This is an update post. To find the original post, click here.
Author: Marc Brown
Genre: Religious/Spiritual
How long it's been on sale: 13 months
Current price: $8.49 (Paperback)
Marketing: Amazon, one book signing, given few copies to influencial local people, word of mouth, copies available in our antiques store.
Total sold so far: 250+
Link to book on Amazon: God Is Greater
Product Description:
God and religion are not one and the same. Religion is a man-made construct which frequently obscures a clear understanding of who God is and what He is like. B. Marc Brown, author of “God Is Greater” has been a Christian for over four decades, a licensed minister since the age of sixteen, and a biblical studies teacher for many years. Marc has developed a means of expounding upon the essence and character of the God of the Bible without sounding preachy, condescending, or judgmental. God is who God is – in spite of the religious practices of those who claim to follow Him. “God Is Greater” reveals elements of God’s true nature and provides insight into the powers and abilities of God.
First 300 Words:
First things first, I am operating under the assumption God exists. I am certainly not alone in this assumption, but there are some great minds who believe otherwise. It takes faith to believe in a God you cannot see, touch, or feel. In my opinion, however, it takes a great deal more faith to believe God does not exist.
When one considers every society from the jungles of Africa, to the rain forests of South America, to the ancient Mayans of Central America, has sought after an entity to worship, it is difficult to believe such an Entity does not exist. From a globally historical perspective, it would appear the knowledge of a greater entity and the desire to seek Him out is written into the DNA of every human being.
When one further considers we have never witnessed the creation of something (anything) from absolute nothing, it is even more difficult to believe a Being with far greater capabilities than those which we possess does not exist.
There are certainly those who believe science will eventually reveal all. If someone has become so convinced that science has all the answers or will have all the answers, I seriously doubt I can change his/her mind. But for the rest of us, please keep in mind scientific research continues precisely because science has not yet obtained all the answers – nor will it – ever.
Science has indeed availed mankind to incredible advances in the areas of pharmaceutical products, synthetic fabrications, quantum physics, and many other life-enhancing developments. But for all the advances, there remain countless areas in which advances continue to be sought. If you believe science will and can reveal all, you have chosen to put your faith in the genius and ingenuity of men and women.
Comments: This is the first update I've done. At first I thought maybe putting the same book up would be tiresome to readers, but after looking at the changes I felt like this would be a fun thing for readers to see, so I'm putting it up.
I'm thrilled to say there have been some great improvements with this book. I love the new cover. It's fresh, modern looking, and I can read the title. It's a huge improvement from the last one. I'm not sure what the hourglass in the sky means, but I'm so thrilled that the new cover looks modern I don't even care about it. Very nice.
The new description is also an improvement. I'm so glad to know what background the author has, and what kind of God I might be reading about in this book. It really will help potential buyers to know the author is a minister, and the book is based on the teachings of the bible.
The one thing I felt could be improved is the put downs to religion. If the author is a minister, isn't he affiliated with a religion? To say that religion "is a man-made construct which frequently obscures a clear understanding of who God is and what He is like" would be off-putting to people who belong to a religion, and who believe they have a clear understanding of God. And later, the author says, "in spite of the religious practices of those who claim to follow Him." Wow. The author is implying that people who follow religious practices do not really follow God. I would think about revising that. It's not a good idea to offend the target audience.
The beginning of the book is much improved, IMHO. Before, there were some inflammatory statements. Those have been removed, and the beginning reads very smooth to me. Sure, the author is putting down science to an extent, but I don't think it's inflammatory. A large majority of those who will pick up this book will be those who already believe in God, and who have the same thoughts about science. Personally, I don't believe that science and the belief in God are antithetical. But I do know some people who believe this, and I don't find the author's words offensive.
Overall, I think the presentation of this book has improved greatly. Great job to the author. What do you guys think?
Very cool! I'd love to see more updates.
ReplyDeleteWith this one the cover and the blurb are SO MUCH better. Great job.
Have the sales changed and improved?
The revised version has only been available for a few days, so I have not seen a sales trend. Thank you for your kind comments!
DeleteI hope you'll come back and let us know! :)
DeleteLove the new cover, although the hourglass wasn't clearly an hourglass to me.
ReplyDeleteThe blurb is a lot better. Now I understand both the author's background and the premise from which he is writing.
Great first 300. It works very well for me.
When is the ebook coming out? Reasonably priced, this is something I think I'd like to read.
The ebook is available on Kindle. Thank you for your kind comments!
DeleteYes, I forgot to ask about the ebook as well. There's such a huge market for ebooks. It's all I buy now. I can get them instantly, without leaving my chair. Marc, email me if you have questions about making this into an ebook.
ReplyDeleteI like the cover for the most part. I'm not sure what to make of the hourglass though. The hourglass draws my attention because of its oddity… it doesn't quite fit. Everything else, I like.
ReplyDeleteThe description could use a little work. It starts out strong, but then it's sliced by the author bio. It's not a bad author bio though. It adds credibility. However, putting the bio at the end rather then separating the book description with it might work better. The phrase "without sounding preachy, condescending, or judgmental"is rather off-putting. Even thought it says it won't be, immediately my mind says… "sure… the description says it won't, but I know it will be." I might concentrate on what the book is and avoid saying what the book isn't. No need to put thoughts in the readers' heads. Also the phrase "God is who God is" makes me wonder, why bother finding out more if he is who he is. I do like the last sentence of the description though.
First 300 words: The second paragraph first sentence has extra commas which makes the sentence a difficult read. Plus phrasing it from X place, to Y place, to Z place is odd. Perhaps just from X place to Y place and dropping the third? Minor thing.
Despite the description mentioning the book isn't preachy, the first 300 words does have a preachy feel to it though. It also seems a little condescending. If your target is only Christians, this might be okay, since there might be a good chance they believe the same. If your goal is to reach beyond Christians, I don't think this is the way to go.
The underlining tone I receive from reading the first 300 words is: You're an idiot if you don't believe in a God, but hey! To each their own. As for me, I'm sticking with God--the better alternative.
Reading the first 300 words, I also question whether I'm going to get the information promised in the description. The description talks about understanding God better, but the first 300 word sounds like it's trying to convince me why I should believe in God. If I was a non-believer, the first paragraph might work for me. However, the following paragraphs I can see turning off a lot of non-believers. They opened the book to find out more about God (or at least the Christian God), not necessarily be convinced why they should believe in that same God. If the intent is to turn over a non-believer, it might be done better by giving the reader what's in the description. Likewise, for Christians picking up the book, they've likely heard everything you've said already. They're not picking up the book for a repeat of the same arguments. They're picking up the book to get a better understanding of what's in the bible.
So in my opinion, the first paragraph works, the rest makes the beginning lose its effectiveness.
By the way, I do like the idea of updates. I went back to the original post and agree… this is an improvement.
I disagree, actually. I like the hourglass. Time. God is the beginning and end. Time is running OUT. Time is FROZEN. There's a lot of ways to interpert it and I like it.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I don't dislike his putting down religion. Frankly, if I saw a book about a preist or minister exposing the flaws in religion, it would be remarkably refreshing and intriguing to me, especially as someone who loves and believes in God but who has MANY issues with religion. We are all somewhat closet agnostics I think. This is like if a U.S. adviser revealed what's wrong in the whitehouse. He's defying his own origin and yet is the most qualified person to make arguments against it.
No. I like it as is. Major improvements from the last book and the inflammatory comments could be watered down a little for the sake of professionalism but really, why sugar-coat? There's enough books that are so cookie-cutter politcally correct and then there sure are plenty of atheist books that "subtly" and "politely" rip apart the intellect and faith of theists. I say full steam ahead.