Our incredibly talented author and client, Ronnie McBrayer, has just announced plans for Leaving Religion, Following Jesus On Tour! This will be a Southeast tour traveling to Nashville, Memphis, Atlanta, Birmingham, and points beyond.

The ambition for this tour is simple: To create a venue where people are invited to experience a Jesus they may have never known; to discover God’s grace and forgiveness in a non-threatening format; and to communicate Jesus’ unconditional love that transforms religion into a personal relationship with Christ. This tour will also support the building of homes in La Florida, Peru through the Fuller Center for Housing.

And there’s music. Sean Dietrich and the Sawmill Biscuit Band (when available) will be in tow in all their musical glory.

The book Leaving Religion, Following Jesus continues to make an impact on those inside and outside the established church. Leaving Religion, Following Jesus challenges readers to rethink their personal relationship to religion, faith, and Christian spirituality — and to discover new ways of following the revolutionary example set by Jesus.

Find out more about the tour at http://leavingsalem.wordpress.com/. Pick up the book at www.amazon.com.

40 Promotional Ideas Under $40.00

1. Take charge. Never leave the job of publicity to the publisher alone. You know the book and your audience better than anyone.
2. Buy your domain name as soon as you have a title for your book.
3. Start your own blog (you can add it to your Web site later).
4. Go on Facebook and Twitter and set up micro-blogging accounts. Cultivate relationships.
5. Begin the buzz 6 months prior to pub-date through word of mouth, social networking. This helps to build up your readership.
6. Request endorsements for your book.
7. Create a BIG list. Put together e-mail lists of friends, family, reviewers, editors, producers, bloggers for your targeted audience.
8. Put together your press kit, including press release, interview questions, tip sheets, electronic photos.
9. Create an email signature for every e-mail you send; e-mail signatures are a great way to promote your book.
10. Send out galleys to the book trade Industry 3-4 months before pub date.
11. Send out galley to consumer magazines 2-3 months before pub date.
12. Write up a marketing plan and timeline.
12. Begin locally. Launch a book event/party at your local bookstore.
14. Pitch local newspapers, radio and TV.
15. Send your e-mail news release out to everyone on your “list.”
16. Create more lists, including free online press release sites.
17. Write an article. Pitch some regional and national magazines with your topic or submit a freelance article for reprint consideration.
18. Plan a contest book giveaway online.
19. Go on a virtual book tour.
20. Pitch Internet Radio Book Shows
21. Record conversational podcasts.
22. Give away a PDF download of the first chapter of your book.
23. Incorporate a video and post it on video sharing sites.
24. Ask your publisher to put your book on Kindle.
25. Join book groups on micro-blogging Web sites, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, GoodReads, Gather, Shelfari, Jacketflap and others.
26. Add your book URL to online book directories and listing sources, including Independent Online Book Association, Top 101 Marketing, Shelf Awareness and others.
27. Add your book to Google Book Search.
28. Submit for book awards.
29. Talk at libraries and organizations throughout New England.
30. Reach out to pitch more radio and TV shows nationally.
31. Generate reviews on Amazon.com, reconfigure search tags for the book, and make sure that the content and features posted are what you want (e.g., “look in the book.”).
32. Prepare an elevator speech about your book.
33. See if there are any book festivals or writer’s conferences that you would like to be in.
34. Going on vacation? Schedule a book event, radio spot in the area.
35. Did you write a book about the Civil War or Knitting? Think about special events that you can do around the subject of your book & who you might partner with.
36. Always keep in mind current events that might tie in with your book. Call folks in the media to let them know your expertise.
37. Go on a blog tour and download a podcast that you created.
38. Be sure that all of your social network profiles list your Blog and Web site URLs.
39. Have simple useful business cards to share. Always.
40. Be sure to thank everyone along the way for all of their efforts and keep them apprised of your successes. They’ll be happy for you and it might inspire them to do more.

Wondering what to do with the “cremains” of a loved one? Send them off with a memorial at sea. Join Jesse Kalfel, author of So You’re Cremated . . . Now What?, for an ash scattering ceremony off the Newburyport coastline on Saturday, September 26, on board the Yankee Clipper.

Organized in collaboration with Harbor Tours, Newburyport, Kalfel’s unusual ocean cruise coincides with the launch of his book.

“We must, as human beings, have a ritual and a little more. We need that memorializing,” said Kalfel. “Many people struggle with how to achieve that when there’s not a traditional burial or funeral ceremony.”

When his 97-year-old mother expressed her wish to be cremated rather than buried, Kalfel was inspired to research and consider the options for handling cremated remains, whether they’re one’s own or the ashes of a loved one. And his lighthearted book presents information and ideas in a way that makes the serious topic so approachable that it could end up being the central conversation for your next family reunion or a night out with friends.

Kalfel’s So I’ve Got These Ashes And Need To Do Something With Them cruise provides a way for people to memorialize their loved ones, including pets, with a nondenominational ceremony at sea. It also provides an opportunity for people who had ashes left to them with no instructions. Participants are encouraged to bring photos to share with others on board.

The cruise will depart from the west end of the Newburyport Boardwalk (next to the Black Cow Restaurant) at 10:30 am on Saturday, September 26. The first 40 people to register will be able to join this cruise. The cost is $25.00. All proceeds go towards the cost of hiring the boat for the occasion.

If you are interested in participating, contact Jesse at events@crematednowwhat.com.

To learn more about Kalfel’s book, visit http://www.creamtednowwhat.com.

For more information about Harbor Cruises, visit http://www.harbortours.com.

Leaving Religion, Following Jesus
by Ronnie McBrayer

Review by Barry Hunter
Baryon Online Magazine

There are two topics I try to avoid in conversations unless my hand is forced. Politics is the first one. Religion is the other. Before going into the review, I would recommend that anyone who has a problem with ‘organized religion’ give this book a read and decide if you want religion or if you want to know Jesus better.

Ronnie McBrayer managed to leave the confines of North Georgia to leave the religion that he grew up with and follow the Jesus that made his life more fulfilling. This book could and should be used as a text in a class to help you understand the teachings of Jesus in the context of modern living. McBrayer converts the parables and teachings into modern day equivalences and makes it very easy to understand and gives you plenty of time to understand it. Each chapter ends with some reflection questions to make sure you understand what was discussed in the chapter.

The conversion of Jesus teachings by McBrayer is well done and makes them easy to understand. This is a book written for all age groups and will explain how it can be easy to be LEAVING RELIGION, and FOLLOWING JESUS.

GOOD NIGHT & GOD BLESS
A Guide to Convent & Monastery Accommodation In Europe
Volume 1: Austria, Czech Republic, Italy
by Trish Clark

Good Night & God Bless dropped into my hands directly from heaven on the wings of angels, or so it seemed. In it, Trish Clark gives us heavenly insider information on convent and monastery accommodations in three of the most romantic and picturesque countries in Europe: Austria, the Czech Republic, and…ah!…Italy. The actual hard information in the margins is so complete and good that it preempts questions arising from her wonderful descriptions of these remarkable lodging opportunities in the main text. The author even divides information for readers seeking spiritual retreats or those just wanting to soak up the ambiance of these sacred places.

You don’t have to be a monk to sleep in a 13th century monastery in Tuscany, with a balcony overlooking a quiet, rose-clustered cloister garden — or a nun to breakfast on coffee with steamed milk and just-out-of-the-oven pastries in a 500-year-old Austrian convent. Good Night & God Bless makes accessible fabled places that only the clergy and their friends knew about in times past. But more than that, the book educates us on the origins of these splendid institutions and the rich historical context in which they are set.

Whether you are planning a trip or just wanting to travel from the couch, get hold of Good Night & God Bless and read it from cover to cover — it really is a blessing.

Joseph Dispenza

Author of The Way of the Traveler: Making Every Trip a Journey of Self-Discovery and God On Your Own: Finding a Spiritual Path Outside Religion. Joseph is in private practice as a spiritual counselor at LifePath Retreats in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. http://www.lifepathretreats.com