Into the Fire

If you could change five things (or less) in CBA publishing, what would they (it) be?

For some professionals this question sparked an in depth response. Today’s post belongs to one of those. (Unabridged and unedited.)

From Author, Editor, Publisher Jeff Gerke, Marcher Lord Press:

Actually, I wouldn't have them change at all, Nicole. I think they're satisfactorily serving the white, Evangelical soccer mom and grandmother market in North America. They know what that demographic wants, and they give it to them. Since that is the largest book-buying (especially fiction-buying) slice of Evangelicalism in North America, it's wise for them to keep going after that market. However, that road may swiftly be approaching a dead end.

What they haven't been as good at is developing new markets or, as we're seeing now, changing with the times. They're being forced to think about that sort of thing now, which I think is healthy.

I personally think the era of "big-box Christianity" is over in North America. Denominations, big ministries, and large Evangelical publishers are all feeling the pinch right now. It's not primarily because we're in a recession, I don't think. I think it's because we're moving away from centralized control over what is done and toward a more individualistic, personally customizable approach.

The trend over the last several centuries has been away from an authoritarian power bloc off somewhere making rules or determining what can or cannot be produced and toward power in the hands of the individual. Think the Reformation, the rise of Democracy, the invention of the movable type printing press, and (more recently) the Internet and revolutions in music, information, and now books.

No longer do music labels decide what will be on an album or CD and everybody just takes it or leaves it. Now you can download just the individual songs you want. No longer do monastery or university libraries control access to knowledge. Now you just Google it. No longer does Hollywood control what movies are produced. Now anyone with a video camera can post his movie on YouTube. No longer do "the big six" publishers decide what can and can't be published. Now anyone with a manuscript can get it in the hands of millions of people through e-readers and print-on-demand technology.

Soon we may see the demise of TV networks. They're one of the last media blocs that controls what we see and when we see it. That's going against the current of history, and it won't last. We'll soon be able to watch what we want, when we want to watch it. The traditional church building and ministry structure is another system that may move from corporate to more personalized and smaller groups.

Your question was what CBA should do to change. Because I own a small, nimble, indie press that can take advantage of these new trends, I have a different perspective. I don't actually see what big CBA houses can do to survive. Not in a time when we don't need big groups of people to produce a book–when 1 person can produce a professional-quality print book, when you don't even need print books anymore.

Authors are seeing it. If they can have a professional-quality book and not have to give away 90% of the profits to a publisher, they're suddenly going, "Wait, tell me again why I need a publisher." Readers are seeing it: they're finding they can get whatever obscure kind of book they like and don't have to just sit around hoping a publisher will see a satisfactory profit margin and produce that book.

If a CBA house were able to think radically and not have to act out of concern for the many good Christian families they'd suddenly render unemployed, I do think there is something they could do. I think they could break themselves down to 10 people maximum, split out in 2-6 imprints or product lines. They could be like several Marcher Lord Presses linked together and sharing resources and risk. They could also stop fighting the trend toward the individualization of publishing and embrace it instead, offering their expert editorial, design, and marketing services to people willing to pay for it.

It's not a question of what 1-2 little things I'd like to see a CBA house change. It's time to evolve or perish. Publishers don't want to fire all their people and change so radically, I know. On the other hand, if things go as I think they might, they'll end up firing all their people anyway. Better to see the handwriting on the wall–the seven sickly cows–the danger approaching…and make changes now so they can smile at the future (Proverbs 31:25b).

To be continued . . .