B &N Screws yet another author. And they're working the big dogs now!

I came across an interesting post on my FB page two days ago, from another author. As usual, I checked the publisher. I don't want any authors writing for publishers who discriminate based on denomination littering my page. Well this author actually did write for one of those publishers. His latest book was published by Stone House, Wesscott Marketing's "Christian" arm. I raised my finger to hit unfriend when something stopped me. I'm not sure what it was but something said, "hold up. Give him a chance."

So I perused his FB wall and found from his recent post that he was recently screwed by Barnes & Noble. Still I felt little remorse. After all, he's published by "one of those" publishers. I perused his wall a little longer to find him freely using words like "ass" and "f&*k" and oh MY!!! LOL Maybe I was wrong about Stone House. Maybe they weren't targeting that "Christian" market at all.

As it turns out Vincent Zandri is a straight up kind of guy (whom I'm quite honored to have met.) He's been published by some of the big dog publishers (in the day when such a thing was possible and actually happened.) His Barnes & Noble nightmare is outlined here in a blog post he made on his blog. It pretty much mirrors ALL the experiences EVERY small press or self-pubbed author is going through and has gone through since forever. Only now it's waaaaaay worse.

As I said in another blog, there is no mystery behind why chain bookstores are failing. They refuse to embrace that publishers exist outside their little world of Simon & Schuster and Random House and Knopf and the list goes on. It isn't the economy and it certainly isn't technology that's bringing them down. If anything technology has leveled the playing field. It has done what needs to be done.

Watch large publishers as they try to maintain a foothold outside their little story-book fairy tale of an existence. Welcome to the Jungle remains my motto.

My feelings on Stone House publishing taking on Vince Zandri, well I certainly have some but I'll keep from sharing them here. ;D

Feel free to ask though.

Christian Crossover Fiction! Don't be fooled.

Recently I read an author's blog who mentioned who their agent was. Knowing that this agent only submits work to targeted "Christian" publishers, I was intrigued. I never doubted for one moment that the author had not found a general market publisher through this agent but yet I just had to know.

I can now accurately report that no, the author does not have a general market publisher. They were published by Stone House Inc., Wesscott Marketing Inc.'s "Christian" arm (no they don't give up easy) or rather the imprint Wescott created to serve that very targeted market of Christendom that CBA and ECPA affiliated publishers were set up to serve in 1950. And the proof is in the authors they've taken on, (if you need proof.) Most are already writing for other affiliated houses. You can follow this link to see for yourself: Wesscottmarketing.com

So for my author friends, don't be fooled by the title of this blog. There's no such thing as Christian Crossover Fiction! It's simply fiction produced by targeted "Christian" publishers attempting to get you to read their authors by proposing that they don't indeed write for a very specific audience of Christian readers.

Just don't want my author friends wasting their time. If you're attempting to find a general market publisher, you'll need to stay away from any publisher that claims to put out crossover Christian Fiction! And readers need to stay away if they expect to find anything other then heavily edited fiction that only appeals to one particular segment of Christians. If that's what you want to read then fine, by all means enjoy!