At last night’s Novel Writing class’ field trip to Willamette Writers monthly meeting, I approached the owner of one of the last indie bookstores in Eugene, Tsunami Books. After following the guy around while he set up the sound system for the evening’s speaker, he (Scott) looked over my book. I said my spiel, and found myself emphasizing the sublety of my novel’s “religious” content. I felt terrrible about that.
Why is it that we who write our faith into our books so often feel like we must apologize? I know another author who, when asked, “What do you write?” by seatmates on a plane, always answers, “Inspirational books.” Not Christian, but inspirational. In the very progressive town of Eugene where I live, I know of other Christians who feel attacked should they mention their faith. My intention, in speaking with the Tsunami Books owner, was to make my book sound less preachy and more user-friendly. I don’t know about you, but I want my book in as many hands as possible and I don’t necessarily only want to preach to the choir.
Yet, a few days ago when I didn’t research a website deeply enough, I trumpeted the posting of my book review everywhere I could think of before someone gently pointed out that the site features erotica and other literature that might turn-off a “faith-full” reader. This distressing conundrum puts the mettle of my faith on alert–while some say I should be blind to those “questionable” books, others think I should run as fast as I can. I’d love to hear how other authors have dealt with the identity crisis that, at some point, faces most who write for an “inspirational” market.
Writing Tip for Today: If you write for a market that holds to certain tenets by definition, be careful where you advertise. This also includes falling into money scams or other types of internet schemes. One site I went to convinced me to download a program and then it proceeded to take over my desktop. One click is all it takes to become ensnared by rip-off, unfriendly or malicious sites. It’s important for writers to develop their internet presence. But keep your eyes open.
Hi Linda. We just connected on FB so I linked over to read your post.
Good thoughts. I think we tend to downplay the faith nature of our books b/c 1) We know not everyone shares our convictions and 2) On a practical level, we need our books to sell.
I’m knew to this – just have my first book out, a collection of meditations on Proverbs, so I don’t know the answer to some of these questions. Like where to post news about your book.
It is kind of humorous to think that a friend pointed out that your book was on an erotic site. I was connected with an author for about 5 minutes. When I found out the author wrote erotica, I terminated immediately. I didn’t want any advertisements or discussions of this material showing up on my fb page! But, putting your book on one of their pages is a different thing, I think. In this case, they are looking at our Christian material, not us looking at theirs. And if someone in that industry or market decides they need something better in life than that material, where are they going to go to find it? They might not know. Someone could stumble onto your book there and be led to Christ.
Anyway, good post. Enjoyed the visit. If you get a chance, please visit Family Fountain at http://www.warrenbaldwin.blogspot.com/
Thanks, Warren. It’s always hard to know what to do in these situations. I hope you’ll come back here to keep the conversation going.
Blessings,
Linda