Conundrum

I think it's definitely marketable but it depends on the content you deal with and how graphically you deal with it. Many Christian publishers have strict guidelines regarding subject matter so it's good to be familiar with those guidelines before you submit to an agent or publisher, but as far as your general story I don't think any Christian publisher would have a problem with it as a rule.

Honestly, I think if you had a big name author do it, it could be done. It might open the door for others. But with the market as tight as it is right now, might be very hard to get a house to take the risk without the name or the precedent.

You could do it in secular, it's done all the time, if you don't credit Christ specifically. You know, life turning around novels are all over but they credit 'love' or generic "faith" or a certain experience in the book.

HOWEVER if it's the book you love and want to write, write it and see. You never know what might happen!

Brandt Dodson has a series out where the main character is not a Christian, and I believe doesn't get there 'til book three or somewhere along that line. But these are mysteries and very, very well written. I don't even read mysteries and I loved the one I read.

It's as said before: if you're careful about theme and how you handle the main character's sins, it can be done.

I'm waiting, and have been for a very long time, for a Christian novel where the sins of the unsaved character are NOT booze, cigars, sex, murder and rock-and-roll, but deeper things such as failure to love, lack of forgiveness, resentment. You know--the true soul-killers. I haven't seen a book like this yet. We tend to go for the "easy", recognizable sins when we write, so our readers will know the character is "bad."

My take. I look forward to a book where the sins are deeper than the superficial things people can see the character doing.

Deb Kinnard said:

My take. I look forward to a book where the sins are deeper than the superficial things people can see the character doing.

Click to expand...

I just do not think you have read widely in the Christian genre. Really.
Have you read Angie Hunt? Have your read Lisa Sampson? Have your read Brandilyn Collins? Have you read James Scott Bell? Have you read Diane Noble? River Jordan? The list is so long of authors who do exactly what you claim isn't being done, I can't even think of them all.

Maybe years ago or with a few certain houses but even then.. I was writing about racial conflict (Deep Dixie) a decade ago, have addressed all manner of pride, all sorts of issues (depression, out of wedlock children, envy, forgiveness or lack of it, spiritual arrogance, infedelity, gossip - sometimes these are sins of the hero or heroine, more than once of Christians in their community toward the protagonist) and my books are warm-hearted, humorous women's fic, so I know people who are writing grittier stuff have done as much or more.

I certainly know a lot of people who would make blanket statements about, say small press or e-books, that they are all poorly edited and written by people who can't get published otherwise and that raises ire, as it should. I just think it's become the easy out to say things like this. It's not fair to fellow Christian authors and it's just not really reflective of the books out there now.

My take is this: The sick don't need a doctor, so why write Christian fiction for Christians? I have a WIP that is full of terrible past sin that the Christian main character is hiding. He's a good man with a bad past that he hasn't laid at the feet of Jesus. His real sin--and the damage it does--is the hiding of the secret. It damages his relationships, pushes him to almost commit murder to keep the secret hidden, and is very gritty and real (some of it autobiographical - not the near murder though!).

How else does one write of ugly sin and make it real to a non-believer? And why would a non-believer read a novel filled with happy Jesus-moments if the pay-off is a foregone conclusion (salvation)?

The question for me is who and how do I convince an agent to rep it and a publisher to publish it? It's mainstream and gritty, but it has God in it, not some unnamed "higher power". Will Simon & Shuster touch it? It has the love (and salvation) of Christ, but it's mean and dirty. Will Zondervan publish it?

Just my thoughts. And one final thought: I ain't giving up on it! As Mr. Asimov said: "You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you're working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success - but only if you persist."
- Isaac Asimov

Annie, I do read Angie Hunt but not everything she's ever written. As far as B. Collins--no. Not ever. Never. I'm familiar with her brand and what have you, and that sort of fic just doesn't interest me.

That said: I write romance, not suspense, not women's fic, not horror or mystery or the like. So far, the list of what I've been told I "can't" show my unsaved characters doing is longer than the list of what they can do. And I'm talking about romance specifically, not suspense or what have you.

And you're drawing some sort of parallel between romance and small press fiction, but I'm not sure I'm getting your point. Care to clarify?

I'm wondering if it'd be an easier sell as biography or autobiography. The Christian fiction market does seem to be a bit more cautious (especially in this economy) about taking risks with edgier manuscripts. It may be that I've just not read enough CF lately, but I agree with Deb that what I have attempted to read in the past has often seemed formulaic and predictable (ie. 'safe').

I'm reading Mortimer Adler's A Second Look in the Rearview Mirror, and while not edgy, it describes (like A Look in the Rearview Mirror--his first autobiography) the evolution of much of his philosophical thought. But this title also includes his surprising departure from atheism, and his embracing the Christian faith at age 84. It's not published by a Christian publisher, but by MacMillan, and is categorized on the back (like most of his books) as Philosophy.