Christian Markets

Deb Kinnard

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I'm told it's only the book club piece of it that will be folding. They'll still be doing the state-themed novella collections and the repackaging of earlier titles. How much they'll be acquiring, going forward, is anyone's guess. This makes me sad for those authors who are currently (were?) under consideration for the Presents line. Change is ever-present!

I subbed to them, once. Never again. Not what I'd call a happy experiment.
 

CBrothers

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Does anyone know of a place to find more current opportunities? Maybe even a Christian writers board or something.
 

CBrothers

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Romance or women's fiction.

(with a Christian theme, in case that wasn't obvious).
 

Calla Lily

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*shines the Bat Signal (romance version--:heart:) onto the clouds*

Calling Deb Kinnard!

Deb writes romance and is pubbed by at least 2 Christian houses. She has the knowledge. :) You may want to PM her, too.
 

Deb Kinnard

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I hear that Bat Signal and raise you the Sign of the Squonk Woman.

To answer John's question first -- yes, they do have very restrictive guidelines on the web site for all to see, and also (IMO) a swackload of non-public guidelines that you can violate in a myriad of different ways. When they do send you an "R", they don't say anything but "no", at least not in my experience.


Romance houses in our market who still take unagented subs -- well, you can use the fingers of one hand. E-presses who will embrace newer authors include: Desert Breeze; WhiteFire Publishing; White Rose; OakTara; Sheaf House; Mountain View (although they only accept subs at certain times of the year); Port Yonder Press. My mind can't come up with others at this point.

Harlequin Love Inspired has recently gone to agented-only unless you already work with them. The other Big Guys you probably already know about, and they are surpassingly tough to break into.

I wish the market would open up. I'm mulling self-pubbing one of my older titles. We'll see what I do with it. Who knows, self-pub might be the total opening of the Christian market as a whole, and we won't have to sweat these hyper-restrictive guidelines anymore.

Calla -- I love the way you talk.
 

Deb Kinnard

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Bear in mind, though, that ACFW just de-listed a number of legit small presses because they declined to break out their C-fic into a separate line. This sort of backward thinking just makes me see red.

Apparently it's better to have a Christian "line" of books, even if the house's other lines include smut, than to publish clean, G rated romantic fiction and exclude smut, with the C-fic not published in its own special, sequestered line. I can't understand why this is the case. What, are Christians too stupid to click on a button marked "Inspirational" to find what they want to buy and read?

I've talked to the leadership about rules that change for arbitrary reasons, to no avail as yet. I remain hopeful of influencing these folks for the better.
 
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Kersten

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The ACFW drives me crazy. I have run into extreme prejudice from them because I am a Christian writer who publishes Christian fantasy (MacDonaldesque) in the secular market.

I take comfort from the fact that they would have had nothing to do with C.S. Lewis either. He was published by HarperCollins.

Kersten
 

Deb Kinnard

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Kersten, welcome to the fusstrated club. I'm still in that phase where I want to work for constructive change in ACFW from within. However, I went through that phase with the RWA a few years back, and couldn't see it within the realm of possibility to stay, much less work for improvement.

As far as Christian fantasy, there is a growing market in Christian publishing. Check out Marcher Lord (who, other than Sheaf House, is the only publisher in my database that will even look at it) and possibly David C. Cook. They published a book called TALKING TO THE DEAD, and if that doesn't signal a tendency to think out of the box, I'm not sure what does. I don't know anything about that particular book other than its title, though.

Have I mentioned I wish this market would loosen its corsets a bit?
 

Kersten

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Deb, I must admit I gave up on them and moved to the general market about five years ago. I tried for *years* to make a difference in Christian publishings mindset—to change it from the inside out. About twenty years, in fact. I don't know if I will ever go back. Christian writing should be the best. Not the most limited and fearful.

Talking to the Dead looks like a pretty standard demon-pretending-to-be-dead relative story to me. Not really pushing the envelop for adult Christian fiction. (Though it could be a brilliant book and well written)

I don't think there is a Christian publisher out there today who would publish Phantastes, much less Lillith.

Kersten
 
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Fabor

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As far as Christian fantasy, there is a growing market in Christian publishing. Check out Marcher Lord (who, other than Sheaf House, is the only publisher in my database that will even look at it) and possibly David C. Cook. They published a book called TALKING TO THE DEAD, and if that doesn't signal a tendency to think out of the box, I'm not sure what does. I don't know anything about that particular book other than its title, though.

Hello, I'm fairly new to this forum. I am writing my first novel. It is a SF/F. I'm exploring some of the interactions of religion from a Christian perspective with change. In this case contact with aliens and a substance coming into our solar system, that causes people to do and be able to do things unexplainable by our science. Hence in our perspective, magic. Even the aliens can't explain it all.

I'm not at all sure how I will try to publish it at his point.
 

Deb Kinnard

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I neglected to mention on this thread, though I recall posting it elsewhere, that Jeff Gerke, Marcher Lord Press publisher in chief, wore chain mail, a (plastic) weapon and a bright red tabard to the ACFW banquet last month. We all loved it...the guy has a sense of humor.

Who publishes Dekker? They'd probably be open to spec-fic projects, though I don't know if you have to be agented to sub a package there.
 

Gravity

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After four novels pubbed in the CBA--and with decent sales--I still couldn't get any love there for my SF novel, The Radiance.

I finally took it to the general market, and a house there accepted it; it'll be out this coming February. My agent now plans to shop my new suspense/thriller series (very dark, with a damaged but tenacious hero) to the general market as well.

Some of us will never fit into CBA guidelines; I guess I finally realized I'm one.
 

Fabor

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I neglected to mention on this thread, though I recall posting it elsewhere, that Jeff Gerke, Marcher Lord Press publisher in chief, wore chain mail, a (plastic) weapon and a bright red tabard to the ACFW banquet last month. We all loved it...the guy has a sense of humor.

Who publishes Dekker? They'd probably be open to spec-fic projects, though I don't know if you have to be agented to sub a package there.

Thanks for the information.
 

Robin Bayne

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PERMISSION TO FORWARD

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: WHITE ROSE PUBLISHING & HARBOURLIGHT BOOKS

Pelican Book Group is seeking manuscripts to fill a special 2012 holiday
release extravaganza. We are currently seeking novelette to novella
length stories (between 15,000 and 25,000 words) to fill twenty-four
special slots. Stories may fit either the White Rose Publishing
(romance) or the Harbourlight Books (general fiction) imprint, but must
have a Christmas theme. Submissions must be received on or before 1 May
2012.

Stories must be Christian fiction, may be contemporary or historical,
and may fall under any subgenre (e.g. romantic suspense, sci-fi,) To
submit, please use the submission form found on our website. (
http://www.pelicanb ookgroup. com/ec/submissio n-form ) Be sure to include:
CHRISTMAS SUBMISSION in the additional notes section.

In addition, Pelican Book Group is always open to general submissions.
Full submission guidelines may be found at
http://www.pelicanb ookgroup. com/ec/write- for-us

For more information about White Rose Publishing and Harbourlight Books
please visit our website at http://www.pelicanb ookgroup. com or read some
of our titles. Our books are available local and online retailers such
as Amazon, ARe, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Christian Book Distributors, Sony.
 

Pat~

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request for submissions

I received a request for submissions yesterday in the mail that I think would be okay to share in here. It was from the publishers of The Lutheran Journal and The Lutheran Message, both publications to Lutheran churches across the US, that I've written for frequently. Circulation for each magazine is presently about 350 million annually, and they are a paying market. Here is what they've requested:

"We are currently looking for material for both of our publications. Short stories (both fiction and non-fiction) and a small amount of poetry. We prefer articles that are inspirational and uplifting. The articles should generally fall into one of the following categories: Historical, Personal Experiences, Profiles, or Faith and Values.

If you or a colleague would like to submit a story, prayer, or poem, we pay $75 to $300, depending on length and topic...."

Contact info:

Roger S. Jensen, Editor
P.O. Box 28158
Oakdale, MN 55128

I've had excellent experience with this publisher and can recommend them highly. Feel free to message me if you have any more questions. (I've not been writing/subbing these past couple years, but plan to prod my muse and send them some subs, too.)
 

Pat~

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;D Hugs back atcha, lady.
 

Deb Kinnard

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Pat, hey babe! We haven't seen ya for too long.

Another possible market, though I don't know beans about it other than a familiar name or two, may be Written World Publishing. They are a start-up, so approach (IMO) with caution. Unless they're very well capitalized and know exactly what they will do as far as distribution, etc., I plan on waiting & seeing.

Anyone with additional info about Written World, I'd love to hear it.