Into the Fire

I borrowed these from an article on the CAN! marketing site.

According to an article by Chris Anderson in the July 17 issue of Publishers Weekly, in 2004:
• 950,000 titles out of 1.2 million tracked by Nielsen Bookscan sold fewer than 99 copies
• Another 200,000 sold fewer than 1,000 copies
• Only 25,000 sold more than 5,000 copies
• The average book in America sells about 500 copies
• Only 10 books sold more than a million copies
• Fewer than 500 sold more than 100,000
• Nearly 200,000 new titles are published each year

So if these statistics are even close to being accurate, what do they say to you? Think about them. Consider the process for getting a book published. What are you constantly told about the world of publishing? I challenge everyone who is or wants to be in publishing to translate/admit what these statistics might indicate.

I would like to see the recent stats on Christian fiction sales to see if they run parallel to these. Because if they do, something is not quite right. Accepting statistics like these as markers of successful sales of a product would put that product in jeopardy of being reproduced.

Even denying access to publishing houses without an invitation, an author recommendation, or an agent’s representation has these publishers steeped in manuscripts looking for reasons/excuses to eliminate them. In other words, they can’t keep up with the submissions. It is suggested by various experts to polish that manuscript, possibly sending it to and working with a professional editor (some of whom charge $75 an hour), and to keep that writing tight while using active, vivid words to tell the story. Many of the writing books accentuate the necessity for quick hooks, conflict at every turn of the page, and either unique, quirky, sympathetic, or antagonistic characters.

And yet, with all the agent/editor/author/writing instruction sites, we come up with these interesting statistics about book sales.

Let’s switch gears for just a moment. If you put 5 or more Christian leaders of different denominations around the table together, what are you going to have to do to get them to agree on some “doctrines” of the faith? First of all, you’re going to have to strip down the gospel to the barest facts. You’ll have to eliminate some of the most controversial yet critical matters of importance to some of those leaders. What you’ll have when you’re done are the barest basics of the faith and an ecumenical council which has denied some of the most vital concerns of those around the table to arrive at something which few can feel passionate about, the exception being the glory of salvation.

How much different is it, I wonder, at the table with the publishing board? The question I’ve held for quite some time is this: Why, when you hire someone to do a specific job—i.e. acquisitions editors—don’t you allow them the freedom to make the decisions that their expertise is supposed to produce? Why does it have to be a consensus of opinion at the table which often eliminates the very book an editor chooses to champion? Is it potentially more harmful to trust the editor or to trust the panel at the table? Judging from the statistics, it might be wiser to let the editor go with his “gut”.

Father, so many questions. You are sovereign. You allow mistakes to demonstrate your grace, your perfection, your forgiveness. Your love is holy, pure, full. I am in awe, in need, thankful, and I desire to press on in obedience. Help me to want obedience beyond all my selfish pursuits. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.