Sales strong in North America
Brenton Stacey
Public relations officer
Avondale College of Higher Education
Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia
Strong sales will see a book by the senior minister of Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church reprinted only six months after its launch.
Launch: Signs Publishing Company book editor Nathan Brown presents a framed cover of Reckless Love to its author Dr Bruce Manners. Credit: Ann Stafford.
Signs Publishing Company has no more copies of Dr Bruce Manners’s Reckless Love and is now printing more to cover backorders.
“Sales have been strong in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific, but we’ve been surprised by the strength of sales in North America,” says book editor Nathan Brown.
This is due in part to Pacific Press, which distributes Signs’ books to Adventist Book Centres in North America. The Nampa, Idaho-based publisher promoted Reckless Love at an Adventist Book Centre sales seminar in February. “By the time the first shipment arrived a few weeks ago, Pacific Press needed to order more,” reports Nathan.
Reckless Love is the first book Bruce has published with a particular purpose on a single theme. He wrote for two reasons. The first: to discover the elements of grace and God’s love within the core doctrines of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The second: to answer the “so what?” question, to ask how we respond to God in our being and living.
“You can’t take doctrines away from the God who gave them,” says Bruce. “If God is love, you must be able to find love in the doctrines.” Bruce is unaware of others writing about doctrine in this way, so the success of Reckless Love is important, he says. “As a pastor, I say, ‘Good. Maybe the message is catching on.’”
During the launch, Nathan described the hurdles of marketing a book whose content falls in the centre of the theological spectrum. What makes Reckless Love different, he said, is the context from which it is written, its practical application—the book includes a group discussion guide—the author’s credibility and “the depth and the greatness of what it represents.”
“It seems Reckless Love has caught people’s imagination and we believe it will touch their hearts as well,” he now says. So, running out of stock is “a good problem to have.”
Order Reckless Love: Adventist Beliefs at Stories of Grace from Adventist Book Centres for $19.95.