Exposé on the Christian Publishing Industry

Addendum: You will have to scroll waaaaaay down once you click on the link to find my article but it is there. :) Other good stuff too so don't forget to check it out.

I can't believe I haven't posted to this sooner. I was approached by Kelly Mortimer of the newly formed Christian Media Association to write an article for her first newsletter (at least I think it was her first newsletter) and I happily took her up on her offer. If you don't know who Kelly is and you're an author or publisher, you should definitely get to know her. You can read this entire newsletter to learn more. Here's a teaser to how my article starts and then you can click on the passage to go to the newsletter to read more. It's everything I've learned so far but do keep in mind, I'm still learning. :)

Exposé on the Christian Publishing Industry – Everything You Wanted to Know, But Were Afraid to Ask.

By Sue Dent


. . . With CBA and ECPA defining the Christian Publishing Industry, and meeting no resistance, it is no surprise that absolutely everything in Christian publishing, called “Christian,” is associated with these two fee-requiring affiliations. . .

Keep in mind, with the way publishing is here in the US, the so called Christian publishing industry isn't necessarily about looking down on smaller published, self-published or unknown authors, it's more of a discriminatory nature. If you read my article, upon scrolling down a bit, you'll see this. So on top of the usual battle of getting noticed because you're a new author, if you find your work appealing to this audience, you also have the unwinnable battle of never being able to get to this industry's readers unless you have a fee-paying affiliated publisher with strict requirements regarding how you should write to appeal to their audience -- even if you're already appealing to them. Yeah. I think I said that right.

Sue Dent at the ACFW conference-sort of?

Sue Dent at the ACFW conferenc-sort of? I've been talking with affiliated author Loree Lough and she got me to thinking that maybe I can come to meet some of my wonderful fans who might attend. I tentatively have a room booked and wondered if I held a workshop there (since the ACFW doesn't see a need I guess to cater to Christians authors who write like I do and therefore ask them to speak)on how to write paranormal/horror/fiction for the general market (yes general market Christians included) that also appeals to that very targeted evangelical market CBA and ECPA have built up such a readership for.

Would it be worth your time to attend?

Would it be worth say ten-dollars?

You can comment here to let me know so I can decide whether it's worth booking a flight. :) I'd also share my publishing journey which so many seem to glean valuable information from. Some do get bored and throw popcorn before I'm done though. Yes. We could have popcorn.

Okay, so let me know.

No response and I'm audi! Actually there ain't no "Audi" about it. I just won't show up. :)

*Sue looks around* Hey, who's cheering? That's just rude. :P