Next week, best-selling author Jerry Jenkins’s book trailer of his latest novel, I, Saul (Worthy Publishing, Aug. 2013) will make its television debut. Jenkins, who has authored over 150 books, is best known for coauthoring the Left Behind series. Worthy Publishing decided to take a new approach for marketing I, Saul during the first weeks of the book’s release to help rouse reader interest. “With having sold over 70 million books in his career, it only made sense to roll out the marketing of Jerry B. Jenkins's new thriller, I, Saul, with something large and unique,” said Dennis Disney, v-p of marketing at Worthy. “Doing a national television campaign is both; and not only for Christian titles but also for the vast majority of published books period.”

Running as a commercial, the trailer will appear on cable networks A&E, ION, and WGN America, and play for 2-4 weeks after its launch. Worthy Publishing also targeted six specific markets (DMAs) to air the commercial through spot buys, purchasing time on ABC Family, USA and Lifetime channels, and, in some cases, on a broadcast network affiliate. The six DMAs chosen are: Atlanta, Ga., Dallas, Tex., Houston, Tex., Orlando, Fla., Charlotte, N.C., and Minneapolis, Minn.

“In both the national and DMA campaigns, we are specifically targeting time periods adjacent to the broadcasts of major television ministries on the aforementioned networks/channels,” said Disney. “This tightly targeted commercial placement allows us to speak efficiently and effectively to the early adopters of Christian novels. Since this is a hard street date book, our objective is to motivate this group of consumers to purchase in the early days of the book's release while the other aspects of our plan (publicity campaign, online advertising, book signing events, and top in-store positions) provide additional awareness and visibility.”