Energion Publications Announcements

Eric Carpenter continues his review of The Jesus Paradigm.

While at the annual conference for the Alabama-West Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church June 7-10, our table was located across from a snack bar operated by the Alabama Rural Ministry.

Besides the obvious commercial benefit of being across from the snack bar, where they had $5 infinitely refillable coffee mugs, it was a real pleasure to have a chance to encounter these enthusiastic young people and hear about their ministry.

Alabama Rural Ministry, according to their literature, has a number of different ministries designed to serve the rural poor. One of the brochures I picked up was about the Walk Across Alabama, which was designed to raise both awareness and money. On the front of that brochure they list these goals: Eliminate poverty, Repair homes, Share Christ’s message of compassion and home. On the front of the other brochure they have: “Whatever you do in word and deed, do everything in the name of the Lord.” — Colossians 3:19.

That’s some good advice, and a fine ministry, displaying all the marks of the gospel message. Check them out.

Energion Publications author Elgin Hushbeck, Jr. will be one of the speakers at the Wausau Tea Party this July 4.

Elgin was recently interviewed on WSAU 550 radio and signed copies of his latest book, Preserving Democracy, at the Wausau Barnes and Noble. Anyone in attendance can get a special keyword to use on PreservingDemocracy.com for a special price on ordering the book online.^* There will also be a very small number of books available at the event.

For July 4th weekend, our book of the week is Preserving Democracy, which will be discounted $10.00 to $19.99. Find the details on the Preserving Democracy web site.

Besides print, Kindle, and Adobe Digital editions, Preserving Democracy is now available in Mobipocket.

June 7-10 this year we tried something new–displaying books at the Methodist Annual conference for Alabama and Northwest Florida. The choice of place was natural due to geography. The choice of denomination was not done because we publish only Methodist stuff, but rather because we do have books in our catalog by four different pastors in that conference. (They are Bob McKibben, Perry Dalton, Riley Richardson, and Geoffrey Lentz.)

Previously, events we have tried have not been our greatest opportunities. We sell the most books when one of our authors speaks on some occasion and we can offer his or her books for sale there. For the Methodist pastors, I had arranged book signings with Cokesbury, and had done quite well with those.

We went to the conference with three goals: 1) Sell books (of course!), 2) Contact more potential authors, and 3) Establish connections with churches and church accounts. Because we offer good quantity and non-profit discounts designed to be attractive to small churches, we felt that there would be a number of churches interested.

Our book table, with Jody Neufeld (left) and Janet Lister

On site sales of books were not overwhelmingly large, but were better than at many prior events. We found that there were more people at the conference who wanted to spend time talking about our books and how they might use them in their churches. This resulted in more than average sales for a conference event.

Bob Makar Signs Copies of his book Messiah Road Map
(an EnerPower Press Title)

We also contacted quite a number of potential authors. Publishers know that you will look at quite a number of ideas and manuscripts before you find that one that really works, so we were very happy with the number of conversations we held with folks who either had done some writing or had ideas. We don’t know how many of these will bear fruit, but you don’t reap if you don’t sow!

Probably for the same reason that book sales were decent, our contacts with churches who might want materials were excellent. We were able to discuss materials and even set up church accounts for people that will permit them to order our materials online with correct discounts.

Finally, we even made some media contacts, though those were completely unexpected–though of course very welcome.

It was a wonderful fringe benefit to be located across the hall from the snack bar operated by Alabama Rural Ministries. I’m going to do a “Ministry Moment” post about them on Monday. For now, let me just say that the enthusiasm of these young folks was welcome and energizing, and we were happy to be able to support them.

We were also next to OurChurchVideos.com, which provides some very useful services to churches and other businesses. We have been talking to them since the event.

As a result of this experience, it is likely that we will display at more conferences over the next year.

Bob Makar has posted a review of Preserving Democracy on his blog, MessiahRoadmap.com.

Note to reviewers – you can request review copies of books that have been released as well as advance copies.

The audio from Elgin Hushbeck Jr.’s interview with Pat Snyder on WSAU this morning is available:

Preserving Democracy Interview (MP3).

The podcast feed is http://feeds.museumpods.com/interviews.xml.

Elgin Hushbeck is the author of Preserving Democracy.

Continuing to link to reviews of The Jesus Paradigm–Alan Knox on his blog The Assembling of the Church.

As editor and publisher I would like to thank Alan and all reviewers thus far who have been clear that they received a free copy (I believe this is the ethical thing to do), and also with other disclosures. Knowing the writer doesn’t disqualify you from reviewing, and we don’t intend to place you under any obligation by providing a free advance copy, but people should know and draw their own conclusions.

It has been a joy to read these reviews thus far. Please note that I’m also adding each link to the discussion post. Feel free to join in!

Here: unlikely christians >> Book Review: The Jesus Paradigm by D. A. Black.