Blog up at Speculative Faith.

I was asked to be a guest blogger at Speculative Faith, a blog associated with a book tour that wouldn't tour Forever Richard after Never Ceese toured with overwhelming success. The reason; my publisher wasn't sanctioned by the gatekeepers. I don't see this as an acceptance into what is now known as the Christian Fiction arena. That's reserved for evangelical publishers and authors. It was a nice opportunity for me to post my experiences with this closed and targeted market though. Check it out if you're so inclined. ;)

Chain Bookstores going under?

One can only hope.

I made a comment recently along that line and of course many replied that I must be insane to wish that such a thing would happen. I did express concern about employees who would lose jobs but they should easily be able to find work at Independent bookstores that would flourish in the aftermath.

To understand my thinking one must understand the facts surrounding the publishing industry. Once upon a time all there was in the world were large publishing houses. Bookstores were a way for these houses to get their very large number of books to the public. Large publishers also used these chain bookstores to help warehouse all the books they had to print. You see, back in the day it was expensive to print books and publishers had to print A LOT of books at a time to justify the cost.

Come around to today and what we have are tons of Small QUALITY Publishing houses. There are Independent bookstores who showcase these talents but as you well know they are few and far between. Clearly, these small publishing houses would do much better IF they could get into these chain bookstores but that just isn't happening. Chain bookstores are more or less owned by large publishing houses and why would large publishing houses do anything to benefit their competition (or threat thereof.)

And that is why I could care less whether chain bookstores survive. They don't support small press authors and their attempts are feeble at best. Sort of like letting a cat participate in a dog show. They won't ever come around because they are pretty much in existence for the large publishing houses anyway (remember that used to be all there was.)

So let them go under. Independent bookstores are quite capable of filling the gaps left. You also have to keep in mind that a lot of best-selling authors have left the gravy train line (because the gravy was too thin) to self-publish. These authors can't even get into the chain stores so you readers are actually missing out on more quality fiction than you'd think you'd lose if chain bookstores fell under the weight of not supporting ALL quality fiction.

Of course you don't have to agree with me. I don't expect you to. Just like folks to understand why I don't care if chain bookstores meet their demise. It won't hurt my book sales at all or any other small press publisher.

Large publishers aren't the only ones in the game anymore. Not by a long shot.

Christian Chain Bookstores going under?

Well, since we're on a roll, the same logic applies here. Christian Chain Bookstores are even worse. Not only were they created to support ONLY publishers who pay a fee to belong to CBA or the Christian Booksellers Association, an Association formed to make sure all books put out by member publishers met strict and specific evangelical guidelines decided by them, they also say nay, nay to ANY other publisher large or small who isn't a paying member.

And yet their books find their way into chain bookstores due to the fact that larger publishers added CBA houses as imprints. So they get a double whammy from me. Can't wait to see these guys go because I've given up on them ever coming around. It would be an easy fix for them too. All chain Christian bookstores would have to do would be to state what kind of bookstore they are or allow all publishers who provide work that doesn't offend Christian readers of all faiths or at least most to come in. They've made no move to do either. So bye-bye to them. And yep, there are Independent Christian bookstores that treat all books by all publishers equally, affiliated or not. ;)

Ingram/Spring Arbor calls it . . . Marketing?

I've heard misleading called a lot of things before and I suppose I've heard it called marketing as well so good on you Ingram for taking hold of that tried and true tradition of misleading until you're called on it. Perhaps you should ask eHarmony how that worked out for them.

Why would I bring eHarmony up? Why because Spring Arbor is the distributor for the same group--conservative evangelicals or rather Fundamentalists as Ingram calls them. Yes. I finally heard it straight from Ingram this very day. Even though Spring Arbor will approve books from a Christian publisher who doesn't pay to belong to the very targeted and denominationally discriminative CBA, the non-affiliated publisher benefits in no way whatsoever. Okay. That's inaccurate. If your book is approved by Spring Arbor a Fundamentalist Christian Bookstore can order if someone ask for it.

Rest assured then, that if a Christian Bookstore exists, it is a Fundamentalist Conservative Evangelical bookstore and can only pull books from Spring Arbor who by Ingram's own admission is their Fundamentalist Christian arm which they happily call the Official Christian Market without batting an eye because well ... that's just good marketing.

Yeah. And eHarmony.com was just a dating website . . . that didn't allow same-sex dating until somebody sued them . . . and won.

Yes. It's all fun and games until someone gets sued. HA! So, just to keep it straight, according to Ingram all Christian titles that don't appeal to the Fundamentalist can just wing it while fee-based, denominationally discriminating CBA gets to claim the title Official Christian Market.

Marketing at it's best!!!

Thanks Ingram for showing us how it's done. Based on this information I will now pull both of my books from Spring Arbor as I was not aware that Spring Arbor wasn't actually who they said they were. They justified this by saying, "it's free to join." LOLROFL I suppose the most disturbing comment made was "there's nothing wrong with providing a market for the fundamentalist Christian publisher." Buddy, there's everything wrong with it when you don't state this up front.

So in a bit you won't be able to order my books from ANY Christian bookstore. However denominationally discriminating CBA publishers can go anywhere they like.

And that my friends, according to Ingram is Marketing!

And they get away with it.

And yes. I'll shut up about Spring Arbor now but I will never refer to them as simply Spring Arbor ever again. They are officially Ingram's Christian Fundamentalist arm.

Good day.

I apologize.

I personally pay for server space, own my domain name and do all the programing for www.neverceese.com. My current publisher offered me free server space and paid for my domain name for www.foreverrichard.com even though I still do all the programming (by choice.) While I can take care of anything that goes wrong with www.neverceese.com, I can't take care of much of anything when something is wrong with www.foreverrichard.com and currently you can not get directly to the site.

You can get there by typing www.thewriterscafe.com/foreverrichard/index.html if you just want to visit but I must say that I'm hard-pressed to update it since I've never any real idea that it will be up.

Also my current publisher's site has for the most part gone dormant and I don't even know how to tell you to buy books from them. So . . . just buy them from me at www.neverceese.com or www.suedent.blogspot.com or buy them from anywhere else in the world. It's not like they're hard to find. ;)

What being flagged for the Christian market means.

******Repost for my non-affiliated Christian author friends. Boring to anyone else***

I try to provide information to new authors as I go through things myself. One thing I'm able to share now is just what being flagged for the Christian market means.

Some facts:

* Ingram/Spring Arbor is the main line of distribution for the Christian market.

* An author does not have to be published by a CBA or ECPA affiliated publisher to have their work considered and deemed Christian.

But does being flagged for the Christian market by Ingram/Spring Arbor mean immediate distribution into any of the bigger Christian Booksellers stores? Of course not. Neither does having distribution through Ingram mean you get into any of the bigger general market bookstores.

However, without having Ingram/Spring Arbor distribution or rather being flagged for the Christian market, no Christian Book Store on-line or otherwise can even order your book.

Before you rush right out to submit your book to Ingram/Spring Arbor you might consider this. While Ingram/Spring Arbor will bring books into distribution that aren't affiliated with the two gatekeeper associations created by Christian Book Stores in the 1960's to make sure the work put out didn't offend their market, they can't guarantee you anything.

If you check with the larger Christian Book Sellers such as Lifeway and Mardels you'll find that while they do get distribution through Ingram/Spring Arbor they'll recheck any title that comes into their store for acceptance by their conservative evangelical market. Lifeway even goes as far as to question books provided by CBA and ECPA affiliated publishers, the very associations they helped spawn in the 1960s.

Bottom line, pay attention. If some of your readers come from that targeted market CBA and ECPA serve and you want to get to those readers where they shop, submit your book to Ingram/Spring Arbor. Though most bigger Christian booksellers won't put it on their shelf, at least they can order it if a customer ask for it.

It's also helpful to remember that all bigger Christian Book Sellers do target a particular Christian market and not the broader Christian market. That's why they subject all books coming in to another round of scrutiny before they even think about putting anything on their shelf. Books published by the bigger CBA and ECPA affiliated publishers like Thomas Nelson, Zondervan, Bethany House, Nav Press, David C. Cook do automatically go on the shelves though Christian Books Sellers won't hesitate to pull them if a customer says something. And yes, one customer can actually make a difference.

Some comments made somewhere else where I posted this and my responses:

C. says - Great information Sue! Thanks!
God bless!
C.

Sue says - Thank you C. I find it extremely interesting how little authors actually know about Ingram/Spring Arbor. I know I was clueless. I actually thought once I was in, I could finally do signings at my local Lifeway. Nope. Lifeway is exclusive to their own specific niche market. But at least a customer can get your book if they want to order it if you have distribution through Spring Arbor.

Now I learn all of the bigger Christian Book Sellers are like this, exclusive to a specific Christian market. CBA and ECPA affiliated publishers have to be getting worried as now it seems the larger Christian Book Sellers are even turning on them! YIKES! What is the world coming to. :)

D. says - Info from someone who has been down the road - totally the most valuable info I have seen in a long time.

Sue says - Thank you D. :) I wish I could say I knew it all. I also wish I could say that what I've learned doesn't make me wonder why CBA and ECPA affiliated publishers believe they are the Christian market. They're a large part of it yes, if money has anything to say about it but that's it.

And now these affiliated publishers who wanted to fill affiliated Christian book stores with their targeted fiction (so their readers could find them of course,) are leaving Christian bookstores in droves. And they don't want their work in the Christian section the general market bookstores now provide, they want their targeted fiction mixed in with the general market fiction. Can you say running around in a big OL' Circle?

CBA and ECPA affiliated publishers are breaking their necks to say they don't write targeted fiction. Michael Hyatt can't seem to say it enough lately. Yet they do. It's the audience they were created to serve. Sure. They've loosened up a little, gotten a little "edgier" if you will. (I personally hate that word) but they still write for a targeted audience and should be in the Christian section and nowhere near the bookshelves where general market fiction sits.

What are markets for if not to help readers find things?

What does distribution through Spring Arbor mean?

This is a repost for any new readers.

*warning: Please don't read this if you choose not to be bored. This is for aspiring authors and writers. Actually, they may even get bored but I found it worth sharing.* :)

What does distribution through Spring Arbor mean? To answer this question you have to understand who Spring Arbor was originally. A distribution outlet created to handle work produced by CBA affiliated publishers with CBA being an association formed in 1950 by a group of Christian Booksellers. The Baptist Bookstores, as they were called, decided to create an association called the Christian Booksellers Association. They charged publishers to write narrowly targeted, sanitized and Biblically correct fiction (according to conservative evangelicals) that would appeal to their bookstore visitors. In return for the money the publishers paid, they'd be guaranteed a spot on shelves of all Christian bookstores (again, Baptist Bookstores only.)

Clearly CBA publishers didn't need help from the usual distributors such as Ingram or Baker & Taylor because the books they were producing were for a specific targeted market to begin with, and a specific group of bookstores only. After all this was an attempt to get more customers into the Baptist Bookstores not general market bookstores. Spring Arbor was the distributor.

CBA and later ECPA (the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, a group set up by affiliated publishers,) grew and did well with their market readers. At some point however, and for reasons beyond this authors/bloggers understanding, CBA decided that work produced by affiliated publishers now needed to be in larger bookstores as well. *scratching head at this. I thought the whole point in 1950 was for CBA to bring customers into the Baptist bookstores now called larger Christian booksellers, not send them elsewhere.*

Yet Spring Arbor wasn't set up for distribution to the general market bookstores. The solution must have seemed obvious: merge Spring Arbor with Ingram or perhaps Ingram asked to buy up Spring Arbor who knows. Nevertheless, the deal was struck and Spring Arbor is now officially Ingram's Christian arm.

What does this mean for CBA affiliated publishers?

That question is easily answered. CBA affiliated publishers could now easily get distribution everywhere!

What did this mean for all authors who are Christian and write work that doesn't offend many readers of faith and is enjoyed by many readers of many faiths?

That question too is easily answered.

Not a darn thing because while Ingram/Spring Arbor does accept work that isn't produced by CBA affiliated publishers and isn't targeted or doctored to appeal to that very conservative audience CBA meant for affiliated publishers to write fiction for, larger Christian bookstores here in the US (because it is only a US thing,) won't accept non-affiliated, non-targeted work. At least not until it sells well elsewhere. That's why you find C.S. Lewis on occasion and of course more recently The Shack on the shelves of larger Christian booksellers. Both authors sold well elsewhere first.

It does seem that CBA is certainly business savvy, doesn't it?

Both of my books have been approved by Ingram/Spring Arbor for distribution to the Christian market. Sadly, here in the US, the Christian market merely represents what CBA affiliated publishers have to offer. Because of this, distribution through Ingram/Spring Arbor doesn't stand to help any non-affiliated publisher or author at all. The merger simply means that narrowly targeted Christian fiction, not intended to be enjoyed by general market readers and set up to be very, very different from the very beginning can now easily flow onto the shelves of larger booksellers. Non-affiliated Christian authors do not get the same treatment in return. Like I said, business savvy not to mention very interesting. ;)

Another fan reports in and PW still has nothing to add.

Another fan reports in and here's what they had to say:

Hello! I finished reading Forever Richard two days ago, after finishing it in a day! I absolutely loved it! Can't wait for Cyn No More! :-D Thanks for the effort you put into this!

From one of my many Christian young adult readers who will never find my work in their larger Christian bookstores despite my books being deemed socially acceptable for distribution to the Christian market and despite appealing to many readers who frequent this venue.

As you can see, I get those readers none-the-less!

You rock Beth! Do keep reading. It's why I write. ;)

Proud to present Angel Time

Like this book needs an introduction. :) Anne Rice, one time vampire writer, now writes for general market Christian readers specifically. She's given up her vampire writing for naught, as I understand it, because it points to a very dark time in her life that she'd rather not revisit. So going back to her Catholic roots, she's now writing with a more defined perspective. Not as defined as affiliated Christian publishers thank goodness but defined none-the-less.

Will it be good?

*gasp*

What kind of question is that?

Of course it will be. After all, this is Anne Rice. It wasn't what she wrote about that made her who she is but her exquisite style. Keep in mind, despite writing Christian fiction, you won't find Mrs. Rice's work in larger Christian Bookstores as you should. Knopf publishing isn't affiliated. However, I do foresee some larger Christian bookstores ignoring this fact as Mrs. Rice stands to sell a lot of books!

So there ya go! Another non-affiliated Christian book and at least two more to come in this series. I'm excited.

New Christian Book releases from Amazon.

Well, I know I was interested right away when this came to me via e-mail! I'm happy to report that out of the seven books listed only two were from a CBA affiliated publisher, that being Waterbrook Multnomah and Howard Books. *WaterBrook Multnomah was launched in September 1996 as an autonomous evangelical Christian publishing division of Random House. Howard Books is Simon and Schuster's CBA affiliated Christian imprint. The other titles were from general market publishers, I'm assuming with distribution through Spring Arbor since this is supposed to be the only way they can officially claim to be Christian titles.

I'm also not so happy to report that the only one of these Christian titles to show up in any of the larger Christian Bookstores, on-line or otherwise, is the one published through Waterbrook Multnomah and Howard Books. Go figure.

So just in case anyone is paying attention, Christian authors who pay to be affiliated with CBA and ECPA are able to take advantage of massive shelf space in all larger Christian bookstores (thus driving book sales up whether they sell or not) AND because of the merger of Spring Arbor with Ingram, the affiliated authors can also flood general market bookstores with their very targeted fiction.

Other Christian authors who choose not to write targeted fiction or pay CBA or ECPA (even though their work officially qualifies as Christian because it has been approved by Spring Arbor) are excluded from all larger Christian Bookstores.

I would say they're excluded from on-line larger Christian bookstores but upon further investigation, Christianbook.com (one of the larger Christian on-line sites) actually did carry all seven of the books. So it seems that while Christianbook.com is primarily exclusive to CBA and ECPA fiction, they will list books simply from Spring Arbor if the publisher is big enough. I consider that quasi-exclusive and still certainly not the place to shop for Christian fiction that appeals to all. IMO.

Upon googling I did find this article seemingly written by someone from Lifeway. For the life of me I couldn't figure out what to make of it. Take it for what it's worth. It could be propaganda but it's not in me to research it further. It does make for very interesting reading though and certainly makes one wonder. Here's the link










*Excerpt from Random Houses site.

Humble Beginnings.

Humble Beginnings.

Raquel!

I did not know you'd posted this. Nobody tells me anything. :) *Sue shakes head back and forth* So here's the link to the article:


The article:

Humble Beginnings


The link to the interview:

Interview with a vampire writer

Thanks so much Raquel!

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.

FIRST blog tour reviews coming in!

FIRST blog tour reviews coming in and the relevant ones I'm starting to add to my Media Room page. Some good stuff here. Be sure and check it out at Sue's Media Room. Other reviews reminded me of the kind of reviews self-published William Young received when The Shack was allowed inside of Christian bookstores where affiliated readers could get it. All of a sudden the overwhelmingly excellent reviews sort of dwindled into a mire of confusion as niche market Christian readers tried to make sense out of a book written for general market Christians.

Do check out the reviews linked to. It will be worth your while. :)

From Amish to vampires, Christian fiction expands

From Amish to vampires, Christian fiction expands

I found an news article labeled as such floating around the Internet (google it if you want to read it yourself) and thought I'd chime in since the actual wording makes it seem as though nothing like this has been done with Christian fiction before. I suppose the first thing to note here is that the label Christian fiction, in this instance, is referring to work produced by CBA affiliated Christian publishers not general market work. It's meant for a very narrowly targeted market of Christians and the writing conventions are tailored so that no writing offends their conservative evangelical audience.

I've not read the Amish fiction affiliated publishers such as Steeple Hill put out but one reviewers response pretty much nailed the genre. When offered a chance at a free book they wrote that they did like the work of this particular author but they preferred to read Amish Fiction about the Amish. Meaning that CBA affiliated publishers' Amish fiction is Amish from a conservative Evangelicals world view. Certainly makes sense since that's who their audience is.

As far a vampires goes, also from a conservative Evangelicals world view. The book being talked about on this news release is from Zondervan, a CBA(ECPA) affiliated imprint of Random House. I contacted Zondervan after an affiliated author told me I should, (when my book was appealing to readers who favored CBA work.) I was told that no affiliated publisher would ever allow their authors to write about vampires much less call them that. As I understand it, this affiliated version from Zondervan isn't even allowed to have fangs.

CBA affiliated Thomas Nelson pretty much held true to what the Zondervan editor told me and wouldn't take my work which was later deemed socially acceptable for distribution to the Christian Market. Interestingly, not long after Thomas Nelson decided not to humor me, they released two books that both authors claimed were about vampires.

The author of this Christian vampire book from Zondervan is a fan of mine (I think.) She did e-mail me once because she was excited that Zondervan was going to allow her to write about vampires. I had to say I was a bit frustrated by this until I realized they didn't let her do this at all. They're sticking to their guns. They don't want to distance the reader's that have made them what they are.

As far as affiliated publishers being allowed to write more "general market" like material--well, if they knew how to and succeeded they wouldn't be a niche market anymore would they. The Christian Booksellers Association was set up in 1950 by a group of Christian Bookstores, then called the Baptist Bookstore to provide very different and very targeted fiction to their visitors. It grew into a huge market and they're not about to offend that market.

Not anytime soon anyway.

Do keep in mind, this kind of confusion over what is Christian and what isn't in the publishing world, at least here in the US, is further complicated by one group taking the all encompassing label Christian and applying it to the very targeted work they put out. I suppose that's two groups if you consider that the ECPA is a group of CBA affiliated publishers whose restrictions are even more strict if you can believe that!

*CBA - Christian Booksellers Association

*ECPA - Evangelical Christian Publishers Association

Jane Austin, Chai Tea and Me.

Jane Austin, Chai Tea and Me. An absolutely perfect review of Forever Richard. :) Short and sweeeeet! One of many I've enjoyed reading today. Be sure and check this one out at Jane Austin, Chai Tea and Me.

Christian Horror - An oxymoron? Definitely.

Applying the label Christian to something in the literary world here in the US has become a bit of a challenge. With two very successful originazations grabbing onto the label and using it to brand the very narrowly targeted fiction they put out, every author of faith not writing targeted fiction is left out in the cold. We have to use phrases like, I'm an author who is a Christian but my work isn't technically Christian fiction because I don't have an affiliated author and don't want to compromise my writing to fit strict writing conventions that will make my work unenjoyable to the general market Christian reader. Quite a mouthful isn't it.

And now we have these same affiliated publishers tacking the label Christian Horror onto the work of some affiliated authors.

For the record, there is a TON of horror out there written by grand Christian authors and we'd love to make it easier for you to find our work by possibly calling it Christian horror but we can't or we're thrown in with a group of writers that have very limited market appeal. I'm not so sure I like the fact that two associations are able to grab a label that certainly defines a wide variety of faiths to define their narrowly targeted work but apparently no one cares what I think. ;)

You'll see my work listed often as Christian fiction or Christian Horror. It is not by my hand though. Neither one of my publishers are affiliated and though I appeal to this wonderful market, I do so without meeting the rigid, strict, writing conventions that plague this market.

Watch this blog for an e-mail from a writer who says I'm her inspiration. And she hasn't even read my books yet. Actually this would be e-mail number two and I suspect there are a lot of other authors out there who wonder how in the world a horror writer can write something that appeals to the general market AND a very narrowly targeted audience of Christians as well. Gotta love it!

Christian Vampires?

Update, just in case you're keeping score. Another publisher who writes for that very targeted audience of Christians who, according to their publishers, don't want to read about vammpires and werewolves of lore, is attempting to get those readers' attention once more. No problem really except they're calling it a Christian vampire novel. Good news is that this time at least they're stating that it isn't the kind of vampire that anyone but their targeted audience will like (they hope.)

But as usual, those reporting on the matter don't really distinguish that this is a targeted audience thus eluding that there are no good vampire/werewolf/zombie or just plain horror books out there written by Christians that appeal to Christians as well as everyone else.

Do know that this isn't true or you can find out for yourself and read my work or Kim Paffenroth's work or a gazillion other horror writers whose faith temper what they write.

Sue Dent

Never Ceese - The other Christian Fiction

So to keep things straight, my work has been labeled Christian Fiction by my publisher because a. I'm a Christian and b. I write fiction/horror/fantasy. I do NOT write for a narrowly targeted market and my vampires do have fangs and act like your typical vampires of lore for the most part! No sparkling vampires but I think that's been done already and quite well at that. :) Also my werewolves prefer to speak in third-person if that means anything. ;)

I would now like to share my latest review or rather words of encouragement from my latest reader:

Dear Sue,

I had to write to you! I just finished Never Ceese and I want to tell you, well done!! I love a book that doesn't let me stop reading. I thoroughly enjoyed the story, the characters, it flowed so easily....great job. I really got a kick out of Rodney! The dialogue was wonderful...I busted up a few times.

I am so ready for Forever Richard!! gotta wait for next paycheck but consider another copy sold!!
God bless you girl!!

--
Sister Sonlight

Love y'all!
Sue Dent

Never Ceese paperback outselling hardback!

As you should know by now, I re-published my paperback version of Never Ceese ISBN 9780976994701, after Journey Stone Creations, without any word to me, sold all copies of Never Ceese to a liquidator keeping some they owed me to sale for their own profit.

Republishing my paperback was the only way I stood to make any money off of Never Ceese. Thank-you to all of you who understand this and are buying the paperback instead. As a nice added bonus, Never Ceese the paperback has been approved for distribution through Spring Arbor meaning my Independent Christian Book Store friends can get it if you ask and, unlike the larger (denominational) bookstores, won't charge you shipping and WILL actually put it in their stores.

For the first time since I've been paying attention, Never Ceese the paperback is outselling the Hardback. Yayness. I might be able to keep writing after all.

Also, for any Christian bookstore (except for the larger ones)wanting a bulk discount, you may contact me directly and I'll gladly work something out. I understand how tough a time you Independent Christian Book Stores are having making readers understand that you are in fact very different than the denominational bookstores that do not carry fiction for anyone except their narrow market of visitors.

What a messed up market!

I have to say I was more than pleased when readers who identified themselves as Christians began reading and loving my vampire/werewolf series. Of course I immediately sought to get in venues where they shopped both on-line and brick and mortar. How hard could it be when your publisher has distribution through all the major distributors.

Well, I couldn't have been more wrong and I'll not bore you by rehashing through the mess that has become the Christian market thanks today, thanks primarily to two groups who do everything but identify the narrowly targeted market of Christians they serve.

You say it doesn't hurt if they don't? It does if you're an author who appeals to that market. I recently asked to have my debut novel reviewed for a chance to go on what appeared to be a Christian Book blog for Young Adults. You know, because my series is young adult and has been approved for distribution to the Christian market whether the stores choose to carry it or not. Since I've lived and learned and since the books previously reviewed were CBA/ECPA affiliated I made sure to ask the reviewer if they felt they could review a non-affiliated Christian book without bias. They said yes. The result was maddeningly dissappointing. The reviewer didn't recommend or list my book on their blog in spite of giving it four stars saying that the book had mild swearing and said so in her review. The reviewer even went on to say how they wished they could recommend it but that her every move was being watched by parents!

*Sue shaking head back and forth* So yeah, if you're looking for help promoting your book to your Christian readers and aren't affiliated with CBA or ECPA or some other publisher who targets that narrow audience of Christians that visit the larger (denomonational)Christian bookstores . . . forget about it. In the long run, it isn't worth it.

You Independent Christian Bookstores ROCK though!!!

Eric Wilson's review of Never Ceese

This review was one of the first real signs that I'd tapped into a market I didn't even know existed. Eric Wilson writes for CBA affiliated Thomas Nelson. When he refers to Christian fiction he's referring to the work put out by CBA affiliated publishers. Other than that, there are no boundaries to be pushed. Christians have been writing for the general market forever and appealing to other Christians. And learning that CBA targets a narrow market of Christians and restricts normal writing conventions to protect that market, I'd hardly call myself circling the camp. LOL More like running from it as fast as I can (I don't write like that.) Overall however, the review shows that a Christian writing for the general market can actually appeal to this audience . . . even when said author didn't know this audience existed. :)

Review of Never Ceese - Paperback
ISBN: 9780976994701
Eric Wilson
Author of Fireproof

Sue Dent has done the unthinkable. She's pushed the boundaries of Christian fiction, circling the camp with a small publisher, howling for someone to take notice. And it's working.

"Never Ceese" is a blend of traditional vampire themes and modern smart-mouthed characters. Ceese is a werewolf on her way to a British castle, where she will rendezvous with Richard the vampire. Ceese is in a constant struggle with "the wolf" inside, while Richard is trying to maintain a modicum of control over his fang-toothed desires. This unlikely pair, united by an old woman named Penny, discover they have mutual childhood links. As they travel to meet a young college-age researcher, their pasts come to light. Romance flits about in unexpected places. And a self-seeking professor angles to take their immortality for himself.

The standbys are in play--garlic, crucifixes, wolfsbane, etc--but Dent adds a few of her own elements to this classic battle between the old ways and new. There are few surprises, but the story moves at a quick pace, leavened with humorous dialogue and clever insights. Dent's characters struggle with their cursed sinful natures, seeking release--if such a thing is possible.

In the end, all is resolved--if not a bit suddenly on some levels--and possibilities are left open for the sequel, "Forever Richard." I guess I know what book to add to my Christmas list. With Dent circling the camp, someone's bound to wake up to this genre's possibilities.