Cathy G. Knipper – Publicist

Debut title becomes award-winning amazon bestseller and author becomes sought-after Catholic speaker

This debut author with an established blog was excited to publish her Catholic teen novel. The author was unable to participate in the launch of the book due to circumstances outside her control, but was able to return to marketing her book some months later. She has since been featured on numerous radio and television programs (see links below). She spoke at this year's National Catholic Education Association (NCEA) Conference as a breakout speaker. With coaching, the author embraced expanding her social media reach and helped form an on-line community of Catholic teen authors with a newly-established website. With coaching, she was able to maximize her amazon profile and subcategories to consistently remain in the top rankings in her subcategories. Her book received a second place award in the Children's category from the Association of Catholic Publishers (ACP) in May of 2017. From the ACP press release: "The reading public also recognizes the quality of these titles through their purchasing patterns as measured by Amazon. Of the 31 awardees, 17 are in the top 1000 sales of an Amazon book subcategory. Of those, 13 are in the top 500, and of those, 6 are in the top 100, led by A Single Bead from Pauline Books and Media at #9 in Teen books (Emotions & Feelings)."

( see Stephanie's interview at 31:32-36:41)

Debut author to market-savvy veteran award-winning author

Previous to the publication of her first novel, this debut author had limited marketing experience, but was willing to try new ideas and work to grow her audience reach. Though author coaching, she began a Twitter handle for the main character of her book during the Summer 2016 Olympics. Though her main character was a winter sports sensation, this author's desire for creative marketing strategies allowed her to stay true to the branding of her book and character. This author's debut novel received a Silver medal and first-place award, as a result of both author and publishing house efforts. One year after publication her first title was reviewed in a dozen unsolicited blogs. Fifteen months after her first novel this author published a second teen novel and is now working on a third. She has established a website, amazon presence, is part of a newly-formed association of Catholic teen/YA writers and has been invited to write in a nationally recognized Catholic blog. Her first novel consistently ranks in the top numbers in all three amazon categories. She speaks regularly to school and homeschool groups in her native Colorado.

Author collaboration and professional development through on-going marketing blasts

In working with 100+ authors of varying skills and talents, it was important to me that every author know that teamwork and collaboration would allow them to spread the message of their books farther and help others to do the same. Operating within a non-profit publishing house presents opportunities for authors to develop creative marketing skills if given the right tools. Coaching authors in personal and publishing house branding, amazon author pages, amazon category maximization and social media marketing tools enabled many authors to organically gain television (CatholicTV, EWTN), radio, podcast, blogger and convention speaking invitations. By encouraging authors to connect with each other and pairing those with specific skills with those needing coaching in those skills, many authors I worked with were able to branch out and create and/or join new and existing communities.

Back to School blog tour

Authors supporting authors was the overall theme of this 30-day back to school blog tour. Three authors—one teen, one middle grade and one elementary contributed five guest blogs each to various blogs over the course of the campaign. All authors saw a significant bump in sales for two months during and post-blog tour.