The Next Story

The day is here at last. Today is the day that The Next Story officially releases. This book has been a near-daily companion for almost 2 years now—a book I was thinking about, living, researching and writing. And finally it’s a book on my bookcase. And on my Kindle.

Now release dates are a tricky things. Books are available in so many formats and in so many places that they tend to release with more of a fizzle than a bang. But today is as official a day as we’re going to have.

On this day I’d like to express my gratitude to you, the person who visits this blog because without you there would be no book. Here is what I say in the acknowledgements: “Thanks to all the people who have made my blog a part of their lives. It is truly humbling that you’ve chosen to do so, and it is my prayer that I’ll find ways of serving you well through that rather unexpected ministry. I appreciate your prayers, support, love and page views.” It’s not much, I admit, but it’s an attempt to express some of my gratitude.

It is a strangely humbling thing to see a book with my name on it. This is my third book but the feeling is no less strange. It feels like a relief that the book is done, that it is printed, that it is out. I find myself praying today that the Lord would see fit to use the book for his glory. This isn’t a theological tome and it’s not the kind of book that will ever be regarded as a classic of the faith. And yet I believe that it’s a book for now, a book that can help each of us as we seek to live our lives in this world at this time. Most of us know struggles with living in a digital world. It’s my hope that in this book I can assist a little bit in drawing out those struggles and perhaps even helping you resolve them. That’s true whether you are a technophobe or a technophile, whether you are young or old, whether you have every high-tech device or relatively few high-tech devices.

If you have pre-ordered the ebook, you should receive it on your device today. You will be charged just $5.99. Likewise, if you order it before April 11, you will pay just $5.99. As of April 11 the price will rise to $9.99. It is available on Kindle, iBooks and Nook or through CBD.

If you would rather purchase a physical copy, it is available right now at Westminster Books. Amazon is projecting another few days before they have it available to ship. The same is true of CBD. It should find its way into other book stores (both online and brick-and-mortar) over the next couple of weeks.

If you buy it and read it, please do let me know what you think of it. I’ll be grateful for your feedback.

Not sure yet? You can learn a lot more about the book right here.

Today I’m making the final pre-order push for The Next Story: Life and Faith After the Digital Explosion. I know I’ve mentioned it a few times already, so bear with me. I want to tell you about it again simply because it gives you an opportunity to get the book at a really good discount.

Along the way I’ve mentioned the special e-book deal we worked out. For every 200 people who order the book for Kindle, the ebook price will fall by $1 (and, since you aren’t actually charged until release day, that price will apply even to those who pre-ordered it at a higher price). The price has already fallen from $9.99 to $6.99 and I’m pretty sure we can get it down to $5.99 by the end of this week when we need to set the final price. That price will apply to all e-reading platforms (iBooks, Nook, Kindle, etc).

On April 11 the price will return to $9.99. So don’t dawdle: go ahead and pre-order it for Kindle.

If you would rather read it in printed format you can pre-order it from Westminster Books and Amazon. I recommend Westminster since if you order from Westminster Books you will receive a signed copy of the book. And, you know, signed copies are fun. But to get your copy signed, you need to order today.

Still Not Convinced?

You can learn a lot more about the book, download a sample chapter, read the endorsements, read a review, etc, by clicking here.

I got to meet my book today. Zondervan rush-shipped a few boxes of the books straight from the printer to the Ligonier Ministries National Conference where I’m hanging out for the next few days. So as soon as I got here, I went over to the bookstore to check it out. Lukas and Susannah VanDyke happened to be there and just for kicks they snapped a couple of photos.

So here I am, meeting The Next Story.

Two weeks from today is the official release date for my book The Next Story: Life and Faith After the Digital Explosion. And if you’re planning to order the book (and really, you should, don’t you think?), it makes some sense to pre-order it before the official release date.

If you are going to be reading it in Kindle format, you will definitely want to order ASAP. For every 200 people who order on Kindle, the price will drop by $1 (and since you’re not charged until the day it actually releases, you’ll get those savings). Other ebook platforms will also get those savings, but not until the book actually releases. The price has already fallen and I’d love to see it fall some more.

So go ahead and pre-order it for Kindle.

If you would rather read it in printed format (you know, the way we used to read books!) you can do so from Westminster Books and Amazon. I recommend Westminster since if you order from Westminster Books you will receive a signed copy of the book. And, you know, signed copies are fun.

You can learn a lot more about the book (download a sample chapter, read the endorsements, etc, etc) by clicking here.

If you want to buy the e-book version of my forthcoming book The Next Story for a good price, here’s how: Pre-order it. Zondervan has put together a rather interesting promotion for the ebook. Here’s the way it works:

• The list price for the ebook at Amazon is currently $9.99.
• For every 200 copies pre-ordered, the price will fall by $1.
• This means that if we hit 1,000 copies sold, the price will fall all the way to $4.99 - half off.
• It means that if we were to get 5,000 copies pre-ordered, the price would fall to $2.99.

When the book releases on April 1, the price will return to $9.99.

What you need to understand is that Amazon does not actually charge you for the book until the day they deliver it. So if you order it at $9.99 and between now and April 1 the price falls, you will pay the lower price, not the price you pre-ordered it at. Understand? So that’s why if you’re going to buy the book anyway, we’d like you to pre-order it. If you do so, it increases the likelihood that you’ll end up paying less than the list price.

Now, some of your are Nook or iBooks users. Unfortunately we have not been able to work out this detail on those platforms; however, along the way we will see if there is a way for us to match the price.

So…if you’re a Kindle reader and are planning on reading The Next Story, why don’t you go ahead and pre-order. Then we’ll be 1/200th of the way to reducing the price by another $1. If enough people play along, you can get the book at a great discount.

• Buy it at Amazon

If you want to pre-order a print version of the book, please click here.

My book The Next Story: Life and Faith After the Digital Explosion is set to release on April 1. As part of the run-up to the book, the publisher created a trailer or commercial for it. And today I get to debut it here at the blog. The commercial seeks to lampoon our technological addiction and the fact that we tend to think we own our technology while, in reality, it may just own us.

I would be exceedingly grateful if you’d consider sharing the video via email, Twitter, Facebook, your blog or any other means you can think of. You’d be doing me a great favor in getting word out (look at the bottom of this blog post for buttons that can help you do that). You might also like to pre-order it, in which case I’ll sign your copy of the book before it ships.

(RSS readers will need to click through to see the video—or check it out at YouTube)

Also, I want to share an email I received last week from someone who received an advance copy of the book. This email was a huge, huge encouragement to me. “I spent some time this morning previewing your new book. Honestly, I wasn’t all that excited about a book on technology, etc, but I gotta say I am loving your book. It’s not only well-written (you have an engaging prose), it’s also incredibly insightful and wise. Yes, this book is filled with wisdom, depth and discernment. Thanks for writing it. I can tell you put a lot of work into this—both mind and heart work.” Why do I post that? Because I think it confirms what I was hoping when I wrote the book—that this is a subject that we can all benefit from studying. The Scripture demands a place in our thinking about technology.

I’m going to be giving away a bunch of Westminster Books gift certificates today. So keep reading.

My book The Next Story: Life and Faith After the Digital Explosion is set to release on April 1, 2011—less than 2 months from now. And it is now available now for pre-sale. I’d like to ask you to order a copy or two (or ten or …). I can even offer a small perk: if you order it before the release date, I can make sure you get a signed copy.

To give you some incentive, I’ve worked out what I think is a great deal with Westminster Books. Beginning today you can go to Westminster Books and pre-order The Next Story. They are selling it for $11.99, which seems very reasonable for a 224-page hardcover (the retail price is $19.99). The book will ship as soon as it is in stock. And before it ships, I’ll sign it.

I’m anticipating your question: if you order my book and another title at the same time, will you get the other book now or will you need to wait until April? Good news; the other book will be shipped as usual, with a follow-up shipment containing The Next Story when it arrives in stock.

To incentivize even further, I am going to give away a bunch of gift certificates to some of you who order it. Skip to the bottom for details.

Still not convinced? Let me explain what the book is all about.

Description

Even the least technical among us are being pressed from all sides by advances in digital technology. We rely upon computers, cell phones, and the Internet for communication, commerce, and entertainment. Yet even though we live in this ‘instant message’ culture, many of us feel disconnected, and we question if all this technology is really good for our souls. In a manner that attempts to be accessible, thoughtful, and biblical, I address questions such as:

• How has life—and faith—changed now that everyone is available all the time through mobile phones?
• How does our constant connection to these digital devices affect our families and our church communities?
• What does it mean that almost two billion humans are connected by the Internet … with hundreds of millions more coming online each year?

Providing the reader with a framework they can apply to any technology, I explain how and why our society has become reliant on digital technology, what it means for our lives, and how it impacts the Christian faith.

So it’s a book not just for the young and digital, but for all of us.

Endorsements

Here is what a few people are saying about The Next Story:

“There are many books evaluating the nature and impact of new media.  There are many books on Christian discipleship.  However, this book brings these issues together, with profound simplicity and well-informed analysis.  This is an important book not only for church leaders but for all of us who seek to understand how we are used by our technology as well as use it.” Michael Horton

“Tim Challies knows technology and he knows the faith.  So, when he writes on the intersection of technology and faith, it’s a must read. The Next Story gives solid counsel to living out the gospel in the context of today’s rapid progression of technology.” Ed Stetzer

“We all marvel at the rapid technological advances that have taken place in our lifetime. But few of us stop to reflect on the profound way these changes are shaping what it means to be human. The Next Story is a great place to start. It moves beyond warnings simply to be careful what we see (important though these are) to explore how the medium of new technology affects how we know God, relate to other people and even how we think. Instead of simplistic rules or proof texts, it offers a penetrating analysis of the modern world in the light of the biblical story together with practical principles that will enable you to ensure technology is your tool and not your master.” Tim Chester

“As the co-author of 13 words in Tim’s new book, I’m very happy that he, with his skill as a writer, his experience with as a web designer, and his deeply informed, discerning faith, wrote the other 60,000.” John Dyer

“This is an important book. As someone who has spent almost two decades helping couples and families grow stronger and thrive, I have seen how what Tim Challies calls the digital explosion is sending shock waves through homes - everything from Facebook threatening marriages to couples who can’t have a conversation that goes deeper than a tweet. It’s time we think seriously about the subtle way technology is reordering our lives. The Next Story helps us do that.” Bob Lepine

So go ahead! Pre-order the book. Please!

Win!

If you place your pre-order on February 8 or 9, go ahead and send an email to nextstory@challies.com with the subject line Pre-Order. I will randomly pick some of you to win $10, $20 or $50 gift certificates to Westminster Books. That will pay for the cost of the book, or more. Send as many emails as you buy copies (so if you buy 2 copies, send 2 emails) and I’ll enter you that many times. But don’t write me anything in those emails as they’ll be automatically processed.

Last time, I promise: Pre-order the book.

Small Print: This order is available in the US of A only. Apologies to the rest of you (us). I recommend Amazon.

Friday morning seems like a good time to provide some updates on what I’ve been up to lately, and especially what I’ve been up to in relation to my writing.

The Next Story

Yesterday morning was a big day: After eight months of work I finally submitted the manuscript for The Next Story: Life and Faith After the Digital Explosion. Surprisingly, it was a bittersweet moment for me. I was very thankful to be able to send it in and to be able to anticipate at least a few weeks away from it. It has been a long, hard push to complete the book—something that has taken me far beyond the 9 to 5. I’ve enjoyed writing it, but look forward to having a short break from it (like when your kids go to grandma’s for a couple of days—you miss them, but you’re glad for the break!).

At the same time it was also a little bitter. I was somewhat ashamed to send in a manuscript that wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be. I think the ideas in the book are good and helpful but as of this moment, it just doesn’t have the flow I want it to have. Here’s the problem. After writing 80,000 words I found that I just wasn’t able to get “above” or “beyond” the book anymore to see it from a wide perspective. I was just too close to it. I know there are a few elements in the book that need to be improved but either I can’t tell quite what they are or I can see plainly but don’t know how to fix them. I found that profoundly frustrating and very nearly exasperating.

However, all is not lost. Helping me in such things is the job of an editor and I’m grateful that I’ve got a good one. The book is in Ryan the Editor’s hands now and I know he’ll do great work in helping me with the flow of the ideas. He’ll have that big picture perspective that I’ve been unable to find. I know that the book will be much improved after he has helped me through this part of it.

I guess all of that humiliation is really just a manifestation of pride. I feel like I should be able to write a really good book without the help of an editor. And yet here I am saying, “I need your help!” It’s good for me, I’m sure; a valuable lesson. I think God is using this to teach me something and I suppose that means I ought to listen!

The plan is that Ryan will have the book for a few weeks so that he can begin to work his magic on it. Then he will send it back to me and I’ll have a few weeks of my own to respond with changes, improvements, and new content. By the time this stage is complete I am sure that I will be much more comfortable with the state of the manuscript. I am looking forward to being at that point. If you have been praying for me as I’ve been writing and would like to continue doing so, this is what you can pray for—that God will provide that final bit of direction I need to take all of those ideas and weave them together into a cohesive whole.

We are also beginning to look at cover design, something I always look forward to since it brings with it an element of reality—once the book has a cover it is much closer to becoming a real book. I’ll be sure to let you know as soon as there is something worth seeing.

The Next Story is still on-track for release in April.

Sexual Detox

Sexual Detox is on the way and will be released in printed form just a couple of weeks from now. It has a new subtitle (“A Guide for Guys Who Are Sick of Porn”), it has been edited and added to, and it has been endorsed by Ted Tripp, Mark Driscoll, Kevin DeYoung, Ben Zobrist and Owen Strachan. All-in-all I think it’s a much better book than the one I gave away for free in e-book format. It is being published by Cruciform Press, a company of which I am a co-founder, and is our very first book. I’ll have more news about it in the days to come.

Don’t Call It a Comeback

In January Crossway will be publishing a book titled Don’t Call It a Comeback: The Old Faith for a New Day. Kevin DeYoung edited the book and I contributed one of its chapters. Crossway gives this as part of their description: “DeYoung and other key twenty- and thirty-something evangelical Christian leaders present Don’t Call It a Comeback: The Same Evangelical Faith for a New Day to assert the stability, relevance, and necessity of Christian orthodoxy today. This book introduces young, new, and under-discipled Christians to the most essential and basic issues of faith in general and of evangelicalism in particular.” That book is set for release in late January.

It is July 1 today, which makes it Canada Day in my home and native land. Technically the day marks the anniversary of the unification of the British colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Province of Canada into a federation of four provinces. At this time what had previously been the Province of Canada was divided into Ontario and Quebec. This all officially took place on July 1, 1867. However, even at this time Canada did not become entirely independent and it was not until 1982 that Canada fully and finally severed political ties with Great Britain (kind of—we still have a Governor General who represents the Queen before the government). Today Canada Day is essentially a day that Canadians set aside to celebrate being Canadian. Communities each have their own traditions though they all end in the same way—with a fireworks celebration.

Today seems like a good day to provide an update on The Next Story, the book I have been laboring on for about six months now. If I go back and review the original agreement I made with the publisher, i see that today is supposed to be my deadline. How humbling. Because of a series of factors, we subsequently bumped that due date to September 1. This means that I’ve got two months to get this book finished up if we want to hit the anticipated release date of April 2011 (which we really do).

I have been introducing you to the team who will help make my next book a reality. First you met Ryan the Editor and then Chris Fann the Marketing Man. Today I want to introduce you to Agent Andrew (known to some as Andrew Wolgemuth). He is, as you may have guessed, my agent. His job is to represent me before the publisher (first to help find one who would like to publish my work, then to negotiate a contract and then with anything else that happens to come up). He will stay involved with the work from beginning to end.

I’ll let Andrew introduce himself… 

I’m Tim’s literary representative. Or - a bit less dramatically - his agent. Though I didn’t set the course of my professional life after seeing Jerry Maguire (I’m sure a movie about a literary agent would be just as compelling) and while I didn’t grow up aspiring to be a member of the publishing industry, I’ve been surrounded, challenged, taught, and blessed by books and great authors for my entire life.

In fact, my first official paycheck came from Wolgemuth & Hyatt Publishers a couple of decades ago (the “Wolgemuth” in that company was Robert, the owner of the agency that I now work for; the “Hyatt” was Mike - now the CEO of Thomas Nelson; my dad, Dan, was CFO for this house. They published Orel Hershiser’s Out of the Blue, Max Anders’ 30 Days to Understanding the Bible, and Patrick Morley’s Man in the Mirror, among many other excellent titles). I helped W&H with mailings or marketing…or something that felt pretty big time for a seven-year-old.

My second employer was Can-Do Trash and Recycling Service. That was a good gig, but it’s significantly less relevant to my present occupation.