Rick Warren and the Truth.

Brothers and sisters, if the book Rick Warren wrote is a lie, we should not be surprised if he lies. This was sent to me.

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Is Rick Warren’s Claim that his book is the “Best Selling Non-Fiction Hardback Book in History”, TRUE?

November 8th, 2013jamesLeave a commentGo to comments

RICK WARREN, ZONDERVAN, HARPER:

“BESTSELLING NON-FICTION HARDBACK BOOK IN HISTORY” (Publishers Weekly), the Purpose Driven Life has sold over 32 million copies“

SOURCE: http://www.purposedriven.com/books/pdlbook/#purpose & http://media.zondervan.com/images/product/original/9780310329060.JPG

THE FACTS:

THE BIBLE: 6 BILLION +

(SOURCE: GIDEON)

A COLLECTION OF QUOTATIONS FROM CHINESE CHAIRMAN MAO ZEDONG: 6.5 billion copies

QUOTATIONS FROM CHAIRMAN MAO (THE LITTLE RED BOOK) Chinese, 1964, 800-900 million copies worldwide.

THE KORAN (Q’URAN): 800 million copies sold

THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO:   hundreds of millions

BHAGAVAGITA:  hundreds of millions

XINHUA CHINESE DICTIONARY: sold over 400 million copies

CHAIRMAN MAO’S POEMS: 400 million copies

BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER: 300 million

FOXE’S BOOK OF MARTYRS:  150 million

SCOUTING FOR BOYS: 150 million

THE BOOK OF MORMON: sold 120 million.

THE GREAT CONTROVERSY: ELLEN G. WHITE: 100 million

THE TRUTH THAT LEADS TO ETERNAL LIFE: 107 million

THINK AND GROW RICH: 70 million

STEPS TO CHRIST: ELLEN G. WHITE:  60 million

THE COMMON SENSE BOOK OF BABY AND CHILD CARE, DR. BENJAMIN SPOCK: 50 million (combined hardcover and paperback)

BEN-HUR: A TALE OF THE CHRIST: sold 50 million

(Published by Harper.  You would think they would know that 50 million is greater than 32 million since both Ben-Hur and Purpose-Driven Life are under Harper (now Harper/Collins Publishing).  Now it could be argued that this book is in the Fiction category because Ben Hur was not a true historical character.  But Christ is historical, therefore Non-fiction.

WEBSTER’S DICTIONARY: 24-100 million

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SOURCES:

http://crunkish.com/top-ten-bestselling-books-of-all-time/

http://stephenslighthouse.com/2010/09/03/the-15-biggest-bestsellers-ever-after-the-bible/

http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/arts/literature/21-best-sellers.htm

http://publishingperspectives.com/2010/09/top-25-bestselling-books-of-all-time/

http://www.greatcontroversyad.com/The%20Great%20Hope%20Exposed.htm

http://www.cs.uni.edu/~campbell/gened/webster.html

http://www.howstuffworks.com/arts/literature/21-best-sellers.htm#page=11

http://home.comcast.net/~antaylor1/bestsellingbooks.html

http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/arts/literature/21-best-sellers.htm#page=12

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Isn’t 50 million, 4-8 hundred million, and a billion,  more than 32 million?

I have requested specific proof of page number, date, year of publication in Publishers Week for verification from Rick Warren and his staff, Zondervan and Harper/Collins of the statement on Rick Warren’s site that Purpose Driven Life is the “Best Selling Non-Fiction Hardback Book in History”.  NONE was provided.  Since they believe Rick Warren is first in sales in the history of publishing, certainly they would know who came in 2nd, 3rd, 4th….10th.  Perhaps if you write them they will provide you the list.  Ask them who certified that 52 million books makes Warren the biggest selling non-fiction hardback book in history?  In recent history, for example the RIAA certifies record sales when they become Gold (500,000) or Platinum (1 million).  Guinness Records are certified too.   Where is verifiable data?   Where is the list?  Where is the trust and accountability?  Who audits this list(s)?  Here is who you can contact to find out:

ZONDERVAN:churchsource@zondervan.com,zreview@zondervan.com,public.relatations@zondervan.com,chris.fan@zondervan.com,sara.cribbs@zondervan.com. 

HARPER/COLLINS: At Harper/Collins: Mark Schoenwald, President and CEO of HarperCollins: mark.schoenwald@harpercollins, Casey Harrell, Director of Corporate Relations:casey.harrell@harpercollins.com. 

RICK WARREN: Rick Warren: DailyHope@RickWarren.org and info@saddlebackresources.com.  Tel # 800/633-8876. 

Here is someone who did give me a straight answer…the original source:

George W. Slowik Jr., President of Publishers Weekly:

“I’ve checked our site which includes all of our content from about 1995.
Also touched base with our religion editors and there is no finding of a
quote like that…We don’t generally use the term hardback.”  September 30, 2013 11:33:08 PM EDT, “George Slowik Jr.” <george@publishersweekly.com>

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ANOTHER CLAIM BY RICK WARREN:

“My Islamic brother from Italy”…”It became the best-selling book…in English in a world history..it’s, next to the Bible, the best selling book.  And It’s the most translated book next to the Bible in over a hundred languages.”  SOURCE: Rick Warren, at World Economic Forum, “Faith and Modernization” Panel, January 28, 2008, Davos, Switzerland:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGytW4yh0C8  at 1hour 9 minutes in to 1 hour 11 minutes.
&
1:53-2:05 minute mark
Church of Tares – Purpose Driven Life, Seeker Sensitive

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgVL5ULPcrU&feature=youtu.be&t=1m53s

In this statement, Rick Warren combines all books (whether hard or paperback) and does not distinguish category of fiction vs. non-fiction.

Now as to Warren’s statement that his Purpose Driven Life Book is the Most Translated book in English (language of origin), here are the facts:

Purpose Driven Life book is not even listed on the list of the most translated books in English (language origin) on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_literary_works_by_number_of_translations (sort by language)

Warren made this claim in 2008.  In 2013 he posts that his PDL Book is translated in 85 languages:

http://www.saddlebackresources.com/new-purpose-driven-life-book

Note that there are 7 books listed which are translated from English with number of translations greater than 85 that Warren boasted in 2008.

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STEPHEN SIZER ENDORSEMENT OF RICK WARREN

Dear Stephen Sizer,

This is my second request and followup inquiry to you regarding Rick Warren, regarding Rick Warren’s statement about his Purpose Driven Life Book:  “best selling non-fiction hardback book in history”, which I refute at:

http://www.perfectpeaceplan.com/post/is-rick-warrens-claim-that-his-book-is-the-best-selling-non-fiction-hardback-book-in-history-true/

I see that as late as yesterday that you are still promoting Rick Warren.  If you don’t believe me that his claim about the sales of his PDL has no foundation in fact, since you know him well, ask him directly for the date, issue, and page number of the Publishers Weekly citation.  Also ask the President George Slowik of Publishers Weekly, as I did, and you will be able to verify that they have no record of ever publishing such a statement.  And while you are at it, if Warren’s book is first, who came in second, third, tenth?  I would think as a Christian that you would want to trust but verify.  As such a boast would make your similar statement about the popularity of Rick Warren’s book (about 2 minutes in) at:

00:00

00:00

also untrue.  I am surprised you, as an author, would not know that statement is farfetched and unbelievable.  And where is the proof and citation that Warren’s book is even “the most popular book in the world apart from the Bible” 2:24 minutes in?  Who told you that?  Did you verify that?

I look forward to your prompt response.

Sincerely in Christ,

James Sundquist
Director

http://www.perfectpeaceplan.com

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The Numbers Game

“No More Fudging

Many publishers used to be more generous in calculating their sales than they can be today. In the freewheeling days before BookScan, publishers could inflate sales numbers when they were trying to promote an author to bookstores, and agents sometimes overestimated an author’s prior sales history when pitching a new book to an editor…

…”Sometimes the difference between what BookScan reports and what publishers know from their own sales data can be substantial. In early 2004, Zondervan reported sales for Rick Warren’s blockbuster The Purpose-Driven Life as exceeding 11 million copies in all of 2003. But, according to Zondervan, BookScan had reported only 2.4 million for 2003, or just under 21% of the total sales claimed by the publisher…

Data for one of Zondervan’s other top authors, prolific novelist Karen Kingsbury, show an even greater discrepancy. In mid-February, Verne Kenney, v-p of sales at Zondervan, told PW that even though Kingsbury was the number one current fiction author in the CBA (and held five of the other spots on the CBA bestsellers list), her BookScan numbers for the previous month didn’t reflect her overall transactions. “On her top fiction title [Beyond Tuesday Morning], BookScan data reported about 3.2% of what we know we sold at POS,” Kenney said. “It doesn’t have what’s going on in the Christian marketplace. That’s a fundamental problem.”  …Jana Riess

SOURCE: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/print/20050314/22224-the-numbers-game.html

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WARNINGS FROM SCRIPTURE:

“But God forbid that I should glory , save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom theworld is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”  GALATIANS 6:14

“I am the way, the TRUTH, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”  JESUS CHRIST: JOHN 14:6

“These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:…A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.”  PROVERBS 6:16,18

“But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” Revelation 21:8

“And Zacchæus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.”  LUKE 19:8

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CONSUMER PROTECTION RESOURCES:

National Fraud Center at www.fraud.org.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is the nation’s consumer protection agency. The FTC works to prevent fraudulent, deceptive and unfair business practices in the marketplace.