2025 CAN Excellence in Marketing Awards: Second Place in Fiction Online Presence
Next in a series of posts featuring the winners of the 2025 Christian Authors Network (CAN) Excellence in Marketing Awards. Julie Lavender won second place in the Fiction Online Presence category and describes her activities in this interview.
The 2026 marketing awards will open in November 2025. CAN members, be thinking of how you can enter the awards. See the guidelines at: https://christianauthorsnetwork.com/marketing-award/
1. Congratulations on your second-place win in the Fiction Online Presence of the CAN Excellence in Marketing Awards!
What book were you marketing?
A Gingerbread House
A Gingerbread House, (children’s) picture book, by Julie Lavender
2. What was the goal of your marketing campaign?
With the publication of my book, A Gingerbread House, a longtime writing dream came true! I’d dreamed of a children’s picture book for almost four decades. Because this writing goal was so special to me, I wanted to find a unique way to share with others about my book.
Tweaking the popularity of the Flat Stanley Project, I decided to purchase two stuffed gingerbread dolls and take them on adventures far and wide and share about it months before my book released.
I named them Ginger and Geoff, and I called my social media posts about their adventures: “Where Are Ginger and Geoff?” My goal was to engage friends and readers long before my book launched as a bit of a teaser about my upcoming book.
I also shared videos of myself with segment I called “The Twelve Days of Gingerbread.” Each day, I shared something about gingerbread – some places I knew that sponsored a gingerbread contest or the history of gingerbread houses (Did you know it oddly has to do with the fairy tale classic Hansel and Gretel?) or favorite recipes or a few favorite tips about making gingerbread houses.
I also actively engaged in several gingerbread Facebook groups long before the book released, building a relationship with gingerbread enthusiasts. You might be surprised to find out what an active group of gingerbread fans are out there who enjoy and celebrate gingerbread all year long, not just at Christmas!!
3. How did you decide what activities to include?
I basically took my gingerdolls with me everywhere, snapping pictures of anything that seemed fun and exciting. Whether it was to Italy on our 40th anniversary trip or to the back yard when a butterfly emerged from a chrysalis, Ginger and Geoff got their photos taken often on various life adventures.
4. What was your favorite aspect of your marketing campaign? Why?
Perhaps my favorite aspect of the marketing campaign turned out to be the fact that I became known as “the gingerbread gal.” No one actually called me that name, but before long, especially as the Christmas holiday season kicked into gear, my friends on social media were sending me pictures of various gingerbread paraphernalia and where they found it on sale, and announcements about who was hosting a gingerbread contest or activity in states all across the nation, and what favorite gingerbread recipes they tried, and anything else related to gingerbread! I loved that my plan had succeeded such that people associated me with gingerbread in all its facets!
5. What results surprised you the most?
You know what surprised me the most? My sweet little five-year-old grandson’s passion about my gingerbread dolls! He saw me take some of the pictures that I posted online and though he had no idea that’s what I was doing with the photos, he began to help me pick out “cool” photo ops for Ginger and Geoff. He loved to stage photos – that usually included him or his new baby brother or maybe his latest piece of artwork – and he would place Ginger and Geoff in just the right location he thought would make a great photo!
6. What new skills did you need to learn for your efforts to succeed?
It took some effort to learn how to squeeze in the content I wanted for my videos in the short amount of time I allotted for each of the Twelve Days of Gingerbread. That “writing tight” and succinct content took some new skill investigations.
7. How did you determine the return on investment?
The engagement on social media let me know people were interested in the exploits of my gingerdolls. Because of my engagement on social media, I was able to garner several top names in the gingerbread world to endorse my book. And shortly after a post about the release of the book, I began getting requests from teachers to read to classrooms, a couple of podcasters who wanted interviews, and a Gingerbread Contest coordinator in Kentucky invited me to come to the event to read my book just before the announcement of the contest winners. And, I’d also set a goal of securing 50 reviews within a month of the release of my book, and I successfully accomplished that goal.
8. What marketing advice would you offer other writers?
Get creative and think out of the box. And START EARLY! Because I started this campaign a year and a half before the book released by taking photographs to use for my social media, I had a wealth of material to share online to gain a huge following with my online presence about the book.
9. How can readers learn more about your writing?
Julie Lavender
Readers can find out more about my books on Amazon and other online book places.
They can find me on Facebook, as Julie Lavender, and Instagram, as JulieLavenderWrites.
