Editors on Editing: What Writers Need to Know About What Editors Do (22 page)

Janet Hoover Thoma

J
ANET
H
OOVER
T
HOMA
is vice-president of Janet Thoma Books, a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers. Prior to having her own imprint, she was senior acquisitions editor of Thomas Nelson. Before joining Nelson ten years ago, she was managing editor of David C. Cook Publishing
.

If you edit (or write) for the Christian marketplace, ignore the stereotype of the “Church Lady” as she was caricatured on
Saturday Night Live,
Ms. Thoma recommends, and “understand the audience…. That means seeing a more divergent audience … or being a committed Christian yourself.” And if you edit or write for the predominantly homemaker and white-collar workers who make up the two largest groups of Christian readers, you must first decide if the book is intended strictly for the Christian bookstore market (CBA) or for CBA with some secular (ABA) bookstore crossover. “A CBA book will often quote Scripture liberally, and the subject matter will be addressed from a mainly Christian perspective.”

The relationship between the author and the editor in Christian publishing, Ms. Thoma writes, “is the same as it is in some secular publishing companies, a hands-on approach; that means we often work directly with the author to achieve a quality book, from the concept or book proposal stage all the way through the substantive editing process.”

Ms. Thoma’s essay is highly informative about what fiction and nonfiction themes (particularly in the area of self-help) can be discussed, and how they should be be treated in books aimed at the many and diverse Christian audiences. It is essential for the writer and editor who wishes to successfully reach those audiences with meaningful books without offending readers with deeply held religious beliefs
.

Mouse brown hair, curled close to the face. Clear plastic glasses. White Peter Pan collar, buttoned tightly around the neck. A cotton flowered no-style dress. Clodhopper, old-lady shoes. And a high-pitched, squeaky voice. In syrupy tones she often says, “Well, isn’t that special!” Or comments, “Who could have made us do that? Who could it be? Maybe Satan!” when confronted with behavior she classifies as immoral or bad. Does this woman look and sound familiar? If you watch
Saturday Night Live
, you will recognize her as the “Church Lady.”

If you edit (or write) for the Christian marketplace, ignore this stereotype. To edit or write for this marketplace you must understand the audience, and that means seeing a more divergent audience, rather than this caricature, or being a committed Christian yourself.

Right now the audience for Christian books is split into two marketplaces: the Christian bookstore (of which there are 7,267 in the United States) and the secular bookstore. Different types of readers are obviously represented by these distinctive marketplaces.

Yes, you will find a few Church Ladies in Christian bookstores in this country. But according to consumer research conducted by the Christian Booksellers Association (CBA) in 1991, the typical buyer in the Christian bookstore is a woman between the ages of 25 and 54 (60 percent are between 25 and 44; 15 percent between 45 and 54) who attends church once a week or more. And believe me, the 25-year-old women often look more like singer Amy Grant than the Church Lady. Men make up 25 percent of these consumers.

The occupations of these consumers vary, with homemakers and white-collar workers being the two largest individual groups. Twenty-six percent of the women surveyed classified themselves as homemakers and an additional 21 percent classified themselves as white-collar workers. Twenty-six percent of the men classified themselves as white-collar employees, 17 percent as paid church staff, and 14 percent as blue-collar workers. Nearly everyone surveyed had completed high school, and more than one-third had
college degrees. About half of the consumers had an income of $20,000 to $40,000 annually, with the other half almost equally split between lower incomes (under $20,000) and higher incomes (over $40,000). The average income was $31,872.

The beliefs of these readers are also quite different from the Church Lady stereotype. Yes, some of them are fundamentalists who with tight-lipped defiance might say, “I would never do this…,” but many of them are honest, ordinary people who are trying to live out their beliefs. Many are sophisticated, educated, and sometimes rather liberal people. They are as diverse as Baptists, on the one hand, and on the other Catholic charismatics who shop in Christian bookstores as well as Catholic bookstores, which have been in existence twenty years longer than CBA stores.

More and more Christian publishers are selling effectively in secular bookstores. Here the audience is still Christian, but more likely “mainline” Christians, those who are members of Presbyterian, Episcopalian, and Lutheran churches, for instance.

So if you edit or write for this marketplace you must first decide if the book is intended strictly for CBA (the Christian bookstore) or CBA with some ABA (secular bookstore) crossover. A CBA book will often quote Scripture liberally—and the subject matter will be addressed from a mainly Christian perspective.

Business by the Book: The Complete Guide of Biblical Principles for Business Men and Women
(Thomas Nelson, 1990) by Christian financial counselor Larry Burkett is an example. This book proposes a radical approach to business management, as Larry himself admits: using scriptural standards to form company policy. Tough questions like firing employees, fair pay, and borrowing money are discussed from the viewpoint of biblical principles. Can a Christian fire someone? Of course—if he is slothful (Proverbs 22:29) or dishonest (Proverbs 14:2).

However, the Judeo-Christian viewpoint will be only a part of the discussion in a book that is intended to cross over into the secular marketplace.
Love Hunger
(Thomas Nelson, 1990), a book by Dr. Frank Minirth, Dr. Paul Meier, Dr. Robert Hemfelt, and Dr. Sharon Sneed, is an example. The doctors—two psychiatrists, an addictions counselor, and a dietician and nutrition consultant—speak authoritatively about the psychological and physical components of obsessive-compulsive overeating at the same time that they talk about the spiritual aspect. The true answer to a patient’s love hunger, which fuels the food addiction, is God’s unconditional love, they believe. This book hit the
Publishers Weekly
list when it was published in 1990 because of its three-dimensional approach—body, mind, and soul—which was unique.

A book published by a Christian publisher, destined for either marketplace,
will avoid swearing and foul language and graphic sexual scenes, which would be offensive to the Christian community. Yet when Christian authors tackle difficult subjects—like ritual sexual abuse—they do portray enough details that their book is realistic and does not minimize the suffering these victims experience.

There is no formula answer to the old question, “What books should be a part of our list?” Obviously most Christian publishers look for books that have unique subject matter, just as secular publishers do. We also recognize our own individuality as Christian publishers; the book must have an inspirational or Judeo-Christian message, which is often not found in the secular marketplace.

We have traditionally published self-help books because people who are going through difficult times often look to God for help as well as to books about the Bible and Christian beliefs. It was natural for Christian publishers to include recovery books in our lists for anyone suffering from obsessive-compulsive behavior. (And often the audience for these books is anyone who is searching for “God as we understand Him,” many of whom are not associated with any Christian church.) At Nelson we are now looking for books on spirituality since people, whether they are in recovery or not, are searching for spiritual meaning.

Timing is another piece of the puzzle. When we published
Love Hunger
, we knew that a diet book written from the perspective of body, mind, and soul was unique. The book was written in four months so that it could be published on the upcoming winter 1990 list (January, February, and March) to coincide with the traditional season for dieting books. As the turn of the century nears, books on the end of the world (some Christians wonder if Christ will not return around the year 2000) and prophecy are becoming popular. Books on these topics hit the CBA best-seller list any time the conflict in the Middle East between Israel and the Arab countries turns toward war. Sales in 1991 of books on prophecy, for instance, were 157 percent above 1990, according to Spring Arbor, the major book distributor to Christian bookstores. Spring Arbor called this increase in sales activity “a blip created by the Persian Gulf war.”

Timing is also important in the publication of celebrity biographies, particularly sports biographies. Books like
Out of the Blue
by Orel Hershiser (Wolgemuth & Hyatt; 165,000 copies sold) and
Comeback
by Dave Dravecky (Zondervan/Harper; 175,000 hardcover and 75,000 mass-market copies sold) were successful because they were published within a year of the
apex of the authors’ careers. However, biographies by well-known actors or sports figures whose popularity has faded years before the book is published tend to sell less than 50,000 copies. Celebrity biographies published by Christian publishers reveal the subjects’ spiritual faith as well as the details of their professional careers. Literary quality is not nearly as important as timing.

Novels have recently become more prevalent in the Christian marketplace. The phenomenal success of
This Present Darkness
and
Piercing the Darkness
by Frank Peretti (Crossway) and of the Janette Oke pioneer series (Bethany House) have led other publishers to add more fiction to their lines. (The two Peretti books together have sold over 3 million copies, while the twenty Oke titles have sold over 9 million.) Crossway Books was a pioneer in this area because they were able to accept low yearly sales to introduce an author’s first fiction book and then build his or her reputation from there. (Author Stephen Lawhead’s first book,
In the Hall of the Dragon King
, sold in the four-figure realm, but sales of this book and its two sequels, which form the Dragon King trilogy, are now well over 150,000. The Pen Dragon Cycle, his next trilogy, has sold over 200,000 copies.) Bethany House was also in a unique position to build author Janette Oke since they sold numbers of copies to Successful Living, the rack jobber and book party company, which sells books at small parties in the marketing tradition of companies like Tupperware.

Some publishers see fiction as “a story invented to entertain.” Some fundamentalist bookstore owners, however, define fiction as “a story invented to educate.” These bookstore owners expect one or more of the main characters to accept Christ as Savior in the book. An editor or writer must know the publisher’s policy because it obviously affects the story line (crossover publishers like Nelson, Word, and Zondervan are more likely to define fiction as entertainment).

Most Christian publishers also look for reference books for the layperson, and some publishers (such as Moody, Baker, Zondervan, and Eerdmans) publish theological books for pastors and seminary students.

The relationship between the author and the editor in Christian publishing is the same as it is in some secular publishing companies, a hands-on approach; that means we often work directly with the author to achieve a quality book, from the concept or book proposal stage all the way through the substantive editing process. My authors submit an initial couple of chapters to me so that we can determine together if the book is headed in
the right direction and has the proper tone and pace. (I believe this saves time since nothing is a greater waste than months spent writing a complete manuscript that then needs to be entirely rewritten.) The authors then continue to send me three or so chapters throughout the process.

If an author is a professional in the field—a counselor, a pastor, or a celebrity—who has no writing experience or is too busy to write a book, I often hire a ghost writer. Typical pay ranges from $6,000 to $15,000, depending upon the amount of work that must be done (the ghost may be working from a draft manuscript or may be taping the author and writing the draft as well as the final copy) and the expertise of the free-lance writer. Sometimes ghost writers will get a small percentage of the author’s royalty and an advance against that royalty, which is always less than the flat-fee payment, since they will benefit from long-range sales. However, some writers prefer a flat fee, which is paid to them regardless of the book’s sales. Most acquisitions editors make sure they either have worked with the ghost writer previously or know his or her work.

I always tell my writers to picture the particular audience for their book—a thirty-five-year-old working mother, for instance, or a young corporate executive—sitting across from them. “Instead of the computer screen see that person in flesh and blood. Use words that person understands and include illustrations and anecdotes that are familiar to him or her.”

I compare the first chapter of a nonfiction book to the frame of a picture, which unites the details of the landscape or portrait inside; this first chapter, therefore, should include certain specifics. First, it should open with an anecdote or patient illustration with which the reader will identify. For instance, one author opened a book called
The Path to Serenity
, a book on the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, with the story of an alcoholic college professor. That would have been appropriate if the audience for the book had been people with chemical dependencies. However, the purpose of the book was to apply the Twelve Steps to a broader audience, to anyone who was addicted to obsessive-compulsive behaviors. Codependents. Workaholics. Overeaters. If I, as an editor, had allowed the alcoholic story to begin the book, some potential buyers would have glanced at the first page, mistakenly assumed that this was another book aimed only at alcoholics, and put it back on the shelf. In that instant we would have lost 70 percent of the intended readership.