Tuesday, September 21, 2004
The New Bodice-Rippers Have More God and Less Sex
...At workshops, after authors presented their works, conference organizers led group prayers, including one for "Kristin and her writing endeavors," Rachel Hauck, the group's president, said at a mentoring session led by Ms. Billerbeck.
In the mornings the group prayed together, asking God to help guide their pens and thoughts. At the conference bookstore, romantic novels shared table space with guides to home schooling. Nearby was a private prayer room for short breaks, and a few writers sang hymns around the hotel piano. "So many people come here to learn to write, and they meet God along the way," said the conference organizer, Brandlyn Collins.
The publishing industry is beginning to pay attention. The Christian Booksellers Association estimates that total sales of Christian fiction have topped $2 billion a year, and the market share of Christian romance has grown 25 percent a year since 2001, the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association reports. As a result editors have begun targeting younger people who enjoy both Christian and romantic fiction.
"Twentysomething and 30-something women were a grossly underserved market in Christian books," said Kelly Gallagher, vice president of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. "There was nothing out there that dealt with the significant, contemporary life issues they face."
Joan Marlow Golan, senior editor at Harlequin, the largest publisher of romantic fiction, foresees an expanding market that will attract more and more young unmarried Christian women. In a recent study of reading habits by the National Endowment for the Arts, observant Christians were the only group of Americans reading more than in the past.
To satisfy that demand, several leading publishers, both Christian and secular romance houses, are rolling out what they call "Christian chick lit" lines. These novels typically feature Bridget Jones types looking for the right man, the right chocolate, the right friends - and the right relationship with God. ...
