Jackson Free Press Review of Never Ceese

Thought I'd dig this review back up. I solicited a local magazine here in the Jackson Area for a review early on, even before Never Ceese made the Bram Stoker Preliminary Ballot for 2006 for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. I was very pleased with Lynette's words. So glad she enjoyed Never Ceese. I attempted to find the link to the review but it's broken. I did notice that while other book reviews posted very rarely got more than 20 views if any, mine got over one-thousand. There was another review of another book on the same page though but that's the way the other reviews were done as well. So there ya go. 

Do note that Black Bed Sheet Books is now the publisher of Never Ceese and my Thirsting for Blood Series. And the best place to purchase them are at my publishers website!





The Jackson Free Press is a local paper here in Jackson. Here is Lynette Hanson's review of Never Ceese.


Never Ceese - Paperback
ISBN: 9780976994701
by Lynette Hanson

April 19, 2006

In her first novel, Jacksonian Sue Dent paints a vivid picture of the trials and tribulations of family life and love. But you shouldn’t think that “Never Ceese” (Journey Stone Creations, 2006, $12.99) details a life like the one lived by Beaver Cleaver: Dent populates this book she calls a spiritual fantasy with other-worldly characters.

I, for one, never thought before to try this style of novel since I lean toward mysteries and Southerners who write about the South, but I found Dent’s tale of determination one I couldn’t put down. It gave me pause to read of Richard’s drinking blood he had warmed a bit in the microwave, blood he’s gleaned from sources found on his computer. Right away, I realized that Dent’s two main characters, Richard the vampire and Ceese the werewolf, break the stereotypical movie mold for these creatures. Getting inside their heads and learning what makes them tick is just one reward you’ll receive in reading “Never Ceese.”

Never too early to start pimping!

Keep in mind that this is not the "official" cover AND I'll not divulge the official title to keep some other author from hmm . . . taking advantage of all the hard work I do getting my work out there. Last title was taken. Yeah. Like every author doesn't "google" a title before they decide on one. Good one, author! I wish you well. If you want this title, you'll have to wait until AFTER the fact.

Update on dead link. UGH!

*** Update on update: And if you want the link, you can just go google it. They didn't repost the book cover. Didn't care about the new republished version, didn't even bother to say, "congratulations, hey can we do a review of your newest book." I know, how vain of me. They didn't even bother to keep the comments that came over with it. I'm sure they were lost. Ask them about it though. They have wonderful insights as to why I have no right to speak to them the way I did. *Sue shakes her head disconcerted.* It's a "targeted" site that "will" review *ahem* "secular" work or rather non-targeted. You get what you get. Their entire front page is covered with books by "targeted" Christian publishers. Good grief! All while my interview sits in archive and I've never been contacted since to do another interview or heaven forbid a review. Even though my work continues to appeal overwhelmingly to CBA's targeted audience. Nope. I'm a nobody even after being short-listed for a Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel and making the long-list at the British Fantasy Society. I hate sites that pretend to be something they're not all for the sake of looking like they're helping someone they never cared to help. My interview is in archives. Wow! Thanks for all the love. You know what, I'm gonna post the link. Oh do go post a comment: http://thechristianmanifesto.com/archives/book-review/forever-richard for the review by Jake Chism and http://thechristianmanifesto.com/archives/3602 Y'all go pile on the comments and see if we can't get it to the front page of the site. We only need 18 or 19 from what I can tell. Well, if things work right. ;)

***Update: Oh my! I did hear back but it took me two days to track someone down. Then I had to listen to how nasty my post was below, where I boldly inserted a statement form their front page? "I would've preferred an email," they said, "instead of that nasty blog." Sorry, guy, didn't have an email. The one I found led to a dead link and the last time I posted a "friendly" notice on my blog that the link had disappeared, you responded quite nicely as to where it had been moved. Thought it might work again. The e-mail I found on FB worked, though now I'm sort of sorry it did. Good Grief!! I really held to hope that this "Christian" Magazine, in spite of the usual division of the market into "Christian" meaning evangelical and "secular," meaning every other faith, would in fact break all the molds. Sadly, it's the same old same old.
***Update over***

Long story short, after appealing to this magazine to please give all authors equal play, I got the interview reposted. But not without being told that they really didn't like me and didn't want to put it back up. LOL To that I say, feel free to pull it at any time. If I'd known for sure this magazine was like all the other "Christian" magazines out there, I would've run as fast as I could the other way. As a rule, I don't open myself up to be abused and disrespected.

***update over***

Well I'm currently putting together an Electronic Press Kit and went to put links to the grand two part interview I did with Jake Chism of the Christian Manifesto that was moved from it's original location shortly after going live only to find that it's missing once again. Oh good grief. Yep, it's one of the best interviews out there and I can't find it once more.

If you look at the "about me" section on the Christian Manifesto it says this:

" . . . We’re just as comfortable reviewing and critiquing the creative work of Eminem as we are Steven Curtis Chapman. We won’t crucify an artist because he swears too much nor will we praise an artist simply because they make worship music. We won’t degrade an author because their writing is risqué or praise one because their main character is an Amish woman . . ."

But being comfortable doesn't seem to mean they won't move your interview or completely get rid of it shortly after inception or at some point when they think you're not paying attention. How much you want to bet I don't hear back from these guys this time as to how to get to this grand interview. Oh, and for the record, after the first move, the pictures that went with the interview NEVER showed up again including the book cover. Appreciate the respect guys. Seriously!

Seems to be just another case of the "conservative evangelicals" throwing their assumed weight around again. So sad. :(

If I'm not given the links soon, I'll post the interview myself with added bonus material. :)

What follows is the ORIGINAL post. It no longer applies the interview is once again gone.

I told them I wouldn't do the interview unless I could speak frankly about the "Christian" publishing industry. They agreed that this was fine. Guess I should've made them agree to not pulling the interview whenever they please.

*****Nuther UPDATE*****
Mr. Jake Chism did the work for me and found the links. How's that for cool!

Part 1

Part 2

Jake rocks!


****UPDATE*****UPDATE****
See comment from C.E. Moore to this post for "importante informacion!" The mysterious disappearance of my interview at The Christian Manifesto isn't that at all. It seems they simply moved. I just didn't get the change of address notice. LOL I'm off to get it now and will repost the link to my interview if it was moved as well. Of course it was moved. Why would they not include my interview in the move. *Sue looks around paranoid starts gnawing on fingernails* They wouldn't not move my interview, would they?


Earlier this year I did a wonderful two part interview with the Christian Manifesto. I even linked to it of course so others could learn more about my books etc . . . Don't know what happened, but the blog is gone!!! Poof! Vanished into thin are. Maybe they just moved the interview and renamed the blog. I'll see if I can find out. That was a really good interview too. Oh well, se la vi.

Sue Dent and Mark Twain

I foretold of an interview not that long ago, between myself and a quite reputable columnist who contacted me via email likening me to a maverick of sorts in regards to making a resoundingly fantastic impression on "Christian" (quotes means evangelical Christians and not all faiths that are supposed to be housed under this broad label) readers as well as General Market readers (general market actually has more "Christian" readers and Christian readers than the unofficial official "Christian" market.)

Anyhoo, the interview was amazing and I'm looking forward to the column. In the meantime, you can read a little about the impression I made during the interview here: I recently discovered, by reading a blog, about Sue Dent, a southern novelist who has a fascinating story. I will write about her soon in this space, and I dare say many writers can learn from her. That wouldn't happen if Sue had not taken on the added task of utilizing social media.

Read more: Mark Twain lives again!

The only thing I'd like to add about the article in general is that an agent is mentioned and heralded as a "great" one. Unless something has changed, this agent is and always has been an agent for the "Christian" market meaning that this is where he's "great." For those writers not wanting to target the "Christian" evangelical specific, extremely closed market of readers, then you should definitely to someone else. I of course would advise every writer not to seek an agent at all as at this point in publishing history an agent can't actually do anything but waste your time. In fact, I actually contacted this agent once due to the fact that it sounded as though he had access to some non-targeted publishers. He did not. It's just about change though. It will all come out in the wash. ;)

To all and any Independent Bookstores . . .

To all and any Independent Bookstores interested in carrying my books please note that while I have distribution through Ingram's Lightning Source, which means you can order my work, I DO NOT subscribe to any return policy crap invented by large publishers to keep bookstores of the day up and running. The policy was barely workable then and certainly doesn't work for Small Independent houses who can't afford to EAT the print cost of any "returned from the bookstore" books because Ingram's Lightning Source "destroys" them (actually I'm not convinced Lightning Source EVER sees ANY "returned from the bookstore" books as who would pay return postage for something AND THEN DESTROY IT!

Nevertheless, that's the deal. You can work through my publisher to set up a deal that's workable for both parties or at the very least one that has the publisher and author NOT losing money. ;)

Electric Angel has a cover model!

I now have a cover model for Electric Angel. I'll be posting more about this very soon! Be watching.

Just when I thought Smashwords was definitely the way to go.

While Smashwords is better than other ebook distributors for reasons mentioned before and so I won't repeat myself here, I found this today whilst looking over information they provide.

Refunds: If you see a line item listed as "refund to buyer," it means that the customer's credit card company reversed the charge, or the customer was refunded for some other reason deemed reasonable by Smashwords.

Epic Fail!

So it seems every distributor thinks they have the right to determine for themselves whether "your" book should be returned. They should only have this right if you tell them they can have it. This is never stated anywhere on Smashwords. These are ebooks. There is no reasonable reason for a return. At least 20% of the book can be previewed before purchase. And even at that, the distributor shouldn't be the one deciding whether the reason is good enough. Even at that, most ebooks cost less than $5.00

GIVE ME A BREAK!!!!!!!!!!!

Come on Smashwords! Break the mold! EGADS!

Sue Dent signs multi-million dollar contract with Random House!

I've been waiting forever to post that headline. Thank-you April "FOOLS" Day for finally arriving so I could. And so everyone asks, "Sue if they did offer you that, would you turn it down? Knowing how you feel about large publishers and all."

To the "everyone" who might venture to ask this, that's one scenario I'll never have to worry about so I don't feel inclined to speculate.

HAPPY APRIL FOOLS DAY THOUGH!

Boycott {insert publisher of choice}

A new trend? It does seem to be the case. But I've found, at least so far, that the publishers being singled out by their authors don't operate much differently than all the other traditional presses out there.

They're attempting to play the game as set up by the money controlling "big dog" publishers without considering that doing so means certain death. The publishing industry rules only work for the larger publishers. Small presses need a completely different set of rules to survive.

So do I agree with boycotting small traditional houses? Not really (and I've been with two who went under due to believing they could actually operate under the rules set in place by large publishers.) And boycotting large houses is futile because they control the industry and are far tooooo big to be touched by our rock throwing. Readers aren't being affected by authors being "screwed" so life will go on.

And just in case you think I don't have a dog in the hunt, there are over 4000 hard-back copies of Never Ceese out there that I'll never see a penny from. Not one cent will come to me . . . ever. Gotta love that. ;)

Big publishers trying to weasel their way in?

With technology making e-books more than just a novelty, it's only a matter of time before larger publishers try to find a way to make the kind of profits off them that they did on print books. Seems they've already started and it also seems that they're relying heavily on reader's ignorance.

Why should an e-book from a larger publisher sell for almost the exact same price as a print book?

No matter what is said, there's absolutely no reason for this kind of pricing. The cost to produce e-books is next to nothing, there are no warehousing issues or none of the other things that drove the price of a print book up.

Well . . . there is one thing that might drive the price of a large publisher's e-book up since they choose to only use Amazon's Kindle or B&N's Nook to publish. That would be the cost of paying for the ENCRYPTION to keep these books from being read on anything BUT the exclusive readers purchased from either Amazon or B&N. Adobe works with B&N to secure their Nook books. I'm sure Adobe charges enough for that. And I'll bet it isn't cheap for Amazon to keep up to date with their encryption.

But why encrypt anyway?

I know I've said a lot about SmashWords lately but here's why. Their books are DRM free! What's that mean? It means the Kindle book they produce can be read on a Kindle reader WITHOUT the publisher of the book having to deal with a company like Amazon who attempts to act like the publisher and distributor by forcing things such as their "lending library" on their publishers. Then of course there's the allowing 7 days for an e-book to be returned. As I've said before, return of any item should be the publisher's choice, not one made by the distributor. Barnes & Noble's Nook also allows for returns I'm sure since B&N doesn't know any other way to operate.

SmashWord's books are DRM free!

I suppose they could be called the Napster of e-books. Oh and no, you won't see the large publishers going to SmashWords for e-book distribution. They aren't interested in anything but taking the most money they can from the reader. Well . . . they might if folks stopped buying Kindle's from Amazon or Nook books from B&N. But we all know that ain't gonna happen. In fact, the "big dog" publishers are counting on it!!!

Quite frankly I think it's time for a revolution. I'm just saying.

from your .doc and the Nook they produce can be read on ANY o only specific e-book readers can read them is simply a way to knock all other publish

Why do e-book distributors allow for returns?

So in light of the fact that Smashwords, an e-book distributor, DOESN'T allow for returned e-books, one might wonder why any e-book DISTRIBUTOR might allow for this.

As far as I know a distributors purpose is to distribute things through their distribution channels making money off of what sells. If a publisher wants to make their e-book returnable that should be up to the publisher not the distributor. I have to wonder at any distributor that forces things on publishers as though they have the right to do this.

Wake up publishers!

Find a distributor that acts like a distributor. With the publishing industry leaning toward e-books as opposed to print books, WE the authors, small publishers and self-pubbed authors of the world have a chance to SHAPE how things happen. Or we can sit back like a bunch of mindless imbeciles and pretend there isn't a RIGHT way to do things.

I can not understand why anyone would want a Kindle published on Amazon when Amazon gives the buyer 7 DAYS to return the book. Not when there are other e-book distributors that leave that choice up to the publisher. No. Amazon isn't the only "distributor" doing this but they're certainly the loudest ones.

Why Large Bookstores Can't Fall Fast Enough For Me!

The main reason why it can't happen fast enough for me is that they refuse, absolutely REFUSE, to move away from being bookstores to feed the world with books from large publishing houses only. They don't even pretend anymore. As an example, Barnes & Noble USED to humor local authors and allow them in to do book signings AND occasionally would put the local authors books on the shelf. The current trend, however, is to spit into any authors face who isn't published by a large house.

Only four years ago, my local B&N allowed me in to do a signing. Not today and it's the same book. And they've yet to pay me and another author for a booksigning we did there a year and a half ago. We sort of got caught up in the transition. B&N's home office decided, after the fact, that the local story shouldn't have allowed an author to bring books in on consignment and kept giving the poor CRM of the store the run around. At least that's the story I've been fed. Still, we were never paid and it doesn't look like we ever will be. Sad. So Sad.

And to add to the misery, my local B&N is showing they have limited stock of my books!!!!!! How rich is that? They won't stock my book at my request. They say I have to be in B & N's system. How then can they have limited stock of my book? "Get it off your shelves," is all I have to say. Forever Richard is out of print. If you see this on a shelf at ANY Barnes & Noble, please don't buy it. Order it from me until Black Bed Sheet Books republishes it. Same goes for Never Ceese. You won't see the Black Bed Sheet Edition of Never Ceese in ANY B&N store though they can order it if you'd like to have it. You will only see the hardback which I DON'T make any money from when it sells. The only B&N that MIGHT have a copy of Never Ceese that I republished myself is my local store but you can rest assured if it's on the shelf, I won't make anything from the sell of it and I'm not even sure how they got it.

*Sue looks at watch on arm.* So yeah, not at all bothered that the larger bookstores are dropping like flies. Couldn't happen soon enough for me.

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!

Horror World reviews Never Ceese

An oldie but a goody. Absolutely love the way W. D. Gagliani author of Wolf's Trap calls to attention a possible sub-genre that is forming. More than that though, I simply love his review. For my new visitors. ;D

Enjoy the link. Scroll down on the page a bit to find the review:

Horror World reviews Never Ceese

Bring it!

Ohhhh, sounds like Sue's going to rant again. Well, maybe but more than that, I'm just running out of blog titles. LOL Actually I just wanted to address a broader issue of cleaning house on Facebook and chose to address the matter here as many of those friends do watch my blog on occasion. And since I have my FB profile set up for even non-friends to see, then the folk whom I've unfriended will most likely see this blog too and understand a little better about why they aren't on my list anymore.

My FaceBook page is for my fans. I've no tolerance for authors or publishers who've not read my work and certainly no tolerance for those who write for a market that consistently markets to confuse. I only ever signed on to readers of that particular market because they were reading my work and enjoying it. Because of the "confusion" factor, which amounts to using a very "broad" label to define their extremely targeted work, I've now had to absolutely back-peddle my marketing efforts. Do you have any idea how costly that is especially when you don't make any money to begin with?

So though you might be a good person at heart, I'll not compromise my sanity or the audience I write for by being associated with individuals or authors who can just shrug this fact off because they actually do write for the exclusive market I've can't seem to get rid of!!!!!

So I've done a little house cleaning and will continue to do more. Therefore if you aren't a fan of my work and in some instances even if you are, you might find yourself unfriended. Don't take it personally. You can just follow me here . . . or not. It's certainly your choice. ;)

Yay! Another question from a writer. ;D

Sorry fans, another blog for aspiring and published authors. Booooring for you I know. Will get something exciting for you up soon. ;D

A question from an author.

I do have one question, right off the bat, pertaining to Lightning Source: I've noticed that when I receive shipments of my books, the box always says Lightning Source on the outer label, and yet I am currently through WestBow. What is the connection there? Can I go directly through Lightning Source? Is WestBow a "middle man?"

West Bow is Thomas Nelson's POD. This actually means nothing other than Thomas Nelson decided to attempt to make a little money off those authors they won't publish traditionally (which means anyone who doesn't write targeted Christian fiction.) As a side note, I find it humorous that they infer an authors work will show up in Christian Bookstores. I wonder if it's accidental that they don't mention West Bow books aren't anymore likely to show up in Brick & Mortar Christian bookstores than if the author would've chosen Iuniverse (B&N's POD) or Create Space (Amazon's POD) or have gone straight through LSI (Ingram's POD)

Oh, the question. If you are with West Bow and the box your books come to you in say LSI then there is only one conclusion to draw. West Bow, Thomas Nelson's POD is using LSI Ingram's POD to print and distribute their books. By doing this your book shows up in Ingram's catalog (as a POD of course) AND I'm assuming West Bow also has your book approved for distribution to the Christian market through Spring Arbor thus supporting the idea that your book will show up in Christian bookstores.

So yes, West Bow is a middle man. You could go to LSI yourself and do everything they can do and probably for a lot less. And if anyone from West Bow or Ingram or LSI wants to chime in, well, you can forget about it. The author asked me. ;D

A fan helps out with Nook! Aww, thanks!

See, I still won't buy a Nook myself due to the association with B&N (sorry they don't recognize small publishers for what they are so I'll not be responsible for funding their bullying ways) but I'll gladly post things like this. Fran Veal, a new fan, downloaded Never Ceese and posted instructions on how to do so for your Nook! How dang cool is that!!! (Fran also said she read Never Ceese in one sitting and that she loved it. Just thought I'd throw that out there too. ;D)

So if you have Nook, here's how to get the book!

Me again. I'm going to give an FYI instructional for your fans who want to read your books on the Nook (and I assume Kindle is similar).

1. Find the book and purchase it in the adobe format. (If you don't already have Adobe Digital Editions, there are steps to follow, but those instructions are clear on the purchase site.) Leave Adobe Digital Editions open.

2. Attach your Nook (or other ereader) to your computer.

3. Find the book file on your computer and send it to your ereader.

4. Go to Adobe Digital Editions. There will be a box that says "Authorize device". Click on it.

5. Go to your ereader.

6. Enjoy!

Best-Sellers List

Found this at the bottom of a best-sellers list compiled for the week ending January 9, 2011 to "explain" a little about how the list was compiled? I'll not list the books as I don't feel the list is NOT representative of what's actually selling. No surprise there.

"Rankings reflect sales, for the week ending January 9, 2011, at many thousands of venues where a wide range of general interest books are sold nationwide. These include hundreds of independent book retailers (statistically weighed to represent all such outlets); national, regional and local chains; online and multimedia entertainment retailers; university, gift, supermarket, discount department stores and newsstands."

I only post this to help substantiate the fact that the "sales" this list is talking about are the sales a publisher makes to a book store Independent or otherwise. The only publisher that large bookstores (the ones that make the difference in this matter) buy from are large publishers and they do so in mass quantities regardless of whether the author is a bestseller or not. This is actually how authors become best-sellers.

In the early years of publishing it was expensive to print books so publishers (only large publishers existed at the time. There were no little guys.) called upon the bookstores to help them store the large number of books they had to print as they had large print runs in order to save money. The bookstores and large publishers worked hand in hand. No surprise that things still work like this today but it is important to know otherwise you might think a best-seller is determined by how many individuals are buying it. Not so at all. There is absolutely no way to track how many books sell to individuals via bookstores or all the venues that sell books.

Ironically, all the books that bookstores buy from large publishers to secure that publishers hope of another author making it to the best-sellers list never sale at all!!! The bookstore usually returns them at some point because they can. No skin off their back. By the way, that's why you'll never see anything but larger publishers books on these list. Bookstores don't buy books from small publishers and they certainly don't when, in order to survive the insane return policy, the small publishers makes their books NON-RETURNABLE and prints through a POD.

Ahhhh, the publishing industry. Gotta love it.

I apologize if you thought I was going to post that I made the best-sellers list. I'll not make one any time soon with the requirements listed above and t hat's EVEN if I sell more books than some of those authors on the best-sellers list. Because if I sell more books it will be my small pub selling them directly to customers or me selling them myself and those sales are counted. So the real best-sellers will never be known because there's no way to accurately determine the number.

Oprah Winfrey Oprah read this Oprah Oprah Oprah

Books Signings for Small Press Authors

Just in case it still isn't clear, Small Press Authors would love to come to your local chain bookstore to do signings but Chain Bookstores SUCH AS Barnes & Nobles and quite a few others won't purchase POD published books which is the publishing choice for most small presses due to the fact that it's the most economical choice. AND large chain bookstores won't allow ANY author to bring in books to sell on consignment which is the only way to get around the bookstore not ordering books ahead of time for a signing.

There's an even bigger trap waiting at Christian Bookstores. 99% of them are affiliated and will only bring your book in if it's published by an affiliated publisher who writes for a very restrictive denominational market. It's the first question I'm asked when I call these stores to see about a signing. And so much for explaining. As soon as they find out my publisher isn't a fee paying CBA member, they hang up.

So just know that for most small pubbed authors, book signings at chain bookstores aren't a thing of the past. They never were and never will be. *sigh*

Continually baffled.

(revamped, reworked and reposted!)

Things that I've found to be particularly interesting whilst becoming a published author. Ordinarily I wouldn't have given a second thought to this one particular item but since I ended up appealing to an audience I never expected to appeal to, well, I became interested. ;) Especially since being associated with this particular market has a tendency to drive interest in ones book way down!!!

I suppose the one thing that struck me as very interesting is that the Christian Booksellers Association isn't THE Christian publishing industry as they insist and that CBA was set up in 1950 to ONLY appeal to publishers who wanted to provide targeted denominational fiction to Baptist Bookstore visitors. Let me stop to clarify here that I didn't make that last comment up. I read that word for word at cbaonline.org. I posted a link at one time to show how I'd not taken this comment out of context but shortly after I posted said link the wording had been "updated" to read quite a bit differently.

Just a Coincidence?

Perhaps but now the wording doesn't emphatically state the audience at the onset. It just sort of eludes to it. For this reason I no longer provide links to cbaonline.org. They still only serve a very targeted denominational audience and have no plans of abandoning that audience or growing past them for fear of losing them. The information they removed from their "about me" page or rather "reworded" was important. I'm sorry they found it necessary to remove it.

Bottom line is the Christian Booksellers Association was created in 1950 when affiliated bookstores were called Baptist Bookstores. A group of these Baptist Bookstores created CBA to provide targeted fiction. They charged publishers who wanted to write for this audience a fee and in turn for the money, placed affiliated publishers fiction in ALL of those Baptist bookstores that were affiliated. The work had to meet CBA's approval as well. Meaning it had to stick to rigid denominational standards. If I had to give the fiction a name I would call it, "preach to the choir," fiction.

At some point the name Baptist Bookstore was dropped and affiliated stores simply called themselves. "Christian" bookstores. Shortly after that in the seventies, a group of affiliated publishers pulled away and created the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association or ECPA. I often wondered if these were affiliated publishers who thought, "hey, you know, this is targeted fiction. I don't think using the broader label "Christian" to define our work is really all that prudent." Either way, ECPA makes no secret about who their target audience is which is a nice plus for them.

Here's how some distributors handle the confusion in the markets. Hatchette Books has two imprints for Christian fiction. Faithwords is one. Faithwords is an imprint that only handles work put out by CBA affiliated publishers. Work designed to appeal to that exclusive and targeted market of "evangelicals" and some Catholics? That's how it reads at CBA.org. Apparently there are "evangelical" Catholics or "Christian" Catholics. Does this means all Catholics don't fall under the broader label Christian. Hmmmm . . .

Center Street is Hatchette's other imprint. Center Street doesn't care if the publisher is affiliated with CBA. And the work doesn't have to be targeted for that market. BUT it's very interesting to watch all the "big" affiliated publishers slide into this imprint instead of staying with Faithwords. It would seem that their fiction no longer tows the evangelical line. Interestingly enough CBA affiliated publishers such as Thomas Nelson and Zondervan don't seem bothered that some of their bigger authors such as James Scott Bell and Ted Dekker are distributing through non-affiliated Center Street while they're still under contract with them.

Here's how Hatchette Book Group explains the two imprints on their site:

Does Hachette Book Group use a separate imprint for its Christian books?

Books that are specifically and exclusively written for Christian audiences are identified with the FaithWords imprint. However, many Christian authors today are writing for a broader audience and those books are published under the Center Street or Hachette Book Group imprints. The determination is based on the content and intended audience of the manuscript. In addition, Hachette Book Group has the Walk Worthy Press imprint for the Christian African American market.

Now I've not been in the business long but I have to say that I'm very disillusioned by the fact that active CBA affiliated publishers who've been excluding non-affiliated Christian authors from their bookstores since 1950 are allowed to publish under a non-affiliated imprint while still being affiliated. But that's just a personal pet peeve I have. To me it's truly a sad commentary on the publishing industry as a whole.

Having these two markets separated is great but not when one of those markets doesn't do enough to state who their target audience is and in fact states emphatically and at every turn that they don't have one.

But back to Hatchette books and the confusion of the markets there. Why wasn't self-published Christian author William P. Young, who is now with Hatchette Books, placed into one of the two Christian categories instead of given his own imprint named after his own publishing company? That has to be the most bizzare case of confusion I've seen to date.

And where is William P. Young's next book?

Just keep in mind that CBA is a trade organization and before they came around there was no such thing as a Christian market, only general market. Actually that's still the way it is. CBA serves a niche market of the general market. There are now many publishers who serve that "target" audience as well but aren't affiliated. Most of them don't use the label "Christian" fiction to define their work because of the stigma the label "Christian" fiction draws due to CBA not being more specific. They're using labels such as Edgy Christian Fiction, Family Fiction etc . . . and as of yet not one label to truly define their audience. But then no publisher really has to define their market do they. So go have fun figuring out what you want to read and what you don't want to read. ;)