Your Reputation Matters


This week, I’m publishing my first novel, Sheep Among Wolves (You can purchase it here:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IRTQ1FE ).  I co-wrote it with my friend Tony Harmon.  It has literally been a labor of love.

However, this week, it becomes more than that.  As I place it on sale, I want people to purchase it and read it and like it.  As I’ve looked at various marketing strategies on how to effectively sell the book, one thing kept coming up over and over and over again:  Reputation matters.

If the book is filled with errors, people will tell you so and you will earn a poor reputation.  If the book is boring or too long or underwhelming, people will write bad reviews and you will earn a poor reputation. 

A poor reputation often equals poor sales.  There is a reason Stephen King, J. K. Rowling, and Tom Clancy sell a lot of books.  They have a good reputation.  A bad reputation, even at the start, can ruin a budding writing career.

Your reputation matters.

That’s not just true in the publishing industry.  It’s true in life as well.

If you have a good reputation, people will seek you out.  Just ask Joseph from the Old Testament.  Joseph was known as a godly man with the ability to reveal God’s visions and dreams.  Even while he sat in jail for two years for a crime he didn’t commit, his reputation preceded him and provided a way out of the dungeon.

Pharaoh had a dream his wisest men and magicians could not figure out.  He was perplexed.  He needed an interpreter.  Joseph’s name came up.  Within the day, he was cleaned up, shaved, brought before the king and made second in command of all of Egypt. 

See what a good reputation can do? 

When someone needed explaining from the Lord, they sought Joseph.  He had that reputation, earned by keeping God’s standards and being a vessel through whom God could speak.  He didn’t use that gift for profit or personal gain or even to break out of jail.  When Pharaoh needed a trustworthy servant to carry out the necessary arrangements, he knew Joseph, by his reputation, fit the bill.

God used Joseph to do mighty things.  It all started by Joseph following the Lord, not compromising his faith or his beliefs and aiming to please God.  Doing that earned him a good reputation, which helped propel him into Pharaoh’s court.

Still think a reputation doesn’t matter?  It does.  It matters to God.

 

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