MY FAVORITE radio talk show host is Hugh Hewitt. Granted, Hugh’s an old friend of mine. But personal friendship aside, one reason I like going on The Hugh Hewitt Show is that I stand a good chance of learning something new.
As I did Wednesday night, when Hugh brought up a new book I hadn’t heard about, “After I Believe.” (I’m going to skip the formality of using “Hewitt” and simply refer to Hugh as Hugh, since that’s how–by his first name–he’s known on air). Hugh talked about what an exceptional book “After I Believe” is and how it had jumped on the Amazon sales list from #1,287,947 to #7, making that leap in the space of two days. I know what you’re thinking: No one can know what those rankings mean in actual sales, since Amazon doesn’t disclose them. Still, whatever the sales numbers are, something remarkable has been happening this week in the case of one particular book. “After I Believe” is today still up there–#15.
Here’s another remarkable thing: the power of talk radio. Hugh didn’t mention “After I Believe” on air until Monday, when the book began its whooshing ascent up the Amazon list. He’s continued to plug it all week. Doubtless there will be skeptics who say “mere coincidence.” But I don’t know what else could account for all those orders. Hugh’s show airs live from Los Angeles for three hours starting at 3 p.m. PST, and it’s heard in many other parts of the country, since it goes out over more than 50 affiliates.
If Hugh’s show is the big reason for the Amazon orders, then there must be a lot of offline to online behavior here. By which I mean that people offline listening to the show are later logging on and buying the book. It could be, too, that there is some completely online behavior: Some people may be at their computers, listening to “The Hugh Hewitt Show” on, say, RealPlayer, and, having heard about “After I Believe,” they may be going right to Amazon to put the book in their shopping cart.
In any event, I see I’ve failed to say just what this book is about. Its full title is After I Believe: Experiencing Authentic Christian Living. The author is Mark Roberts, a Presbyterian pastor in southern California. Hugh tells me that the book is a well-written, practical guide to the basic disciplines of the Christian life–prayer, Bible study, and the like. The author is a learned pastor–with undergraduate and graduate degrees from Harvard. “It’s not a surface treatment,” says Hugh, “but it’s also not beyond a layman’s grasp.” It’s a thoroughly “normal” book, as Hugh describes it, not one that breaks from basic Christianity and endorses some weird new doctrine or practice.
Hugh says there’s evidently a need for such a “normal” book. He’s also right to say there’s a huge market for one–a fact ignored by the mainstream media. “This isn’t the sort of book that will ever be reviewed in the New York Times or the Los Angeles Times.” Write a book attacking faith–that’s the kind of book that gets reviewed in those places.
I’ve now gone to Amazon and read the reviews–quite favorable I might add–of “After I Believe.” And those reviews have completed another sale, which happens to be mine. Mark Roberts can thank “The Hugh Hewitt Show.”
Terry Eastland is publisher of The Weekly Standard.
