Trish - the Social Media Influencer

Once upon a time, in a faraway land called Honduras, Trish began writing a book that probably doesn’t begin with, “Once upon a time”. . . but fingers crossed, because it’s really a classic opening.

She has mentioned the fact she is writing a book before, but today you’re getting an update on her progress.

For most of last year, the book project was shelved because the would-be authoress was working on getting the new Sowers4Pastors website up and running and getting sponsors moved over to the new site. “Shelved” is code for sitting around collecting dust because she had no time to churn out a book. While the website work isn’t complete, the initial switch is coming to an end and Trish has been able to spend a little more time actually writing the book. Much of the writing has taken place on airplanes flying back and forth between Honduras and the U.S. It was probably a much better use of time than attempting the crossword puzzle in the inflight magazine.

There was a lot Trish didn’t know about getting a book published, but she is learning. For instance, she now knows that when reviewing a non-fiction book proposal, publishers want to see the first three chapters of the book. Trish has that. The first three chapters have been written, edited, and polished, so she's ready to put together the official book proposal! (She has more of the book written, but the other chapters aren't all shiny yet because she’s focused on first things first.)

In this day and age when so many people are self-publishing, book publishing has changed. When you are a new author submitting a book proposal to a publishing house, they want to know that you bring a platform with you. “Platform” is code for a group of people interested enough in what you’re doing to potentially become future buyers of your book. This platform could be in the form of a blog. It could be an email list. It could be Facebook followers. Trish isn’t exactly a Kardashian when it comes to self-promotion and she’s not even Instagram famous. The sad truth is, Trish doesn’t even tweet. But guess what?

If you’re reading this, you are officially in on the ground floor of Trish’s platform, though I’m pretty sure that’s an oxymoron. Still, you get the idea. There are approximately 1300 people who have signed up to receive email notifications of these blog posts. That’s not a huge amount for a publisher, and it’s a downright embarrassing amount for a Kardashian, but you work with what you’ve got. And, what Trish has got is us.

Trish rarely asks for favors and when she does she’s so polite you might miss it. So I’m asking on her behalf. If you receive emails notifying you of new blog posts, it would be most helpful if you could just click the link with the title of the post. So, if you're looking at this in an email right now, click where it says "Trish - the Social Media Influencer" at the top. That will open up the tab with the blog post on your computer. You don’t even have to read it! Just clicking the link will improve Trish's statistics.

If you don't receive the blog posts by email, you can sign up for that in the right hand margin of this blog, where it says "Receive new posts by email."

Another way you can help is to sign up for the newsletter - which is different than signing up to receive the blog posts by email. Newsletters are sent out approximately monthly. You can go to the Sowers4Pastors FB page and look on the left hand side of the page, beneath the cute little avatar of the family. There you will see a list of options. The last option on the list is “Newsletter Signup”. Now that we’re all officially social media influencers, it would be super helpful if you could ask to be added to the newsletter list. If you have multiple email addresses, you can even sign up for each address.

This will all be worth it when we can say we knew her when. Who knows, she might even pose for selfies with us.

 - posted by Christi