Who Was the First Bestselling Author?

Dear Church Leader:

The road from pulpit-to-page is well-traveled. In fact, preacher-authors were publishing material when moveable type and the printing press were first conceived.

The first best-selling author in any genre was a man named Martin Luther.

When we marked the 500^th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation back in 2017, The Washington Post made this point:

"An obscure monk, professor of theology, and parish priest in backwater Germany in October 1517, Luther became Europe's first best-selling author and first mass-media celebrity. In the process, he lifted the fledgling print industry off the ground and, as much as any other single individual, made the book as we know it today.

"Johannes Gutenberg, who invented movable type around 1450, usually gets the credit for that. But Gutenberg gave us only the technology that would make John Grisham possible — a press in which cast metal-type pieces could be easily inserted and removed. The print industry after him was plagued by poor quality and dependent on producing long, unreadable tomes in Latin for princes and bishops. Many printers, including Gutenberg himself, went bankrupt.

"Luther changed all that. His short, inexpensive, provocative books and pamphlets, written in fiery, witty, and earthy German that people could easily understand, were wildly successful. His writings electrified Germany and created the first true mass market for books.^⁠"

You can follow in the footsteps of Luther, Spurgeon, Lloyd-Jones, Billy Graham, and so many others by using your sermons as seed material for a compelling book.

If you have a sermon series you think could be the foundation of a good book (maybe you’ve thought about this for a while), simply reply to this email and tell me a bit about the series.

Or, you can fill out the online form HERE.

I’ll get back to ASAP with all the details, including how much my sermon-to-book program costs, as well as information about how your book can PAY FOR ITSELF.

You may find yourself surprised at how easy and practical becoming a published author can be.

I look forward to hearing from you!

David R. Stokes