Sorting by

×
Engaging Discussions about Early Christianity

How Does A Book Become A Bestseller? Readers’ Mailbag April 21, 2017

In this week’s Mailbag I deal with a question about how a book written for a popular audience becomes a bestseller, specifically with regard to Misquoting Jesus, my book that has sold the best of all by far.   QUESTION: In your previous answer to me you indicated that what makes a bestseller, in the end of the day, is massive media attention.  My question now is what sparks this attention. In other words, why, out of all your books, did Misquoting Jesus receive a great attention from the media?   RESPONSE: Ha!  It’s a great question.  I’ll start by saying that if there were a sure-fire formula for how to get media attention, every author in the planet would do it and we would *all* be on the NY Times Bestseller list!  But the reality is that there are hundreds of books sold every day in English (I was told some years ago that it’s about 600 per day,  but I have no way of knowing if that is right or not; maybe someone [...]

2017-09-20T17:24:40-04:00May 21st, 2017|Book Discussions, Public Forum, Reader’s Questions, Reflections and Ruminations|
Read More

The Gospel Truth: Sometimes A Little Hazy

One of my all-time favorite interviewers is Terry Gross, the host and co-executive producer of Fresh Air on NPR.  I have done her show six times over the years for various books I've written, and it has been a terrific experience each time.  She is an amazing interviewer.  She asks really perceptive questions and knows how to get to what is especially interesting about a guest's work. If you've listened to her show, you'll know that it always sounds like she is in the same radio studio with the person she is interviewing, talking to them face to face.  That's not how it is.  The person being interviewed is physically somewhere else, in a radio studio in their own location, and the interview is happening over headphones and cable hookups.  It certainly never seems that way!  But I've never met her face to face. Here is an interview I did with her on March 4th, 2009 about my book "Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (and Why We Don't Know About Them)." [...]

2017-09-22T13:27:06-04:00February 16th, 2017|Book Discussions, Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus, Public Forum, Video Media|
Read More

My Interview on Fresh Air

As I have said before, every author who has done reasonably well selling trade books for a general audience knows that what drives sales is not the outstanding quality of a book -- lots of terrific books go nowhere in sales, and others that are truly lousy end up being bestsellers -- or in advertising. It's all about media attention. When it comes to radio, one of the very best, top-flight programs to land is Fresh Air with Terry Gross. I don't know this for a fact, but someone has told me that the show has 4.5 million listeners. That's a lot. I have been on Terry Gross six times now, and have enjoyed it immensely each time. She is absolutely fantastic as an interviewer. She's smart, insightful, and curious. She knows how to ask the right questions. She knows how to direct a conversation. She lets her guest talk. She makes her guest feel comfortable and free to discuss openly the important aspects of the book s/he has authored. It is a great experience. [...]

2017-12-14T23:23:06-05:00April 22nd, 2014|Book Discussions, Public Forum, Video Media|
Read More

Fresh Air with Terry Gross and the Dish Book Club with Andrew Sullivan

I mentioned in an earlier post that the only way a trade book begins to sell well is if it gets media attention.   It is really, really hard to get media attention, and there’s very little that an author can personally do about it.  Authors have publicists (at the publisher) who try to get attention in print, radio, and TV; that’s what they do for a living, they do it all the time, they have the necessary contacts, and the know-how, and the experience, and so on.   But at the end of the day, it is always a matter of whether a journal, newspaper, radio program, TV show etc. is interested, and wants to do a piece on the book.   Every author wants a part of the action, and there’s only so much action to go around.   And sometimes, from the author’s point of view, it seems like a very frustrating crapshoot indeed. With that said, I’m happy to announce that I have recorded an interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air, which will be [...]

2017-12-14T23:26:57-05:00April 6th, 2014|Book Discussions, Public Forum|
Read More

Stripe Credit Card Donation

No Account Required

Credit and Debit Cards Processed: Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, AmericanExpress, Diners Club, JCB, UnionPay, ApplePay, and GooglePay.

Paypal Donations

Since April 2012, this blog has raised over $1,000,000 for charity. You can help too! Any one-time donation to the Bart Ehrman Foundation helps conquer hunger and homelessness. The optional form on the right allows recurring donations! Please Note: These free will donations are not counted toward membership fees.

Paypal Recurring Donations

Schedule recurring donations to Bart's foundation using the form below.
Comment Rules

  • Each blog member is allowed to make 2 comments a day.
  • Comments posted must be limited to 200 words or less.
  • All comments will be moderated by the post author before release.
  • Please post respectful comments even when you have strong opinions.
  • Please keep your comments relevant to the issues discussed in the post.
  • If you would like to ask a question, simply ask it in your comment.
  • Please ask only one question per comment posted.

Go to Top