THE SECOND WEEK OF November, I received a phone call from Scott Beutler, the general manager of Publishers Distribution.
“I just wanted to tell you that we’ve already sold more than three thousand copies of your book and orders are increasing. You may have to print more books.”
“How many should I print?” I asked.
Scott wasn’t sure how to answer. After a moment he said, “Well, there’s really no way of knowing.”
I did the math. The warehouse still had five thousand copies and there were about six weeks left until Christmas. In order to sell out of my book we would have to sell almost twice the amount, in half the time. I didn’t think it likely. And I was pretty much out of money. It seemed to me that if I printed a couple thousand more copies I would make enough to cover my debts and would still have books left over for the next season.
After struggling with what to do for several days, I decided to pray about it. As I prayed I had a very strong feeling to print twenty thousand more copies.
Bad inspiration, I thought. No one in Salt Lake City sells twenty-eight thousand copies of a book in twelve weeks. Not even John Grisham. Common sense told me that two thousand copies would be enough. But the message had been clear. I had even recorded it in my journal. In the end, I compromised between inspiration and common sense and settled on ten thousand more copies.
On December 9 my distributor shipped out the last of my first printing. The next day the new printing of ten thousand books was complete. Three days later I received another phone call from my distributor.
“We were wondering where the rest of your books are,” Scott asked.
“What do you mean, ‘the rest of my books’? The printer said that they had shipped all ten thousand to your warehouse.”
“You only did ten thousand, then,” he said, his voice laced with disappointment.
“Only?”
“Well, we’ve already sold them.”
Ten thousand copies in three days. They were now shipping more copies every day than they thought I would sell in a year. I called the printer for more books and was told it would be impossible to have them printed before Christmas. I wished I had followed the inspiration I had received.
