Are Christian Fiction books not selling as well?

[aflower4God]

Hi all,
I ask this cause I was at Barns and Nobles the other day and I noticed that the section for Christian fiction has dewindled some. Meaning that the selection for Christian fiction is getting smaller. Are book stores not selling Christian fiction as much? If so why? That is my all time FAVE ganre of books.
Thanks and God bless you all

 

[soblessed53]

Actually secular publishing houses are gobbling up Christian publishing houses because of the successes in that genre!

A 2007 Washington Post article on the trend of Christian Publishing Houses being owned by the secular world...

"On the Christian publishing side, the story is even more volatile. Best-selling inspirational titles caught the attention of major secular publishers, leading to a wave of acquisitions over the past decade. Random House, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins and other big-name secular publishers 'acquired Christian publishing houses', hoping for major income producers. Other publishers started religious divisions of their own.
In some cases, the strategy worked. Rick Warren's "The Purpose Driven Life," published by Zondervan (which is owned by HarperCollins, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.) set sales records and created several years of remarkable profits for the company. But unable to produce an encore, Zondervan's sales dropped, and its president was let go in June by executives in New York who lost patience waiting for another blockbuster hit.

Michael S. Hyatt, chief executive of Thomas Nelson Inc., the largest Christian publisher, predicts tough times for publishers owned by the major New York houses.

"I think we're going to see some of those Christian publishing houses back on the block," he said".

Christian Booksellers Face Crisis Of Faith - washingtonpost.com

Plus the only place you used to be able to find Christian Romance/Fiction was at a Christian bookstore,now they can be found in WalMart,drugstores,even the grocery stores! So I would say that Christian Fiction is selling better than it ever has!

 

[Godstone]

I've just published mine - so I'll have to wait to see how sales go! Ultimately, what's important is that christian writers encourage and influence people in a positive way. We need all kinds of christian literature as an alternative to the influx of atheist inspired propaganda.

 

[snorlax]

I think that mostly, the door to getting published as a Christian author might be harder to open. I have a friend who works for a faith-centric publisher (essentially a vanity press), who talks all the time about how much fresh authors have to pay to get published. Big publishing houses see Christian fiction as risky -- small market, diminishing returns. So many Christian authors take to vanity presses, where they have to pay an initial investment to get into the market. Since it costs so much, less authors can afford to get on the shelves. Places like Mardel and other Christian book stores (there's a great Catholic book store where I live) tend to have a wider variety from a bigger selection of publishers.