Archive for the 'On the Christian Booksellers Association' Category

On Editors: Find the Best Before You Invest

How do you find the right editor and what’s a fair cost? Editors have different systems of working and what they charge. Cost varies depending on their experience, the type of work needed and other factors.  As an editor, the most difficult part for me is striking a balance between giving writers what they want and determining what they actually need.  The Editorial
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Pick a Fight You’re Willing to Lose

Dear Strong Christian, How much I’d like to fight with you. But I suppose the truth is, I’m not that concerned. I know you’ll be fine in time, when life does its work and then God does his. I don’t need you to agree with me, and I don’t care about disagreement. I’m not sure what happened, but when did
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Editor to Author: Letter to a Memoir Writer

Dearest Author, I've been thinking about worth lately. What's your story worth? At a recent writers conference I taught a workshop on how I saw publishing changing. Modern publishing, the only time in history when we've had separate "markets" for books, has begun to fracture and redistribute. I've shared several times about how The Shack has shifted things. It isn't
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Crossing Over: Writing to the “Spiritually Interested”

"Spiritually interested" is the rather obtuse designation Cathy Grossman borrowed for her article in USA Today speaking about the audience of The Shack. The term comes from Wayne Jacobsen, one of the publishers of the book, attempting to define the larger market for Christian books that Christian publishing is not serving. Since one of my stated goals for this website is to bridge
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Christian Products’ Industry Future is “Bleak”

Demonstrating once again the failure to distinguish between Christian products and Christian books, Christian Retailing reports that former marketing exec for Nelson and Zondervan, Greg Stielstra, foresees a bleak future for the Christian "products industry" (CR): "Brick-and-mortar operations haven't lost all their business, but they've lost the business that will allow them to stay in business, whether they know it or
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