Author Spotlight - Deborah Kinnard discusses Writing to All The Readers

A senior editor at a major Christian publishing house was lately quoted as saying, “We don’t pay attention to what our readers say they want” in referring to “edgy” or “out of the box” fiction. What? Last time I heard, readers were the folks who bought the books. Yet the sales numbers mean nothing? Publishers don’t pay any attention to them?

This isn’t only disingenuous, it isn’t true. Fact is, publishers do listen to their sales numbers, and therefore, they’re hearing their readers every time they vote with their Visas. That one type of book may consistently sell better than another does not mean there is no market for the latter. It just means the publisher may have to try a little harder to reach the non-easy part of the market.

I suspect that means they’ll go for the easy sell whenever possible.

It also means some of us are becoming strongly tempted to “go indie.” More on that later.

Author Spotlight - Deborah Kinnard talks about "the easy stuff"

Many of us have heard that Christian fiction is simplistic and boring. Mostly we hear this from people who deliberately stay away from reading in our market – maybe years ago they gave a historical romance a try, or maybe one of those short novels you can find at Wal-Mart.

Their complaints may go a little over the top. Did you cease reading literary fiction because you were forced to read THE LORD OF THE FLIES in high school? Okay, well, maybe you did. But most people don’t dismiss an entire genre because they’ve had one less than stellar experience.

The easy stories, the simple themes – why does Christian fic embrace them? Easy, we’re told – they sell. Prairie romance is better than medieval romance, because it sells better. A popular author is allowed to try her hand at a medieval, and her novel sells a third of what the publisher expects. It cannot be the publisher’s fault, obviously it’s not the author’s – so it must be the time frame.

I submit that Christian fic must rise to the challenge of writing – and publishing – out of the box types of books as well as those that sell predictably. We readers are not all the same. Why should we expect our reading material to be? Since we don’t all read bonnet books, is it necessary to produce only that type of novel?

Is some of this due to laziness? Stay tuned for more thoughts.