Reality arrived yesterday in the form of an executive editor for my publisher telling me that I should hold off on developing my next book until I’ve spent 6 months marketing Off-Road Disciplines. I was not prepared for this sort of delay. However, when I checked with others in the business, I discovered that the likelihood of a second book depends on the sales of book #1 during those first, critical 6 months. Let’s hope everyone buys them for Christmas presents! Promoting me has never been comfortable. This might sound surprising after several years of newsletters, blogs, and websites, but it’s true. So my editor’s wisdom (she is absolutely right) pushed some issues to the surface. 1. My attitude resembled an ineffective church: I was prepared to create the content for books in perpetuity but had given precious little thought to getting these volumes in anyone’s hands. This condition resembles the church ready to receive new messages from their pastor each week, without a plan for getting this good news into their community. 2. My strategy must resemble an effective church: I will depend a lot on conference speaking and web-based promotion, but the foundation of everything will be relationship, getting the book to people I know who can recommend it to others. Purpose-Driven Life sold so many copies, in part, because readers purchased it for their friends. Great ministries reach their communities, not through programs, but through relationships. 3. My results will resemble the message: There is no cure for a bad book. Also, no amount of marketing, standard, buzz, guerilla, viral, etc. can compensate for readers not benefiting from what they read enough to talk about it. In the same way, the gospel’s ultimate credibility is that Jesus does things in and for people that make them want to share with others. While planning and relationship are essential, the power of the message is its content—Jesus and Him crucified. So I am over my qualms about marketing. Perhaps we can promote ourselves without being self-promoting. The daylight between the two might be called humility. My major recommendation: don’t confuse humility with low self-esteem.