A few months ago, I had lunch with two of the leading publishers in the industry – both general-trade focused, neither religious. While it was a social get-together, the conversation quickly turned to talking shop and lamenting the challenges facing the book business.
As deputy c.e.o. of the UK’s biggest Christian publishing house, I explained that I don’t just have to square up to the social-media generation and their increasingly miniscule attention spans, I’ve also got to weather the storms that strike Christianity as a whole. Bad PR for the Church in the UK is bad for business. In light of this double whammy, I proudly positioned myself as the publishing warrior facing the biggest mountain, but I was surprised when one of my friends didn’t agree.
“Well, not really,” she said. “Because you, Wendy, are the one publishing books that have the answers people are looking for. You just need to get your books in front of the right people.” My other friend readily nodded her agreement. They continued to say that everyone’s feeling anxious, longing for answers, clinging on to hope and pondering their purpose and their identity – topics that we publish on constantly.
Social media is awash with “radical new life hacks” recommending meditative practice, “feeling your feelings” and taking a day a week as down time… advice so good it could be biblical. It seems that we’re so quick to turn to 5am-club influencers and wellness gurus that we’ve overlooked the original source of this wisdom – Christian mystics and thinkers. There’s no mental health problem, difficult life stage or type of disappointment that Christian writers over the years haven’t addressed beautifully and with the gentleness, openness and sense of peace that we are all so desperately craving.
So, how do I get these books in front of the people who need them?
For years, the religious book section has been tucked in the back. Out of sight and out of mind, a mild annoyance sandwiched between world politics and reference. When I started in the business thirty years ago, we had a single bin of bookshelves, albeit mostly full of Bibles and the works of C S Lewis. These days we are lucky if we share two shelves with world religions. It’s not unheard of to see leading Christian writer Tom Wright (well over a million copies sold worldwide, thank you very much) stuck between the Wicca Encyclopaedia and The Biography of Zeus.
There’s no mental health problem, difficult life stage or type of disappointment that Christian writers over the years haven’t addressed beautifully and with the gentleness, openness and sense of peace that we are all so desperately craving
Those outside of Christian publishing can make the mistake of thinking that any book with a religious lilt is one of two things: either only relevant for Christians or trying to convince non-Christians to convert. But three-quarters of the books we publish at SPCK Group are neither of these things. I, for one, am publishing books that belong in history, politics, health and lifestyle, fiction and biography. Their contents, prose and robust research stand up to any book that Waterstones would welcome into those sections, but because they contain a faith element, they are relegated to the two shelves of shame – or ignored entirely.
Elizabeth Orr’s The Unfiltered Enneagram should be on the shelf next to Thomas Erikson’s Surrounded by Idiots. John Mark Comer’s The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry should be on the shelf next to Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow. Patrick Regan’s Brighter Days should be on the shelf next to Vex Kings’ Good Vibes, Good Life. Lauren Windle’s Notes on Feminism should be on the shelf next to The Guilty Feminist. You get my drift.
When it comes to children’s books, surely Christian publishing should be the first port of call for uplifting and festive Christmas books? I’ve published Advent activity packs, fun reads like Bob Hartman’s Rhyming Christmas and Tom Wright’s beautiful The First Christmas.
For those who like to ponder, we’ve got shelves of devotions and guided reflections, all ripe and ready for anyone trying to achieve the elusive “mindful” start to the day. Try Simon Guillebaud’s Choose Life 365 or Malcolm Duncan’s Nite Blessings.
There is so much more that Christian writers can add to the collective conversation on culture and current affairs. I would encourage booksellers to look at the topic each book addresses and house it accordingly, in with the titles that focus on the same subject – albeit from a different angle. Presenting readers with a wide range of options and opinions can only be positive in broadening the pool of knowledge and wisdom they draw from.
So for Christ’s sake (quite literally), don’t shun religious books. Jesus said: “Don’t hide your light under a bushel”, but I’m saying this: don’t hide your Christian books on the back shelf.
