But Bob Smietana over at Christianity Today says too many Christian publishers are Looking for the Next Big Thing. They posted this article last week, but if you haven’t read it yet, be sure to go check it out.
He writes, “In recent years, Christian publishing has enjoyed a string of Godzilla-sized hits—starting with the Left Behind series (with sales of more than 60 million copies), followed by The Prayer of Jabez (more than 9 million sold), and then The Purpose-Driven Life.”
(If I have time later, I’ll try to photoshop a Godzilla-Jesus movie poster. Or would that be sacrilegious?)
PS. I’m back from vacation! I’ll make the blog rounds soon.
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I’d like to see that poster. Thanks for mentioning the article
Welcome back!
good to have you back… did you leave the mountain intact?
Really glad to have you back – we’ve missed you!
…and because we were all really lonely and slightly bratty, we went over to LL’s living room to play while she was away. It was a great party – you should see the mess we made in her living room though.
Thanks everyone. It’s good to be back.
Thanks for stopping by Bob! I’m considering myself challenged now to get a good photoshop poster out soon.
Speaking of the next big thing. I spoke with a writer friend of mine who is at ICRS this week. She said the celebrity culture there feels even more out of control that it was at BEA in New York City. That’s quite a statement.
Apparently, this year they have images of various authors’ smiling mugs on the side of a bus.
I’m beginning to think Dick Staub is onto something in his book The Culturally Savvy Christian.
The whole “next big thing” idea has me bothered as a writer. Maybe because it smacks of retail tie-ins. My hope if I were to get a book of mine picked up by a Christian publisher would be to NOT have it spun off into movies and mugs and journals and action figures (not that I have a chance in the world of being that big). I just hate that the number of actual books in the Christian retailers around me is dwindling, replaced by knick-knacks, gifts, and merchandise from that latest “big thing”. And it seems like all the books I’m interested in reading aren’t available locally because of the whole “big thing” phenomenon (I’m adding Staub’s book to my list now – think I can find it at a bookstore?).
L.L.,
Um, the mountain was unscathed. Mostly. My three year old did his best to damage it, but it ended up damaging him more. (Nothing serious. Just scrapes and cuts and the kind of general rough play that gives boys joy.)
Musing Mom,
Actually those nicknacks, gifts and merchandise are probably keeping the Christian retailers around you in business so they can sell books. It’s an interesting dilema
AMM, that’s a good question. I don’t know if Staub’s book is at the bookstore or not. I use Amazon for books like that. It’s worth checking though.
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