Page 20 - Publishers_Weekly

Department|RELIGION & SPIRITUALITY

Saving Christian Fiction

In a moribund market, publishers hunt for fresh voices and Lynn Garrett
new genres

o news might be good news for publishers of predicting the demise of the genre, but the
Christian fiction—or it might just be that there books still have an audience. “We are defi -
is no big news. Steve Oates, v-p of marketing for nitely still seeing a lot of interest in our
Baker Publishing Group’s Bethany House and Amish novels, and we aren’t doing fewer,”
NChosen imprints, describes the state of the cat- says Andrea Doering, executive editor of
egory as “stable” and says: “The marketplace just keeps getting Baker’s Revell imprint. “Readers continue to
a little tougher all the time, but no one or no direction is really be drawn to the idea of a simpler life and the
standing out. Where are the new names appearing on the best- strong families and communities of the
seller list? Who is coming out of nowhere in fiction? What is Amish.”
the next big thing?” Bethany House has brand-name authors of
Oates has no answers to these questions, but Baker’s fi ction Amish fi ction on its list, including Beverly Lewis, whose stand-
imprints continue to offer readers books in reliable genres like alone romance The Road Home releases in April. Lewis has sold
romantic suspense, historicals, and, most notably, romances set more than 17 million copies of her books and has charted on the
among the Amish, which have been published by the hundreds bestseller lists of PW, the New York Times, and USA Today.
and sold in the millions by the industry. Industry watchers keep Another star is Suzanne Woods Fisher, whose books just

Inspirational Fiction from B t-Selling Auth s

978-0-8254-4533-0 978-1-68370-055-5
970-0-8254-4534-7 978-1-68370-057-9

978-1-68370-134-7
978-1-68370-126-2