Publishing religious books is very tricky. Somehow, religion as a subject became a double edged sword. On one hand, you may expect that your book has a steady stream of clients amongst your co-believers. On the other hand, unlike mainstream books which have a broad range of clients, religious books only appeal to a number of people. Due to the differences in religion, it is safe to assume that the population of non-Christian faith is not as interested as you are in the book you wrote. While this drastically cuts the market for your material, it also provides some very useful marketing strategies for a successful career in book publishing. This is how you will be successful in this career.

Identify your market

Authors and publishers have the tendency of writing about too broad a topic in order to get more audiences. However, a more successful strategy to use is to identify a target market and create a product that will satisfy the needs of that market. A good example is the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. There are thousands of inspirational stories, testaments, and bible verses that may be crammed in one single book which will cater to all people” students, parents, teachers, grandmothers, athletes. But what Chicken Soup did was that it categorized its list of inspirational stories and created separate books for these categories. The result is that we now have Chicken Soup titles for: the Teenage Soul, the Grieving Soul, the Single Parent’s Soul, the Entrepreneur’s Soul, and so on.

Always aim for a second book

Like how movies are often extended up to a trilogy, publishers have the power to tell whether the same author will be given another chance to write a continuation of the book. Depending on the profit derived from the authors first book, another proposal from the publishing house might or might not come. Rhonda Byrne, has her claim to fame after the publication of her best-selling book The Secret. Afterwards, the publishers decided to let Byrnes author two other books entitled The Secret Gratitude Book and The Power. Now, there is really no formula which will make sure that you will author a second book. But here is a rule of thumb: do your best on your first book and if the readers loved what you wrote, you can very well expect a second book.

Extend the “shelf life” of your book

Books are non-perishable items but they also have some sort of shelf life. There are books that have the characteristic of becoming an all-time favorite or something that your grandchildren will enjoy reading as much as you did-five decades ago. Think of topics that will never be out of season. Include your personal stories. Theoretical knowledge is best explained in a personal point of view and people can never contest it because you personally experienced these things.