Into the Fire

You know what I mean. They’re cute or pretty or stylish or tailored, attractive, so many of them in a number of different sizes but the same dress. And it can be the same situation whether you’re shopping at Wal-Mart or Nordstrom’s or Neiman Marcus.

Most of us can’t do designer duds. Too expensive. Some of us wouldn’t buy the elegant clothing even if we could. It just isn’t that important to us to be clothed in chic apparel.

A lot of people don’t concern themselves with how many of what they like are on the rack. If they want it, they’re just glad it comes in their size. As a result, if it’s a particularly popular item, a lot of them will sell.

Those usually smaller shops or boutiques that offer more unique styles, maybe one-of-a- kinds, are also generally more expensive than the larger chain stores and a bit harder to find. No guarantees the dress you like will come in your size, but maybe they’ll have another one to suit your taste.

Once in a lifetime there crops up a one-size-fits-all piece of clothing that is so useful while being amazing to think that a size 2 and a size 22 can somehow share an outfit. I can’t think of such an example, but now and then you’ll see something that boasts such a feat.

So, are we talking about apparel today? No. We’re talking about novels. Again. Still. Christian novels, of course.

The stylish and attractive stories, be they romance, historical, suspense, thriller, or you-name-it, are “hanging” on the racks. They’re popular because a large percentage of buyers believe they are what’s “in”. This has been established by an author’s previous work, current appeal, or they happen to fit what people have come to expect from today’s Christian fiction.

Publishers tend to think the consumer decides what’s popular and sells. I tend to think that if you offer a predominant supply of one style, consumers adapt. They buy it because the selection is limited, and they want one. I think it’s a Catch-22 situation. The “boutique” books aren’t promoted particularly well, and they are “hidden” like the quaint little shops with the unique styles. Then it is decided that this “style” doesn’t sell well and is systematically dropped or eliminated from the selection when in actuality the books were hard to find amidst the several copies of the popular one ahead of it on the shelf and with nothing in marketing to set it apart, it languishes in obscurity.

Ask the editors of prominent publishing houses if Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Melville, or Dickens would’ve been published today without those stories being edited down to a skeleton of their form. Yet today’s supposed market demands those kinds of novels are in serious need of the red pencil’s slash. Will not survive in our e-fast mentality.

A professional might insist that only the best make it to the shelves after complying with the requirements of the editing process. Yet we hear the ongoing complaints from certain editors that they can’t get the pub boards to go for “literary” manuscripts. Fantasy writers are marching shoulder to shoulder to out-shout the pub boards, urging their fans to vote with their dollars. Because “dollars” are what ultimately make a book “good”, right? After all, if it doesn’t sell, the novel is assumed to be unappealing.

Once in a great while, there is a book that falls into that one-size-fits-all. Destined to be a classic. Mass appeal. Men and women love the book. They’re few and far between. Often unpredictable. The Lord decides which ones they are.

Some authors have established their prominence by connecting with readers. One way or another their stories are written well enough, their topics substantive enough, to resonate with a large crowd of dollar-brandishing consumers. Those authors have a loyal readership who eagerly wait for their next new book and snatch it up the day it comes out. They probably won’t tire of their favorite author(s). But if a marketing team could piggyback another author who writes similar types of stories but is lesser known, they could help their sales.

Because . . . some shoppers look at the rack of dresses and wish there was one just a little bit different to buy. A different collar, sleeves, color, length. Something that was more to their liking. When they don’t find it, but they need a new dress, they settle for that just another dress on the rack.

Father, you are the guideline. I must follow you by your Spirit. That’s all that matters. Help me have the faith to step out when that’s what you desire, to wait when it’s what you’re telling me, and to always know you are ever with me, faithful and true, and will work even my mistakes together somehow for good because I love you and am called according to your purpose. Thank you, Jesus, for every day you give me to walk with you. In the Name of Jesus, the Savior of the world, Amen.