For a frank and fascinating discussion of the methods used by Zondervans marketing guru have a look at some powerpoint slides and a script made available by Greg Stielstra.
Tim might be accused of allowing his personal dislike of this book to influence his view of this marketing approach. The fact that it has been possible to put a christian book of any description on the best seller list is amazing and we need to learn from it how to communicate more successfully in our modern world.
The approach is about targeting individuals most likely to be interested and makes use of individuals and their gathering into groups of like-minded people. In my view it is an absolutely brilliant approach which deserves much careful examination.
If Tim Challies and others dont like the fact that this book is getting more success than it in their view deserves then why not help publishers utilise this approach with other books? Actually, on a small scale that is exactly what Tim is doing with his great book review scheme over at diet of bookworms. A certain kind of blogger is being fed a certain kind of Christian book with the hope that reviews spread accross Christian sites will generate “heat” and interest around these titles. Crossway have embraced Tims approach and speaking as one of the bloggers who are the “dry tinder” for some of these resources I am thrilled. The innovative way Crossway are using the ESV Blog is also surely another example of this.
Of course the notion of using groups of like-minded individuals to catch a vision and then spread it with their friends ought to remind you of something. It was exactly the strategy Jesus used to get the gospel communicated. Whether using online communities or reall face to face communities the best way to communicate any message is by exciting groups of people who are more likely to receive it well, creating a relationship between these groups and the message and then sending them out to share it with others.
I doubt that there is any group of people more readily available to such a strategy than the church. This is why the church can change the world. It is important that we recognise the power of this and utilise it for great materials and for that matter blogs that we want to have a wider audience. The trouble is that we Christians have become bad at telling each other let alone outsiders about what has excited us. Each of us can have a ripple effect and we need to take seriously the roll we have in getting excited about the right things and spreading the right kind of fire to both out christian and non-christian friends.
Lets all become pyromaniacs and spread the fire!
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