Spiritual/Political/Philosophical Blog on the Nature of Truth and Falsehood and Heaven
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| Sunny Days in Heaven Spiritual/Political/Philosophical Blog on the Nature of Truth and Falsehood and Heaven |
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Saturday, May 25, 2002 Joy! Joy! Joy! Everytime I sell a book at Amazon.com (see link at right), I think -"now it's going to happen; now comes the deluge, the critical mass, the NY Times book review. I sell about 1 book/six months (if I'm lucky, the book has been out for two years now). But the first Christmas I sold 4, and was sure the steamroller had begun. Am I a hope fiend or what? (Sorry Tim Leary, I stole that from your book title - an interesting read.). I have learned that advertising is everything. My one brief review in our obscure city Catholic Herald is what sold those four books. Then I got greedy. I sent a press release to our very obscure Catholic radio station and got invited to appear on it. I showed up prepared to talk about my book, I had various pages Post-it noted; I had prepared a brief spiel describing the contents and beauty of my book, and sat down ready to delight. I never got to talk about my book. I mentioned in passing about being a convert and the host proceeded to wonder about adult converts, and why I became Catholic. I tried to pass quickly over the matter (it is very personal and distressing in so many ways. I don't like to talk about the fact that I had been about to kill myself over my despair of life), and mention that my experience was a bit of a "road to Damascus" type of experience and the "full Hollywood experience" as a friend of mine once described it. But the talk show host kept at it. I never got to talk about my book, and I wasn't prepared to discuss my faith and experiences of God. Then the show was over and I was abruptly cast out into the outer darkness (the cold). Frankly, I felt used and thrown away. I realized that all I had been was an attempt to hold a listener to a radio station. I wasn't really a person at all, but a performer who was supposed to do something magical to attract attention for a little while. The business man's answer to me is that I meant to use the host and his radio program to sell my books, as commercial an enterprise as anything, that I was as much a whore as anyone. Except, I hadn't thought so when I went in. I had really thought that it would be me and a fellow talking about a good story in a friendly way. But I saw from the start how artificial it was and that that every TV, radio, magazine interview was a game usually played by both sides. But not always. It's the non-scheming interviewee who usually gets taken advantage of - like me that day. I was led into talking about things I did not wish to discuss, and had no experience in fending off such invasions of privacy. I was put on the spot and wasn't ready for it. And then I was casually dismissed - thanks for coming, that went all right, take care. I vowed I would never try to commercialize myself again. (There has been no demand since that I do so.) But I learned a great deal about the nature of mass media and its operating principles. It's a soulless machine whether Christians do it or not. People who blithely assert that if Jesus came today he'd appear on TV underestimate the Prince of Peace. He would despise the soulless hosts and media with their inhuman attitudes and commercial lusts. But, even so, I sold a book today! posted by Mark Butterworth | 4:40 AM | |
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