It's scary but I'm trusting

What are you supposed to feel when your church says to you 'The minister is double-booked on Sunday week, can you fill in?'. Well, perhaps it's time to put my preaching career on the line (wow -two whole sermons so far to a church that hasn't invited me back!!). This could be churchicide.

In the end, what is there to fear? They may laugh at you (they do that already); they may argue with what you have to say (they do that already); they may never speak to you afterwards (they do that.....).

In these circumstances, this is my strategy - pray for the right message and trust the rest to God. If he is the master of his word (the Bible) then I can seek his guidance on where to go and what to explain. As long as I stick to what the text really says then I can't go wrong (but I think I'd better leave out the joke about the carrot!).

This is such a spiritual boost after the non-spiritual trade show - perhaps God is listening after all. 'Guide me oh! thou great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land. I am meek but thou art mighty....' Aren't old hymns sometimes so much more helpful than 'we adore you, we love you, we adore you, we love you, we adore you, we love you - we love you foever adoring God' which seems a little unrealistic as well as a tautology when you unpack the latin root of 'love'.

What was all that about?

Well, CBC is over and what a time it was. The show was a little flat due to a) Doug Ross showing himself a fine exemplar of American speechmaking (too long and nothing of content!) and Rob Bell disappointing by not doing what he does well but instead trying to do something that fitted in with us.

Still, it was all busy busy busy and a grand time was had by all - especially those near to those nice people who keep a ready supply of maltesers handy.

I couldn't help thinking that we were a business, rather than a spiritual, gathering of people. Does that mean the industry is losing it's way? More prayer needed.

Specialist retailing can be Dangerous

There is always a certain amount of trepidation when you are invited to sit on a panel and receive questions fired at you from the trade. In an industry where 90% of your potential customers DON'T visit your major market channel you have to keep the retailer's satisfied whilst finding ways of enlarging the total market with new channel strategies elsewhere.

You also know that, on a panel, one word out of place could blow your chances of keeping the retailers on-side!

In the end, though, it's best to be straight with people. 'Yes, you are our most important customer group but we have to be looking alsewhere as well in order to fulfil our commission'.

A lesson that a never seems to be learnt is that the market buys stuff the way that it likes to, not the way that you would prefer it to. You cannot NOT enter new market channels if you want to get to your customers.

So, fingers crossed, on Monday I may lose the entire business to an ill-timed comment or... we could move forward together with a new understanding and purpose.

The Philosophy of Tradeshows

Tradeshows are strange things. No matter which way you try to calculate their effectiveness the math always says 'this was a waste of time and resources' - yet they work!

It's the same thing with budget airlines. I don't care what you say, I cannot see how an airline can charge an average of £30/$50 for a ticket on a 500 mile route and manage to pay for pilot, co-pilot, 3 flight attendants, plane lease, maintenance and fuel.

So, next time you find yourself flexing your toes on the third day of a tradefair wondering why you came, just remember - they will buy in the weeks and months ahead if you have excited them enough on your booth.

WELCOME

Welcome to the blogspot for frustrated Christian publishers everywhere.

Want to visit a comfy home where you can share the things you could NEVER say to your colleagues (and certainly not your boss) here it is at 'We need the title now!'.

Here in Britain we are just coming up to the annual beano known as The Christian Bookseller's Convention. In the past this had been a marginally beneficial event in the bowels of the Doncaster racecourse but now it is shiny and gorgeous at the Telford International Exhibition Centre. There, you never thought that you would see those words together in a sentence, did you?

For those going, it'll be a treat to speak to you but you might also end up on we need the title now if you say anything particularly spiritual, insightful or (and these are the bits I like) foolish!

Look forward to it!