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Promotional Plan What I plan to do before publication: As part of the cultural wide increase of interest in the feminine, the concept of Lady Wisdom (Sophia) has become a mainstream preoccupation in the American religious community. Sparked by a high profile debate on the role of a “semi-divine” female figure within the Protestant tradition, the conversation has moved from the pages of scholarly journals into church study groups. Much of the debate about women in the clergy has emerged from this setting. Judith: Wise Woman of Bethulia provides a timely story addressing these very issues by exploring the historical setting of the Bible and the roles performed by women. I intend to reach out to these communities through speaking events, workshops and articles. In this context I can encourage Judith: Wise Woman of Bethulia to be used by reading groups and women’s programs to add to the ongoing dialogue. I write a weekly online newsletter: “Biblical Women Week by Week,” a year-long curriculum exploring the female characters of the Bible. Each week I take up the concerns of a different woman of the Bible and the insight we can gain from her story. More than a devotional, the newsletter will highlight interesting and little known research to help us delve deeper into the stories. My mailing list database will consists of my friends and family, of course, as well as my contacts at Seattle Jewish Community School, several local synagogues, Jewish Community Center, select members of the LDS community, Seattle Hebrew Academy, Women of Wisdom network, Pacific Northwest Writers Association and my contacts in the Christian community including several pastors and other religious leaders. I will link my “virtual class” with as many women of the Bible websites as I can. Through my contacts I will organize a series of workshops about women of the Bible. I will invite “big names” in the Seattle Jewish community, starting with the well-known educators at my children’s school, Seattle Jewish Community School. From there I plan on expanding the program to local synagogues and other Jewish organizations. I will also approach the Seattle Public Library and the King County Library System for sponsorship of a similar series in the larger community. In the process of my research for Judith: Wise Woman of Bethulia I gathered a tremendous amount of material about biblical topics (see Bibliography for a selected list). Much of this information is not easily available. In addition, the results of a great deal of fascinating biblical scholarship have not been organized in an easily understood format for the lay population. I will write a series of articles bridging the gap between academic findings and the general Bible enthusiast and include my own insights. I will target a wide range of independent Jewish and Christian magazines providing pertinent articles based on the editorial content of their upcoming issues. This information is available at each publication’s website. I will also provide these articles on my website taking into consideration copy write considerations. King County and Snohomish arts councils are looking for local writers to promote on their websites. I will work with them to promote my workshops and speaking events. After every workshop and speaking event, I will ask for a testimonial letter from the sponsoring organizations and electronically post them with their permission. Judith: Wise Woman of Bethulia touches on several controversial topics such as women’s participation in the Jerusalem temple ceremonies, women’s professional guilds in ancient Israel, contraception in the Ancient Near East and the surprising connection between the Book of Tobit, the Book of Jonah and the story of Ahiqar. My goal is to attract the attention of news organizations by writing and speaking about these topics. Using the directory Grants and Awards Available to American Writers I will submit my work for consideration to all the programs I qualify for. Galley and Review Copy Stage The work of a number of scholars provided me with ideas and details for Judith: Wise Woman of Bethulia. I have compiled a list of the most influential researchers and will mail them a pre-publication copy to begin a word of mouth campaign and to solicit back-cover blurbs. I will use online social networking sites, such as Library Thing and Amazon Vine to provide galleys or advance copies to interested readers and invite them to post their reviews to stimulate prepublication buzz. After Book is in Print I will partner with Jewish and Christian bookstores to sponsor readings and lectures with as much media support as possible. I will work with my designer to produce postcards, bookmarks, and brochures for distribution, particularly at a speaking event. As a lifelong member of Hadassah the international Jewish women’s organization, I will work with the local chapters to organize a national reading tour. Working with my agent and the publisher’s promotional team, I will concentrate on press pitches to the national press. In the greater Seattle area I will organize local book signings, send postcard mailings, conduct radio interviews and continue online contact with a growing list of my readers. I will send copies of Judith to church and synagogue leaders and invite them to share it with their congregations. Catholic organizations will be particularly interested in my book since they consider Judith to be part of the biblical canon and have kept her story alive in their liturgy. My RV is my mobile office and the place I write each day. Why not use it to tour the United States to reach more cities than a traditional book tour? After publication, I want to throw myself a book party. With a media mailing list I will invite the press to the party along with book club editors, paperback and audiotape publishers and anyone else in the book industry who might be interested in Judith: Wise Woman of Bethulia. The Red Tent stirred up a lot of activity on the web—blogs, online study groups, social action groups (The Red Tent Women’s Project), retreats, etc. I will continue to participate in these sites and will offer links to my own website once the book is available. As time permits I will use these sites as models to begin building my own online “phenomenon.” I will work with the editors of Reform Judaism to recommend Judith in their reading program which encourages the members of every congregation to read the same book each month. I will contact the Jewish Book Council to participate in a number of their programs for authors including the Jewish Book Network which coordinates book tours and assists community program directors to plan their own book events. Not to slight the Christian organizations, I will also approach the Christian Booksellers Association as well as the Association of Catholic Booksellers for similar assistance. As a member of the Alumni Association of the University of Washington, I will work on being profiled in their monthly magazine Columns. After finding book groups online and through bookstores, libraries and word of mouth, I will contact them for in-person or phone interviews. I will submit press releases to the Religion Newswriters Association, library associations, as well as the relevant radio, TV, newspaper and online outlets. I will pay particular attention to book related sites such as The American Journalism Review, Authors on the Web, Booklust, Bookselling This Week, Galley Cat, Library Journal, Publishers Lunch, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, Writers Weekly, American Booksellers Association, The Book Report Network, Canadian Booksellers Association, International PEN, Poets & Writers and the literary news section of Yahoo! News. I will participate in the plethora of literary events in the Seattle area, including Bumbershoot Literary Arts Festival.
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