When Rosaria Butterfield came to Crown & Covenant with her manuscript, we wondered if we could give her story the audience it deserved. Her story is compelling and unique and her delivery captivating. But what good is that if not many people get to read it? Crown & Covenant books are not carried in many bookstores. Our audience is loyal but small. Our marketing dollars are very limited.

What we didn’t expect was that this book would turn the tables on us: expand our audience and practically market itself.

Since The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert was released in July, Crown & Covenant has many new distributors, including one in South Africa, one in Australia and two more in the U.K., as well as new domestic distributors. Along with that has been the opportunity to market and sell other books through those new resellers. For instance, The Gospel & Sexual Orientation, a book from the RP Synod’s report on homosexuality, has become more widely known outside of the RP denomination because of Rosaria’s book. A flyer for the book and other Crown & Covenant materials is placed in every new order for Secret Thoughts.

In addition, the book’s popularity has boosted Crown & Covenant’s visibility on Amazon.com. For the first time ever, we have sold over 400 Kindle versions of one book in a matter of weeks. The print version is ready to go into its third press run.

Crown & Covenant’s mail clerk, Lois Claerbaut, says that she has seen more orders come in from Amazon than ever before. “It makes the stockroom exciting!”

If you Google the book, you will find many bloggers talking about it. In addition to reviews, Rosaria recently was asked to do a podcast interview with Tim Challies and David Murray, which can be found here: www.challies.com/writings/podcast/the-testimony-of-an-unlikely-convert. In January, she has been asked to be interviewed live at Patrick Henry College by Marvin Olasky, editor-in-chief of WORLD magazine and distinguished chair of journalism and public policy for the college. The interview will be released as a podcast also and featured within the pages of the print magazine.

More recently, Rosaria has been asked to write her testimony for Christianity Today as an inaugural article in a series of stories about conversions. What began as a proposed 700-word story has turned into a much longer article and the anticipation of a photo shoot in the woods near her house. Readers can look for that story in CT’s January issue.

These are just a few of the opportunities that Rosaria and her story have had to be in the eye of a broader Christian audience. This is not to mention the other requests for radio interviews, books for review and speaking engagements that are ringing the office phones.

Changes for Rosaria and Her Family

Rosaria was not expecting such a response to her book. She says, “All of it has surprised me. I expected that we would sell 20 books. I thought Secret Thoughts would sell the way a church cookbook sells; you know, if folks like my minestrone, they buy the book, but if not, they politely ignore it.”

Since the book was released, she has had other changes in her life. Her husband, Kent, has returned to pulpit ministry and the family has subsequently moved from Virginia to North Carolina. In addition, her 81-year-old mother has moved in with them, her 19-year-old son has been admitted into the Durham Fire Academy, and she and her two little ones have been adjusting to a new homeschool co-op.

Most profoundly, Rosaria says that “the publication of Secret Thoughts has changed one powerful dynamic of my life: it has increased and deepened my prayer life….” Everyone’s life has been affected in some way by the issue of homosexuality, but Rosaria’s book resonates with people on a larger scale. Her candor and transparency let the message of God’s grace shine through. It is a story not about what she did but what God did. Every Christian reader can relate to her struggles to submitting to God, the pain of rejection from various groups and individuals, the weight of sin, and the shining warmth of forgiveness and fellowship with the Creator, our Father.

“I think the book isn’t about one issue,” says Lois, explaining why Crown & Covenant’s mail room is so lively nowadays, “but also about how people in the church…receive people who are sinners.”

One reviewer, Pastor Terry Johnson from Independent Presbyterian Church in Savannah, Ga., discusses a broader theme of the book—that our identity must be as children of God and not as sinners: He writes:

Our counsel to those struggling with sexual orientation, or for that matter, with alcohol, drugs, theft, gluttony, or consumerism is this: Don’t ever let sin define who you are. I may have stolen. But I am not a thief. By grace, by adoption in Christ Jesus, I am a child of God. That is my true identity.

Rosaria says her family and her church (First Reformed Presbyterian Church of Durham) have been very supportive during the transitions of the last few months.

Debbie, an elder’s wife at First RPC, offered to help her manage details. “[She] has taken on the role of my personal assistant,” explains Rosaria, “for things that really make me nervous, like interviews. She prays with me before these things.

“Secret Thoughts has expanded my prayer life and my dependence on the Lord, as well as my appreciation for our denomination,” she adds.

The Feedback—Good and Not So Bad

So far the reviews of Rosaria’s book have been predominately positive, but not every comment is rosy. Some mention the typos that the publisher allowed to slip into the first printing. Some broader evangelical readers wish that Rosaria hadn’t talked about psalmody, the regulative principle or wifely submission.

Thankfully, though, the criticisms have not been much harsher than that. Instead, many of the endorsements have been unabashedly effusive.

Dr. Carl Trueman, president of Westminster Seminary East, wrote on the reformation21.org blog, “I cannot recommend this book highly enough. I do not agree with everything she says; but I did learn from everything she wrote. It deserves the widest possible readership.” Susan Olasky chose it as one of WORLD’s “notable books” and wrote, “Her book shows the power of love and hospitality to soften hearts.”

“Rarely have I finished reading a book and thought, ‘I want to buy a stack of these to hand out to people.’ But Secret Thoughts….is on that short list,” wrote blogger Sarah White of awonderfulprovidence.blogspot.com.

God’s Restoration

The whole experience under the ministering hand of God has brought Rosaria some particular healing. She says that she has been surprised how it is not hard to look back anymore. She says, “I have finally experienced the promise in Psalm 41:12—’And thus I am sustained by You, to be complete and well.’ I can finally find my sea legs in Christ, as I talk about the both/and of sin and grace.”

That includes the subsidence of some grieving: “I also have experienced the promise of Joel 2:25—‘He will give back the days the locust has eaten,’” explains Rosaria.

Rosaria is a grateful and kind person and you can hear it in her voice. The gratefulness is contagious. The staff at Crown & Covenant Publications chats about how thankful we are that she trusted our little office with her story. We hope to work on a new title with her in the near future.

—Lynne Gordon is co-director of Crown & Covenant Publications. A publications feature appears semiannually in the Witness.