Where is all the Adult Fantasy?

[cyn]

Well, I'd say that you could view the AMG experience as positive. They didn't turn your manuscript down right out of hand, in fact, it went through the process 3 times. This obviously means that someone liked it enough to pursue it.

OK, AMG is no longer an option at this time. Try Barbour Publishing; they are currently looking for teen fiction.
Or, if you want to wait until next January, Tsaba House might be a good choice.

--cyn

[Caprice]

I'd like to support the idea of going "secular". Without knowing how overt the Christian elements are, I'm not going to say it should be the first choice (it was for me, but my books are definitely late teen-adult and more subtle/allegorical). Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia are both published by mainstream "secular" pubs and always have been. I really think any "breakthrough" we might hope for must come form a much broader fanbase than is currently reached through small pubs or niche pubs. The exception may be genre pubs that specialize in spec-fic like Tor, DAW, Spectra, Aspect, etc.

So if I were you, I'd look at Scholastic (Harry Potter) and whoever published Christopher Paolini (Eragon series). Cyn's suggestions are also good. How about Waterbrook (Donita K Paul's Dragon series)? I know dragons aren't the same as fairies, but right now it seems like dragons are the only acceptable Christian fantasy in ECPA. Dragons just happen to be popular in secular too, but I don't see why fairies are any "worse" than dragons. But there's a lot I don't "get".

[M. C. Pearson]

Thanks. Great suggestions. NavPress had it for a while too...but it was a no go at that station also.

I'll try Barbour...will also seek Zondervan and B&H. May even try Tsaba if I don't have any leads by January.

Christopher Hopper is looking over my mss right now...says he likes it so far. So, that's good!

I just bought a honkin' secular Writer's Market Guide. Will be looking at that too.

It has been a long road so far, but I know that God's timing is the best! I'm not too worried. ;D

My book is more Harry Potter than Tolkien or Lewis. Not that I am really comparing myself to their genius! I use a lot of my Army experience in the 'FAIRIES' Academy...it is a sort of militaristic school for spiritual warfare...but I use humor throughout. (FAIRIES stands for Fantastical Aerial International Reasonably Inconspicuous Emancipation Squads)...please don't judge me on any spelling errors...I use spell check when I write. I can be so horrible at it! ***Yeah, and I homeschool***

Thanks again for all your encouragement!

[cyn]

Apr 21, 2008 23:17:12 GMT -5 M. C. Pearson said:

May even try Tsaba if I don't have any leads by January.

Christopher Hopper is looking over my mss right now...says he likes it so far. So, that's good!

With Tsaba House you will have Pam Schwageral's incredible talent for marketing; she's a one-woman publicity agency! I can't recommend TH highly enough.

[M. C. Pearson]

Wish I didn't have to wait to submit!

I can be patient though...well...sorta.

[Frank Creed]

Pay close attentention to my interviews of Jeff Gerke that I announced on the other board!

Faith,
f

[CoscomEntertainment]

I don't know. Haven't seen "Adult Christian Fantasy" in a (any) publisher's guidelines.

There's a market. If not, the Narnia movies would have tanked. I just don't think adult Christian fantasy is easily accessible and because it's not accessible, publishers might think there's no demand. No product no demand, right? And if there's no demand, no money to be made. No money to be made, no book to be published.

[whymz]

I hate jumpin in while the train is well on its way. I've read a few posts concerning this subject and maybe the last poster had a good thought, that perhaps the "Christian Adult Fantasy" niche isn't big. Honestly that wouldn't be something I would search. As a book seller (no I'm not... but was a publisher in a foreign country) I wouldn't find it attractive to open the purses.
My husband and I ran a Christian publishing house in Europe for a few years. We were surprised to find that the main stream book stores did not have an area for "Christian". Plenty for religion or the supernatural, but non for Christian. So we started re-categorizing our books to fit what THEY wanted. Maybe we had one on demonology... so that went with the supernatural. We had one about Christian fathers and their roles... that went with "parenting" and so on.
Honestly if you want your labors of love out for people to read and enjoy in the mainstream, why be isolationist? Unless you are only trying to reach those that already have been reached?

Cool to educate me on the premise. Like I said, I'm a newbee here, and interested in the topic.

[cyn]

Honestly if you want your labors of love out for people to read and enjoy in the mainstream, why be isolationist? Unless you are only trying to reach those that already have been reached?

Excellent point. I don't think most novelists in the Lost Genre Guild want to be isolationist -- in fact, would rather have books shelved in the general fiction area. Jeff Gerke calls the Christian book area "Death Row" or something clever like that.

However, placement of books is a book store concern if I am not mistaken. In chain stores anything with a Christian tag will go to those shelves.

I have also found that I am at the mercy of the Bowkers folk and/ or the classifier who does my Library of Congress CIP information -- if I don't use Christian or religious fiction as a subject, they do it later for classification. Aren't these subjects used by stores for classification?

That being said your point is a valid one and I really like your suggestion about shelving books in general subject areas.

c

[whymz]

Sorry to take a while to get back on the subject. Why can't you submit your work for an ISBN number yourself? Just curious. I used to request the ISBN numbers for books we printed. Yet when I went to the "big box" stores they would ask me where I would consider it shelved. My hubby reminds me in the early efforts, I would come home in tears from disappointment. Finally I did get our books shelved where they fit the most popular Genre. We ended up on the stores "best sellers" and the set us up at a feature eventually.
Crazy as it sounds I'd even advocate getting Christian Fantasy into New Age book stores. HA, I'm sure they lack in talented writers anyway. Why not invade their space?
I don't want to be controversial, but rather provocative in saying, "break out". Why limit yourself?

[Frank Creed]

I've been wondering . . . should Christian Cookbooks be shelved with Cannibalistic studies?


Faith,
f

[Caprice]

I can't answer that question, Frank, but let me ask another: WHY would a cookbook need the "Christian" label? It's not like there are food rules, like kosher for Judaism. How does a food get the Christian seal of approval? Was it specifically mentioned in the New Testament (e.g. fish and loaves)? Does a pastor/priest/minister have to like it? Bless it? Nominate it for sainthood? Must the recipe have been served at a wedding or a funeral, or will a prayer meeting potluck suffice? Are Christians allowed to eat outside of church?

I think the idea of a Christian Cookbook is very much the way I feel about Christian fantasy. Why does it NEED to be labeled? It's almost as hard for me to explain why my books are or aren't Christian as it is to explain why a food or recipe would be Christian. It's food. It's a story. Inanimate objects cannot call Jesus their Lord. Only people can.

I know we use it to mean a story that does not ridicule or belittle our beliefs, and most of us LGGers know what we mean, but not everyone has the same definition of just what makes a story "Christian".

[debkinnard]

Not to get off the subject of Christian cannibalism, but there's a brief update on the mild-mannered time travel novel I wrote. Had a talk with my agent last month and it was "I can't really think of any house that would take this." She meant CBA because that is her comfort zone. So we decided to go with a small press who'd expressed interest in it before. I have some edits to do on it before we send it there. But I have a verbal commitment from this house, so it's all good.

Downside? Per my agent, I can't tell you about who it is & when it'll be out, or I'd have to shoot you.

[Frank Creed]

Agent aside, congrats Deb! I'm waiting for your Harlequin news!

Cap--
Christian fantasy would be a bookshelf label for ALL the readers interested in such. *cough*
Christian cookbooks I first heard of on shoutlife, and honestly, the first thing I thought of was "Didn't those go out with Emperor Nero?"

Faith,
f

[cyn]

Deb,

Given this later comment from Mr. Creed:
Christian cookbooks I first heard of on shoutlife, and honestly, the first thing I thought of was "Didn't those go out with Emperor Nero?"

Knock yourself out . . . go ahead and tell him!
Put us out of our misery!

Downside? Per my agent, I can't tell you about who it is & when it'll be out, or I'd have to shoot you.

Feel free to jump in, Caprice.