Comments on: The Bestselling Christian Books of 2008

By: Tayeb Ibrahim

Tayeb Ibrahim — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 06:33:41 +0000

A best seller does not mean a great book.Only time shows how great and inspiring the work of a writer is .As a new christian and a writer of a christian novel,divine seal,I only hope that the few i care for see the beauty of my creation.

By: Last Day Watchers » Blog Archive » SPIRITUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES

Last Day Watchers » Blog Archive » SPIRITUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 08:00:38 +0000

[...] Word of God, whoring after teachers to help sooth itching ears. Look at this list of top selling Christian books of 2008. They are all infected with the “Gospel of Self”…the same gospel Satan preached in his sermon [...]

By: SPIRITUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES: By Coach Dave Daubenmire « Wecogitate

SPIRITUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES: By Coach Dave Daubenmire « Wecogitate — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:02:15 +0000

By: Dan

Dan — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 20:17:35 +0000

Mike,

Informative post! You know, Tim Keller's also been speaking a lot about urban ministries and reaching out to the inner-city poor in his home city of New York. He recently spoke for Here’s Life Inner City (http://www.hlic.org), the compassionate urban ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. He spoke about Christian responsibility to the poor, among other insightful subjects. Thought you might like to take a look at the video. Feel free to share it with friends and readers. It’s available here: http://hereslife.ning.com/page/case-for-compassio... Also, would love to have you join iHope at http://www.ihopecommunity.org, where you can dialogue about inner-city poverty and homelessness. Thanks again for this most, in the meantime!

Best,
Dan

By: Willie Mae Hawkins

Willie Mae Hawkins — Thu, 14 May 2009 17:24:33 +0000

Hi Michael, thanks for reaching out to me on twitter. Great blog by way. Can you assist me with understanding how Publishers Weekly and others determine how many books are sold. I am new at publishing…self-publishing. Are there info on the web you can refer me. I would appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

By: Sidney

Sidney — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 05:11:24 +0000

The phenomenal sales of 'the shack' by someone with a platform that amounted to absolutely zero, substantiates this: Yes, the reading public is interested in things that belong to Christ. Things that say *Jesus/Lord without the bloodletting of religious dogma. The human mind is most interested in reading and learning about feeding the soul, experiencing the
grace of the almighty without having to say grace outside of their
own tri-dom(their mind, body and soul.) The reader is tired of the FARANDOLE experience. They are ready to break the chain the tradition, the religious habit that says one must follow a regimen or a course. The time
is now to go directly to the top to the creator of the math that says 1=3. Faith
is the new fervency. A one on one personal attention to Christ. The reader and his/her heart are turning to a new adherence a new find. Einstein called
his one equal three [e=mc2] for matter. For all that matters, man is calling
out for a personal 1=3. It is available and waiting. Faith. Now that is a
platform we can all stand on.
Sidney

By: Susan Cushman

Susan Cushman — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 19:58:06 +0000

The same goes for us Orthodox Christians, Patrick. But I don't want my memoir to be categorized as "Christian." I want it (and hopefully future books of both fiction and creative nonfictin) to be good literary works by someone who is an Orthodox Christian.

By: Susan Cushman

Susan Cushman — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:00:39 +0000

Perhaps one reason "Christian novels" are rarely best-sellers is
because so many are hybrids–trying to be something (good fiction,
whether literary or commercial) but holding back because of
self-imposed religious legalism. Sometimes they are preachy. To me,
the best fiction by Christian authors is just that–good fiction by authors who are Christian, rather than "Christian fiction." Two of my favorites, Flannery O'Connor and Madeleine L'Engle, both said they didn't set out to write "Christian fiction" but that their own Christianity and world view fed their writing. They brought their whole selves into the work, holding back nothing. As O'Connor said, "Writing fiction is dirty work. If you scorn getting yourself dusty, you shouldn't try to write fiction." I'd love to see more Christian authors showing their truly human sides and not being afraid to get dusty. That's what I've tried to do with my published essays and memoir-in-progress. Maybe it's harder with fiction.

By: Peter_P

Peter_P — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 21:07:08 +0000

I have been thinking about how publishers and market hardcover's to paperback readers like me.

My first thought is that the only Christian book store I ever walk into is my local independent store. I'm going to take the list above and ask them if they stock those titles. I certainly don't recall any promotions on them. Can publishers do more to encourage independent stores to feature their books more prominently?

The second thing I came up with is a question: In your opinion as a publisher, why should I buy a hardcover?

What's the benefit for me?

I generally only read books once and 90% of the books I read are fiction (we call fiction "want to read's" and non-fiction "should read's") Stephen Lawhead and Douglas Adams are the notable exceptions that I re-read often – and I have all of their books in paperback.

By: Mary DeMuth

Mary DeMuth — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 20:47:03 +0000

That's true. If you define success as making a living as a writer. I totally agree. I'm arriving there, thankfully.

It's very true that an effective online presence is tantamount. I can see a huge difference between my last book launch and this one, in numbers and the amount of buzz. My encouragement to authors: Keep plugging away at the little things that build your web platform. Eventually, all those little tasks pay off.