Walk Into Books Artville by Jonathan Evans

Book Review – Inbound Marketing

Thursday, June 3rd 2010 - 11:59:24 AM

In February I was in the Denver airport waiting for a flight. As usual I couldn’t resist browsing the bookstore shelves. Something about the book Inbound Marketing by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah caught my eye. So, on impulse, I bought the book and began reading it on the plane. I learned a lot about this phenomenon called social marketing and thought that it would be a great book for all authors to read. But I never got around to writing a review!

The solution to this came yesterday when my friend Randy Ingermanson posted a review of the book as part of his Advanced Fiction Writing e-zine. Whether you write fiction or non-fiction, you owe it to yourself to subscribe to this free resource at advancedfictionwriting.com. And while you are there, read ALL of the past issues. In a short while you will receive a wonderful education!

Randy agreed to let me reprint his review of this book. He said the book had been recommended to him by Thomas Umstattd (authortechtips.com). Which goes to show, in a small way, how word-of-mouth sells books!

Let me step aside and let Randy’s review speak for itself:


The biggest mistake that I see authors making in marketing their book is based on the idea that “marketing is all about me.”

It isn’t, except in the very rare cases where the author is a celebrity, in which case the quality of the writing doesn’t matter. If Bill Clinton or Mother Teresa or Albert Einstein wrote a novel, it would fly off the shelves, whether it was any good or not.

Most novelists aren’t celebrities, and so we need to market our books, not ourselves. (If you do that well enough, you’ll become a celebrity and THEN you can market yourself.)

The second biggest mistake I see authors making in marketing their book is based on the idea that “marketing is all about my book.”

It is and it isn’t.

It is, in the sense that the success of a book depends in some way on its perceived quality in the market.

It isn’t, in the sense that you don’t persuade people that you have a great book by telling people, “I have a great book.” The problem is that “telling” doesn’t work any better in marketing than it does in fiction. “Show, don’t tell,” is a good maxim in marketing, just as in fiction writing.

What works in marketing is to show people that you have a great book, instead of telling them.

How do you do that? That’s what makes marketing hard. I recently read a book that gives you a strategy for doing exactly that.

The title of the book is Inbound Marketing. The subtitle is “Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs.”

Be aware that Inbound Marketing is not about marketing fiction. It’s a general-purpose book on marketing and it’s all about using the internet to get found by customers who are interested in your product, rather than trying to go out and find customers and persuade them to be interested in your product.

Traditional advertising methods are “outbound marketing.” You buy time on TV or radio or you buy space on a billboard or a newspaper or a magazine and you shotgun out a message about your widget and you just hope that people who want widgets happen to see or hear your message just at the time when their desire for a widget is causing them to pull out their wallets.

Outbound marketing is horribly inefficient, because the vast majority of people don’t give a flip about widgets and they get annoyed when somebody makes an unwanted sales pitch about their great widget.

If you don’t want a widget, you don’t want a widget.

Outbound marketing can never change that.

“Inbound marketing” is all about making it easy for customers who already want a widget to find the best widget-makers. It’s far, far easier to sell a widget to a customer who wants one that to a customer who doesn’t.

The internet makes it fantastically easy for anybody to find a widget. Google will find you all the most popular pages about widgets. Blogs will give you a wide range of opinions on which widgets are good and which ones suck. Facebook and Twitter will give you comments by real-live widget users, happy or unhappy. LinkedIn will connect you to the leading experts in widget making. YouTube will show you videos of people using widgets, mocking them, or in some cases, blending them to bits. Amazon will show you all the current books on widgets. Wikipedia will tell you how to make your own widget.

The book Inbound Marketing explains all the strategic principles needed to help you get found by hungry customers who want the widget you happen to make.

The tools customers use to find widgets are constantly changing. What doesn’t change is that you can’t make people come to you by using the old outbound marketing methods with these new tools. Building a brochure web site is outbound marketing. Writing a blog in which you constantly pitch your book is outbound marketing.

Flogging your book on Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn or YouTube is outbound marketing.

Inbound marketing, by contrast, is all about creating what Seth Godin calls “REMARKable content” — content that’s worth remarking on. I have traditionally called this simply “great content”. I like Seth’s term because it gets to the core of the matter. If people are remarking about your product, then they are creating word of mouth.

And that’s the key for novelists. Just about everybody in publishing agrees that the most powerful force in the marketing universe is word of mouth. If you can get people talking about your book, and if they like it, then your marketing job is done. (If they don’t like it, your book is toast, but we’re assuming here that your book really is a great piece of work.)

The book Inbound Marketing explains the strategic principles of creating REMARKable content and then making it findable. Understand that this is not a tactical book. If you want tactics, then look for one of the popular Dummies books on SEO, Facebook, Twitter, Podcasting, or whatever particular tool you want to use.

Tactics are great, because they teach you HOW, but I always believe in learning strategic thinking first, because it teaches you WHY. Once you know WHY, learning HOW is a cakewalk because you’re motivated to work through all the details.

Inbound Marketing is, in my opinion, a REMARKable book.

The authors have succeeded in getting me to remark on it here. The reason is simple. They’ve given me a number of good ideas that I’ll be putting into practice on my own web site.

If you’d like to know more, here’s an easy link to the Amazon page for Inbound Marketing:

http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com/blinks/inbound.php

Full disclosure: The above link contains Randy Ingermanson’s Amazon associates code, which will earn a referral fee if you click on it and then buy the book. Randy only make referrals to books that he likes, but if you prefer that he earn no referral fee, then feel free to go direct to Amazon and search for Inbound Marketing.


Award-winning novelist Randy Ingermanson, “the Snowflake Guy,” publishes the Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine, with more than 20,000 readers, every month. If you want to learn the craft and marketing of fiction, AND make your writing more valuable to editors, AND have FUN doing it, visit http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com.

Download your free Special Report on Tiger Marketing and get a free 5-Day Course in How To Publish a Novel.

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New Releases May 2010

Wednesday, June 2nd 2010 - 10:32:51 AM

Below are new books published last month which our agency represented.
(In alphabetical order by author. Descriptions are from publisher’s web sites).

May 2010

Claim
- Lisa Bergren
David C. Cook

Sent west by their father to make a new life, the St. Clair siblings have done so-but hardly as he’d wished. Beautiful, headstrong Moira, after pursuing a stage career in Paris, has returned to Colorado-older, wiser, and much poorer-to see if there’s anything left of an old relationship. Odessa and her husband, Bryce, are struggling to rebuild their ranch after a devastating winter. And then Nic turns up-broken, haunted, and sick about leaving his sisters.

At last the family is reunited. But Dominic is still at loose ends, seeking a peace that has always eluded him. In the satisfying conclusion of the Homeward Bound trilogy, Nic finally begins to understand how passionately he is loved-by God, his family, and a good woman.


Unwilling Warrior
- Andrea Boeshaar
Realms

The War Between the States has Valerie Fontaine frightened about her future. She never suspects she’ll be thrust into the middle of it.

Benjamin McCabe’s got a noble dream of photographing the Civil War – and he never expected to fall in love with a New Orleans socialite.

When Valerie’s father is arrested on charges of treason, Ben secures a way for her to leave the city and travel to his family’s home in Jericho Junction, Missouri where she’ll be safe.

Can Valerie adjust to life on the prairie and remain true to her promise to wait for Ben no matter what the cost?


Heart of a Cowboy
- Margaret Daley
Steeple Hill Love Inspired

Ten years ago Jordan Masterson left her hometown heartbroken — and pregnant. Now, yearning for connection with her family, the single mother returns to Tallgrass, Oklahoma. But she’s shocked to find her son’s father — unaware he has a child — a vital part of the community. Zachary Rutgers owns the ranch that the local homeschoolers use for riding and recreation. Which means little Nicholas, Jordan and Zachary will be spending a lot of time together. Jordan must tell Zachary the truth about their son—and ask for answers herself. Hoping the heart of her cowboy will still be hers for the taking.


The Last Christian
- David Gregory
Waterbrook

In the future, it’s possible to live forever – but at what cost?

A.D. 2088.

Missionary daughter Abigail Caldwell emerges from the jungle for the first time in her thirty-four years, the sole survivor of a mysterious disease that killed her village. Abby goes to America, only to discover a nation where Christianity has completely died out. A curious message from her grandfather assigns her a surprising mission: re-introduce the Christian faith in America, no matter how insurmountable the odds.

But a larger threat looms. The world’s leading artificial intelligence industrialist has perfected a technique for downloading the human brain into a silicon form. Brain transplants have begun, and with them comes the potential of eliminating physical death altogether—but at what expense?

As Abby navigates a society grown more addicted to stimulating the body than nurturing the soul, she and Creighton Daniels, a historian troubled by his father’s unexpected death, become unwitting targets of powerful men who will stop at nothing to further their nefarious goals. Hanging in the balance—the spiritual future of all humanity.

In this fast-paced thriller, startling near-future science collides with thought-provoking religious themes to create a spell-binding “what-if?” novel.


Demon
- Tosca Lee
B&H Publishing Group

Recently divorced and mired in a meaningless existence, Clay drifts from his drab apartment to his equally lusterless job as an editor for a small Boston press–until the night Lucian finds him and everything changes with the simple words, “I’m going to tell you my story, and you’re going to write it down and publish it.”What begins as a mystery soon spirals into chaotic obsession as Clay struggles to piece together Lucian’s dark tale of love, ambition, and grace–only to discover that the demon’s story has become his own. And then only one thing matters: learning how the story ends.

“So few books rattle me to the core yet lift my hopes to the heavens in the same breath. Tosca Lee’s Demon: A Memoir is a rare find that must be read.”
Ted Dekker, New York Times best-selling author of the Circle Trilogy


Almost Forever
- Deborah Raney
Howard Books

Unearthing a lost memory may cause her to lose everything she holds dear…but could it also set her free?

Bryn Hennesey, a volunteer at the Grove Street Homeless Shelter, was there the night the shelter burned to the ground and five heroic firefighters died at the scene. Among them was her husband, Adam. Like the rest of the surviving spouses, Bryn must find a way to begin again. But Bryn must do so living with a horrible secret.… Garrett Edmonds’s wife, Molly, was the only female firefighter to perish in the blaze. As her husband, it was his job to protect the woman he loved.… How can he go on in the face of such unbearable loss and guilt?

And what started the fire that destroyed the dreams and futures of so many? Investigators are stumped. But someone knows the answer….


Shades of Morning
- Marlo Schalesky
Multnomah

Marnie didn’t know much about miracles. Mistakes maybe. Accidents. And monstrous mess-ups. She knew a lot about those.
But miracles? Those were for other people.

Marnie Wittier has life just where she wants it. Quiet. Peaceful. No drama. A long way away from her past. In the privacy of her home, she fills a box with slips of paper, scribbled with her regrets, sins, and sorrows. But that’s nobody else’s business. Her bookstore/coffee shop patrons, her employees, her friends from church—they all think she’s the very model of compassion and kindness.

Then Marnie’s past creeps into her present when her estranged sister dies and makes Marnie guardian of her fifteen-year-old son—a boy Marnie never knew existed. And when Emmit arrives, she discovers he has Down syndrome—and that she’s woefully unprepared to care for him. What’s worse, she has to deal with Taylor Cole, her sister’s attorney, a man Marnie once loved—and abandoned.

As Emmit (and Taylor) work their way into her heart, Marnie begins to heal. But when pieces of her dismal past surface again, she must at last face the scripts of paper in her box, all the regrets and sorrows. Can she do it? Or will she run again?


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What’s up with Christian Retail?

Monday, May 10th 2010 - 09:17:30 AM

Twice in the last 30 days I have been interviewed about the “state of the industry.” The journalist’s questions were insightful and thought I would share some of them with you. My answers have been expanded beyond the original ones since I have more space to work with here.

1. What do you believe to be the most important trend in Christian publishing and why?

This can be a complex question depending on which part of publishing being discussed. The obvious answer is the digital revolution. While e-book sales are still only a tiny percentage of the whole, the foundations being laid today will have long term implications.

In fiction I have been encouraged by the continued diversity in publisher’s acquisitions. While “romance” is king, a great story can still get a chance.

In non-fiction there has been a concerted push by publishers to acquire only those authors with a built-in audience of some sort. This is especially hard for the debut writers who have enormous talent and insight but have yet to construct a personal following. I even had one editor at a publishing house write me the following after I groused about a rejection letter that didn’t square with what I knew about that publisher:

“…it seems we no longer trust the old methods of reading the market, trying to get ahead of the curve on reader tastes and needs, and so forth. Now we have to prove a book’s success in advance, on paper, using mathematics.”

That is a stunning statement but in a sense is not news. If writers have not come to grips with the fact that publishing is a business, then now is the time to do so. Never forget that without a “bottom line” (i.e. profit) the publisher goes away (or they downsize) and everyone gets hurt.

Some will read that and despair. Others will shrug and say, “What’s new?” I think it is exciting that the industry is becoming that much more professional and the demands on excellence, quality, and “big ideas” will only help create better and more successful books.

2. When were you last in a Christian store and why?

In February, while traveling on business, I visited a local Christian store to observe their layout, featured products, and whether our client’s books were in stock. This particular store is part of a Christian retail chain with multiple locations.

The results were mixed. A front-of-store cardboard display was empty of product which was a good for store sales – meaning they had sold out, but signaled to me that their buyer was much too conservative (“stack ‘em high and watch ‘em fly” vs. “keep it low and they won’t go”). Since I did not own that item they missed out on selling one to me.

3. What can Christian stores do to better differentiate themselves from other channels selling Christian products?

Remember that I was in the Christian bookstore business for over a decade and our store received the National Store of the Year award from CBA (The Christian Booksellers Association) in 1989. So while my personal in-store experience is now nearly two decades out of date, I still understand many of the nuances of Christian retail.

My answer to the above question is “Personal service and community building.” The competition isn’t always the online channels. Sometimes it is simply those outlets that choose the top 10 titles to display. Thus product knowledge and personal relationships are the key to customer retention.

We had a Christian store in our area where our family shopped because of a long term friendship we had with its owner. Unfortunately, after 35 years it closed its doors after the city decided to build light rail in front of her location and made it nearly impossible to visit. We really don’t have an alternate store within a reasonable driving distance, which is disappointing in a city the size of Phoenix.

The CBA store is still a powerful customer for the Christian publishing community. But as a whole is losing “market share.” This market share has been shaved by online retailing, big box retailing that siphons off bestsellers, and a general malaise for the specialty retailer. The gift side of the CBA store is where most stores will find their survival because it does not have the competition from online stores. I hear many who are highly critical of the non-book section of the Christian store. Let’s stop that, okay? Let’s consider changing the view of the Christian bookstore to one of a Christian “supply” store or, if you must, a Christian “boutique.” Wherever there are vital and growing churches there are vital and growing Christian stores.

At the risk of sounding out of date I remember that the Christian stores I managed, back in the 80s, served nearly 500 church accounts. Once we counted the number of student curriculum packets we sold in one quarter and were startled to find that we sold 10,000 pieces of student material intended for Sunday School education for children. So while we had some plaques and jewelry and cards and posters and knick-knacks in the store we also had curriculum, at least 3,000 book titles, and hundreds of Bibles.

If you can, support your local Christian store, they serve a vital role as the Supply Sergeants of the Kingdom.

4. Do you own an e-book reader and if so what kind and what are you currently reading on it?

I have owned the Kindle since it was first released (currently using the Kindle 2). I last read a client’s manuscript on it while traveling (uploaded from my computer to the Kindle). In addition I also re-read Phil Vischer’s Me, Myself, and Bob: A True Story after hearing him speak on the topic at a recent conference.

I have resisted the lure of the iPad so far. I plan to wait for the second version to see if some of the bugs get worked out. Unfortunately the “swiping” motion on the screen gives me a bit of vertigo. I find that standing in the Apple Store playing with it gives me a slight headache. So I may never be able to use one comfortably.

1. What do you believe to be the most important trend in Christian publishing and why?
This can be a complex question depending on which part of publishing being discussed. The obvious answer is the digital revolution. While e-book sales are still only a tiny percentage of the whole, the foundations being laid today can have long term implications.
In fiction I have been encouraged by the continued diversity in publisher’s acquisitions. While “romance” is king, a great story can still get a chance.
In non-fiction there has been a concerted push by publishers to acquire only those authors with a built-in audience of some sort. This is especially hard for the debut writers who have enormous talent and insight but have yet to construct a personal following.
2. When were you last in a Christian store and why?
In February, while traveling on business, I visited a local Christian store to observe their layout, featured products, and whether our client’s books were in stock. The results were mixed. A front-of-store cardboard display was empty of product which was a good for store sales, but signaled a buyer that was much too conservative (“stack ‘em high and watch ‘em fly” vs. “keep it low and they won’t go”). Since I did not own that item they missed out on selling one to me.
3. What can Christian stores do to better differentiate themselves from other channels selling Christian products?
Personal service and community building. The competition isn’t always the online channels. Sometimes it is simply those outlets that choose the top 10 titles to display. Thus product knowledge and personal relationships are the key to customer retention. We had a Christian store in our area that we shopped mostly because of the long term relationship we had with its owner. Unfortunately, after 35 years it closed its doors after the city decided to build light rail in front of her location and made it nearly impossible to visit.
4. Do you own an e-book reader and if so what kind and what are you currently reading on it?
I have owned the Kindle since it was first released. I last read a client’s manuscript on it while traveling (uploaded from my computer to the Kindle). In addition I also re-read Phil Vischer’s Me, Myself, and Bob: A True Story after hearing him speak on the topic at a recent conference.
5. How have you been able to use social media effectively in your work?
The key word here is “effectively.” Our agency doesn’t necessarily need to market our services like a traditional retail business would. However I connected my industry related blog to Facebook to help populate the information more effectively.

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New Releases April 2010

Sunday, May 2nd 2010 - 04:36:26 PM

Below are new books published last month which our agency represented.
(In alphabetical order by author. Descriptions are from publisher’s web sites).

April 2010

Who Speaks to Your Heart?: Tuning in to Hear God’s Whispers
- Stacy Hawkins Adams
Zondervan

‘I wrestled with whether a God that I couldn’t see or touch would be willing to single me out from the millions of other people who wanted love, attention and help.’ To women all over the country, from all walks of life, this uncomfortable uncertainty is all too familiar. Now—for inspiration, for affirmation, for a divine connection—you have a new place to turn … to this authentic look at what it takes to pursue God with abandon, by acclaimed author Stacy Hawkins Adams.

Offering insight, inspiration, and practical ideas on how to connect more often and more deeply with God, Adams helps give you and women the world over the courage to go deeper and grow deeper in God’s word to hear Him more clearly. Women young and old will be empowered and renewed by Adams’ reminder that—regardless of the labels placed on you by society, your family, your friends, and even yourself—your best and most important title is the one given by God … chosen vessel.


God in Pursuit
- Joseph Bentz
Beacon Hill

What is the turning point that causes a curious journalist and atheist to walk into a church and be converted to Christ the first time she takes communion? At what point is a lifelong atheist and head of one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs of the twentieth century persuaded to turn to Christ? What leads a woman, who had a Mafia contract on her life and who appeared on the FBI s Ten Most Wanted list, to become a Christian in prison and then start a national outreach ministry that has touched the lives of thousands of children?

What is that moment at which God s disruptive Spirit invades the lives of even the unlikeliest of individuals, drawing them into relationship with Christ? Joseph Bentz calls this the tipping point.

In God in Pursuit, Bentz identifies and celebrates the sparks that allow faith to catch fire in the lives of new believers who were once hostile or indifferent to God. Filled with insight, encouragement, and solid biblical wisdom, this earnest examination shows readers how those tipping points from doubt to faith operate throughout the Christian life as they confront spiritual crises and grapple with questions that will bring them deeper into relationship with God.


Sing
- Lisa Bergren
David C. Cook

It’s 1886 and the St. Clairs are living out their dreams in three very separate parts of the world—Paris, Brazil and Colorado. And while each has found a measure of success and joy, each are haunted by past sins and secrets. As they face the biggest struggles and challenges of their lives—including facing off with an old enemy—each must discover the power of homecoming, and what it means to sing praises to God, even in the midst of loss.

Odessa St. Clair McAllan has adapted well to life on her beautiful Colorado ranch, but nothing has prepared her for the devastation that the winter of 1886 brings. And while she and Bryce struggle to find their way out of their loss, far away in Paris, Moira St. Clair discovers she has been robbed by her manager and has fewer options than she imagined. Meanwhile, Dominic, working the boxing rings of South America, loses the wrong fight and ends up shanghaied by a frustrated sea captain. Can all three manage to find their way back to a reunion in Colorado.especially with a former menace who reemerges, bent on bringing each of them down?


Setting Boundaries with Your Aging Parents
- Allison Bottke
Harvest House

This important book will help adult children who long for a better relationship with their parents but feel trapped in a never-ending cycle of chaos, crisis, or drama.

With keen insight and a passion to empower adult children, Allison charts a trustworthy roadmap through the often unfamiliar territory of setting boundaries with parents while maintaining personal balance and avoiding burnout. Through the use of professional advice, true stories, and scriptural truth, readers learn how to apply the “6 Steps to SANITY.”


Cowboy Protector
- Margaret Daley
Steeple Hill Love Inspired Suspense

Two years ago, Hannah Williams left the Witness Protection Program–and she’s been running ever since. To stay ahead of the mob, she changes her name and location constantly. So when she takes a job caring for a Montana rancher’s sick daughter, she expects to leave soon. But little Misty Taylor tugs at Hannah’s heartstrings–and so does her handsome father. Hannah knows Austin Taylor suspects she’s keeping secrets. But how can she tell him the truth without endangering the pair she’s come to love?



Love Lessons
- Margaret Daley
Steeple Hill Love Inspired

Homeschooling his daughter is new to devoted single father Ian Ferguson. To ensure his child gets a good education, the busy CPA hires a temporary tutor. Twenty-three-year-old college student Alexa Michaels is too young—and too pretty—to be right for the job. Yet his daughter is coming out of her shell and learning. Still, Ian is traditional, and sweet Alexa—who graduated from the school of hard knocks—is challenging some of his old-school ways. Can this dad learn some valuable lessons about love, family and faith from the least likely teacher?


Lucky Baby
- Meredith Efken
Howard Books

All Meg Lindsay wants is to give a child the love and acceptance she wished she’d been given. When she talks her reluctant husband into adopting a Chinese orphan, she expects her dream to come true. But becoming a parent has a way of opening up painful doors from the past, and it’s all Meg can do to hold her new little family together. What started as a good intention could destroy her marriage and her family, especially if the daughter they’ve grown to love abandons them, too.

Meg’s journey is a magical one as East meets West and imagination aligns with reality. Lucky Baby takes the reader on a realistic yet mystical journey into the complexities of family life.


Day-votions for Women
- Rebecca Barlow Jordan
Zondervan

Introducing a new series of Day-Votions™ from bestselling inspirational author Rebecca Barlow Jordan. This beautiful, lighthearted series of devotional books is perfect for you and is a perfect gift for women of all seasons, and all stages of life. From deepening your walk with the Lord to strengthening your relationships with others … mothers, daughters, grandmothers, and women everywhere will find page after page of powerful spiritual encouragement within. Each ‘day-votion’ points to a biblical truth, affirming with every reading that God is faithful no matter what challenges you face. With forty devotions per book in this three-set series—Day-Votions for Grandmothers, Day-Votions for Mothers, and Day-Votions for Women—designed to bring you into deeper relationships with God, your family, your children, and your friends … inspiration is certain.

“Rebecca Barlow Jordan is one of the great devotional writers of our time. With warmth, originality, and brevity, she has crafted an effective tool for busy women who want to have daily com-munication with God but sometimes run out of time. Her com-bination of biblical truth, real-life examples, and poignant appli-cations help her readers to focus on one transformational action step each day.” – Carol Kent, author of When I Lay My Isaac Down


Day-votions for Mothers
- Rebecca Barlow Jordan
Zondervan

“What a beautiful gift of encouragement for mothers! From cover to cover, Day-votions for Mothers spoke to my heart. I was chuckling one moment and deeply convicted the next. Rebecca Barlow Jordan ended each devotional with practical applications, thought-provoking quotes, and prayers that I could incorporate as my own.”

- Jennie Afman Dimkoff, international speaker, biblical storyteller, and author of Passionate Faith, Ancient Truths for Contemporary Women


Day-votions for Grandmothers
- Rebecca Barlow Jordan
Zondervan

“Jordan’s delightful Day-votions for Grandmothers touched my heart as a grandmother of sixteen and brought many smiles of recognition. This sweet collection of ‘grandma’ stories will warm your spirit. I especially enjoyed the story about Beanie Babies–since I have four such ‘babies’ of my own!”

- Karen O’Connor, speaker and author of Bein’ A Grandparent Ain’t For Wimps


A Waist is a Terrible Thing to Mind
– Karen Scalf Linamen
Waterbrook Multnomah

The architects of pop culture have never been the leading authorities on what is best for you. So turn your back on the lies that you are not thin enough, not successful enough, and not glamorous enough! Physical perfection is not the goal.

Instead, let Karen Scalf Linamen take you on a journey from a limiting and unhealthy body-image to a life of feeling good about yourself—body included. When you learn the secrets in A Waist Is a Terrible Thing to Mind you can change what you crave, what you eat, how you think, and ultimately how you live.

Along with Karen’s trademark humor, you’ll find practical, common-sense tools to help you accept who you are today and take the steps that will make you the person you were created to be. Along the way, you’ll enjoy the new, improved, imperfect you!


Five Ministry Killers: How to Defeat Them
- Charles Stone
Bethany House

What if you could find a way to renew your enthusiasm for ministry? This is the book for you. Deftly analyzing and applying the latest previously unpublished research, Charles Stone has identified major causes of frustration and burnout among pastors and church leaders. But the book doesn’t stop there. Here is a practical plan that will:

  • Show how to defeat obstacles with the potential to kill your ministry
  • Illustrate healthy ways to respond to aggravating issues
  • Minimize the draining effects ministry places on you and your family (with wise insights from Sherryl Stone, the author’s wife)
  • Demonstrate how to share with others what they can do to help
By learning to open up with vulnerability, own up with humility, show up with integrity, and speak up with courage, you can experience healing and renewed joy in service to Christ, your family, and your church.

“A delightful guide to anyone in ministry. Just as you need a guide to keep you from making horrific mistakes when you go on a camping trip–mistakes that could embarrass, hurt, or even kill–Charles Stone’s book on the Five Ministry Killers will make you laugh, cry, and in the end may save your ministry. Get it, read it, enjoy it, and then learn.”
–Elmer L. Towns
, Co-Founder, Liberty University, Dean, School of Religion Lynchburg, Virginia


Blaze of Glory
- Jeff Stuecker and Alton Gansky
B&H Publishing Group

United States Sgt. Major Eric Moyer and his Special Operations unit have been called in to track down a wealthy Egyptian terrorist who is believed to have sordid ties to a sudden increase in female suicide bombers. Chasing El-Sayyed through Italy, they soon gain interconnected details about a Mexican drug lord who is plotting to kill the U.S. and Mexican presidents. Now Moyer and his team must stop not one, but two madmen on separate continents. And with a new member of the unit hiding his struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder, a third problem begins to boil.


Bringing Out the Best in Your Husband
- H. Norman Wright
Regal Books

Bookstore shelves are full of titles that tell women how to get what they want out of their man. But affectionate, long-lasting relationships thrive when the tables are turned— when each spouse focuses on giving, not getting. Bringing Out the Best in Your Husband delivers biblical and practical, proven ways to encourage the man in every reader’s life.

This new book from bestselling author H. Norman Wright is packed with stories from wives struggling to understand their husbands’ needs and desires; every woman will see herself and her marriage reflected in these deeply personal accounts. Readers will also hear the other side of the story: Men share the ups and downs of their marriage experiences, and reveal the secret longings of their hearts. Every principle is presented with a true-to-life story so that wives can see the effects of encouragement, prayer, romance and inspiration on marriages just like theirs. Based on his experience counseling thousands of couples over more than 40 years, Dr. Wright shows how great an impact spouses have on one another and how to turn that impact into a loving, joy-filled marriage that stands the test of time.


Bringing Out the Best in Your Wife
- H. Norman Wright
Regal Books

Most “relationship books” are written for women, but women aren’t the only ones who want happy, enduring marriages. Bringing Out the Best in Your Wife is written with men in mind, men who want to build a satisfying relationship but just aren’t sure how. The secret, Dr. H. Norman Wright reveals, is mutual affirmation. But first, husbands have to understand that women receive respect and encouragement differently than men. When husbands discover how to speak the language of love their wives understand, relationships are taken to a whole new level.

Dr. Wright lays out biblical and practical ways husbands can bring out the best in their wives. Readers will find firsthand testimonies from men just like them, who share the daily frustrations of living with a person so different from themselves. They may also be surprised by what they learn about women from the personal stories told by wives striving to make their marriages work. Each step toward a healthy, satisfying relationship is presented with a real-life situation that men will find immediately familiar. And as readers take each successive step, they will see the positive impact that encouragement, prayer, romance and inspiration have on the marriage they’ve always wanted.


Sons of Thunder
- Susan May Warren
Summerside Press

Sophie Frangos is torn between the love of two men and the promise that binds them all together. Markos Stavros loves Sophie from afar while battling his thirst for vengeance and his hunger for honor. Dino, his quiet and intelligent brother, simply wants to forget the horror that drove them from their Greek island home to start a new life in America. One of these “sons of thunder” offers a future she longs for, the other—the past she lost.

From the sultry Chicago jazz clubs of the roaring twenties to the World War II battlefields of Europe to a final showdown in a Greek island village, they’ll discover betrayal, sacrifice, and finally redemption. Most of all, when Sophie is forced to make her choice, she’ll learn that God honors the promises made by the Sons of Thunder.



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