This morning, the Daily Beast published my article summarizing recent material I have obtained.
There is still more to develop on this story. For instance, it appears that the web of relationships involving Sealy Yates, Kevin Small, David Jeremiah and the Parrotts is longstanding. I hope to develop that part of the story more this coming week. As I pointed out in the post earlier this afternoon, Driscoll was a late comer to the party and an outsider to the club. Small is on the board of the Parrotts’ non-profit and Yates is on the board of Jeremiah’s Turning Point. Jeremiah credited Small’s publishing genius as far back as 2006.
It is hard to say if these folks will open up and reveal how all of this works.
Whether or not they do may depend on how much more media scrutiny develops. Christianity Today had a small blurb Friday linking to my blog posts. I think other stories are coming.
What I would like to see is a straightforward explanation from the agents, consultants, authors and publishers about the way they work the New York Times system. In the case of Driscoll’s contract, deception was involved. Has that occurred for the other authors? It appears that way but perhaps the agents, consultants, authors and publishers do not believe they are being deceptive. I would like to hear their side of it. Thus far, outside of a promise of a reply that didn’t come from Tyndale House, there have been no replies from those who have engaged in the best-seller campaigns.
When Mark Driscoll used this approach, his critics and the media were all over the story. Where are they now?
Yates and Yates have a significant cadre of authors they represent. Do all of them use ResultSource? I asked two of them but received no answer.
More broadly, I think the NYT Bestseller brand is tarnished by the actions of ResultSource. I asked the NYTs if they planned any kind of correction for those books proven to benefit from gaming the system, and the paper declined to comment.
On WORD-FM (Pittsburgh) last week, I was interviewed by Kathy Emmons. Her suggestion to the NYTs was to permanently ban any author caught cheating.
Clearly, this is a problem larger than evangelical authors but it appears that it would take evangelicals to change course given that some on the inside of this are within the camp.
Tag: David Jeremiah
Why Did ResultSource Need David Jeremiah's Ministry to Help Get Mark Driscoll on the New York Times Best Seller List?
In June 2011, Kevin Small wrote to then Mars Hill Church executive elder Jamie Munson to provide details about how ResultSource could get Mark Driscoll on the New York Times best-seller list. He gave him the details of what later was reduced to writing in the contract signed by Sutton Turner on behalf of Mars Hill Church. However, there was a detail or two not included in the contract which brings another evangelical figure — David Jeremiah — into the spotlight. Small told Munson:
Although I mentioned this memo last week, I didn’t understand at the time the role Paul Joiner plays at David Jeremiah’s ministry, Turning Point. According to Turning Point’s most recent 990 form, Paul Joiner is the higher paid member listed on Jeremiah’s staff, with the title Director of Creative Services. Joiner is often lauded by Jeremiah in his books, including his most recent book, Agents of the Apocalypse, now sitting at the top of the New York Times best-seller list in the Religious, Spirituality and Faith category. In the Acknowledgments section of the new book, Jeremiah wrote:
Why did Kevin Small pitch David Jeremiah’s Director of Creative Services to help Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill Church scam the NYT best-seller list? To address that question, I asked Mr. Joiner via his Twitter account to contact me regarding Result Source. He did not reply. It is certainly possible that Joiner played no role in Driscoll’s campaign, but it is intriguing that Small felt he could drop Joiner’s name to pitch the best-seller campaign to Mars Hill’s executive elders.
Driscoll took much heat for using writing and research assistance, as well as using ResultSource to propel one book to the top of the NYT best-seller list. However, it now appears that Driscoll was a light weight compared to David Jeremiah’s nearly $40 million per year media empire. Over the years, Jeremiah has used various writers (e.g., Beau Sager, Rob Suggs) to help turn his sermons into books. He then has used Kevin Small and Paul Joiner to turn several of those books into best-sellers.
Jeremiah’s media empire is vast enough that he may not now require Kevin Small’s help. He could probably put out a book of pictures of his family pets and it would go to the top of the charts given the number of people on his mailing list who will commit to purchase his materials pre-launch. However, was the way paved by the same methods that caused Driscoll so much trouble? For now, no one at Turning Point is talking, and it is unclear if anyone in the Christian media will investigate.
………
See my article today at the Daily Beast on this topic for an overview of the work from the past week.
Crossway Books Condemns Manipulation of Bestseller Lists
Monday and Tuesday, I wrote about three Christian authors (David Jeremiah, and Les & Leslie Parrott) who have used help from ResultSource CEO Kevin Small to attain their publishing success. Mars Hill Church’s contract with ResultSource to elevate Mark Driscoll’s book Real Marriage shook public trust in that church. Perry Noble, pastor of New Spring Church, has admitted to using ResultSource to elevate the position of one of his books. There are other authors of books published by Christian publishers who use the ResultSource schemes.
Until recently, ResultSource’s methods were wrapped in mystery. However, with the disclosure of the contract between Mars Hill Church and ResultSource, the public got a look at the service purchased by authors who want New York Times Bestseller status. Essentially the author pays ResultSource to purchase a large quantity of books which ResultSource will send to addresses supplied by the author. If the author doesn’t provide enough addresses in the right geographic areas, then ResultSource will supply them. ResultSource deliberately uses methods which overcome obstacles “to the reporting system” (i.e., deceives the bestseller list). See the excerpt from the contract below for the details.
I asked three Christian publishers — Tyndale House, Harper Collins Christian, and Crossway — for opinions about the use of ResultSource. Tyndale House’s Todd Starowitz told me he would reply when publisher Ron Beers returned from a trip. However, Tyndale did not respond further. HarperCollins Christian did not respond at all. Only Crossway, speaking generally about list manipulation and not individual authors, provided an answer:
From our point of view at Crossway, the bestseller lists are designed to provide an accurate reflection of the market’s response to an author and his or her book. If an author, agent, or publisher intentionally tries to subvert or distort the intended purpose of the bestseller lists, we believe this would constitute an ethical violation, in terms of standard ethical norms, but even more so in terms of Christian ethics. This would be dishonoring to the Lord (to whom we are ultimately accountable), and it would also conflict with our calling to love our neighbors as ourselves (by not creating a distorted or deceptive picture of reality). Christian authors, agents, and publishers are called to a high standard of integrity as we seek to glorify God, not only in the content of what we publish, sell, and market, but also in the way in which we go about this calling.” — Justin Taylor, senior vice president and publisher for books, Crossway
I think Taylor cuts to the heart of the problem with manipulation of bestseller lists. The lists should provide a snapshot of the public response to a book. The public at large seems to see the lists as indicating broad public interest and even quality. However, as it stands, what the list provides is unclear. As the extent of manipulation by Christian and non-Christian authors unfolds, the list may be more of a shadowy glimpse into who has sufficient money to purchase their way into a fiction. Taylor calls the manipulation what it is: unethical. Taylor calls the Christian publishing world to a higher standard. The defense that everybody’s doing it is no defense at all.
Back in June, David Jeremiah’s non-answer to Marvin Olasky’s question about list manipulation provided an insight into another bogus rationale.
Marvin Olasky: TheNew York Times for its bestseller list counts sales from a bunch of secular stores; I understand there’s a company that will go in and buy several books in each of these bookstores. The companies that do that spread the release point of these books that are purchased by individuals so they can get attention. Is that legitimate?
David Jeremiah: The bottom line is you’re selling these books and they’re just not getting noticed. If you want the books to be noticed so that you can reach more people with them, you’ve got to figure out how to do that. I don’t know all of the ramifications of it, but I know that you can’t just write a book and say I’m not going to have anything to do with marketing. If you don’t care enough about it to try and figure out how to get it in the hands of other people, nobody else is going to either.
If you want your books to be noticed, you have to do something about it. It is stunning that David Jeremiah, a man who provides daily bible advice about a host of topics, can say unchallenged that he doesn’t “know all of the ramifications of it.” Dr. Jeremiah, fellow Cedarville University alum, let me ask you to read Justin Taylor’s statement about the ramifications. Let me hasten to add that I don’t know exactly how Jeremiah worked with ResultSource. However, given the direct question about manipulation of sales asked by Olasky, it is disappointing that Jeremiah did not answer it directly.
If he is really unsure of the implications of Olasky’s question, then Dr. Jeremiah should also read Jared Wilson’s article, “What’s Wrong with Buying Your Way onto the Bestseller List. Wilson provided five reasons the practice is wrong:
- It’s dishonest
- It’s egocentric and lazy
- It may eventually harm your reputation and will bug you in the long run
- It’s poor stewardship and bad strategy
- It disadvantages those actually gifted.
See also the comments of the Director of Communications for the New York Times.
At the end of the day, it should not be hard for Christian leaders to understand why fooling the public with a purchased persona is wrong. When Mark Driscoll’s deal with ResultSource came to light, the church initially called it an opportunity, then unwise, then wrong. Eventually Driscoll removed the designation of NYTs best selling author from his bio. What should other authors do who have used this scheme? What should publishers do? At Crossway, there doesn’t seem to be any problem with understanding the ramifications.
Excerpt from the contract between Mars Hill Church and ResultSource. The entire contract is here.
For another inside look at ResultSource in the context of business publishing, see Jeffrey Trachtenberg’s article.
Did David Jeremiah Use ResultSource to Make the New York Times Bestseller List?
During the week of October 21, 2012, David Jeremiah’s book God Loves You debuted at #5 on the New York Times Hardcover and Advice Bestseller List. It remained on the list for four weeks falling off the list during the week of November 18. In the Acknowledgments section of the book, Jeremiah credited ResultSource CEO, Kevin Small, for being the genius behind the plan to get the book “before as many readers as possible.”
As we now know, in the case of former Mars Hill pastor Mark Driscoll, working with Small to market his book meant buying his way on to the bestseller list. Mars Hill’s contract with ResultSource called for the purchase of thousands of books in ways that made it appear that the books were being purchased by individuals. Did David Jeremiah, his church, or his Turning Point ministry make a similar arrangement? I asked Turning Point three times about this beginning early last week but received no answer.
According to an internal Mars Hill Church memo on ResultSource I have obtained, ResultSource CEO Kevin Small outlined the details of the preparation for a New York Times Bestseller campaign to Mars Hill Church’s executive elders in June 2011. One part of the strategy was to set up a website to solicit donations in exchange for a book. The pitch in the case of Real Marriage was that the Mars Hill Church member could donate over $25 to get a free book with any profits going to the church. However, since the books had to be purchased at retail, not much actual profit went to the church. Mark Driscoll’s staff warned about how it would look if the ResultSource deal was ever discovered.
According to the same memo, Kevin Small told Mars Hill executive elders that he would contact Turning Point’s* Paul Joiner to “provide the insight into constructing a donor campaign that will result in a higher donation than book cost.” Mars Hill constructed such a donor campaign, even though, according to insiders, very few donations were made which meant that many books had to be purchased by Mars Hill at retail cost via ResultSource. Since Kevin Small called on Joiner to help Driscoll with a bestseller campaign, Joiner apparently has experience doing it. David Jeremiah credited Joiner with “incredible creativity” to drive the process, and Small, who Jeremiah has worked with since at least 2006, with the “genius behind the plan.”
An unanswered question is: What was the plan? We know what Driscoll did; did Jeremiah do the same thing? He hasn’t answered.
I have obtained information which indicates that other Christian authors have used ResultSource to crack the NYT list. I will post more on this topic throughout the week. I also have reaction from a Christian publisher and the New York Times.
*Turning Point is David Jeremiah’s broadcast ministry.
(An earlier version of this post was published by mistake. I regret the confusion)