Earlier this week I began introducing you to the people who will be involved behind-the-scenes in bringing you my book The Next Story. First I introduced you to Ryan the Editor who will (obviously) be responsible for editing the book. And today I’d like you to meet Chris Fann the Marketing Man. His job is to try to convince you that your life will be incomplete if you do not own at least one copy of this book (and, preferably, many more than that). His job will be complete and successful if and when every Christian in North America knows about the book’s existence. Here is Chris’ bio:
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Chris will market and position Tim’s book in such a way so it will sell more copies than Harry Potter and Twilight while having the longevity of Homer and Plato. (Nothing like over-promising, right?)
The vast majority of his efforts go toward creating awareness of the books given to market. According to Warren Bird, author and Director of Research at Leadership Network, “The average book in America sells about 500 copies a year. Only 10-25 books sell more than a million copies in a year. Fewer than 500 sell more than 100,000. Nearly 200,000 new titles are published each year.” There are thousands of books published each month, and even more content than that put up on blogs, Facebook, and Twitter. There is a great deal of noise in the world today, and Chris’ job is trying to find ways to speak uniquely, not louder.
Specifically, Chris will creatively promote Tim’s book at events; garner endorsements, reviews and publicity for him; solicit influential people to recommend the book; raise awareness of the book through social media mentions, strategic advertising, and catalog placement.
Chris grew up in the church as a pastor’s son and knew early on that he wanted to be involved in church ministry. He interned with the small group ministry at Ada Bible Church during college (at Cornerstone University) and led the singles ministry there after seminary (at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School). He then was married and whisked his new wife off to Northern California to serve as an Associate Pastor in a rural church. He later moved to the Twin Cities to work at the Evangelical Free Church denominational office working to resource churches. In November 2007, Chris took a position at Zondervan, bringing him closer to his wife’s family and combining his desire to be involved in the church (by marketing Church & Ministry titles) and his love for books. Chris and Kate have two sons under 3 (Jack and Luke) and love visiting different zoos.