If books and their ideas are about influence and making a difference, then sales must matter, right?

Books like Rick Warren‘s The Purpose Driven Life and Joel Osteen‘s Your Best Life Now are revered in the Christian market. There is a magical quality about them, one that every publisher would like to replicate more often. I believe these books share some common qualities that help push their sales beyond the religious market into the mainstream.

What is it about these books that launch them into the stratosphere? For one, they choose universal themes. Who doesn’t want to have a life filled with purpose? Or who doesn’t want their best life and preferably do so right now, as Osteen suggests?

Secondly, the writers take the time to find a common language that appeals to the mainstream reader, while still making complete sense to the Christian audience. There is no Christian “code”, no gobbelygook, no “Inside Baseball” double entendres and passages that the un-churched reader may fail to follow.

Being able to do that kind of writing is a bit of a balancing act. Those who can pull it off have a great chance to sell a lot of books and make a difference in their world.