We were at a church picnic on Wednesday night. People were asking me about my new book (God Behaving Badly, in case you haven’t heard), when I kicked into what my sons call “Shameless Marketing” mode.
“Did you see Scot McKnight’s blog (Jesus Creed) posts?”
“Did I already tell you that Christianity Today will print an excerpt in July?”
“Have you been checking out my Amazon rankings?”
Then my son Noah (13) chimes in, “Dad even tried to sell copies of his book during my birthday party.” (I countered by noting that his friends seemed genuinely interested.)
Despite how it may appear, all of this shameless marketing does make me feel uncomfortable. My mother consistently modeled asking questions of others instead of talking about yourself. I fear that I’m losing a deeply held value of focusing on others.
But I rationalize that at least part of the reason that I’m shamelessly marketing is that I’m genuinely interested in the topic and I truly believe the book will help people. Ultimately, my goal in writing the book is to help people love God and love God’s word. And for that to happen I’ll need to sell a few books along the way.
What are your thoughts on “Shameless Marketing”? (Now that I’m asking questions again, I feel more comfortable.)