The increase in bric-a-brac is just getting worse. Take CBA’s International Christian Trade Show. It used to be primarily a publishing event. Authors would showcase new books. Presses would showcase new authors. Last year more than half of the trade show was what I think of as “Jesus Junk.” Smiley Jesus erasers. Stuffed Jesus dolls. Jesus video games. Jesus charm bracelets. A whole lotta Jesus for sale. Most of it cheap.

But that’s a tangent. I like what you said about “the means of distribution has become antiquated.” I think that is absolutely right.

It is an important question, but perhaps not for the obvious reason. Christian publishers will not be competitive in the future, with the myriad devices available, simply because it is not competitive now, at least not in a proactive marketing sense.

Books have been getting increasingly less floor space in Christian bookstores, while bric-a-brac increases. Bookstores do little local advertising, as a rule, and since they are just selling books on consignment anyway, they would rather return them instead of making any serious attempt to sell them.

Books may die, not because they are not beloved, but because the means of distribution has become antiquated. People will migrate to other devices for that reason in my view.

I recently got a critique that really hurt and would appreciate your feedback on my writing-I judge you to be a fair guy. I think my email is accessible to you here-if not, swing by my blog and let me know.
Thanks,
Eve

As far as stealing and pirating.. I don’t know a lot about programs that support BitTorrent or even how to use them (it must be pretty darn easy – but I don’t ever plan on trying). But, there’s so much controversy around this stuff and the RIAA… I assume there will be some kind of solution in the future? I don’t know. That’s probably optimistic.

Anyway, if you like Sufjan you might want to check out Beirut, relatively new band.

I hedged in saying “I.” You know, in admitting that you were not simply missed by the cyberblob. But by a very specific blob of humanity on the East Coast.

As for the passive construction. I’m not really a stickler about that. Especially in a blog comment. However, passive is generally a weak sentence construction that allows the speaker to hedge.

I think you were intending to hedge a little bit in the way you put your guilt trip on me. So that means the syntax you chose was probably appropriate!