Christian Writing with Mainstream Appeal

Release the Pain 

I was reading my Christian Retailing newsletter and came across a topic regarding the 2005 BEA. Apparently there was some concern that BEA and the mostly mainstream companies would only glance at the CBA Publisher booths. However, that was not the case...Good News...

However, what stood out about this subject was that many of the CBA market account managers displayed book titles that had more mainstream appeal like: Release the Pain, Embrace the Joy by Michelle McKinney Hammond.

Now, don't get me wrong I like Michelle McKinney Hammond books when the mood strikes. She's very helpful.

But I wondered about Christian Fiction. I'm thinking Eric Wilson's Expiration Date was on display Or it least it should have been. Chris Well's Forgiving Solomon Long might have been there somewhere. Victoria Christopher Murray's Grown Folks Business had to be there. It would be a crime, if it wasn't.

Which brings me to my point. Before I spreaded my wings and started searching other genres inside the Christian fiction booksophere, I spent much of my time reviewing christian fiction books written by African American authors. And if you look at the titles of some of these books: Singsation, He's Fine, but is He Saved, Flippin the Script, and Saved in the City. You will see that this whole "writing with mainstream appeal thing" isn't new.

Yet, why aren't these books displayed on the front bookshelves of Family or Lifeway Bookstores? Why aren't market account managers taking their African American authors to BEA?

If we're trying to compete in the market place, then why don't we beat our competition, Move beyond race, move up a little higher, and show the world what we got?
We don't need to be like the general market?
We don't need to try to emulate them either?
What we need to do is take all our books-literary, the emergent, the classic, the black, white, red(not just Dekker), the latino, the asian--yeah there's asian christian fiction. And we need to make sure that next year not only do we hold our own at BEA, but we take up the joint. Lift it up higher. Save some some souls.

Now I'm going to get back to my mainstream/christian/literary/Star Wars meets Big Mama's House/off the hook WIP:)

Writing to see what the end' gon' be,
Dee