Dick Dollar: Hellllloooo. Is this John Bunyan?

John Bunyan: Uh, yes…

Dollar: Hi! This is Dick Dollar, publisher of the Evangelical Publishing Group here in Grand Rapids, Michigan. How are you all doing?

Bunyan: Um, not too well. I face another trial today for preaching the Gospel in….

Dollar: Ohhh, so sorry to hear that! Listen, I’ve got you on speaker phone, and here with me in the office are our executive editor, marketing director, and art director. And we were just spitballing ideas for our spring list when a couple of folks from sales walked by, and I called ’em in and said, “Tell me, ye mighty Sales Gods. What’s missing from our list? I beseech ye!” And Marty, our head of sales, said, “Three words, Dick: ‘Blue…Like…Jazz…’”

Now, J.B.—may I call you J.B.? Do you know “Blue Like Jazz” by Donald Miller?

Bunyan: [After a pause] Who? What?

Dollar: Donald Miller. He’s a Christian writer—hip, arty, young. Writes about his own spiritual seeking. The kids love him. Guess how many copies “Blue Like Jazz” has sold? Just guess…

Bunyan: What is this call regarding?

Dollar: Brace yourself, Reverend—400,000 copies! And that’s largely word of mouth. And now he’s got a new book out entitled, “Through Painted Deserts,” about a cross-country road trip in which he and a friend ponder deep questions in their VW bus. It’s the first book Miller published, and it didn’t sell well. But now that he’s a Name, the folks at Nelson have retitled it and are publishing it again. It’s gonna be huuuuge, Reverend!

more from the good folks at SoMA
Who was John Bunyan
Project Gutenburg e-texts of some of Bunyans writing