Y o u r W r i t e r s G r o u p

This Dangerous Platform

The title of this post makes me think of this. Poor Bob.

 

But that's a visual of what many beginning authors fear will happen when their book releases. Most honest writers struggle with this. The initial excitement and hope fades into something else, and those fears can blossom into putrid black blooms.

 

Did you know there's a guy leading seminars on how to make videos go viral who intentionally falls of a stage and posts the videos on YouTube as examples? The quest for fame does make people do some pretty stupid things.

 

I get this question from authors who find themselves about to be published. "What if I become a phony?" Well, you know what? Phonies are people who fake it. They don't feel real, so they have to pretend they know what being real is. And they desperately have to prove it to you. But even if you have "coolness" shoved on you, the problems only come when you worry about it. We know the real deal when we see it.

 

"But won't I have to change?" they ask. I get the concern. It's Holden Caufield's big fear. Maybe the reason Salinger disappeared. I can't jump in and condemn him for it if it is. How do you write without being affected by all that noise? I don't know. May God save us all from that level of public scrutiny. But people will like and not like what you wrote. And everything changes you and everything is an opportunity to invest a little more. Sure, many people say, “God, if you make me famous, I’ll use it for your glory” and then end up having to repent for their screw-ups later. I’ve told several authors I’d only take their book forward if they promised not to become a phony when the accolades came. But most have no trouble b/c they expect very little accolades anyway. And if you're like most people, you are far from the danger of falling off your platform, big or little as it may be. I haven’t seen any dramatic changes in authors who went on to become "famous" in their genre or area of expertise. No matter what you might get from conferences and reading the trades, this publishing thing isn't American Idol. 

 

I once read a great email from Dave Eggers whose postmodern memoir Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius went on to become a #1 bestseller for several months, and launched the resurgence of memoirs, including Lauren Winner, Don Miller, and several others. By the way, here's a great one I'm reading now from an author we could probably all learn something from about this "fame" thing: Thin Places, by Mary DeMuth. In the email, Eggers denounced the perception that fame had made him a phony, contesting that he didn't much care if people thought he'd sold out to success because he was able to do so much more good with it than he'd been able to before. I thought how I'd been so concerned at one time about "selling out" and how adolescent it really was, so I decided to be done with it.

 

The right question is, "Am I sold out to changing things for the better?" And that's entirely up to you. I’ve had a half dose of fame and I mostly don't like it. Sure it’s nice being “known,” but you’re not really known. And what people do know, they want that from you, so they act as though they have some claim to it. But they don't and you don't have to pander to that. I grew up the oldest son of the senior pastor at a growing church. I was known in our family’s little circle. We were the pastor’s family in our small town, so when I became a big important Christian book editor after college, it took me a while to embrace it. And I still don't embrace the "big" and "important" part. People still expected me to know what I was doing, to share from my inside knowledge, and lead others in the right direction. And like anything worthwhile, my portion of “fame” has been both a challenge and an opportunity. But mostly now, it's an opportunity.

 

So will I become a phony? Am I sold out to changing things for the better?

 

People who become phony don’t know themselves. They want to present an image and fit in because they lack assurance about who they really are. Most of us know this, but I know plenty of folks who still fear self-promotion, as though it’s going to overwhelm their fragile egos and make them crazy attention-grabbing loud mouths. If there’s no misunderstanding about where your identity is secured, I don’t see the danger. On the other hand, if there’s a question about you wanting to be liked, affirmed, comforted from a surrogate daddy, or if you smell desperate to be published, that’s pretty hard to miss. The real phonies in publishing usually come in with their entourage well before they have a book. Or any ability to write. The book is just their next panacea in a long line of affirmation fixes that haven’t quite fixed them. And regular folk don't have to worry about becoming one of them.

 

My best advice for those worried about self-promotion is to do some soul work and ask God to point out any place where there’s still a desperation to be loved, affirmed, comforted, or known. He'll show you if your eyes are open. Then give that to him and let him fill that void in you. If you find your peace in him, no substitute will ever look attractive. You won’t have to shun the limelight and you can use all his gifts for his glory and end up with him smiling on you, praising you for investing wisely. Be realistic and don't expect it to be easy, to have ravenous fans falling at your feet, or ravenous mobs trying to stone you. Most people won't care. It normally takes a long time in publishing to gain people's attention.

 

Your real goal is that you want to hear those words: “Well done, my wonderful, faithful daughter.”  

 

Faith is gift, not an ability to gain, or a commitment to muster. God supplies faith to those who ask for it. So ask. And use your platform building the same way you’ll use your platform, to highlight the wonders you’ve been shown and to point people to the source, the one who provided your eyes to see it, the people to help you craft it, the readers to receive it, and the opportunities to share it.

 

As a good friend of mine likes to say, all is grace. And I've discovered it’s really true.

 

So what part of ALL do we yet not understand?

Christmas Is a Child

These next 2 weeks with Christmas and New Year's always present a unique opportunity for reflection. And barely hidden depression.

The holidays are always a mixed bag for me. I'll love brief moments of it, feel carried back to a time of childhood safety and love surrounding me. And the rest of the time I'll be Charles Grodin, flinging little socks into overnight bags and searching for those fleeting moments of peace while I strive not to say what I'm thinking and just do all that needs to be done. Bringing those moments back is the very reason I'll operform all the duties and preparations. But I'll still miss many of them. And I will get so fat. And like everyone, I'll excuse my self-discipline from the party and join the collective fool's errand for joy, taking full leave of my senses.

For I deserately need to forget how much older I am; I need to ignore it for just a while and accept the bad substitutes for my lost wonder with food, wine, and sappy music. Like a thick old electric blanket, I'll pull it all around me, the memories of beauty, love, hope, and the pure possibility of new discovery, the ratty old things that along the way became coping mechanisms, compensation for a perspective I'll never recover.

There's so much I can't remember. Somewhere along the way I became old and I suspect those little thieves I live with. They stole all my youthful energy, these same ones I gave life to. They enjoy everything about the holidays, the pretty little midgets. And they never gorge themselves on pie and alcohol because they're too busy soaking up all my happiness. My Christmas cheer will be in their cups again and I'll be left with dirty coal because Christmas is for children and now I'm not one. Now my role is to give it to them and protect it for them the best I can.

But God in heaven, I want a break. A real break from all this adultishness. I want to go back for just a little while. I don't want to think about all the suffering in the world. The wars and famine, the family problems behind all the laughter. There is always so much pain and evil just outside the door, out in the cold dark night. And damn it, I don't want to see it! Please, why can't it just go away for a few moments so I can see through the eyes I used to have again, the eyes that used to know it was all right, that everything was as it should be and would be now and forever? Now nothing is as it should be. Nothing. Even home doesn't feel like home anymore. There's too much I know, too much responsibility for everything to be put right as it should be. And the worst part is I know it will never be put right again.

My parents and grandparents used to work so hard to make sure everything was put right. Christmas would arrive to all kinds of treats. The preparation of months of effort, waiting for its arrival. The food, decorations, presents, activities, and conversations all carried a dense, full-flavored weight. Like a big old fruitcake. Everything was thought out and amazing. Now that's my job and I don't know how to do it. I know now it wasn't really up to the adults how things went, but they fooled me and I loved my ignorant bliss. The frustrations hidden, the strings all under perfect control. Now I know the tremendous effort to hold even the smallest celebration together, to preserve the integrity of "celebration." So easily it can become anything but.

And so often today, the ties of family, the significance of our all being here at all, it seems to go unnoticed completely. We turn blinded eyes to the very things that make seeing worthwhile. And for want of seeing, we gouge our eyes out with selfishness and fear. I know why I get depressed--I'm afraid of losing that child I was. Selfishly, I try to stuff in the trappings and wrappings to bring him back. But he can't come back, and that's good. That's as it should be. Let me put that right, at least. If I can let that child go, I can embrace the new ones better. And maybe somethere in there I'll find the very things I've been fighting to recover.

Why shouldn't we use them to get back a little joy through osmosis? Their happiness should be our escapism, our escape from all the reality outside. Isn't that what Christmas is about? A child bringing hope in the darkness that we might escape. We've been waiting so long, fighting so hard, seaching to recover this small truth. But of such as these is the very kingdom. And a child shall lead them...

So come now, little ones. Come into our broken-down world and make us whole again. Let us look in your eyes of unbroken innocence, those eyes that so willingly believe. And let us see your shining faces, bold and bright, turned to watch the great star shining through the dark.

Four-Minute Blog Post for Time-Starved Writers

This is an experiment in speed--how much can I say in 4 minutes? That's all that's left of my time today. It's been getting away from me, as some have noticed, this writing regularly thing. I could blame the season of preparation, or the insane cold we've been having, the mountain of work waiting to be checked off before vacation travel, etc. But priorities are priorities, and I've always considered this blog a top one (ridiculous as that may be to some).

So how do YOU stay on top of the things you really want to do? When duty and responsibilities dictate your time, how do you remain active in pursuing those things that don't produce a quantifiable result, but that take you to where you really want to go?

My own process of prioritizing has changed several times over the course of my adult life. The decade I've been in a professional role, I've probably changed 6 times, adjusting as needed or as the inspiration struck. Basically, I'd find myself under water and realize that I needed to do something besides sputter and thrash. You may think others don't struggle with this, but any writer or publishing pro who's not drowning has surely experienced their share of sputtering. And you can take that to the bank.

I've got 30 seconds, but I think the secret is making use of the time you do have--whatever it is. Stolen minutes are all we have anyway. Using them wisely is a matter of recognizing what's driving you and doing it. Making no excuses and hacking out the precious moments where they appear (Yes, that was a hidden ad, did you notice?).

I'm going to quit complaining about the time I have or don't have. I'm going to take the few minutes I can and just write them full. Let this be your inspiration to do the same and we'll see what comes of it in the new year. I'm thinking it's the only thing that will really work and the rest of our responsibilities will fall in line. Or not. But either way, we'll have produced something.

And that's saying something. Which is better than nothing.

Ding.

Some good reading

Two worthwhile reads:

"If publishers feel unable to 'make' a book and increasingly depend on word of mouth and the new bottom-up zeitgeist it will surely complicate a publishing business model that makes massive bets on progressively fewer books in the hopes that those books readh the 'phenomenon' status that pads margins and launches careers."

and

How to Write a Great Novel

On Quality and Excellence and What Does It Really Matter?

I think it’s about time for another of my old fashioned diatribes on high quality. It's been a while since I picked up the old saw, and I found this today on my local classical music station and couldn't wait to share it. 

 

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) was a contemporary of Bach’s who has nearly disappeared for even classical music lovers and admirers of 17^th century music. Yet in his day, Telemann was apparently more famous and respected that Bach ever was. And according to the several websites Google brought me, he was chosen as cantor of St. Thomas in Leipzig (a position Bach held as well) and out-produced Bach’s weekly cantata output 2-to-1. Bach’s music was considered overly artful, laborious and too complicated by then-modern culture and critics. It didn’t give enough space for “proper” reflection and respect for natural melody, whatever that meant to 17^th century musical tastes.

 

So now those times are long gone and people grew different ears. I won’t even speculate how that happens (a journey for another day perhaps), but the lasting quality of Bach’s work compared to his simpler, less labored, and proficient contemporaries is unmatched. So why? Who knows Telemann, Graun, Hasse? Even Bach’s own idol Handel isn’t as recognized. And there are many reasons for this, but it’s not a matter of opinion that Bach’s music has remained because of its superiority in form, style, beauty, and originality. As one site puts it, “In some aspects, he has no equal, and in all aspects, his music is unique.” 

 

But so what? How does it help him now? He gets no bonus points, no enjoyment or benefit from posthumous praise. What if he had tried to be more productive and efficient, to churn them out more? Why didn’t he? Sure he still produced a major body of work, but he never enjoyed the fame his music would eventually produce. What’s his payoff for pursuing quality over quantity? A legacy? What could that matter to him while he was alive? Respect of people he’d never meet?

 

Why commit to excellence? Practice and sacrifice is hard! It’s takes too much time and energy, especially if the struggle isn’t practical or doesn’t produce a better life. Why push so hard for so little? After all, more people will experience it if you produce quick and disposable. You'll have more chance for fame, money and immediate benefit. Less lasting, but so what? Who wants to pay and wait for visionary/beauty/quality in our world anymore?

 

This great destruction going on throughout the world is of course, nothing new. Yet it does seem to be getting worse, doesn't it? Our food, our products, our cars, our writing, our music, our culture, our idols, pundits, and politicians—and inescapably our opinions, ideas, relationships, and every other form of “output”—each exhibit the short-sighted self-focused decisions we’re forced to accept today, dispensing with high quality in favor of necessarily-immediate results (we might call it the McDonald's Effect or Wal-Martization), even when those results are vastly inferior in quality. But why should we care if the food/work/product/image does its job? It won’t last anyway? Nothing lasts! Why should we waste time and effort when there’s no benefit but some uncertain effect in the far future?

 

Everyone must make the pragmatic choice to push for higher quality or not, which may not become Bach's choice to forfeit keeping up with his contemporaries, suffer to produce far less, and miss his chance for greater recognition and prosperity. Indeed, for novelists, the choice seems ludicrous. Produce slowly? Less? That can mean poverty. It can mean unfulfillment too when others get the contract for producing quickly and we're forced to survive doing what we’d rather not have to.

 

So why strive for high quality? Why care about developing good taste? What is a superior work or product really worth and why not appreciate the compromises that enable our hyperspeed world to exist? Why make our goal one of dogged faithful service to a higher cause and not production, fame, survival, or even a lasting legacy? Disposable life is important now; it's how we've come to survive. A return to quality is what's short-sighted and selfish.

 

And still, some people can’t stop pointing at the beauty for the thought of one person stopping long enough to look up at what he’s missed and be captured by the idea of something greater.

 

Refined art! It sits and languishes, waiting to be noticed. It says, “Here is your lost dignity! Here’s your roots! Here’s solidarity with the real humanity and strength you possess! Here is a sacrifice for a creator and creation we’ve forgotten.” Inspired work reminds us of the incredible value of life before conveyor belts and utilitarian necessity and mass production forced our souls into exile.

 

Art is the truth of life in a microcosm—an object, a work, a piece fashioned from creation!—a chance to wonder at the reminder that all is to the glory of God reflecting his holiness. All is for this. Commit to pursuing the height of your potential and you will find your purpose.

 

Give of your best. Sacrifice your chance to pander to the masses. Sacrifice your lesser life and you will find the greater.

 

Can we get off the conveyor? Do our lives really depend on it? And can you really influence those several others around you for this?

 

If we are made in the image of the creator, then every day is a choice to reflect that or to slowly die.

 

Do you agree? Do you think this is an important topic or not? Leave a comment; let’s discuss.

 

 

Incidentally, classical music is one of the arts the Obamas strongly support. Michelle Obama went way up in my book when I watched this, from a White House classical music workshop for middle and high school students she recently hosted (check out the kids at 33:45—why does that make me so happy?).

 

12 Random-but-Pretty-Good Ideas for Selling Your Book

A lot of what I usually do here falls into the general area of intangibles. Craft. Meditations. Inspirational soap-boxes to pitch my nefarious positivity and that sort of thing. So I figured it’d be nice to apply some practicals to the discussion of spiritual publishing, particularly in the area of author marketing and publicity. And since there’s really no other kind now that social media has taken over the world, that’s another vast area of intangibles that could use some filtering for nuggets of use. So here’s a round up of random-pretty-good ideas for selling your book (intending at least a reasonably fair impersonation of Seth Godin).

1. The best sell is still the hand sell because YOU are what drives effective promotion. So the law of diminishing returns applies for every equivocation thereof. For example, short of direct, face-to-face interaction between you and your reader, indirect, but live “face-on-screen” (like the vid-casts WaterBrook does on LiveStream) is a good alt (maybe even preferable since more people, in theory, can see you on that way). The best ideas are iterations of this “face time” and hand-sell advantage.

2. Find an excellent, experienced webmaster. "A lot of companies make the mistake of trying to use social media and those involved in it for a quick transaction, when really it's about building a lifelong relationship with the consumer, incorporating all aspects of her life, including products," says Stephanie Bryant, DaySpring's business development manager.

To EFFECTIVELY and CONVINCINGLY prove that your book fits squarely in the center of the new market as more than a stand-alone repository of information, but as the anchor of a multi-faceted lifestyle choice of content and experience, you need the most professional web guy your money will buy. You could include any number of devisings (many of which are discussed below), but without an effective, convincing online presence, your extensive blog tour, multi-city launch parties, giveaways, and all the rest will mean, in a word, “Pppfffttt.” It has to go viral to sell well and the web is where the spiritually interested audience talks now. A strong online presence is established through many things—trailers, interviews, reviews, and unique creative promotions. But if crawlers and surfers don’t know it’s there or it doesn’t look good or it doesn’t work right, guess what it means? (see above).

3. The endorsements of some A-level and high B-level authors are essential. It may surprise some of you to hear that from me, but endos and forewords that can identify your trustworthiness, newsworthiness, and uniqueness, as well as help position you amongst the other known names on the shelves are irreplaceable. We all want to know our money isn’t going to be wasted. What provides that assurance better than someone we trust telling us exactly that? I know it’s hard, but to the victor go the sales.

4. In all your speaking about the book, aim for the broadest appeal with a vital, felt-needs emphasis that can grab attention. What will the book do for the readers? How are you solving their deep needs? Why can’t they live without this? Do that and you’ll never have to worry about your publicist calling to say she can’t find you any interviews.

5. Send advance-release manuscripts to influencers to generate buzz. Though you have little control over getting an early run printed with a traditional house, you can request galleys be sent and include personal notes with them that include requests of #3 and the info of #4. I’ve even seen some authors offer “prizes” and monetary payment for the evangelists who will talk about the book on a blog, amongst friends, on Facebook, and on Twitter. (Not sure if the new FTC guidelines prevent this, but most industry sources agree you probably wouldn’t be convicted).

6. Coordinate with your publisher to offer a free e-book for 30-60 days at initial release. Again, this generates buzz. They might not do it, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.

7. Book tours may be passe, sort of, but you can still do a stunt of some kind to get attention. (Traditional tours still can be effective, though maybe not the most cost-effective). Launch parties in influencer’s homes are good if you’re well-connected and have well-connected friends. Book-club interviews and signings are usually small change, but a good reading can get people fired up about your book and create a spike in local sales (as anything live that’s done well can). But again, not all author events are equally valuable for face time with readers. So things like booktour.com are a nice alternative.

8. Cross-promote music and other free bonus content with downloadable product coupons or the like. Recipes, privileged information, even the promise of increased web traffic and heightened social-networking status can get influencers moving.

9. Interviews are good, but debates are better. Cause a stir. Say what others aren’t already saying. This is also how you’ll avoid that dreaded call from your publicist.

10. Unique/unusual trailers and author videos. This is more crucial than you think, and more so every day. Let me risk repeating myself here: do not duplicate others! You want to be real and authentic and original and all those things? Do your own thing! Then put the video(s) several places—your webpage, Youtube, BookVideos.tv and Facebook to name some. Check out Henry Cloud's Secret Things of God video. Simple. Short explanation by the author with some cut-aways of speaking, signing, and book cover (produced by TurnHere Internet Video) (read this for tips). Some other favorites here and here. (A lot of videos produced for books by amateurs try to mimic film trailers. My advice: if you don’t have the budget, don’t even attempt something slick. You can’t come close (unless you’re Rob Stennett) . Make yours entirely different (did that sink in yet?) and go low budget. If your publisher doesn’t put some real money behind it (and don’t count on it) this is your only option.)

11. Be gimmicky. Invent creative games utilizing technology, like exploratory websites, or a “find the logo” campaign offering a prize drawing or money for those who find the most participating websites or complete a publicity challenge. I don’t know. Think of something fun that doesn’t require a lot of effort on your #2’s part.

12. Last thing: Involve your reader base. Plenty of people are available to rent if they like what you're selling. And you need them to multiply your time. Your book’s success should be a group participation experiment dedicated to furthering its critical message and inviting more people to get on board. Solicit ideas for promotion and listen to people. Then respond! Your book will reap the benefits.Don’t forget to design this as a campaign from the beginning with a page or two in the back of the book describing some of the things a reader can do to help out.

This isn’t a complete list by any means. So if you have ideas, names, websites, or anything else I forgot to include here, let me hear about it. I’ll offer a recap of the best stuff in a future post.

Middle Ground Marketing

 How do we get past the separatism in today’s book market? How do we invite readers to consider the created beauty of life? Defeating current market restrictions requires books that go to the middle ground, that show and/or talk about God and the world, about Jesus and fallen man. And the middle ground for these books that don’t fit the Jesus-sanitized ABA or the fallen-man-sanitized CBA is emerging. So how do we find it and become a part of it?

 

So the past few weeks, we’ve been looking at how to find it and become a part of it here, here, and here. These books are different. They go to people seeking to unify their lives in a full body-mind-spirit experience, who reject leaglism, hypocrisy, and prejudice, and aspire to live beyond categories that blind people, to make responsible choices to further those goals.

 

Middle ground authors are different too. They don’t promote agendas. They promote simple values like those described above. They don’t do phony. Authentic writing pours from their authentic living. “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” Duplicity and negativism crush joy. And joy is their point.

 

This is the cresting wave of middle ground publishing to the spiritually curious, those interested and interesting people. “A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.” So when these authors promote their writing, a spiritually-interested “marketing plan” certainly looks different. There’s a pared-down quality, a simplicity that attempts to conjure that other other all-important city, authenticity. If authors don’t live there in spiritually-interested publishing, they end up in Falacity (Feel free to leave your favorite Bushisms below.).

 

Manipulative marketing is contrived and ignorant. “The moment there is suspicion about a person's motives, everything he does becomes tainted.” And if there’s anything antithetical to middle ground books it’s manipulation. No God-respecting author can “spin” their work. It’s obvious when marketing becomes a con. Viral marketing can have no strategy, no manufacturing. Yes, YouTube killed the commercial and ads (or launch parties) for consumer products don’t work anymore unless the customer is specifically looking for that product. Many people are looking to be sold books, so author launch parties are a good idea. But without word-of-mouth, the book will still die. You can’t get a million readers without being talked about. And you'll soon fade if you aren't visibly real. 

 

A better way to see book marketing is as it is: a service. “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” It’s not easy. But “unwearied ceaseless effort is the price that must be paid for turning faith into a rich infallible experience.” Your purpose in marketing must be the same as it is in writing: to offer an experience readers will want to live daily. Because the life-giving experience of your book comes from God and is God. “There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.” Both are about filling people with the word of life and celebrating God’s work in passing on your observations, insights, and the beauty you’ve witnessed. To help others see what you see.

 

“Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.”

To believe in “selling” that message, your aim must be to connect, not sell. “We do not need to proselytise either by our speech or by our writing. We can only do so really with our lives. Let our lives be open books for all to study.” Do you love people? God does. If you struggle, try seeing with his eyes. A middle ground book or marketing campaign isn’t about converting readers, it’s about inspiring, encouraging, and reminding.

 

Is it possible to change people with a book? Of course. But there’s a common, cynical theory that says to sell well, spiritual books must give people what they want, pat them on the back, and not offer any deeper challenge. Tickle ears. Sure, some readers may be a lost cause, but “You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.” So here’s a challenge: if heresy is anything short of full gospel, then heretics are those who speak of God yet fail to inspire people to join His redemption orchestra. And in your quest for the middle ground, remember “pandering” to reveal words that cause people to change is very different than pandering to tickle ears. It’s taken me several years to realize that distinction, let alone put it into practice.

 

“All compromise is based on give and take, but there can be no give and take on fundamentals. Any compromise on mere fundamentals is a surrender. For it is all give and no take.”

 

Remember the true goal when you write and when you promote, and you’ll be fine.

 

(Quotes are from Mohandas Gandhi who Google reminds us earns 140 candles on his cake today.) (Also, in case you missed this other birthday, Guiness turned 250 recently.)

When Taking the Next Step

This week, I've been looking for a new used car. Nothing too fancy. On top of slaving to finish the basement before the darkness of winter saps my energy, my wife has helped me realize that I need new wheels. Now that I'm driving Ellie to school, my 1990 Honda Civic wagon, beauty that she is, doesn't cut it. No airbags, no all-wheel drive, no traction control, no anti-lock brakes. I told her there's no remote start or heated seats either, but she didn't seem to mind that so much. Or the fact that I've been driving it to work all these years.

Now adding value to a house, increasing features, upgrading a car, I'm acutely aware how all this comes with a price. And there are lessons here for a spiritual writer. I can relate these things to the depth and "value" I'm striving to infuse into my life and writing.

Generally, simpler is better. Ask me how much trouble the Honda or the unfinished basement has been. None. But like with God and in writing, when it's time to develop beyond where you were, there are costs. And I think I'm getting a better sense of what those costs really look like. I believe learning to write well is like learning a musical instrument. It's also like learning to hear and follow God's leading. What we're really talking about in all these things is deepening relationship. Learning to hear. And respond. I read a great little article by a car enthusiast (which I am not, yet) that said, in essence, "You can't really love a simple car." I know what he means. Once you realize you're in a limited relationship, you have to develop it. Or sell it.

I know that once I'm finished with my basement (and my novel, for that matter) I'll appreciate it in a whole new way. So what I've had to do is evaluate the costs. We're not going crazy. Just the next step. Still, the personal costs involved in these investments are extensive.

• Time-- For relationships. For other involvements. A strained schedule.
• Money-- Reduced income from time spent on this. Reduced future income for neglecting that potential current income. Increased expenses.
• Effort-- Inevitable challenges. Need for increased awareness of those. Decreased mental space/sanity. Decreased productivity in other areas. Increased frustration.
• Stasis-- Need to find a new "normal." Find balance. Rediscover new perspective. New priorities.
• Reach-- Impact to reputation. Decreased ability to pursue other goals/relationships.

That's just off the top of my head, but this short list of costs shows something to me. It shows that at least on paper, the investment may not be in my best interest. Depending on the specifics, pushing for progress in any relationship--whether human or machine, living space or written word--can be perilous, as advancing into any new territory. Yet not deepening my relationship with these things, while safer, is not better. Considering the featureless Honda, it's not even safer. Come to think of it, none of these things really would be "safer" without development. They'd be simply lesser. Underperforming. Incomplete.

I know. Evaluating like this is something of a luxury--it seems I do it less and less (probably another area to develop a deeper relationship with). I don't see many Twitterers or Facebookers or even bloggers doing it much; Google brain damage is our unstoppable epidemic, after all. We have to fight to think, force quit all the applications we're running, and reboot to process where we're really headed. Otherwise we'll keep clicking the mouse, like mice clicking that loaded trap, and wind up tail up, out of time. Time is all we have. What relationships are we spending it on?

But the other thing this list shows me is that all of these relationships are interconnected. They'll end up saying something about me (and not only in my Facebook pics). My ability to reach people and form more relationships is dependent on effectively evaluating the costs and choosing only the next step that's right in front of me with the relationships at hand. If I try to skip over a couple steps or form new relationships beyond my reach, I'll find the curse rather than the blessing. God, keep me from overextending my reach!

Anyway, I hope you find some of this useful in your thoughtful time. But more importantly, make sure you break away to think about the relationships you want to deepen over the next few months. Then look at each week and decide the costs you're willing to pay to get there. Are they reasonable? Can you pay them? And what are the real costs?

Christian Pop Culture and the "Missing Middle"

You may not share this mission. 

Maybe you feel more strongly for something else. Maybe your creative spirit soars to different music. Maybe you don't know what I'm on about discussing books for this "missing middle."

That's okay.

Do your thing and do it well.

But for nearly 20 years, maybe longer, I've been disappointed by Christianity. I've lived in the shadow of something I considered an embarrassment. It seemed to follow me around wherever I looked. I was guilty by association. In the popular parlance of my childhood and early adulthood which took place in the early 80s and 90s, the adjective "Christian" was largely synonymous with "a shoddy, reduced copy."

Some of you know what I'm talking about. Some of you don't.

Sure we had Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith. Frank Peretti wrote that big thriller. And there were a number of excellently produced boycotts. But for every reason to be proud, there were 100 reasons to cringe.

Now that is finally changing, after all this time--in music, in movies, and in books. In my industry--books--the popular interest in spiritual things is welcome indeed.

The Christian pop culture was described well in Rapture Ready! by Daniel Radosh. This is the parallel universe I grew up in. An old article/reviewby Hannah Rosin said:

"A young Christian can get the idea that her religion is a tinny, desperate thing that can't compete with the secular culture. A Christian friend who'd grown up totally sheltered once wrote to me that the first time he heard a Top 40 station he was horrified, and not because of the racy lyrics: 'Suddenly, my lifelong suspicions became crystal clear,' he wrote. 'Christian subculture was nothing but a commercialized rip-off of the mainstream, done with wretched quality and an apocryphal insistence on the sanitization of reality.'"

Where souls are at stake, it seems, creative work is restricted. And where creative work is restricted, it becomes a clanging gong, serving only those already in the club. That's one reason (as Rosin says) “it's always been a stretch to defend Christian pop culture as the path to eternal salvation.” So now can we write books that are Christian but not for Christians? That's where this middle ground is opening up between CBA and ABA through books like The Shack and others. Will we escape the confines of these walls and face up to the fact that a Christian pop culture does not save souls, has never really been about that underneath anyway, and conflicts and confuses converts with its “eternal oxymoron?”

 

Here’s my answer: No. Some can’t. And some shouldn’t. They have God to answer to. Some have been called to preach to the choir to encourage them to sing, and to keep singing even in the face of incredible opposition. Yes, these folks are needed. Let me not stand in their way.

 

But here’s my answer to the new voices: Yes. You don’t have to produce the Jesus Junk and the Kinkade Kommemorative Kolection just because you’re a Christian. There’s a big world out there waiting for your junk, er, work, and Andy Crouch and Mako Fujimura and many "covert Christians" are working to define that space and help it survive its infancy and get off the ground. You'll take some flak for it, but less than you'd expect. It's pretty well established by now--in books like Don Miller's and Rob Bell's and David Kinnaman's unChristian--that there's a problem here and it's not going away until we deal with it.

 

So if you are a writer (elitist, hack, or otherwise), who has a vision for something nontraditional that doesn't fit in the current Christian pop culture market, several modern-world changes are contributing to (as Paulo Coehlo says in The Alchemist) "conspire in your favor." And this should give you all the confidence you need to step out and not accept confinement to your previous notions.

 

Start by reading all the authors and books mentioned in this post. And by sharing your thoughts here. And coming back.

The Spiritually-Interested Publishing Revolution

Christian publishing may be more recognized than ever. But that doesn’t mean anyone knows how to sell to the avowed-unaffiliated, spiritually-interested audience.

In fact, there’s strong evidence a big house can’t because more readers are moving “off the grid” every day. Someone said recently that a quiet cultural revolution is underway, especially in publishing—the anti-establishment sentiment seems to be at a fever pitch amongst certain readers and growing louder by the day.

Oh, you’ve noticed? That’s good. Because whether or not CBA survives its uncertain and awkward teen years (never threatening the reach of its big brother ABA, even in a good year), the association of Christian retailers and affiliated Christian suppliers is scrambling to keep up with the morphing and fracturing that’s shifted into high gear. The addition of viable self-publishing, new indy publishers, and a welcoming general market have all but destroyed the arguments that we need more acceptance of Christian books. And while the lingering effects of the recession are preventing many publishers from risking on new authors, there has never been so much opportunity for diverse messages in this industry.

Let the good times roll!

CBA gatekeepers and storeowners can continue to keep “seeker” books out of their stores all they want. Christian publishers can be wary. But those authors and houses who want to do more seeker-friendly books have plenty of ways to reach that broader audience. Outside CBA lies the open sea of the general market and the bottomless Internet. Is viral and guerilla marketing as effective as store placement, big ads, and catalog spreads? It’s hard to argue “No,” when talking about the spiritually-interested book. Spiritual forum discussions, videos, blog tours, downloadable bonus content, interactive web interviews, and other creative promotions are generating interest and sales. Traditional live events, media coverage, reporting, and book reviews, are morphing into online content through alternative news and spiritual websites like Salon.com, Beliefnet, and book clubs. And anecdotal evidence says more people are seeing an author’s self-promotion in regional independent ABA stores more often and faster than those going through the traditional grueling channels (targeting an agent to sell to a big house, re-shaping to fit standards, and hiring a publicist to get you into chain stores while hundreds of other books arrive with yours). Maybe for the first time, the odds of success in spiritually-interested publishing are shifting toward small and independent.

 

By the way, we know it’s been building for several years. These readers have always been a fairly …unusual breed…okay, nerdy nonconformists. Sure, they liked believing they could be accepted in the establishment in-crowd, when it was still new. But marketing has changed all that. The big houses now feel phony and old and sad trying to target the unaffiliated. So for authors, this means the vision you construct for convincing retailers to take your spiritually-themed book will be easier to pitch as unique and desireable (and money-making) for not being mainstream. Because here’s the sound-byte of the century: aligning with big mainstream publishing—general or Christian—can be a liability to spiritually-curious readers.

Plenty of people still like the establishment, including myself. But that doesn't change the fact that these are interesting times in publishing. Any case studies? Leave a comment and we'll discuss.

Answering Cross-Market Questions

Welcome spiritually-curious readers and writers. If you have questions about the audience of The Shack or wonder about the best ways to reach this nebulous psychographic of readers, you're in the right place.

 

Ready to look at our burning questions from last time?

 

Q: Why are these [spiritually-interested] books without a clear goal or “take-away” so vastly superior for this audience?

 

This is an answer you need when it comes time to pitch your book. Bottom line: the experience of these books IS the take-away. The story is the appeal. Fiction and non-, the point is in the journey, not the goal or destination. This means the emphasis is on allowing the entire progression of the narrative to “teach” the message, and not offering the usual didactic, message-driven approach propped up by illustrations or manipulated scenes in a novel. Authors of these books start at a different place, often intending to discover alongside the reader, not to design a coersive read. Largely, these are writers seeking after mystery and beauty, not answers or reassurance.

 

Q: What's the best way to prove I can reach these readers?

 

By doing it. Reaching this audience absolutely requires a satisfying read like the one I just described. Whether that’s self-help, memoir, fiction, or investigative journalism, you have to get people talking about the amazing and unique experience your book is. And that writing skill goes hand-in-hand with your skill in marketing. The shift toward more author-driven marketing is strong proof of our increased desire to hear an authentic individual’s story as opposed to the familiar hard-sell coersion tactics of ad campaigns and publicity spin-doctors. You either embrace this new-world thinking and feel passionately about it, or you don’t. As I always point out to potential authors, if you’re onto something and you know it, it’s just a matter of time before others know it too. Ultimately, your marketing should be an extension of your passionate search in your writing. How you prove that is by being an authentically passionate connector (We’ll get more specific about this in next week’s post).

 

Q: Should I just self-publish my spiritually-interested book?

 

Good question. It follows a more important one: Do I have one book or several? If you are a career writer, you need to put in the time to your craft and learning the business to find a partner you feel best understands you and serves your ambition level. If you have one book or one burning story within you, it might be best to look outside of professional publishing. I make this distinction when it comes to spiritually-interested books because few writers can (or want to) write several. Staying in a perpetual state of searching is hard to keep up (ask Don Miller). There’s something of a life-stage consideration here—an age where self-awareness and spiritual evaluation is where you are, and a possibly more spiritually-mature stage where you are more decided in your outlook. Your comfort with mystery vs. assurance may change over time and that’s normal. Another reason is producing your book on your own can actually be a benefit in reaching this audience since you aren’t affiliated with any established, traditional house and won’t have to cater to them or compromise to fit their assumptions about the audience. Smart readers like yours are very aware of that dynamic and actually like the idea of an undiluted read (The Shack as exhibit A here again).

 

Q: Are some publishers and retailers really actively seeking these books?

 

Absolutely. In fact, I’m not sure you can find an adult general trade publisher in Christian or general market who wouldn’t be open to looking at a book for the spiritually-interested audience. All will have their own particular flavors and assumptions, but again, self-publishing is a great way to prove you have an audience and can connect with them before attempting to find a publishing partner. Of course, you need to consider how well a potential Christian publisher partner is able to reach the general market, because the place these readers are generally not is Christian bookstores or the Christian shelves at Barnes and Noble. If you see yourself next to John Eldredge and Bruce Wilkinson, you might want to reconsider your approach.

 

As always, your questions, comments and complaints are welcome and appreciated. Next time we’ll talk about what you can specifically do to find readers and build a following. Until then, don’t sweat any of this--and keep writing!

Promoting Your Cross-Market Book, Pt 1

Congratulations, you've just finished your cross-market book. So how are you going to increase visibility (and all-important sales) to your audience? Will you choose:

 

A. By reading Mick's brilliant blog post here.

B. What? Promote? That's the publisher's job. Or

C. I figured I'd learn all that once I get a contract.

 

If you answered B or C, give yourself a little slap. Wake up. While you were sleeping, it became your task to prove why your book is important. And the best way to do that is to show how it's a part of a sizeable movement—the "spiritually-interested" movement.

 

The top Christian publishers owned by larger NY parent houses may be positioned to exploit this large area, but their awareness of it and how to reach it is still fairly, well, not always stellar. Some have seen moderate-to-big success with these kinds of books, but whether by accident or intent is largely conjecture. The encouraging news is that many of the authors of these books had modest platforms, or no platform at all before, and whether or not a particular publisher is heavily personality-driven in its philosophy, the appeal of these books is often message-driven, content-driven, and reader-need-driven. In short, there’s a strong “heart incentive” here for readers you can tap into in your marketing. The author best positioned to succeed in winning readers in this audience is the one who proves he or she can lead the way to defining and even shaping this newer category (I like the word “psychographic”) of publishing.

 

And you thought you were just writing a book.

 

Some big reasons to take control of your publicity:

1. This new territory is wonderfully wide open. That means you can largely define the shape of your approach (more on that in following posts).

 

2. This spiritually-curious audience is media-saavy and uber-connected. There's a good reason top-Twitterer Ashton Kutcher found The Shack.

 

3. Existing CBA stores are closing at a faster rate than new CBA stores are opening, and commerce in general is shifting away from brick-and-mortar stores to the Internet. This has been going on for some time, but most CBA retail commerce is controlled (and limited) by just a handful of channels—including FCS, LifeWay, Mardel, CBD, Choice, Parable, and a collection of independents. When you add up all the units typically sold through these channels, first-year sell-through projections are rather low for all but a handful of Christian authors. So publishers are finding it necessary to follow authors' leads who can effectively identify and sell into the new online and viral sales channels (to which, spiritually-interested books are especially suited). This means you're much more likely to find a top publisher if you're already active in promotion.

 

4. Most importantly, you need your message to go to more than book-readers, believers, or any other category familiar to a publicity team. Let's just say these spiritually-interested folks don’t typically shop in CBA stores. Christian and general market retailers are generally averse to new genres (and even to many established genres). They like their usual areas--Christian living, genre fiction, diet books, whatever--and maybe a few others (proven best-selling authors and really cheap books). This limits publishers commercially. Taking on a new mission like this is attractive to a house and spurs greater innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship. And again, authors have a huge opportunity to be the lead entrepreneurs here.

 

In short, as author of a spiritually-interested book, you have the opportunity to identify and test new strategies in sales and marketing, in line with the present and future of book publishing. And that's attractive no matter what kind of book you've written.

 

As authors, we must define this vision and ensure it’s understood in our proposals and manuscripts. We must incite passion in our publishing teams for reaching this large audience. And we need to explore nontraditional ways to “pitch” the appeal of these books.

 

We'll unpack much of this with more practicals in the posts to follow. Some questions we'll answer next time:

 

Q: Why are these books without a clear goal or “take-away” so vastly superior for this audience? 

Q: What's the best way to prove I can reach these readers? 

Q: Should I just self-publish my spiritually-interested book?

Q: Are some publishers and retailers really actively seeking these books?

 

Come on back. I think you'll like the answers.

Crossing Over: Who Is Your Audience?

In the closing month of 2008, Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion released these findings:

• 20% of Americans said they have “heard God’s voice”
• 55% feel they are protected by a guardian angel
• 23% say they have witnessed a miraculous physical healing

In a similar survey in 2005, 67% of Americans were convinced heaven exists. Dick Staub made an interesting related commentary recently about all these spiritual seekers (estimates say it’s commonly around 82% of Americans) who perpetually come up empty in their spiritual search. This is not a new audience.

 

But the “spiritually interested” audience is this group. Among their primary interests are a spiritual reality that isn’t immediately apparent to the five senses. They are not necessarily looking for doctrine, Bible studies, or tips on successful living. They are not even necessarily looking for verifiable proof, tangible evidence, or practical application of this spiritual reality. Their interest is more elemental—tracking closely with universal human curiosity. To wit, the spiritually interested are:

• Open to new ideas and possibilities
• Eager to consider new ways of looking at life and reality and the universe
• Concerned about issues such as personal freedom, self-realization, destiny, fulfillment
• Not geared to motivators such as paranoia, shame, legalism, and fear. In contrast to many evangelicals, these motivators are off-putting to the spiritually interested.
• If God exists, they want to know that he/she/it loves them  
• Tuned into invisible reality, which includes spiritual reality, parallel reality, mystical reality, supernatural phenomena, mystery, spiritual power, intersections between the physical realm and the spiritual realm, and direct experience of these things
• Tuned into spiritual power, especially as it helps them live everyday life and achieve their goals/desires/aspirations
• Interested in exerting control over external circumstances through spiritual means
• Driven by direct experience over theory, logic, or arguments
• Open to new possibilities, not bound to dogma, religious systems, schools of thought or worldviews.

This “cafeteria-style” approach to belief, religion, and spirituality is exhibited in the self-improvement fields, which lends itself very nicely to current CBA and ABA nonfiction focused on self-help and a humanistic worldview. In fiction, this is harder to quantify, but redemptive stories that illuminate a benevolent, engaged, and beneficial spiritual reality are aiming at this broad audience. But in fiction and in nonfiction, this audience is interested in information that illuminates:

• Natural laws of the universe and how one can live in harmony with it
• Special wisdom and/or knowledge about those laws, power within them, and often control over them for personal gain and making sense of chaotic life
• The future and what lies ahead
• The other side, heaven, the afterlife, angels, the parallel spiritual realm, non-corporeal experience

In general, the types, genres and categories for these books is broad. They can be fiction or non, straight-forward or deceptive, traditional or quirky, literary or crassly commercial. They may have direct discussion of spiritual reality or opt for organic discussion of spiritual reality woven in. They may speak of Christianity as a supernatural faith, of meeting God & the devil on Haight-Asbury, or finding Heaven in an oil-slicked parking lot. They may be tame or surprisingly wild, serious or funny, artless or crafted, emotional or intellectual, scientific or not. Most will engage with experimental elements that break assumptions and illuminate a supernatural theme (which can include everything from vampires to superheroes to commercial thrillers to literary magical realism).

 

Some comparative titles to this audience:

The Shack, William Young (Windblown Media)

Dinner with a Perfect Stranger, David Gregory (WaterBrook)

The Secret, Rhonda Byrne (Atria)

A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle (Plume)

The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle (New World Library).

90 Minutes in Heaven, Don Piper with Cecil Murphey (Revell/Baker)

The Year of Living Biblically, A.J. Jacobs (S&S)

Walking the Bible, Bruce Feiler (Harper)

Journey of Desire, John Eldredge (Nelson)

The Faith Club, Idliby, Oliver, Warner (Free Press)

What Jesus Meant, Garry Willis (Viking)

The Traveler’s Gift, Andy Andrews (Nelson)

Closer Than Your Skin, Susan Hill (WaterBrook)

 

Dean Koontz and Stephen King. Francis Collins and Timothy Keller. This audience is not a new one. Obviously, this creates something of a “supercategory” that quickly becomes unwieldy. But for readers of this blog, I hope you see how it may include books that present an indirect gospel essence to those not yet convinced. Books of this nature don’t sound like a typical Evangelical Christian book, largely because they aren’t written by your typical Evangelical Christian. Yet these books can still be completely orthodox and in line with the biblical account while connecting with an audience most Christian books will never reach. This is why publishing to the “spiritually interested” is a significant growth area and we need to find out how best to position ourselves to intentionally and strategically target this market.

 

That is the million dollar question. If your book with spiritual themes can invite anybody in no matter what they believe, and put them on an equal footing, without teaching or preaching, that’s the first step. If you allow readers to draw their own conclusions, if you are comfortable asking “What if ….?,” and allownig your curiosity to guide you, you can write for this audience. If you acknowledge that there is still much to be discovered about the universe, the challenges of life, God, spiritual reality, etc., and you are someone who asks Why me? instead of feeling grand or entitled to your opinions, you have the voice. This makes you valueable to this type of reader. Because these readers are looking for authenticity, an author who knows enough to ask that question and not expect an answer is someone different than those the establishment likes to hype. Nine times out of 10, they’re more real. And readers want their books for that reason.

 

This is how you will open the door wide to the "emerging" readership.

Crossing Over: Writing to the "Spiritually Interested"

"Spiritually interested" is the rather obtuse designation Cathy Grossman borrowed for her article in USA Today speaking about the audience of The Shack. The term comes from Wayne Jacobsen, one of the publishers of the book, attempting to define the larger market for Christian books that Christian publishing is not serving. Since one of my stated goals for this website is to bridge that gap, I think it might be instructive to discuss whether Christian publishing should appeal to more than Christians. After all, like faith without works, or a church that doesn't evangelize, the situation seems unnecessarily restrictive at best, at worst unbiblical.

 

So our question from last time was, How does one capture the tone, approach, and appeal in this blossoming category of books for the spiritually interested? Some primary distinctives are that these books:

 

• Do not identify with the Christian subculture or the Christian product and media industries.
• Focus on experiential faith over propositional truth: Not arguments or lessons, but immersion in a direct, story-driven experience.
• Show supernatural experience not “evidence” (natural or biblical): The transcendence of God intervening in everyday life through “dispatches from the other side.”
• Are mysterious over convincing, allowing an experience that’s open-ended, unexplained, and even inconclusive.
• Are timely and timeless, revealing the here-and-now God unbound to traditionalism, and intimately involved in our uncertainty about the present and near-future.
• Reveal love triumphing over law, in relationship-affirming and life-honoring freedom from formal religious dogma, judgment, or mediation.

Before hurrying on, we should talk more about that first bullet. Those looking for books outside the strict confines of popular Christianity generally don’t seem to spend much time looking in places the gatekeepers control, namely Christian bookstores. And though there are several exceptions, the obvious limiting factor in getting these books read is that they are not “Christian” enough for Evangelical Christian readers, and up until recently, were too spiritual for most NY houses.

 

But now you see, that’s changing. These books for the spiritually interested are not coersive, they don't pound principles, which is a major reason they fit better in the general market than the Christian subculture. They aren’t closed to including what doesn’t currently fit modern Christianity. These books are redemptive, but their redemption comes in the jouney, not the destination. The “take-away” is of becoming engaged in an exploration, not to fix something, convert skeptics, or even evoke a quatifiable change, but to enjoy a satisfying read. The Shack, while not high literature, provides an example of book-as-interpretive-experience that causes readers to explore. That exploration attracts many “recovering Christians,” but the transcendent experience is broader and more profound than simple affirmation. The Shack challenges stereotypes about God to present him as a generous, fun-loving, approachable mother/father, with a single agenda of bringing unconditional, sacrificial love into the world. In religion and in larger society, that's an easy reality to miss. And what I find so exciting about this example is that despite its initial rejection by CBA and ABA publishers, it's revealed a huge desire for discussion about this God who doesn't necessarily begin and end in our established categories.

 

So why did Christian or NY editors believe their houses shouldn't publish it? Several possibilities, but "too risky" and "not up to snuff" seem likely to this editor.

 

The Shack proves there's an audience of spiritually interested folks who are not being served either by the so-called Christian ghetto or the ivory towers.

 

Some take issue with the idea of designating books as Christian at all. One result of The Shack's success is that readers now recognize there's something more to God and maybe even this word "Christian" than they realized. Maybe David Sessions wasn't just being bombastic when he said that the divide between Christian and mainstream designations has been the single most damaging idea to Christianity in the modern world.

 

Of course, here are the sticky swamplands. If it's not Christian, how do we know it’s wholesome? Can we really let people be their own judges of that? Many rely on labels in today’s hyper-marketed culture, myself included. Where do we redraw the lines of this demographic? And I don't want to waste time arguing about the morality of blurring this line--hoping for a greater reach isn't a failure of faith. I don't question those who still feel called to be Christian writers, and never anything less. But the challenge remains. There's a big underserved audience out there. How are we going to reach them?

 

The good news is, reaching this spiritually interested audience isn't only possible, it's profitable. So next time we'll take a closer look at some comparative books and content characteristics that should reveal a bit more about how we define this emerging category.

Why Is The Shack Still Selling?

Earlier this year (2009), I led a discussion of The Shack and it’s impact on Christian publishing at the Northwest Christian Writers Renewal. Response to that was overwhelmingly positive from the largely Christian group of writers, but as usual, I didn’t get to much of what I was excited to talk about. Most people were far too busy discussing its theology and the successes and failures therein. And though debate about it seems to have died down to a low rumble now, sales continue to clip along for this “heretical” “life-saving” pseudo-fictional book.

 

Whether you love it or hate it, if you’re interested in the question above as much as I am, you will at least like this post. Because what I was so eager to get to at the NCWR was this question of who is buying this book. Let’s do some quick analysis.

 

In early 2008, an article in USA Today defined the audience of The Shack as the rather broad, unwieldy category of “spiritually interested.” But who are they? This audience is curious about spiritual matters, but especially as found outside of organized religion and the religious establishment, however we might define that. Maybe most significant about readers who recommend this book, they tend to be interested in the uncommon approach to the Christian God, and most, how he responds to our pain. They may or may not be Christian, but they’re attracted to the God they meet here (who IS largely the Judeo Christian God of the Bible: http://bit.ly/5srJo), and they are eager for an honest experience of God’s love and transcendence.

 

We might discuss how much less eager traditional Christian churches tend to be for such “extra-biblical” experience and how that defecit created the chasm for this book. That’s a great topic. Or we could look at the growing dissatisfaction with and breakdown of the modern Christian retail industry being undermined by fundamentalists and the traditional establishment creating a bubble, a ghetto, an ivory tower set apart from the very people Jesus worked so hard to get us to serve. Another great topic. But let’s ask another question instead.

 

How do these “pioneers” differ from the more traditional Christian book market?

 

Pioneers value                                 Traditionalists value

Mystery over certainty           Certainty over mystery

Experiential faith                    Propositional truth

Freedom from structure         Structure to their freedom

Personal authority                  Authority figures

Love at the expense of truth   Truth at the expense of love

Authenticity over status          Status over authenticity

Relationship over rules                   Rules over relationship             

Maleable, interpretive            Concrete, quantifiable

A story over principles          Principles over a story

Seeking over knowing           Knowing over seeking

 

Pioneers have been conquering this literary frontier for a while. John Eldredge and Brent Curtis took this experience-based, non-propositional approach in The Sacred Romance and Journey of Desire. Meanwhile Henry Blackaby wrote Experiencing God for the church set and Wilkinson’s The Prayer of Jabez revealed a God who longed to bless. Lauren Winner followed suit with her memoir Girl Meets God, quickly followed by Donald Miller’s meandering Blue Like Jazz and somewhere in this Brian McLaren released A New Kind of Christian. Soon, an unlikely pastor named Rob Bell jumped in with Velvet Elvis and the territory began to get fairly well carved out by various other new voices. One of my personal favorites—Closer Than Your Skin by Susan Hill (WaterBrook, 2007)—uses Susan’s amazing personal journey of discovery to show how to truly know the creator of the eternal reality all around us. No bubbles in there.

 

So to help these pioneers move closer in their journey toward God through authentic spiritual experience, and to encourage them to explore and process new questions about God, the Bible, and faith, we need to understand how to capture the tone, approach, and appeal in this blossoming category. More on that next time.