Raker wants to know how she can help:
That is, how do bookstores and chains learn about a newly published book, and, what can the 5th column do about it?
The regular bookstores and chains will hear about it, in fact, most of their buyers have probably already ordered it. What you can do is let the CBA bookstores know that this is a book which might be of some interest to their customers since the publisher is secular and won’t be marketing directly to them. Taking a page from Richard Dawkins, I’ll be preparing a pair of flyers in the next few weeks which you can download and print out; one will be for Christian institutions, the other will be for secular ones and public places. If you’d like to spread a few of those around, that would be great.
Another thing you can do is to save a few dollars for the book surge which will be organized as per the OC’s direction when the book comes out. I know a lot of you have already pre-ordered the book, but I’d encourage you to consider participating in the surge anyhow and giving your extra copy away to a church leader or Christian radio station in the area. I was really surprised at how many of you participated in the RM test and bought a book that you didn’t need or intend to read. (To say nothing of the fact that it’s available in two ebook formats right here.)
I think I can safely say that TIA will make the biggest impact on the sort of individual who regards any of the New Atheist’s books as being somehow meaningful. Atheists and agnostics who think as little as I do of Dawkins and company will be unimpressed, Christians who have never heard of them will be a little bewildered and those who are looking for a theological dissertation will be disappointed. The book is a dissection of atheism – or as one reader put it, a vivisection – it is not a rewrite of the Bible or a Christian apology. It may be best suited for nominally Christian college students who are meeting the first serious test of their faith and tend to be a little too overimpressed by the novelty of old ideas that are new to them.