Marketing plays a huge part in becoming a successful author, as someone who has been writing and publishing for a few years now, I have learned a thing or two—specifically about the Christian market.  

There are more than a handful of platforms available to promote indie/self-published books, but not every platform is suited for Christian work. God has blessed me with the time and opportunity to explore a couple avenues over the years. Feel free to look at my recommendations and findings below.

There are a few keys factors to consider when promoting your Christian book.

PRICE

• The first thing you need to decide is whether you are going to promote your book while it is completely free or simply discounted. This makes a huge difference; there are some platforms that only promote free books and some that charge different prices based on what your book is being offered for. I have used both avenues and have had some great and some not-so-great results.

 GENRE

• I’m focused on the genre selection of the platform you’re working with. One thing I’ve noticed is that there aren’t many platforms that include subgenres for Christian fiction. In fact, most promo websites lump all religious titles together into one category.

I have seen my Christian fantasy novel lumped into the same promotion as books on shamanism, meditation, and even voodoo 101. This is not a knock against these sorts of books, but merely an observation. In most bookstores, a Christian fantasy and a non-fiction book about voodoo wouldn’t be placed on the same shelf. But many promo sites do not make an effort to filter their religious/spiritual categories.
This is why it may be more beneficial to go with larger platforms as they have the subscriber count to support subgenres. But don’t overlook smaller platforms! There are some benefits to them as well, just keep reading.

 REACH

You might head into this thinking that platforms with larger subscriber lists (50k and up) are the best ones to go with. In some ways, that’s obviously a good idea, but there are some perks to smaller platforms that are good enough to make me prefer them over big-name ones.

• First of all, smaller platforms tend to be cheaper, haha! That makes it easier to explore more websites and stack multiple promos at once. But the best part is that, because of their size, smaller platforms usually don’t separate their newsletters by genre.

When promos are filtered by interests, readers only receive deals on books of their preferred genres. You might be turned off by the idea of smaller platforms not doing this, but I’ve noticed it can actually be a blessing in disguise.
Promoting through platforms without genre-specific emails may seem like casting a line into an ocean. It means your Christian romance may be promoted alongside secular mystery novels, crime thrillers, or dark fantasy sagas. But the positive thing here is that you will also have the opportunity to introduce your work to readers who may not have found it otherwise.

There are many readers out there who are Christian or are open to reading Christian fiction but do not select the ‘Religion/Spiritual’ genre when they sign up for book listings. Being included in promos that do not filter their emails by genre gives Christian authors the chance to reach some of these readers and build a more diverse audience. So please don’t ignore or overlook smaller avenues, they may not provide the initial spike in sales that you might get from places like Bookbub, but they are beneficial in their own way which I believe certainly shows up in the long run.  

Now that we’ve gone over the key factors in promoting Christian books, let’s look at what you really came here for, haha. Below is a list of my top five Christian-friendly promo websites, in no particular order.

BookBub
Obviously, I had to include the largest platform in the industry on my list. Even though I prefer to work with smaller companies, I must admit BookBub is popular for a reason. With hundreds of thousands of subscribers in the Christian Fiction genre alone, you have the opportunity to reach ten times as many readers as some of the other platforms combined. But BookBub comes with a pretty price tag—which tends to be the bane of many indie authors.

If you’re on a budget, or you’re not sure you want to commit to such a pricey promo, keep reading for more affordable options.

Written Word Media
Due to its name, I initially thought this company was a Christian promo platform, but sadly it is not. WWM is one of the platforms which not only filters its newsletters by interests but also lumps all religious material together. I have expressed my dislike for this sort of categorization to them, but my emails have probably all been thrown into the spam box haha.

That being said, Written Word Media is on this list for a reason. It has an impressive reach, and its prices are affordable. They offer promos for free and bargain books at different charges, but from my experience—marketing Christian fiction in multiple genres such as fantasy, science fiction, romance, and even children’s fiction—I think their free option is better suited for the Christian market.

 The Fussy Librarian
Another platform that offers free and discounted promos. One of the cool things about FL is their pricing. It is nearly half the price of Written Word but has almost the same reach—and they don’t skimp on the coupon deals! I have used this platform with satisfying results multiple times.
From my experience, I think Christian readers on FL lean more toward fantasy/science fiction books. When promoting my romantic novels, I have noticed less downloads.

 Book Doggy
This is every indie author’s goldmine! Book Doggy has no rating/review requirement and they offer Christian subgenres! You can market your book as Christian fiction, Christian romance, Christian contemporary fiction, and more! If you’re looking for a more genre-specific/targeted promotion, I would certainly recommend this platform.
It also helps that their prices are very simple and affordable. 18 bucks for free books, 20 bucks for discounted. Easy, right?

 Book Lemur
I have only used Book Lemur a handful of times, but I’ve enjoyed their platform enough to include them here. Their categorization is the same as Written Word in the fact that they only have one ‘Religion/Spiritual’ genre, BUT, they do allow you to add up to 2 other genres for an additional charge. So if you’re an author like me who markets your work to both Christian and secular readers, this is certainly a platform that will help you expand your reach.

I have found that my Christian science fiction series, I AM MAN, has received some of its best reviews from secular readers. And my Christian romantic suspense trilogy, Withered Rose, has had greater success with secular readers as well. The reason behind that is debatable, but the point is that there are secular readers who are open to reading and enjoying Christian fiction and Book Lemur helps build the bridge between authors and audiences.

 The Rebel Christian
As a bonus, I’d like to introduce my platform to this list. TRC has been operating for seven years now. We have great experience in the industry, but what makes us unique is that we specifically cater to the Christian market. Even better is that our services are currently FREE OF CHARGE.

We’ve been working since 2015, but this is our first time stepping into the advertising industry. Until we reach our subscriber goal and really find our niche in the market, we will not be charging authors to use our promotion platform. If you’re interested in booking a free promo with an entirely Christian audience, click here. We’d love to work with you.