So I wrote another book.
Well, not just me. Tim Schraeder came up with this brilliant idea and asked a bunch of people to contribute. In this case, “a bunch” is defined as more than 60. I edited the book and contributed two chapters. And since I work for the organization putting the book out, I’m doing some of the promo work.
It’s been an incredible experience. The book is called Outspoken: Conversations on Church Communication. It’s all about how churches can communicate better, which as you can probably guess is the heart and soul of the blog I run, Church Marketing Sucks. You can read an excerpt of one of my chapters over there.
The book officially launched today. I keep reminding myself to keep book sales in perspective. I’ve done two other major book releases and I’ve watched the Amazon sales rank rise and fall. Watching the numbers is folly. That’s what you tell yourself to feel better. But secretly I keep hitting refresh and watching that darn sales rank.
As I’m typing this, we’re at a high of #225. I don’t think Addition by Adoption ever went higher than 55,000. That means that of all the millions of books on Amazon, today there are only 225 selling more copies than Outspoken. If that’s not crazy enough, right now the book is #92 on the hot new releases list, #3 on the movers and shakers list, #24 on the best sellers in Christianity and #4 on the hot new releases in Christianity (right above Joyce Meyer and below Joel Osteen).
Crazy. I don’t know what that actually means for sales numbers yet (though it’s probably fewer than you’d expect). But what’s even better about all those sales numbers is that the book benefits the nonprofit Center for Church Communication and a portion of the proceeds will go to Creative Missions, a missions trip for creatives that actually helps churches communicate better. So by purchasing a book to help your church communicate better, you also help other churches communicate better. So cool.
Such a cool project to be a part of. Thanks to all the contributors who wrote for the book, the team that helped pull it together (and there are a lot of you!), the folks who have been promoting it and of course Tim Schraeder for having this whole brainstorm in the first place. I’m so excited and thankful that I get to work with people like this on projects like this.
You can buy the book on Amazon (where it’s even on sale!).