Christian Fiction New Genre In Publishing

A shift in reading tastes among many churchgoers, especially those who patronize Christian bookstores, has opened a profitable new opportunity for publishers who specialize in religious books.

Among people whose leisure reading once focused mainly on Bibles and devotional books, publishers have recently found a growing interest in novels that combine spiritual uplift with entertainment.

The result is a burgeoning genre called Christian fiction, a term that embraces romance, historical fiction, detective stories, thrillers and more. Some titles sell hundreds of thousands of copies. They are typically sold in the more than 3,000 Christian bookstores nationwide that cater to evangelical Protestants.

“Some of the same themes that drive popular fiction are found in Christian fiction,” said Charles (Kip) Jordon, publisher at Word Publishing in Dallas, a unit of Thomas Nelson. The key difference, he noted, is that readers expect righteousness to triumph.

Bill Anderson, president of CBA, a trade association that represents 2,700 Christian bookstores, said that in 1996, “fiction was the second-fastest-growing section in the stores.”

One of the newer entrants among religious fiction publishers is Zondervan Publishing House, a unit of HarperCollins Publishers, which is owned by the News Corp. Although the company did publish two lines of paperback novels aimed at women in the 1980s, it is far better known for nonfiction, especially its specialty Bibles.

In terms of fiction, Sue Brower, the company’s marketing director, said, “Our strategy is to publish 12 to 16 titles a year,” equivalent to 9 to 10 percent of the total number of titles Zondervan publishes annually.

At Word, long known for nonfiction books by such evangelical luminaries as the Rev. Max Lucado and psychologist James Dobson, fiction titles make up 10 percent to 15 percent of its offerings. Five years ago, Word’s fiction list was “pretty much zip,” Jordon said.

The reason for the change can be found in the numbers: a novel with a religious theme can be a blockbuster. “The Oath,” a thriller by Frank Peretti, about one man’s battle with a demon who represents sin, has sold 500,000 hardcover copies since Word published it two years ago.

In the same period, Tyndale House Publishers Inc., a Wheaton, Ill., company, released two novels by the Rev. Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, “Left Behind” (1995) and its sequel, “Tribulation Force” (1996), about people caught up in events preceding Christ’s Second Coming. Together, the books have sold about 500,000 copies, said Dan Balow, Tyndale’s marketing director for trade books.

Another sequel, “Nicolae,” is due out this fall. “We’re actually looking at this as a six-book series,” he said, adding that the final book, to be published in the year 2000, would feature Christ’s return.

Tyndale’s fiction sales have risen 50 percent in each of the company’s last two fiscal years. Fiction is “probably one of our most profitable lines as a product,” Balow said. “It remains on our backlist for such a long period of time, we do quite well by it.”

In hardcover, Tyndale priced “Left Behind” and “Tribulation Force” at $15.97, before releasing them as trade paperbacks at $12.99. “In the Christian market, we’ve not done very well with high-priced hardcovers,” Balow said.

Anderson, the bookstore association president, said hardcovers in Christian stores tended to be sold at $2 to $5 below the standard price for such books in general bookstores. “The Oath” was something of an exception, priced by Word at $23.99 in hardcover.

Regardless of plot, Christian fiction is notable for its lack of graphic violence, sexual scenes and profanity. It makes for G- or PG-rated reading, akin to much mainstream fare of 30 years ago. As important is the way religious ideas figure in the plot: characters undergo conversion, pray for guidance and try to apply their faith to resolving crises.

The writing is meant as much to inspire as to entertain. “It’s escape,” Anderson said. “And yet it allows a person to stay plugged into how to integrate their faith into life.” The increase in readers, he said, reflect a rise in the quality of the writing as well as a wider selection.

Christian fiction’s popularity also coincides with the increasing use of dramatic skits in church services, another sign that many churchgoers are seeking spiritual experience apart from more traditional forms of instruction like sermons and books on daily living.

For some years, influential churches like 14,000-member Willow Creek Community Church outside Chicago have incorporated brief plays, written by their staffs, into worship, using on-stage characters to teach by example.

Still, the novels that have done best tend to be by authors known for nonfiction or recommended by someone the faithful trust. LaHaye, for example, is a preacher with three decades of nonfiction titles to his name. Peretti became a top seller after one of his novels was endorsed by singer Amy Grant.

Les Dietzman, president of Christian Family Stores, a Grand Rapids, Mich.-based chain with 190 stores in 32 states, estimated that 80 percent of those reading novels with religious themes are female.

Statistics like that are not lost on publishers. At Word, Jordon said that he looked around during a meeting a few years ago and noticed that everyone in the room discussing new titles was male. Not long thereafter, he helped create “a women’s press committee,” a half dozen or so Word employees, who read for pleasure in their off hours, to offer advice on book design and packaging.

Recently, he said, the company adopted the committee’s recommendation for the cover of a new mystery novel due out this summer from the writer Ellen Vaughn, with an eye-catching design featuring a luminous string of pearls.

As evidence that a broader market exists for Christian fiction, Brower of Zondervan pointed to a 1996 consumer survey by Cahners Research. Based on more than 700 responses to a questionnaire mailed to 2,000 members of a B. Dalton discount club, Cahners reported that 74 percent of respondents said they belonged to a church; 37 percent had purchased a religious book or Bible within the last month. Of those, 18 percent said they purchased a religious novel - as many as bought theology books and slightly more than bought volumes on prayer.