Saturday, December 19, 1998

Quality of Christian fiction maturing as market thrives

By Berta Delgado

The Dallas Morning News

It's not your mama's Christian fiction anymore.

It still has a message and that strong thread of Christian values, but today's Christian fiction has much more to offer, industry experts said.

The best of it is well-written literature with stories compelling enough to grab readers in the general market. The rest of it, well, it needs some work, authors and others in the industry said.

But there's no better example of the potential Christian fiction has for reaching a broader audience and making general market bookstores take notice than the hot-selling, apocalyptic "Left Behind" series by writer Jerry Jenkins and Biblical prophecy expert Tim LaHaye.

The series, based on the Book of Revelation, has sold 2.8 million copies in three years in Christian bookstores, general market bookstores and retailers such as Target and Wal-Mart.

Told through the eyes of a handful of characters, the series focuses on the Rapture and the seven years of tribulation that follow before the return of Christ. It begins with the disappearance of true Christians, the clothes they were wearing left in piles on the floor. Left behind are their family members, those who didn't believe and who realize the Rapture has come.

Each book in the series -- there are four so far, including "Left Behind," "Tribulation Force" and "Nicolae" -- is so anticipated by readers that more than 150,000 copies of the latest, "Soul Harvest," were pre-sold before the books hit stores in July.

A half-million copies of the next book, Apollyon, are being printed for its February release, and "Assassins" will follow in August. Up to six more books are planned, on the February-August release cycle.

Still, the authors can't get them out fast enough.

"None of us realized what a phenomenon it was going to be or we might have thought twice about it," joked Jenkins, who has written more than 100 books. "We're just overwhelmed at the response to it."

The core audience of Christian fiction will always be there, industry experts said, but it's important to branch out. And the popularity of the "Left Behind" series has helped bring Christian fiction to the attention of new readers. It's not often that a book published by a Christian house gets noticeable displays in general market stores, but "Left Behind" has done that.

The series has dominated Christian best-seller lists at bookstores and in Publishers Weekly. Most months, the first three books top the paperback list, while the fourth tops the hardcover list.

That's not to say all Christian fiction books are great works of literary art or that their sales are skyrocketing. But authors, book buyers for major Christian chains and publishers are confident that the quality of writing is better and that the crossover into the general market can come with continued improvement.

"I think the whole concept of Christian fiction is maturing," said Lee Gessner, publisher of Word Publishing in Nashville. "I compare Christian fiction to the Christian music industry. Twenty-five years ago that was in its early youth stages, and now there's a fully developed industry where contemporary Christian music has an offering for anyone's taste."

The early days of Christian fiction weren't too long ago.

Authors and industry experts agree that it all started with Janette Oke and her "prairie house" books. Oke has sold more than 16 million books, more than any other Christian novelist, said Henry Carrigan, religion book review editor for Publishers Weekly. Since 1979, Oke's produced 34 novels in four series.

But everyone refers to Frank Peretti's 1985 release of "This Present Darkness," as the "big breakthrough in Christian fiction." The book, which has sold some 2.3 million copies, continues to move in bookstores, Christian and general market alike.

"Amy Grant is to Christian music what Frank Peretti is to Christian fiction," said Athol Dickson, a Dallas murder mystery writer who is no slouch himself. Dickson, whose hard-living protagonist experiences a Christian conversion, was compared to Flannery O'Connor by The New York Times Magazine after the 1996 release of "Whom Shall I Fear?"

Although Peretti's book opened the doors for Christian fiction, industry experts said it also lead to a flooding of the market.

"My take on it was that once Christian publishers realized this breakthrough, they thought, 'Hey, we can sell Christian fiction!' " said Randy Alcorn, a former pastor and author of three novels, including "Deadline" and "Dominion," which have sold more than 200,000 copies. "So what happens is, since they don't have a fiction line, and since they don't have that many manuscripts, there's this vacuum and they decide they're going to fill it. Consequently, you have some pretty poor quality fiction."

Craig Stoll, book buyer for the Mardel Christian bookstore chain based in Oklahoma City, said the scrambling by publishers to try their hand at fiction is "pretty much over" and some of those have pulled out and gone back to non-fiction.

"Those continuing to do fiction have become more selective," he said.

Carrigan, of Publishers Weekly, said that as a whole the quality of Christian fiction has improved. And thanks to writers such as Jenkins, who has been published by Viking and and Harper Collins, and Francine Rivers and others who crossed over from the general market to the Christian market, the standards have been raised.

But much of it is mediocre, he said.

"If I walked into a Christian bookstore, two-thirds and maybe three-fourths would be mediocre writers," Carrigan said. "Maybe one-third or one-fourth, or as little as one-eighth would be good. There are some gems and some writers who can make a connection and do well."

There's much improvement to be made, authors agreed.

"I regret that Christian fiction is far behind where the world is," said Jenkins, the co-author of the "Left Behind" series. "I think that we're very wide and very shallow at this point, and I'm not necessarily talking about shallow people and shallow stories, but the whole body of Christian fiction. It's pretty spotty, and you hope the cream rises."

He said he hopes publishing houses will be even more choosy in what is published and that they will employ editors who know fiction and can help writers improve. Jenkins and others hope for stronger character and plot development.

"It will help us all if the quality improves and New York starts looking at it and saying, 'There's some good stuff here,' said Jenkins, who ghost wrote Billy Graham's memoirs. "Then we can start crossing over."

But crossing over will be difficult as long as Christian fiction is filled with didacticism and preaching, Carrigan said.

"Christian fiction has that mission to reach people for God and to entertain," he said. "But entertainment always takes a back seat."

And if customers have no interest in those books, crossover in a general market store is more difficult, said Richard Howorth, president of the American Booksellers Association.

"I don't think that's because so-called secular booksellers are unwilling to or not trying to sell them," said Howorth, who owns Square Books in Oxford, Miss. "I, myself, stock anything my customers want me to stock."

And very little of that is Christian literature.

Dickson, the Dallas author, said Christian writers tend to get pigeonholed, their books placed in the "inspirational fiction" rather than in the section for the books' particular genre, such as mystery or science fiction. Therefore, people who normally don't look in that section are unlikely to buy it.

"As far as I know, novels by Christians are the only fictional works that bookstores routinely categorize according to the beliefs of the author," he said, "You won't find a gay/lesbian fiction section in your local Barnes and Noble, or a section for Jewish fiction, or Socialist fiction, or any other demographic category's kind of fiction."

He cited best-selling author Faye Kellerman as an example. Kellerman's series of mystery novels center on a protagonist who becomes an Orthodox Jew. Yet, her books are grouped with mysteries, Dickson said.

Gessner, the Word publisher, agreed that placement in general market bookstores is something that can be worked on. He said that when bookstore employees see the name of a Christian publishing house, the placement is automatic.

"They're not trying to inappropriately steer us," Gessner said. "They're telling us, 'You're going to be lost, overwhelmed over there (with the mainstream fiction). You're better off over here.' The thing is, if it isn't over here, it won't be anywhere because they'll probably pass on it."

What Christian publishers need to do is push general bookstores to carry a broader range of Christian fiction and display it better, he said. Ultimately, though, it's important that Christian writers and publishers remember the bottom line.

"We need to make sure that the spiritual thread is present and developed and distinguishable," Gessner said. "Otherwise, we ought not be doing it."

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