Publishers Weekly - May 18, 2015

Religion Update Feature

Eight industry veterans discuss what’s hot and what’s not in Christian fiction

Beyond

Bonnet Rippers

Conducted by Jana Riess

In 2014, sales of Christian fiction were down 15% over the previous year, and several houses have either cut back or eliminated their fiction acquisitions. So that’s the bad news. The good news is that in some corners, faith-based fiction continues to thrive. To find out what’s trending, what’s waning, and where the new opportunities are, we spoke with eight industry veterans:

Christina Boys, senior editor, Faith-Words, a division of Hachette Book Group

Daisy Hutton, v-p and publisher, fiction, HarperCollins Christian Publishing (HCCP)

Tina James, executive editor, Love Inspired, a division of Harlequin David Lewis, executive v-p of sales and marketing, Baker Publishing Group Shannon Marchese, senior editor, WaterBrook Multnomah, a division of Random House

Ami McConnell, v-p and editor-in-chief, Howard Books, a division of Simon & Schuster

Annie Tipton, senior acquisitions editor, Barbour Books

Karen Watson, associate publisher of fiction, Tyndale

What is hot in Christian fiction right now?

Watson, Tyndale: Romantic suspense seems to be a strong, growing genre.

Romance has always been a big genre in
the CBA [Christian Booksellers Associa-
tion], and one of the advantages in
broadest program in terms of number of
authors in that category. We launched a
brand-new Amish writer into the mar-
ketplace, Kelly Irvin. It’s a good sign to
see that there’s still room in that market
to launch new authors.

Tipton, Barbour: Wanda Brunstetter continues to be our #1 fiction author, and Amish fiction is our #1 category. In the past five or six years, there were a lot of authors who tried to get in on the game because it was a hot subject. But the authors who are going to stand the test of time are the Wanda Brunstetters and Beverly Lewises. We are trying to position Olivia Newport in that line, and she’s unique because she’s writing historical Amish fiction. Most Amish fiction is set in the contemporary time.

What trends are you seeing in
historical fiction?

Marchese, WaterBrook: We’re seeing more titles that are WWII, or that are in the Revolutionary time period, or colonial.

Lewis, Baker: We’re introducing one new Regency romance and one Edwardian. People are really connecting with that whole English nobility world— thank you, Downton Abbey! McConnell, Howard: There’s a trend of novelists bringing to light the forgotten women of history. For instance, Deanne Gist’s Tiffany Girls (May) features the women who made Louis Comfort Tiffany’s stained-glass chapel for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.

Tipton, Barbour: In the past nine to 12

romantic suspense is that you have female leads in a more empowered position.

Characters aren’t just teachers or nurses anymore. They are solving crises. Boys, Faith Words: Biblical fiction has been a longtime subcategory of Christian fiction, but, with the continued focus of Hollywood on biblical movies in theaters and on television, I think we may see a resurgence in that genre.

James, Love Inspired: Interest in romantic suspense continues to grow. In fact, in May 2014 the Love Inspired Suspense line expanded from four to six books a month.

What’s happening with Amish
fiction?

Lewis, Baker: Amish fiction for us is still very significant, but it has declined since the advent of so many new writers in the category. Beverly Lewis’s sales are down double digits from what they were in the past, but she is still our bestselling author. Amish fiction is not as strong as a digital read as it is as a print read. In 2014, between all of our writers in Amish fiction, we sold over 400,000 units in print and 150,000 in digital. Marchese, WaterBrook: We’ve stayed consistent with Amish fiction, just publishing Cindy Woodsmall. I’ve heard some folks refer to the changes in the Amish fiction market in dramatic terms, and I think that’s unfair, because there are still better-than-average sales in that category.