Few churches have sparked as much commentary and protest as Mars Hill Church, building up to a firestorm in October, when founding pastor Mark Driscoll resigned. But few of the Seattle churchâ??s actions have been so scrutinized as its decision to manipulate The New York Times bestseller list. Yet this is not an uncommon practice even among Christian authors.
On January 22, 2012, Mark and Grace Driscollâ??s Real Marriage: The Truth about Sex, Friendship, and Life Together (Thomas Nelson) was No. 1 under the â??hardcover, advice, and misc.â? rankings. But the following week, it hadnâ??t sold enough copies even to make the top 15. The reason: Mars Hill had paid California-based marketing firm ResultSource Inc. $25,000 to orchestrate sales. Only individual book purchases count in the Times ranking. ResultSource made a bulk order (an order of 11,000 books for about $217,300) look like thousands of purchases from individual buyers across the country.
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