Last week, literary agent Chip MacGregor caused a bit of commotion in Christian fictionland by frankly commiserating the state of the industry. MacGregor wrote:
“CBA [Christian Booksellers Association] fiction is in a world of hurt. When I started my literary agency nine years ago, Christian fiction was the fastest-growing segment in all of
publishing, and continued to be a growth category for a couple more years. But, as I’ve said so often, publishing is a ‘tidal’ business — the tide comes in, the tide goes out. Seven, eight, nine years ago, it was in. Then the tide started to recede, and now it’s out. Way, way out.
Several CBA publishing houses that used to do fiction don’t do it any more. (Today [July 8, 2015], Abingdon announced they’re killing their fiction program, for example.) Several others have cut back their lists. There are fewer slots for authors, and shopping for inspirational fiction has become harder. Barnes & Noble sort of sticks all religious fiction off into one corner, so if you don’t walk in specifically hoping to find that section, you’re not going to stumble onto it. Books-a-Million does a better job, but they’re not a huge chain. The potential demise of Family Christian Stores is a looming disaster — it leaves Lifeway Stores as the biggest chain, and the fiction decisions at Lifeway have been a huge disappointment to many of us in the industry (meaning the company only wants VERY safe Christian romances where nothing truly bad happens, sex doesn’t exist, everyone talks like they’re living in Andy Griffith Land, and in the end the characters will fall to their knees and accept Christ so that All Life Problems Will Be Resolved). Sales numbers have fallen, so that the novelist who used to routinely sell 18,000 copies is now selling 9000, or sometimes 4000. With that decline has come a drop in advance and royalties, so that far fewer CBA novelists are earning a living than just a few years ago.”
As an author, someone who has written for and has friends in the CBA, it is refreshing to hear industry insiders speak honestly about the state of business. Especially important, in my opinion, was MacGregor’s admission that with Lifeway remaining “the biggest chain” of brick and mortar distributors, and the store’s commitment to “VERY safe Christian romances,” CBA fiction is guaranteed to continue to struggle.
Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that the post prompted a swift response from CBA defenders. In her post, What’s Really Going On With Christian Fiction: A Response to the Chatter, Lifeway book buyer Rachel McCrae doubles down on the “Lifeway brand.”
As the book buyer, I have the responsibility to make sure the titles we carry at LifeWay fit within our beliefs as Christians as well as within our company’s parameters of what we do and do not carry. LifeWay is owned by the Southern Baptist Convention and because of that, there will be times that we choose not to carry an author or a particular book. For instance, with nonfiction books, there are authors who have different theological views than we do at LifeWay so we choose not to carry their titles. If we decide to not stock a fiction title, it has historically been because of vulgar language, using the Lord’s name in vain, or explicit descriptions of sex, abuse, or violence. [emphasis mine]
So on one hand you have a literary agent lamenting the types of books that Christian booksellers sell (and even connecting the preponderance of such fiction as stunting long-term growth), while you have an influential bookseller defending their choices to carry such books.
This, my friends, is the growing divide between Christian fiction’s Old Guard and the New Guard.
It may also show where the power really lies. Most notably, see MacGregor’s update to his original post:
UPDATE: I’ve had several people take me to task for being hard on Lifeway. Just so I’m clear, my criticism is of the larger Lifeway chain and its decisions, not of one particular buyer. I’ve found the chain has been very reluctant to take in much realistic fiction — but several have told me it would be unfair to blame the buyer. I’m sorry if I hurt feelings.
Obviously, MacGregor’s in a tough spot, needing to both represent authors who need Lifeway, while representing authors who are, basically, hurt by Lifeway’s “[reluctance] to take in much realistic fiction.”
Let’s be clear: What’s at issue here is a specific view of “Christian art” — a belief that our “Christian” obligation is to create and support the proliferation of “safe,” sanitized fiction; stories that are free from “vulgar language, using the Lord’s name in vain, or explicit descriptions of sex, abuse, or violence,” as opposed to stories written by believers that are “realistic fiction.”
This is the dividing line between the Old Guard and the New Guard.
I attended a workshop at the 2012 Dallas ACFW [American Christian Fiction Writers] with Allen Arnold, former fiction acquisitions editor for Thomas Nelson. Really, it was just one long Q&A session, so the conversation went everywhere. I’d estimate maybe fifty-plus attendees. Being it was an open forum and Mr. Arnold has commented on this blog, I took the opportunity to ask about the ever thorny language guidelines and what I perceived as a need for more realism in Christian fiction. It led to a much longer discussion with other attendees chiming in, mostly in agreement. Until one gentleman, visibly shaken, made an impassioned plea that we should not be apologizing for clean, inspirational Christian fiction. We are writing some of the best books on the planet, he said, and we have the message the world needs to hear. It was a clear counter to the point I’d raised and, unlike my question, received a polite round of applause. It was a stark reminder of the very real polarization among Christians regarding what Christian fiction should be.
I have long maintained that the most overlooked demographic of Christian readers are those who don’t like contemporary Christian fiction. Sadly, with responses like the ones above, I’m pretty sure those readers will continue to be overlooked.
Lifeway and Family Christian are safe in other ways, too. Neither of them have a store within 100 miles of where I live. Lifeway has zero stores in New England, FC one. If you look at their stores on a map, they are almost all clustered in the southeast and texas, with smaller concentration around the biggest cities west. Looks like they not only double down on content, but on who their customer bases are.
I think the business aspect is as much a problem as the art. It’s not just safe fiction, but an inability to reach beyond their predetermined markets or to grow Christian fiction at all. If it were a bigger market overall, safe fiction would be one of many things, not the only thing. But man, it’s like all they care about is one specific type of reader, and heaven forbid anyone else reads.
I haven’t read Christian fiction in a long time and it’s mostly because 1) it’s poorly written; 2) it’s lacking in realism; and 3) I can’t get excited by it. It’s the same stuff over and over again. There are exceptions to all of these points, of course, and I hope that there will be more exceptions in the future.
I’ve been doing research in the area of Christian Fiction, and I came across this site. I find myself torn, because while I agree that Christian Fiction appears to be mostly based on the same old cookie cutter formulas, I don’t agree that the answer is pushing the envelope with sexually explicit scenes and vulgar language.
Somehow Jesus found a way to be relevant and appealing to the common masses while not being a symbol of cookie cutter religion, and also not being sinful.
Can Christian Fiction writers in general, and Sci-fi/Spec authors specifically, find a way to break out of the safe cookie cutter mold, and yet not have to resort to tantalizing appeals to the sinful nature in order to gain audience?
If the parameters for CBA-approved books are as narrow as described, the sales are going to dwindle eventually. There’s only so many plot points to be mapped out in such defined waters before stories start repeating themselves.
If that were true, we’d be seeing romance in general decline. Harlequin especially.
Yea, Mike, I was at that same conference, in the room when you made your point about more realism – in fact, I had walked out of the B&H workshop when they made it clear that they too are theology-specific. (And Chip MacGregor sites B&H as one of the publishers that have taken a “step back from fiction”). That room with Thomas Nelson was definitely divided/polarized.
How will CBA rebound? Will they actually break out of the box or wade it out with their old ideas? It’s gonna be interesting!
Thank you for this very helpful post!
I made the decision not too long ago to throw caution to the wind, accept the risks and publish novels that in my own very small way challenge the boundaries of traditional Christian fiction. Of course, as an independent author, I have the freedom to do that and don’t have to march to the scruples of a publisher.
And my approach has been to be as up front about it as I can. In my book descriptions I include a warning about language, sex and violence. I explain on my website that my stories feature characters that use profanity and do things that real people do, (shhhh) like have sex.
My decision to do this is based on conviction and not novelty. For me, to create unrealistic characters who never talk or act in a way that is true to who they are is disingenuous at best. Or put another way, I believe that for me to write unrealistic stories is actually a form of dishonesty and not in accordance with truth. I try, however, never to include profanity or sexual situations gratuitously.
I know it’s going to be an uphill battle to win readers over. I’ll definitely receive some flak from the Christian community. But so far, I’ve been encouraged by positive responses from readers who thanked me for writing realistic Christian stories. I believe there are more such readers out there. In fact, I think there could just be a whole host of them who might be willing to give “new guard” Christian fiction a try.
Mike, you’ve again put your finger or perhaps a hot poker on the nerve. For me, naughty bits, colorful metaphors, (ahems) and copious gratuitous violence are all part of “becoming a Greek to the Greeks.” I am of course being a little facetious, but not much. The scripture uses all of the above in different places, a fact some ignore and others dispute, but all of those things are there. The question of “How do I handle/should I handle this” aspect in writing is something each individual author must answer for him/herself, for we all must/will stand before the bema tou Khristou to give an account. It’s time for the Old Guard to stop labeling anything and everything they don’t like as “not Christian.” As Tolkien observed, the only literary critic with any real weight is Jesus Christ Himself. By the same token the New Guard must not adopt of a posture of “having arrived.” Arrived at what? Using sin to attract readers? Never. You’ve shown great courage to speak out on these issues, as you have chosen to cross over into the real world. Tread carefully. No, we should not suffuse our tales with things the Bible condemns just to make them more attractive to the world, or present a worldview where God and good do not exist (Game of Porn, anyone?) because that’s the thing these days. But if our stories and characters do not ring true, then neither will the gospel we are attempting to proclaim. You, I, we all must walk this tightrope, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our stories as well as our race. That’s the only way to keep from plummeting into the fabrications of Amish farms that don’t exist on the one side and the filthy cesspool on the other.