotion Sites – Improving the Results of Your Christian Non Fiction Book Promotion with the Top 10 Christian Non Fiction Book Promotion Sites

Firstly, these are two things to keep in mind

Christian Non Fiction is an under-served book category
1. There are not that many Christian Non Fiction authors
2. Very few are writing in the right Christian Non Fiction book categories
3. Very few are writing very polished, high quality books
4. The level of competition is surprisingly low for what is a big and fast growing book category (Christian Non Fiction)
5. If you write high quality, well polished books, then your chances of doing well are significantly higher than in almost any other book category
  1. Please keep that in mind throughout
  2. The only reason you would not sell is if either
    1. You wrote a book for the wrong book category
    2. OR
    3. You cut corners on your book or your book cover
In every book category, whether over served or under-served, readers are always running out of good books to read
1. People who love books NEVER have enough books to read
2. No reader ever says – There are so many good books, I wish there were fewer good books
  1. They are always complaining about the exact opposite – they cannot find good books to read
3. If you write a good book, polish it well, put it in the right book categories, and promote it to the right readers, then you will sell
  1. You just have to put in the effort from your side
  2. Equally importantly, you have to figure out WHO your Christian Non Fiction book is suited to, and you have to market to exactly those Christian readers

All the improvements you make to increase book sales, should be done under these two overarching principles i.e.

High Quality Christian Non Fiction Books have a very high chance of doing well because all Christian Non Fiction book categories are under-served
Christian Non Fiction readers do not have enough good books to read and PROVIDED you can find the right readers for your Christian Non Fiction book and PROVIDED you have a good quality book, you should see decent to good sales for every book you write

Please internalize these two principles

Here are the things you should do to improve the results of your Christian Non Fiction book promotion with the Top 10 Christian Non Fiction book promotion sites

Do PROPER Market Research and figure out what Christian Non Fiction book categories you should write for
1. This is the single best thing you can do for your career as an Author
  1. Proper market research to make sure you are writing a book for the right market
2. Writing for the right market is more powerful than anything else you could do
  1. It is even more powerful than everything else you could do
3. If you identify a good market to write for (it will require hard work and lots of good market research), then everything else becomes easy and straightforward
Do Additional Market Research and figure out WHAT BOOK you should right for these ‘Right’ Christian Non Fiction Book Categories
1. After you identify the right market, you have to do follow on research and identify What Book to Write for This Right Market
2. Once you have found a good market, it is relatively straightforward to find what book to write for it
  1. It is, however, work that must be done
  2. You cannot blindly write any book and expect it to sell
  3. Perhaps most dangerous is to try and write ‘your dream book’ without first confirming that your dream book would be good fit for this market
3. These 2 steps are the biggest contributors to success
  1. Step 1: Find The Right Market to Write For
  2. Step 2: Find The Right Book to write for This Right Market
Market and Promote only to Readers in these exact ‘Right’ Christian Non Fiction book categories
1. It is a mixture of wishful thinking and lethargy when authors start thinking – I can market to anyone and the book will sell
  1. Would you market a fridge to people looking to buy a pickup truck?
    1. No, that makes no sense
  2. However, it makes even less sense to market a Christian Non Fiction book to one or more of
    1. Readers in general Non Fiction
    2. Readers looking for Christian Romance
    3. Readers who you don’t know what they are looking for
  3. You must promote to Readers ALREADY LOOKING TO BUY Christian Non Fiction
    1. That’s the biggest secret of marketing and sales
      1. You can only sell to the people who are ready to buy
2. It can be quite difficult to find the right readers
  1. However, it can also be very rewarding
3. The skill of finding out where your right readers are, and what are the best ways to market and promote your books to them, takes time to learn
  1. It is a very rewarding skill once you have learnt it
  2. It is a skill well worth learning
Marketing and Promotion should come only after you have a product that is very polished and worth selling
1. By far the biggest takeaway you will get, after you have done a lot of book promotion and marketing, is
  1. The level of results will depend on the quality level of your book
  2. The level of results will depend on how suitable the book is, for the readers to whom it is being marketed
2. Some authors spend $500 before they understand this
  1. Some authors spend $10,000
  2. Some authors never understand this
3. The best way to make the most of your marketing budget is, rather surprisingly, completely under your control
  1. Improve the Quality of Your Book
  2. Only market and promote it to the right readers
Stop listening to the part of you that thinks a half baked book is going to succeed
1. We all like wishful thinking
2. There are 10 million authors in the world
3. All trying to sell their book
4. 9.9 million of them think that they can sell a million copies of their book which they haven’t even polished and perfected
5. If you can be in the 100,000 authors who are willing to work hard and create a very polished book, you get an unmatchable advantage
Make sure you have a very high quality product
1. In most markets, all other things being equal, the higher quality product does better
2. Books is the same. Usually, the highest quality books sell the most
3. While most other factors are outside your control, the quality of your book is completely within your control
  1. So make the most of this control and create a very high quality book
Gather as many readers as you can on to your email list and blog and social media accounts
1. Long term success depends on repeat customers and being able to reach them quickly and conveniently
2. For that you have to gather as many of your readers as possible on to your email list, your blog, and your social media accounts
3. An email list is the best option, and you should start by focusing on growing your email list
Ask for Reviews and Get as Many Reviews as You Can
1. Firstly, always always always ask your readers for reviews
2. Secondly, don’t stop after getting a few reviews
  1. Every review is a vote of trust from readers
    1. Readers trust other readers more than they trust anyone or anything
    2. So the more ‘votes of trust’ i.e. reviews, you can get, the better
3. Thirdly, to the extent possible, ask your most loyal readers for reviews first
  1. Once you have an email list that is one good place to reach your most loyal readers and ask for reviews
Get the Absolute Best Book Cover you can
1. At some point you will realize that your book cover determines your level of success
2. At a later point of time you will realize that your book cover can be improved a lot
3. At a much later point of time you will realize that your book cover can constantly be improved and constantly should be improved
  1. It might mean that for each new book you get a higher quality cover
  2. It might mean that you keep improving book covers as sales increase
4. You can save yourself a lot of time and greatly increase sales by just going for the best book cover you can afford (only from a professionally designed book cover)
5. At every point of time in your author career, you will look back at the book covers you had and feel that was your biggest area for improvement
  1. And most of the time, you will be right
Rewrite your book at least 3 times. After that get it edited. After that get it proof read
1. If you have not rewritten your book 2 or 3 times, then you are not really giving anywhere close to your best
2. By rewriting you can greatly improve the flow and readability of your book
  1. You can also make your story more powerful, easier to read, and more compelling
3. Contrast writing your book to directing a movie
  1. Why does the director take 27 takes for an important scene?
    1. To create the maximum impact
    2. To tell the best story
    3. To delight readers and fascinate them
  2. Why do you need to rewrite your book?
    1. For the exact same reasons
Write more and more books
1. The more you will write the better your writing skills will be
2. The more you will market and promote these books, the better your marketing and promotion skills will be
3. The more books you have, the more book sales you will get
Spend your money very carefully, because it is your hard earned money
1. Please don’t think that spending a lot or spending quickly can compensate for a book that is not polished enough to sell well
2. You should do your due diligence BEFORE you start spending
3. Even after that, you should make sure you spend only 10% (or at most 20%) of your marketing budget on your first book

Increasing book sales is not as difficult as you might think. 90% of the problems stem from the twin mistakes of

Writing for the Wrong Market
1. Or Writing the Wrong Book for the Right Market
Assuming that an unpolished book can sell well
1. Or massively underestimating the amount of polish required to sell well

If you can eradicate these two mistakes, and follow the 12 points listed above, you will be well on your way to selling significantly more books

Becoming a Bestseller – Leveraging the Top Christian Non Fiction Book Promotion Sites to Become a Bestseller

Christian Non Fiction is a medium sized category. While there is less competition, it is also important to factor in that there are fewer readers so getting sales is tougher

There are a lot of Christian Non Fiction sub categories of various sizes (from medium sized to very small), which makes it quite possible to become a bestseller even with a new book and even with a small marketing budget

Let’s dive into key strategies and principles that will help you become a bestseller Christian Non Fiction author

The Single Biggest Thing that will Help You to Become a Bestselling Author

Having a very well written book, which is also well polished and well packaged, is the single biggest determinant of whether or not you will succeed

5 Key Truths that will help You to Become a Bestselling Author

There are 5 other key truths you should embrace

An Intelligent Selection of Christian Non Fiction categories and sub categories is almost as important as having a very good and well polished book
1. They must be Christian categories
  1. Christian books do not do well in general Non Fiction
2. There must be a mix of small and medium sized categories
  1. Why?
  2. Because you want to make sure that even if you miss becoming a bestseller in your ideal category, you at least become a bestseller in 1 or more smaller Christian Non Fiction categories
It is almost impossible to become a bestseller with an unpolished book. $1,000 of marketing spent on a polished book, will get you than $10,000 spent on an unpolished book
1. Authors tend to spend very little on polish (editing, proof reading) and packaging (book cover) and spend a lot on marketing and sales
2. That backfires because BEFORE marketing, you should have a high quality product which is well polished and well packaged
3. With an unpolished product, the vast majority of readers you send to the book page will run away without buying the book
4. Authors think the different is 10% or 20%
  1. That an unpolished product will sell 80% to 90% as well as a polished product
  2. That the ‘polish and packaging’ do not matter
  3. That readers don’t judge a book by its cover
5. Reality is that an unpolished book will sell 1/10th as well as a polished book
  1. A book that does not have a good book cover, and is not well edited and proof read, will usually sell 1/10th or less of what a well polished and well packaged book will sell
  2. $10,000 spent on an unpolished book will get you similar sales as $1,000 spent on a well polished and well packaged book
  3. It’s up to you if you still want to burn money because it is too much effort to polish and package a book well
Reviews are absolutely critical for marketing and sales
1. Reviews and a high quality Book Cover are the two most important marketing and sales success determinants
2. Marketing and Promoting a book that doesn’t have reviews will drastically lower results
3. You should have a good number of reviews
4. You should also have a good review rating i.e. 4 stars out of 5 stars, or higher
5. It can seem like a chicken and egg problem – how do you sell without reviews? how do you get reviews without sales?
  1. Getting Reviews is a skill set and you will have to gradually learn it
Sales tend to come in slower than you expect
1. It is very important to be pragmatic about sales results
  1. It is not an area to be optimistic about because Murphy rules sales and marketing
2. Sales will usually come in slightly lower or significantly lower than your hopes and projections
3. Therefore, all your plans must be centered around getting 2 to 3 times more sales than you need to become a bestseller
You cannot have a blind spot when it comes to your book
1. At every stage, the market and the market experts you work with will give you feedback on their book
2. If you think of your book as ‘your child’ and reject the feedback, you will forever be stuck in Low Sales Land
3. If you think of your book as ‘A Product that must constantly be improved’ and take the feedback you are given and incorporate as much of it as possible, you will gradually and consistently improve sales
4. This also brings up an important corollary
  1. You must not start a big marketing and sales push without first getting input and feedback from experts such as a professional book cover designer, a professional editor, and a professional proof reader

Please take these truths to heart. There will be lots of people promising you everything in Books & Publishing is easy and effortless. In reality, it is a BUSINESS and, just like any other business, you have to work hard and create a high quality product

Becoming a Category Bestseller in Christian Non Fiction

You can add 10 categories to your book in the Amazon Kindle store. You can email kdp.amazon.com Support/Help and they will do it for you. It’s very important to use all 10 categories

It is also very important to make sure you only pick Christian Non Fiction categories and sub categories which are a good fit for your book

In some cases you can add general Non Fiction categories. However, please make sure your book is not the type to attract the ire of atheists if you put it into general Non Fiction

You should put your book into a mix of categories

3 Large or Medium Christian Non Fiction book categories and sub categories
1. These are important as most Christian Non Fiction readers check the bestseller lists for these categories
  1. Even being at #88 or #95 will get you in front of a good number of readers
2. There is always the best case scenario of becoming a Top 10 bestseller in one of these large or medium categories
4 Medium or Small Christian Non Fiction book categories and sub categories
1. These are the main categories where you will try for #1 Bestseller
2. These can sometimes be the ‘perfect’ category for your book, in terms of fit between book and readers
3 Small or Very Small Christian Non Fiction book categories and sub categories
1. These are the categories where you will definitely become a #1 Bestseller
2. These categories can also drive a small number of sales
3. The store algorithms will start showing you in both the Bestseller Lists and the Hot New Releases list
  1. So doing well in a category, even a small one, has a lot of value

This is a trusted and tested strategy to become a bestseller and should be seriously considered as the strategy to go with

Number of Sales Required to Become a Christian Non Fiction Book Category Bestseller

Very Important: Aim to get at least twice and ideally thrice the number of sales we list here. Sales tend to come in slower than expected and you cannot be optimistic when planning out your sales and marketing push

The number of sales required to become a bestseller in a particular category is roughly

Large Christian Non Fiction Category – 300 to 1,100 sales over the course of a week
Medium Christian Non Fiction Category – 100 to 300 sales over the course of a week
Small Christian Non Fiction Category – 30 to 100 sales over the course of a week
Very Small Christian Non Fiction Category – 10 to 30 sales over the course of a week

This is for a marketing push that runs for a week

If you are trying to get everything done in 1 or 2 days, then you can get by with roughly 70% to 80% of this number of sales. However, we very strongly recommend setting things up over a week and slowly building up to one big day

Becoming an Amazon Top 100 Bestseller

Very Important: Christian Non Fiction is not a big category. Getting the required number of sales to become an Amazon Top 100 Bestseller is difficult. Please only take a shot at this after having a very good book which is very well polished and well packaged

To Become an Amazon Top 100 Bestseller you need 2,000 to 3,000 sales in a week, or you can get there by getting 1,000 to 2,000 sales in a single day

It is pretty much necessary to get

Bookbub
2 of the 3 remaining Top 4 Christian Non Fiction Book promotion sites i.e. Books Butterfly, eReader News Today, Robin Reads
As many of the remaining Top 10 Christian Non Fiction Book promotion sites, especially Buck Books and Book Sends
Support via Facebook Ads
Support via your own email list and blog and website

Christian Non Fiction is not a big category like Romance or Christian Romance or Biographies & Memoirs. You really have to tap into every good marketing channel you can find

After that, the structure you should set up is

Day 1 – Facebook Ads and a Top 10 Christian Non Fiction book promotion site (Buck Books is a very good choice for Day 1)
1. Facebook Ads must run all 7 days
2. Focus mostly on getting sales in Days 1 to 4 so that you create a nice ramp for your main day (Day 5 with Bookbub)
Day 2 – Some of the Top 10 or smaller Christian Non Fiction book promotion sites
1. Genre Pulse and Fussy Librarian are good choices
Day 3 – Books Butterfly
1. Books Butterfly Christian Non Fiction book promotions are usually 5 to 7 days, so starting Butterfly on Day 3 is ideal
Day 4 – One of the Top 10 Christian Non Fiction book promotion sites
Day 5 – Bookbub
1. One or both of – eReader News Today, Robin Reads
  1. If you cannot get either, then move Buck Books from Day 1 to Day 5
2. As many of the remaining Top 10 book promotion sites as possible
Day 6 – Any of the remaining Top 10 Christian Non Fiction book promotion sites
Day 7 – Facebook Ads

This is a proven structure

If you can’t get Bookbub, then you can use the other Top 10 Christian Non Fiction book promotion sites and this Structure to go for #1 Bestseller in one of the medium sized Christian Non Fiction book categories

Becoming a New York Times or USA Today Bestselling Author

Obligatory Note: It’s INCREDIBLY difficult to get on one of these Bestseller Lists with a Christian Non Fiction book. Please only do this after you have BOTH a very, very well polished book and a very large marketing budget

To become a New York Times Bestseller or an USA Today Bestseller you require

At least 3,000 to 8,000 sales within a one week period
At least 500 out of those sales from outside of Amazon Kindle Store and Amazon.com
1. That means you have to get over 500 sales from Barnes & Noble or Apple or physical bookstores
2. That, in turn, means Bookbub is pretty much necessary
  1. Most of the time Bookbub alone will get you 500+ sales from outside Kindle Store
3. Books Butterfly is also critical because it has a lot of Apple and B&N readers, including an Apple iBooks email list with 100,000+ readers

Generating this many sales will require between $10,000 to $50,000 marketing budget

The benefits of becoming a New York Times or USA Today Bestselling Author are amazing

All your books will see 2 or 3 times more sales than earlier
1. Once you put ‘New York Times Bestselling Author’ and/or ‘USA Today Bestselling Author on your book pages and book covers, sales will increase 2 to 3 times
  1. Please make it CLEAR
  2. You don’t have to be humble
  3. Make it painfully obvious to readers that you’re a bestselling author
2. Please Note: Given the same amount of marketing, you will see 2 to 3 times more sales
  1. If you don’t do marketing, there will be no sales
    1. Two to Three Times of Zero is still Zero
Readers will instantly trust you
1. Readers know that the New York Times Bestsellers List and the USA Today Bestsellers List are the Real Deal
2. They know you must have sold a lot of books and must be at least a decently good author
3. Therefore they will instantly think of you as a trusted author and your books as worth buying
You get credibility and respect for the rest of your life
1. EVERYONE in the ecosystem will respect you, because everyone knows it is incredibly difficult to generate so many sales within a short one week period
2. They also know that New York Times and USA Today weed out most cases of gaming the system
You become a ‘desired’ author for Publishers and Companies
1. Large Publishers and Small Publishers alike consider you worth investing in
  1. We are not saying you will get a book deal
  2. Just that your chances go up from one in a million to one in a hundred
2. Large and Small companies start thinking of you as a potential superstar
  1. There are a lot of large companies (Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble) and a lot of medium and small companies that are keeping an eye on the market
    1. It does not hurt for them to realize you exist
3. TV Studios and Hollywood Movie Studios start keeping an eye on you
  1. The chances of landing a movie deal or a TV deal are so remote that we really should not even mention this
  2. However, it is worth noting that even people in Hollywood start paying attention to your books
Every future attempt you make at becoming a Bestseller, whether a large list or a small list, will become much easier
1. As you will now be getting 2 to 3 times more sales than before
2. It is easier to become a bestseller again
3. This is why you see a lot of authors who have had 5 or 10 or 20 bestselling books
  1. They are only able to get to that level because of the value contributed by becoming a bestseller the first time

Obviously, such immense benefits don’t come easily. To become a bestseller in one of the big lists (New York Times Bestsellers List, USA Today Bestsellers List), you need to give your very best

Firstly, your book really needs to be well written and well polished and well packaged
1. There is no room for a half baked book
2. Your book should be written with care and diligence
  1. After that, it should be rewritten a few times to improve the readability and the flow of the story
3. Your book should have a world class book cover that catches the eye and compels the reader to click on the book cover
  1. The cover should also convey quality and attention to detail
4. Your book should be well edited and proof read
  1. It must be a professional book editor experienced in your book category
  2. It must be a professional proof reader experienced in your book category
Secondly, you need a large marketing budget
1. You will need between $10,000 to $50,000 to do a proper marketing push
2. It won’t work at all with a $1,000 to $5,000 budget
  1. Save that money until you have over $10,000
3. Please remember that you get ZERO credit for getting to 80% of the required sales
  1. So only go for it when you have enough marketing budget
Thirdly, your book cover is make or break and you must make sure it is world class and genre relevant
1. Your book cover and your book’s reviews are the two most important marketing and sales tools you have
2. Please don’t be like 95% of authors who think a book cover is a headache to be taken care of as quickly and as poorly as possible
  1. If you want to succeed as an author you have to start treating your book cover as the most important determinant of success
    1. Because it is
3. Doing a large marketing push successfully is impossible without a very, very good book cover
  1. It must be beautiful
  2. It must catch the eye
  3. It must get the reader to click on it
  4. On the book page it must show high quality and attention to detail
  5. It must match genre conventions and reassure the reader that they are buying a book in the right category
Fourthly, you need a good number of reviews and a high review rating
1. Reviews are the joint most important marketing tool (joint with your book cover)
2. A review is a reader vouching for your book to other readers
3. If you don’t have readers writing good things about your book, it is imperative to first improve your book until readers start writing good things about your book
4. A review rating over 4 stars out of 5 stars is important
  1. Ideally, you want a review rating over 4.5 stars out of 5 stars
5. Absolutely no fake reviews or reviews by people who don’t speak proper English
Fifthly, you need to plan out and structure everything very, very well
1. Everything should be set up 1 to 2 months in advance
2. You should have a plan for if things go wrong
3. You also need to monitor things every day during your marketing push

You have to give your very best. There are a few things that can significantly increase your chances of success (your overall chances are based completely on the number of sales, so please focus on that)

Promoting a $0.99 book
1. A $0.99 ebook will sell 3 to 5 times more than an ebook at $4.99 or $9.99
2. During a Bestseller Push that is absolutely priceless
3. $0.99 is a magical price point and you have to tap into that to maximize your chances of becoming a bestseller
Promoting a $0.99 Box Set
1. Box Sets sell 2 to 4 times more than standalone books
  1. The ‘Box Set effect’ is to powerful that there is no other marketing strategy that can beat it
2. It MUST be a Box Set of 3 or more full length books
3. The basic principle is simple – You are giving readers a box set of 3 full length books worth $10 to $30 for just $1
  1. This makes it impossible to resist
Teaming up with fellow authors and promoting a $0.99 Multi Author Box Set
1. Perhaps the most powerful ‘transformation’ in your marketing you can do is team up with some fellow authors and create a 5 book Multi Author Box Set or a 10 book Multi Author Box Set
2. By teaming up with 5 to 10 fellow authors you increase your marketing budget by 5 to 10 times
3. You also get to tap into the reader bases of each of the authors
4. It is, of course, important to make sure you team up with authors you get along well with
5. It is also critical to discuss all the financial aspects BEFOREHAND and have some legal terms set up and signed by everyone on the team

These 3 are ‘marketing superpowers’ and you should leverage as many of these three as possible when doing your bestseller marketing push

How to Increase the Number of Reviews you get after promoting your Christian Non Fiction Book

Reviews are the joint most important marketing tool (along with your book cover)

Getting Reviews is a skill in itself and you have to gain at least a rudimentary mastery of it. Once you do, getting reviews will go from ‘quite hard’ to very straightforward

The most helpful thing to understand how to get Reviews is that Getting Reviews is both an Art and a Science

Art – writing very well, and continuously improving your writing skills
Science – the technical aspect and the things we will discuss below

The 3 most important things you MUST do if you want to get more reviews and better reviews

Ask Your Readers for Reviews
1. Readers have no clue that a review benefits authors
2. Interestingly, most authors don’t seem to realize this – that the biggest reason your readers are not leaving reviews is that they have no idea that a review really, really benefits you
  1. Make them aware
  2. Ask them for a review
  3. They will leave a review at a much higher rate than they currently do
3. In other areas, such as apps and games, you have developers who ask users for reviews and get a steady stream of reviews
  1. Their biggest trump card is that they ask INSIDE THE APP/GAME ITSELF for a Review
  2. As an author you have to figure out how to do that
Place Your Book in the Perfect Categories for Your Book
1. Who are the people most likely to buy your book?
  1. The readers in the Perfect Categories for your book
2. Who are the readers most likely to enjoy your book?
  1. The readers in the Perfect Categories for your book
3. Who are the readers most likely to leave good reviews for your book?
  1. The readers in the Perfect Categories for your book
4. What is the best way to reach those readers?
  1. The Best and ONLY way to reach these amazing readers who will leave good reviews for your book is by putting your book in its PERFECT categories
    1. Those are the categories in which they look for books
Sell More Books
1. This is the Brute Force method of getting more reviews
2. Depending on the quality of your book, you will get between Zero and 20 reviews for every 1,000 book sales
3. Want to get more reviews?
  1. Sell more books
  2. Not happy with getting only 3 reviews from 1,000 book sales
  3. Only three options
    1. Option 1: Sell 10 times more books, and get 30 reviews instead of 3 reviews
    2. Option 2: Improve the quality of your book, and get 5 reviews per 1,000 sales, instead of 3
    3. Option 3: Sell 10 times more books, and improve the quality of your book, and get 50 reviews instead of 3 reviews

These are incredibly powerful things if you actually take action on them

There are some more effective things you can do to increase the number of reviews you get, and to get better reviews –

Improve the Quality of Your Writing and the Flow of Your Book
1. Learning to write better is very doable
  1. The more you write the better you will get
2. Rewriting the book to make the story world more immersive and the flow of the book better is also a very powerful thing
  1. The more readers dive into your story world and leave behind their daily troubles, the happier they will be
  2. The happier they are, the higher the chance of a good review
Improve the Level of Polish of Your Book
1. Basically, you are immersing your reader into your story
2. The more they go into this story world, the more they enjoy
3. It is best to consider this aspect when trying to understand why typographical errors, spelling mistakes, and grammatical mistakes upset readers so much
4. They are deep in this world you have created for them
  1. A mistake pulls them right back out to the real world
  2. It completely spoils the effect for them
  3. It is the book equivalent of the idiot in the movie theater who starts talking on his phone
5. So it is critical to have a professional editor and a professional proof reader
  1. So reader can enjoy their ‘book theater’ and ‘book world’ without any one interrupting their enjoyment
Improve the Book Cover and Packaging of the Book
1. The first impression you give to the reader will last for a long time
  1. If you give a good impression at the start, you can make some mistakes and still end up with an overall positive impression
  2. If you give a bad first impression, then you will have to work VERY hard to turn that around
    1. What is worse is that if you give the wrong impression with your book cover, they might never buy and read your book
    2. So you would not even get the chance to change their impression of your book
2. If you have a high quality cover then you start off on the right foot
  1. A good book behind that beautiful cover, will make the reader more likely to leave a review
  2. However, the beautiful cover is critical for both
    1. Getting the reader to buy the book
    2. Putting the reader in the mind set that this is a good book
3. Please think about this. Look around at other products – movies, music, clothes, shops, apps
  1. You will see that you give a lot of weight to how they present themselves
Ask readers to Review Your Book at the moment when they are happiest with the book
1. If your book ends on a great high, ask them right there at the bottom of the page to leave a review
2. If your book has an amazing twist that readers would not have seen coming, ask them right there to leave a review
  1. Make it a footnote to avoid being overbearing
  2. However, do ask them
Gather your most loyal readers and ask them for Reviews
1. You should be gathering your most loyal readers on to an email list
2. Then you should be emailing them and asking them for reviews
3. Why?
  1. Because your most loyal readers are the ones most likely to respond to a request for a review
  2. They are also the readers most likely to leave a good review

This seems like a lot of work. However, reviews are the lifeblood of your Author Career. It is a skill you simply must learn and master

Most important of all, as you get better at it, the number of reviews you get keep increasing and everything becomes straightforward

The brand new author who has no idea how to get reviews is in constant torment

Should I really ask for reviews?
Should I really put a note inside my book asking for reviews?
Do I go totally crazy and add a request on the last page of my book asking for reviews?
Will it work?
Will it backfire?

These are tried and trusted methods that work. These are based on 11+ years experience (since the very first day the Amazon Kindle was launched to now) of seeing what works and what doesn’t work

Embrace them and the number and quality of reviews you get will massively improve

Critical Importance of Picking the Right Christian Non Fiction Book Genres & Sub Genres

It’s absolutely critical to pick the right Christian Non Fiction categories and sub categories for your book. There is absolutely no room for guess work or mistakes

Firstly, you must know EXACTLY what Christian Non Fiction sub categories your book fits into
Secondly, you must place your book in those exact categories
Thirdly, you must make sure that your book cover, book title, book description, and author profile are tailored to those exact Christian Non Fiction categories
1. Additionally, your book description must clearly state the Christian Non Fiction categories your book is in
2. Your reader are not telepaths
3. The more clear you are to them, the higher the chance they will buy your book

You cannot just blindly put your book in any category and think ‘Non Fiction is Non Fiction’. It’s all the same

This (putting your book in the wrong Non Fiction categories) is a mistake that both General Non Fiction authors make and Christian Non Fiction authors make

In reality Christian Non Fiction is a combination of book categories that have absolutely nothing to do with each other. Let’s consider some examples

Christian Biographies & Memoirs
1. This is mostly Christian readers who want to read Biographies & Memoirs with a Christian theme
Christian Personal Finance
1. This is readers looking for Financial Advice that follows Biblical principles
2. It also includes general financial advice that may not necessarily be derived from the Bible
Christian Living
1. General Christian Living books
Christian Bible Study
1. Bible study books and workbooks
Christian Devotionals
1. Christian Devotionals that usually follow a 30 day format
Christian Self Help
1. Self Help and Self Improvement books based on Biblical principles and/or written specifically for Christian readers
Inspirational Christian Biographies & Memoirs
1. This is actually a completely different category from Christian Biographies & Memoirs
2. These are Memoirs that inspire
Christian Cookbooks
1. This can be one out of
  1. A cookbook tailored to Christian readers
  2. Christian Recipes based on the Bible or following Christian principles
Many more categories which are completely different from the above ones and from each other

Readers who check in one Christian Non Fiction sub category almost never check in another

If you have a Christian Biography and you think that putting it in Christian Living instead will get you more readers or help you in some way, you’re wrong. All that will happen is that people who actually read Christian Biographies won’t see it and you will lose sales

The Game is Won or Lost in the Selection of Genres and Sub Genres

The more you market and promote your Christian Non Fiction book, the more you will realize the truth of this statement

The Massive Importance of Having a Christian Non Fiction Book of 100 pages or longer (Ideally 150+ Pages)

Think back to the last time

You drove to the theater to watch a 37 minute documentary
Bought a short story
Went to a restaurant and only ordered an appetizer and no entree

If you’re like 99% of people, it will be NEVER

You offering a 30 or 40 page Christian Non Fiction book is the equivalent of offering your reader a small box of french fries instead of a delicious half pound cheeseburger

The authors who write shorter works are incredibly resistant to the indisputable fact that a 150 or 200 page book offers more value to a reader than a 37 page short work

Yet, it is readers and not the authors of 37 page shorter works that decide whether or not readers will buy the book

Please remember that it is what Readers think that matters, not what you think
In your mind your 37 page short work is a work of art
1. It’s worth $2.99 or perhaps even $9.99
2. Readers should be falling all over it
3. You know it’s amazing and that should be instantly apparent to everyone else
In reality, for readers
1. 37 pages is not worth much
  1. The minute they will start getting value from it, it will be over
2. 37 pages has to compete with 150 pages
  1. It’s like comparing an appetizer to a full 5 course dinner
  2. Your 37 page book is NEVER going to win that comparison
3. They just don’t buy 37 page shorter works. They are not going to start with your book
  1. It’s not even a 5 to 1 preference in favor of longer works
  2. Shorter works simply don’t sell

You have to decide what you will be offering readers

A 20 or 30 page appetizer which is completely unappetizing to them
A 5 course meal which they can feast on

You cannot change human nature. You are willing to drive to the theater to watch a blockbuster. However, no 37 minute documentary can get you to make that much effort

It’s EXACTLY the same with readers. 37 pages don’t excite them much

If you want to do well, write 150 pages or 200 pages or more. With 37 pages you are inviting disaster. With 80 to 100 pages you are hoping for good luck and almost certainly not getting it. Over 100 pages is where readers start buying. Once you get to over 150 pages then sales really improve

Christian Non Fiction Book Promotion Site Insights – Please Follow Genre Conventions

Firstly, there are the four main rules for writing Christian Books (both Fiction and Non Fiction)

Absolutely no sex or references to sex (unless unavoidable, for example in Biographies & Memoirs)
1. If references to sex are unavoidable, it should be closed door scenes i.e. no explicit descriptions
2. Please Note: If you cannot avoid references to sex, you must clearly mention this in the first or second paragraph of your book description
3. Please Note: If your book deals with abuse or assault then you must add a Trigger Warning in the book description specifying who might be traumatized by reading your book
No violence (to the extent possible)
1. Excessive Violence is a complete no-no
2. Even normal Violence is a no
  1. If unavoidable, then try to be as un-explicit and non graphic as possible
No swear words, no 4 letter words, no vulgarity
No attacks on Christians or on the Christian language
1. Unfortunately, a few people try to hide their anti-Christian books as ‘Christian Books’
2. This makes readers wary of authors who start off being negative about Christians
  1. If you come off as being against Christians (even if accidentally) then your book will not do well

Secondly, there are some additional considerations to keep in mind when writing Christian Non Fiction

All advice should follow Biblical principles, to the extent possible
There should be no attacks on the Christian religion, and to the extent possible on any religion
Books should appeal to the good parts of human nature, and not the baser parts of human nature
Please do not talk down to people
If you are not a Christian, then BEFORE writing a Christian Non Fiction book please acquaint yourself with the Christian religion and the Bible and the Christian Non Fiction categories you are going to write in
Please use as straightforward language as possible
1. With a Christian Non Fiction book you don’t have to try and impress people by using complicated words or obscure words
Your book should be in harmony with Christian beliefs and principles

Thirdly, you have to keep in minds the conventions for each Christian genre and sub genre

Every Christian book category (and sub category) has some conventions
1. To the extent possible, please follow those conventions
Here are some examples. These are just guidelines. Each category has MANY such guidelines. Please find out what they are and follow them
1. Christian Men’s Living – It should be tailored to Christian Men and should be very practical and easy to embrace
2. Christian Biographies & Memoirs – Whenever possible there should be some message of Faith or Hope or God and some positive lessons/messages
3. Christian Personal Finance – It should follow Biblical principles. There should not be a focus on greed or envy. There should be nothing illegal or even borderline illegal
  1. Please Note that a LOT of things that would be completely OK in normal Personal Finance, would not work with Christian readers because they will not do un-Christian things to make money
4. Christian Devotionals – It should follow the 1 Devotional a day, or similar format. It should be easily digestible. To the extent possible it should be small bite sized pieces
5. Christian Bible Study – It should follow the structure of Bible Studies. It should be focused around the Bible. It should clearly specify what book of the Bible it is focused on. It should be easily usable in Bible Study groups
It is imperative to not break any Genre conventions unless and until you have a very good reason
1. Please note that there is no such thing as ‘artistic license’ or ‘poetic license’ when it comes to Christian Non Fiction
2. You can’t just break a genre convention because ‘the artist in you wanted to try something new’

Perhaps the biggest takeaway should be that you have to follow three strict sets of Conventions

The conventions of Christian Books (whether Fiction or Non Fiction)
The conventions of Christian Non Fiction
The specific conventions of the Christian Non Fiction categories your book falls into

The more you follow these, the more your chances of selling well

Christian Non Fiction Book Promotion Sites vs Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads are a remarkably good marketing and sales channel. They fit in well alongside Christian Non Fiction book promotion sites

Facebook Ads have the following big strengths

Facebook has over 2 billion people
1. Even if we say only 200 million read books, and only 80 million of them are Christians
2. That’s still 80 million Christian readers you can reach
Facebook lets you target very specific groups
1. You can target Christians in a specific city or country
2. You can target Christian readers based on their Interests
Facebook lets you choose whether you want to do a very small amount of marketing ($5 to $15 a day) or a larger amount
1. There is a lot of flexibility in how you want to spread out your marketing
Facebook book marketing works
1. There would be a good argument that it is currently the best book marketing method
Facebook book marketing can become a competitive strength
1. Most authors are not going to do the hard work to learn Facebook Marketing and to figure out how to make Facebook Ads work for their book
2. If you can, and do, it becomes a big strategic advantage

Facebook Ads have the following weaknesses

Facebook Ads marketing is a skill in itself
1. This means that you have to put in a lot of time to learn in
2. Depending on how much time you have, it might not make sense for you to learn Facebook Ads because you also have to learn the skills of Knowing What Book to Write, Writing Very Well, and Book Marketing in General
Facebook Ads are a bidding based system and keep getting more expensive
1. Google Ads are basically ruled out for authors because the prices are just too high and it is too competitive
2. Facebook Ads are not yet super competitive or very expensive. However, they are slowly getting more and more expensive
Facebook Ads won’t work for 50% or so of authors
1. There are some authors for whom Facebook Ads work very well (roughly 25% of authors)
2. There are some authors for whom Facebook Ads work decently well (roughly 25% of authors)
3. For the remaining 50% of authors Facebook Ads won’t work or will be way too expensive in terms of results they get per dollar spent
Facebook Ads are not good for creating large sales spikes. They are better for a steady stream of sales

Facebook Ads work very well with Christian Non Fiction book promotion sites because the Christian Non Fiction book promotion sites are good at some of the stuff Facebook Ads are not good at i.e.

You don’t have to learn anything to use Christian Non Fiction book promotion sites
1. You pay a fee and they handle everything for you
Christian Non Fiction book promotion sites are good at creating sales spikes
1. You use them to create a sales spike
2. Then you use Facebook Ads to create a steady stream of daily sales
The Top 10 Christian Non Fiction book promotion sites will work for 70% to 80% of authors
1. This higher chance of working (compared to 50% for Facebook Ads) combined with the simplicity (no need to learn a new skillset like you have to do with Facebook Ads) makes the Christian Non Fiction book promotion sites a simpler solution for most authors
Book Promotion Sites have fixed prices and no bidding system
1. This means that you are not competing with other bidders and you have a very good idea of exactly how much it will cost you
2. You also don’t have to worry about getting priced out of the market

Interestingly, Facebook Ads and the top Christian Non Fiction book promotion sites make a very good combination

Our recommendation would be to use both. They will most probably become your top 2 marketing methods

Christian Non Fiction Book Promotion – Facebook Ads vs Amazon Marketing Services

Amazon Marketing Services is a smaller, less powerful form of Facebook Ads. There are some things to keep in mind

Facebook Ads work for a larger percentage of authors (40% to 50%) while Amazon Marketing Services Ads only work for 20% to 30% of authors
Both are very complicated to learn. Most authors will only have time to learn one. As Facebook Ads is a much better advertising resource, and as it has less eccentricities than Amazon Marketing Services, it is better to do Facebook Ads first
1. If Facebook Ads, then you don’t really need to spend a bunch of time learning Amazon Marketing Services
Learning either is like learning an entire new skill set
1. It is time you are taking away from researching what to write, and from writing
2. Ideal is to focus on one out of Facebook Ads or Amazon MArketing Services
  1. For most authors we recommend Facebook Ads
3. If you choose Facebook Ads, seriously consider hiring a Facebook Ads marketing expert
  1. Most good ones will take a 20% cut of your marketing budget and that is quite reasonable given that you save a lot of time and also don’t have to learn an entire new skillset
Amazon Marketing Services is quite wonky and sometimes it won’t work (won’t give you clicks), whereas Facebook Ads is more stable in that if you do everything right you will definitely get clicks
Amazon Marketing Services is completely based on readers who are already coming to Amazon.com and visiting book pages
1. The big plus is that these are readers already in the buy mindset
2. The slight negative is that they are already visiting popular and bestselling authors and therefore the bar is higher for your book
Facebook Ads has rather amazing targeting abilities. You can target by location, interests, age, etc
1. Amazon Marketing Services have rather limited targeting capabilities

In general, the top Christian Non Fiction book promotion sites and Facebook Ads will be your top two marketing channels.

If you have time to add on Amazon Marketing Services it is a good third channel. However, it is not as powerful as the top two and can be quite a lot of work. We do strongly recommend looking at it only after making the top Christian book promotion sites and Facebook Ads work for your book

The 3 Core Skills for Authors

The 3 Core Skills for authors, which especially apply to authors writing Christian Non Fiction, are

Knowing What to Write (Writing The Right Book for The Right Market
1. Doing the marketing research to find what markets are hot, and what readers are buying in those markets
2. This is the most ignored Skill for Authors, even though it is more important than every other skill combined
3. Even Christian Non Fiction authors ignore this skill way too much
Writing Very Well (Writing high quality books)
1. This is the skill of writing a very good book, rewriting it for improved readability, and then polishing it
2. This includes using a professional book editor and a professional proof reader
3. Having a high quality product is critical to getting good book sales
Marketing & Selling Very Well
1. This is the skill of reaching the right readers and convincing them to buy your book
2. This is a skill most authors shy away from, because marketing and sales are very difficult
  1. However, they are critical if you want to do well
3. Marketing and Sales are perhaps the 2nd most important skill after Knowing What to Write

If you can master one of these three skills, while also becoming passably good in the other two skills, then you will have a good career as an author

If you can’t master one of these skills, though can still become very good at all three, that will also give you a decent career

How well you do as an author is primarily dependent on your level of mastery of these 3 Core Skills for Authors

Please also read this post on Levels of Mastery of The 3 Core Skills to better understand the 3 Core Skills for Authors

How the 3 Core Skills apply to Christian Non Fiction Book Promotion

The 3 Core Skills apply even more to Christian Non Fiction Authors than to authors in general

Knowing What to Write
1. Christian Non Fiction is a very promising category with some very hot markets and relatively little competition
2. However, many Christian Non Fiction authors keep focusing on low potential categories and ignoring the actual very hot markets
3. Additionally, the majority of Christian Non Fiction authors write ‘the book they want to write’ instead of writing the book readers will buy and read
  1. Finding a very good market is pointless if after finding that market you proceed to write the book you think they will buy or wish they will buy, instead of what they are already buying
Writing Very Well
1. Christian Non Fiction books have a surprisingly low writing skill level, and are usually quite unpolished
2. This is actually good news for you for two reasons
  1. Working on your writing skills will make your books really stand out
  2. Polishing your book and using a professional book editor and a professional proof reader will give you the type of polished book that sells very well
    1. In a sea of books where authors have cut corners, your well polished book will sparkle like a diamond (provided you have a well designed book cover)
3. There is no other book category where an investment into your writing skills will pay off as well as in Christian Non Fiction
Marketing & Selling Very Well
1. To be frank, a lot of this depends on what book categories within Christian Non Fiction you choose to write in
  1. The difference is very stark
    1. In some Christian Non Fiction book categories, which are ‘hot’ and growing, you don’t even need much marketing and sales
    2. Some Christian Non Fiction book categories are ‘trap’ categories, which have very few readers and very few sales, and no amount of marketing and promotion will help
2. If you have chosen the right book markets to write for
  1. You need to find a solid, repeatable marketing strategy
  2. For most Christian Non Fiction book categories, this will be a combination of the best Christian Non Fiction book promotion sites (Bookbub, Books Butterfly, Robin Reads, Buck Books, eReader News Today) and Facebook Ads
  3. You will, however, have to test what works for your books, and what doesn’t

Christian Non Fiction Books are perhaps the book category that benefits the most from the 3 Core Skills for Authors

While it is true that the 3 Core Skills for Authors are critical for every author, they are even more so for every Christian Non Fiction book author

The 9 Golden Rules of Christian Non Fiction Book Promotion

These are by far the most important rules and guidelines to follow if you want to do well as a Christian Non Fiction book author

Success or Failure depends almost entirely on what Christian Non Fiction book category you choose to write for
1. This is such a hard concept to grasp
  1. Once you do you will understand why your success will depend almost entirely on picking The Right Christian Non Fiction book categories to write for
  2. All the other things – marketing, writing well, sales, finances – become insignificant in comparison
    1. It really messes with our concept of how things work. We are authors and we think writing a beautiful book is all that matters
    2. Perhaps at some point of time we start realizing that Marketing & Sales are also very important
    3. It is only after spending 5 to 15 years selling books (or another product) that we realize
      1. The Market will buy what it wants to buy
      2. The easiest path, and perhaps the only straightforward path, to sell a lot of product is to make Exactly What the Market is Already Dying to Buy
2. 3 weeks spent researching the market and figuring out The Right Market to write for
  1. Are worth more than 3 years of writing books
  2. Those 3 weeks, for most authors, are worth more than 10 years of writing books and marketing books
  3. If you do write and marketing without first finding a good market, at the end of 10 years, the conclusion you will arrive at is
    1. You should have spent 3 weeks to 3 months doing market research
    2. BEFORE you ever picked up a pen, or opened up your laptop to write a word
3. This applies across all markets and regardless of what product you create and try to sell
  1. It’s called Product Market Fit and it is, by far, the most important determinant of success
Product Market Fit is the only thing that matters
1. Product Market Fit = Writing The Right Book for The Right Market
2. Writing The Right Book for The Right Market is all that matters
3. Readers are not looking to buy what you want them to buy. They are only looking to buy what they desire to buy and what they want to buy
4. Your primary job as an author is not to write whatever you want and then to try and convince readers to buy that
5. Your primary job as an author is actually to search for and find a very good market
  1. Then you have to figure out what it is that readers in this market want to buy
  2. Then you have to write exactly that book
  3. Please think about it and it will make perfect sense to you
    1. If the right market is Fast Food, and the right product is Fried Chicken
      1. Then the person who opens a gourmet pizza restaurant, with pizza that takes 1.5 hours to cook, will never do well
    2. On the other hand, the person who first does market research and finds that people are clamoring for Fried Chicken they can get in 5 minutes or less, can open a Fast Food chain with Fried Chicken and be very successful
Pick a Market you are passionate about to increase your chances of doing well
1. When doing market research you will find several very good markets
  1. Markets which have a lot of demand and very little supply
  2. Markets where competition is low and their products (books) are not very polished
  3. These are exactly the kind of markets you should go into
2. At this juncture, you should always try and pick markets you are passionate about
  1. Why?
  2. Because you will always give your best when you are passionate about a market
  3. That passion is the difference between breaking even and being very successful
3. We only get a hundred years to live
  1. If you can spend your author career working in an area you are passionate about
  2. Not only will you enjoy it a lot more
  3. You will also greatly increase your chances of being successful financially and in terms of building a reader base
You must produce the highest quality books you can produce
1. While Finding the Right Market to write in is the single most important aspect of being an author
2. It is also very critical to write a very good book i.e. create a very good product
3. After finding the right market, you do additional market research to find what is the right book for this market
4. After you have figured out what the right product is, you have to really focus on creating this right product and creating it in the highest quality possible
5. The more effort and polish you put into your book, the more you will sell
It is Much Easier to Succeed in a good Christian Non Fiction category, than it is to Fail in a bad Christian Non Fiction category
1. There is a very important aspect of success and failure that people don’t fully understand
2. Very often it is not that the unsuccessful product is lower quality, or got less marketing, or was late to the market
  1. In fact, the most frequent reason for not doing well is that the product was made for the wrong market or for a market that doesn’t exist
3. When it comes to writing Christian Non Fiction books, your choice of what Christian Non Fiction categories you write for is supremely important
  1. If you pick the right categories to write for, your Christian Non Fiction book will sell decently well right from the start
    1. As you improve quality and marketing, sales will start increasing steadily
  2. If you pick the wrong categories to write for, your Christian Non Fiction book will either not sell, or will sell very slowly
    1. No matter how much hard work and time and money you throw at the book, you will not be able to get a lot of sales
4. The entire War is won or lost in the choosing of Christian Non Fiction book categories to write for
  1. An author writing for the wrong market can spend 5 years and gain little traction
  2. An author writing for the right market can become very successful within 1 to 4 years
5. You have to make sure you pick the right Christian Non Fiction categories to write for
  1. There is absolutely no substitute
  2. This is the single most important decision of your Author Career (what book categories to write for)
Quality of Product does not matter until you get The Right Readers to Your Book Page, and after that it only matters if you have Written A Book They Want to Buy
1. Product Market Fit – Writing a Book that Readers want to buy i.e. writing the Right Book for the Right Market
2. Marketing – Getting the right readers to your book page
3. Product Quality – How good your book is
4. Product Quality does not matter AT ALL if
  1. You’ve written a book readers don’t want to buy
  2. You’ve written for a market that doesn’t exist
  3. You can’t get the right readers to your book page
5. What we’re trying to say is that you cannot ignore Product Market Fit and you cannot ignore Marketing & Sales
  1. Those are two critical aspects of the puzzle
  2. They are also things you have to figure out BEFORE you spend 3 to 4 years writing your masterpiece
  3. After finishing your book, you again have to go back and confirm Product Market Fit and build a Marketing & Sales strategy
Your Book is a PRODUCT form of your Story/of your Experience
1. Regardless of how beautiful your story is, or how powerful your life experience is, readers are only going to see The Product Form of it
  1. They are not going to live your beautiful life story, or learn from your powerful life experience
  2. Until and unless the Book is polished and beautifully packaged and convinces them to purchase the book
2. This is an incredibly difficult thing to understand because we are so deep in our own story and life experiences
  1. We have literally lived our story
  2. When writing a book we assume that everyone who looks at it will magically see how powerful our life story and/or our experiences and/or our lessons and insights are
  3. In reality they are just seeing a book cover
    1. If it convinces them to click, they are seeing a book cover and a book sample and an author profile and a book description
  4. You have to convey to them exactly why they should buy your book
  5. Then the book has to convey your life story
3. Writing very well is the skill to be able to convey your life experiences and/or your lessons in a powerful way
  1. This skill is necessary because readers only see the book, they cannot enter your mind and experience what you have experienced, or learn what you have learnt
  2. Before they buy your book – your book cover and packaging is all they see
  3. After they buy your book – Words are all you have
Those who Listen to the Market will Always Win over those who Try to Do Things their Way and Those who Try to Reinvent The Wheel
1. Let’s say two people open electronics stores in a small city
  1. The first person says – I really want to sell televisions and Windows computers. I love them. Pretty sure everyone will buy them
  2. The second person says – I really want to do well. Let me do some market research and figure out what people in this city are looking to buy
  3. The second person does research and finds that the people really want to buy Apple devices and mobile phones from Apple and Samsung. They also want to buy Microsoft Surface tablets and laptops
2. The first person can’t understand why people will not buy televisions (everyone already has a TV) and Windows computers (not that popular). The only thing that is selling is Windows Surface laptops. Laptops from other companies aren’t selling
3. The second person finds that the market research was right and Apple devices and mobile phones and Microsoft surface tablets and laptops are flying off the shelves
4. The person who Listened To The Market does very well
5. The person who tried to get the market to buy what they think the market should buy, struggled
6. This applies regardless of what product you are selling. It applies to you regardless of how powerful and great you think your product is
7. The Market will only buy what it wants to buy. If you listen to the market it will tell you what you need to sell to it. Those who Listen to the Market do well
The Market Always Wins
1. The customer will only open their wallets and buy when you are offering them what they want to buy
2. There is no amount of ‘marketing’ or ‘beautiful writing’ that can get a reader to purchase something they don’t want to buy
3. The Market Always Wins
  1. If you accept that, and embrace that, and start writing what the market wants to buy, you will also start winning
  2. If you fight the Market, there is no hope because The Market Always Wins

Christian Non Fiction is a fast growing book category, the amount of competition is relatively low, and the quality level of Christian Non Fiction books is not too high

If you can find the right Christian Non Fiction book categories to write for, and write the right book for those categories, then you have a fighting chance

Please follow the above 9 Golden Rules to the maximum possible extent, as they will significantly increase your chances of doing well

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