Haper Collin goes POD!!!!!!

Oh this is far tooooo good not to share. Here's the link to the story called:

HarperCollins Publishers Making 5000 Titles Available Print on Demand

Here's my comment if you could care less about what the articles says but want to see my comment. Of course! Who wouldn't?

"Even as digital book sales grow, bookstores continue to be an important place for customers to shop for physical books. The goal of this initiative is to give the local bookseller the capability to provide customers with a greater selection of HarperCollins titles in a physical environment," said Brian Murray, President and Chief Executive Officer of HarperCollins Publishers.

Large bookstores are only an important place for large publishers as no small publisher can operate under the "industry" standard return policy that "sinks" all small publishers should they sign on to it, (which they have to for large bookstores to carry their books) and now it's barely working for large publishers.

How HILARIOUS that Harper Collins (and I'm sure the others will follow suit if they've not done so already,)is considering that "great evil" POD publishing! Hysterical.

Here's an idea. Since large publishers are responsible for that insane "industry" standard return policy, why don't they ALL work with "their" bookstores to fix it so All publishers large and small can compete!

Too funny. That return policy was created to save bookstores during the depression, put in place by Simon & Schuster and then by the other few large publishers of the day. Now those SAME publishers are throwing "their" bookstores under the train! I guess they're beyond saving.

My thoughts: bookstores should stop pandering to large publishers and create an "industry" standard return policy that works for the "industry" today--before it's too late--if it's not too late already. I guess large publishers today lack the "perseverance" and moral fortitude they had back in the day. Borders is already gone because of this problem. Who will be next?

Here's a comment that I posted on my Facebook page which in no way is to infer that I like Facebook it's just that it's free and I don't mind that they make money selling information that I want out there to begin with:

Is it not the most hysterical thing you've ever read!!! Harper Collins are the ones that gave CBA affiliated Zondervan their OWN imprint so they could discriminate in large bookstores as well as within large "Christian" bookstores, making the publisher, once owned by Family Christian but then disowned for their "evil" ways (because after all Harper Collins are the ones who distribute the "Satanic" bible) suffer for their wicked ways. Zondervan's response to the complaints from their one time owners, "It was a hostile takeover. We had not choice." LOLROFL Oh yeah. Like they couldn't "just say no." *Sue hums then sings* Money, money, money, money--Monnnn aaaaa!

Zondervan goes POD! Say it ain't so.

What's this? Zondervan does have a choice? Read on to understand.


Yes, that's right, Zondervan who founded Family Christian Bookstores but then sold out to Harper Collins and was then disowned by Family Christian due to the fact that they now belonged to the company who printed the Satanic Bible (which they claimed was a hostile take-over as if they had no choice, yeah right) is now going to use LSI, Ingram's POD for their US distribution. Don't believe me. Well here's the link!

I suppose the most important point to make here is that when Zondervan who founded Family Christian Bookstores for the exclusive distribution of their CBA targeted niche market titles and also for distribution of other targeted Christian fiction titles--when they went with Harper Collins and started taking flack from customers and store owners about going with a company that printed the Satanic Bible, their response was they COULDN'T back out. That they had NO choice. Well, well, well. Look who all of a sudden has a choice. What happened I wonder? What happened indeed!

So now we have Zondervan/Zonderkidz, Harper Collins' producer of CBA/ECPA targeted Christian fiction using a POD for distribution because being with Harper/Collins can't seem to do it for them. Like that's the problem. Well I hate to abuse the term but it is so fitting. Welcome to the jungle! Don't I love it!

Family Christian Stores history.

To gain a better understanding, if one really cares, about who larger Christian bookstores really serve one simply has to look at the history. Family Christian Stores have a very interesting history which is laid out here.

Sufficed to say, they actually are still exclusive and will only carry work provided by CBA affiliated publishers. However since this is their preference and not the rule, non-affiliated Christian publishers stand a chance of getting in should they want to.

I find Family Christian's history so intriguing because they were originally owned by CBA/ECPA affiliated Zondervan meaning of course at that time NO fiction got into Family Christian unless it was from a CBA/ECPA affiliated publisher. Everything was rosy of course until Zondervan hooked up with Harper/Collins which Zondervan has said in responses I've seen on the web that this takeover was beyond their control. They said this because store owners were angry at being owned by a company, Harper/Collins, who also printed and distributed the satanic bible.

Eventually Family Christian got their stores back breaking all ties with Zondervan and the demonic Harper/Collins (Sorry. Couldn't resist.) In the meantime Zondervan remains a CBA/ECPA exclusive and heavily targeted Christian imprint of the larger publisher which I've always found interesting. It's clearly their relationship with Harper/Collins that helped CBA/ECPA exclusive Zondervan along yet Zondervan states in several instances their disenchantment with being picked up by this company (google it. It's not hard to find.) This disenchantment is usually expressed when core market CBA/ECPA readers realize that some of the money they spend on Zondervan's books actually supports an industry who prints the satanic bible along with books on witchcraft, homosexuals etc . . . Other than that, Zondervan seems just fine with their owners. Sort of a love/hate relationship that runs hot/cold depending on who is asking.

But yes. Family Christian Stores can carry non-affiliated Christian fiction and without sending it through to be scrutinized again (I think.) The stores however still only serve a very exclusive and targeted market of Christians so frequenting larger general market stores is your best bet to find fiction that appeals to all.

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