In His Steps and nbsp;is a best-selling religious fiction novel written by and nbsp;Charles Monroe Sheldon. First published in 1896, the book has sold more than 50,000,000 copies, and ranks as one of the and nbsp;best-selling books of all time. The full title of the book is and nbsp;In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do? Though variations of the subtitle "What would Jesus do" have been used by Christians for centuries as a form of and nbsp;imitatio dei, the imitation of God, it gained much greater currency following publication of the book. Chicago Advance, the original publisher, failed to register the and nbsp;copyright and nbsp;in the proper form. Other publishers took advantage of this, publishing the book without paying the author and nbsp;royalties. Thus lower prices and multiple publishers led to larger sales.