NP? Is Bob Dylan's Spiritual Journey Still Relevant?

[Doug Millison]

Is Bob Dylan's Spiritual Journey Still Relevant?

Relevant Books knows its target market is young--18 to
34, to be
exact. So it seems a bit anachronistic that its latest
book, Scott
Maxon Marshall and Marcia Ford's "Restless Pilgrim:
The Spiritual
Journey of Bob Dylan," is about a man whose 1979
conversion to
Christianity happened before a good chunk of
Relevant's audience was
even born.

"Although Dylan is not as well known with our
audience, a lot of
musicians in this generation would cite him as an
influence," said
Kyle Chowning, sales and marketing manager for
Relevant Media Group,
the book publisher's parent company. "This book is
meant to be
background for our regular audience."

Still, at the CBA convention last July, "Restless
Pilgrim," second in
a series of three Spiritual Journey titles about the
faith lives of
influential musicians and pop stars, sold four times
as many books as
any other Relevant title. "That surprised us because
we knew then it
appealed to the baby boomers, too," Chowning said.
"But we're not
targeting them. We want to stay with the 18 to 34
crowd." With an
initial print run of 10,000, Chowning said Relevant
hopes sales will
reach 75,000-100,000.

The Lake Mary, Fla.-based Relevant Media Group is just
two years old,
and Relevant Books, now with seven titles under its
belt, released the
first last October. Relevantís Web site
(relevantmediagroup.com) bills
the publisher as "setting out to make innovative media
that addresses
real life--pop culture, faith, what have you--from a
relevant,
God-centered perspective. We want to break the mold
and impact
culture." Not only is the company itself young, but
all seven members
of the staff are under 30, including 26-year-old
president and CEO
Cameron Strang.

Relevant published "Walk On: The Spiritual Journey of
U2" last
November, and by February (when U2 won four Grammy
awards, including
Record of the Year for "Walk On"), the book had hit
Amazon's top 100.
Relevant quickly followed it up with "Restless
Pilgrim." The final
Spiritual Journey title is scheduled for next summer.
Instead of
covering a single musician, this one will feature 15,
including the
rock group Creed's frontman Scott Stapp and hip hop/R&
B artist Lauryn
Hill.

Relevant's straddling of the Christian and pop-culture
worlds makes
promoting books like "Restless Pilgrim" a little more
challenging.
"Little mom and pop [Christian] shops usually don't
care to stock our
books, but we wouldn't be doing this if we didn't know
that people
want it," said Chowning. "Restless Pilgrim" is being
presented to
Barnes & Noble next week (Sept. 16), and Relevant has
high hopes other
ABA bookstores will get on board.

Author Marshall, a longtime Dylan fan, had been
researching the book
for 20 years. His own connection with fan publications
and music
industry insiders, along with Relevant's formal PR
efforts and
publicity through 323 "street team" members (Relevant
readers who
endorse the book on campus, at church, or on Web
sites) rounds out a
strong promotional effort. "Within a month or two, we
hope all the
publicity will pay off," said Chowning. --Heather
Grennan

from:
PW Religion Bookline from Publishers Weekly 
September 10, 2002

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