Andrew O'Hehir has an interesting piece in Salon.com about Bill Ellis's book (Lucifer Ascending: The Occult in Folklore and Popular Culture), which points out, among other things, that the book is being sold with a back cover blurb that touts Ellis' membership in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. So what I want to know is: does membership in the ELCA help to sell books? or establish credibility?
Posted by hessma at January 16, 2004 10:16 PMIf my experience so far is anything to go by, membership in a mainline denomination is more often a strike against you. But perhaps that's just the case for pop culture-related books.
Posted by: Beth at January 17, 2004 07:21 AMNo ... but it is fair advertising. Otherwise people might expect the book to advocate the occult when actually it's simply trying to understand its appeal.
Press says I've sold about 600 copies so far ... not a grand payday, but OK, considering many academic books have a total press run of 500 copies (and the number of these that actually get read, in whole or even in part is much, much smaller).
Posted by: Bill Ellis at January 23, 2004 11:43 AM