5 Publishing Facts & Creative Control as a Christian

Hello, tender friends!

This is the third and final installment on the importance of retaining creative control as a Christian. This is a compilation of information I’ve gleaned from books I’ve read, personal experience and different internet sources.

I’ll share 5 facts and the conclusion I’ve drawn for myself.

1. Books with an explicitly godless or anti-God agenda populate schools and Barnes & Noble. This isn’t a conspiracy theory. I used to teach high school with a national nonprofit and witnessed it firsthand. (And no, I’m not talking about controversial banned books, which I typically don’t have an issue with. I’m talking about books with explicit sexual content/photos that should not be on school grounds). I’m not so old that I don’t remember what it was like to be a teenager, but there’s a distinct difference between making rash decisions as a teenager and witnessing those things being endorsed in a school setting.
2. The books that are featured in prime real estate locations in bookstores occupy what’s known as co-op space. Publishers pay money to occupy this space with the titles of their choice. Notice what kind of titles are in prime locations for yourself the next time you’re at a bookstore. I’ve observed that many have a godless agenda. Not all, but many. The same goes for public libraries, although I don’t believe anyone is paying for that prominent display space.

3. Who tops the New York times best seller list is determined by people in the industry, not the number of copies sold. This is why so many books on that list slip in something that runs counter to the Lord. (I have been disappointed on many occasions to discover that the author of a book that is well-written and entertaining just couldn’t resist slipping in some comment about how “illogical” conservative values are).

4. 5% of agented manuscripts get read. For a book to earn an agent, an agent has to be willing to put time into working on that book even before getting paid. Agents obviously only do this for books they believe are good enough to eventually earn them a good paycheck. That means that 95% of manuscripts that have already been vetted by an agent never get read.

5. If you publish with a traditional publisher, you don’t own the rights to your own book. Think about how crazy that is for a second. When you sign a contract with a traditional publisher, you waive your rights to your own intellectual property.

I don’t have a problem with selling all rights (versus first rights and other legal arrangements) to my journalism work because journalism is, by its nature, supposed to be factual. I’ve never had a concern about an editor twisting my words when reporting on local events and other things.

But as far as my creative work is concerned, I see potential for manipulation. Having witnessed what I have seen in schools and in bookstores, I don’t want to be involved with many traditional publishers. (And no, I’m not delusional enough to believe that traditional publishers would be beating down my door anyway. I’ve never pitched any project to a traditional publisher because I know the stats).

So how do you break through in the publishing world without selling your soul? It’s a David and Goliath situation for sure.

I used to say that I would never do a Kickstarter campaign. I used to say that I would never self publish.

But then there are people like Brandon Sanderson. If you don’t know, he’s a conservative Mormon writer who holds the record for the most successful Kickstarter campaign in history that raised tens of millions of dollars to fund his book projects. (I’ve never actually read his work, but his productivity is certainly enviable).

Then there are people like those I’ve met through my Christian writers group, people who aren’t rich and famous but have managed save themselves tons of money by creating their books independently start to finish. One of the speakers I heard recently told me that she got her book cover for free off of the public domain. That book cover ended up being the favorite of many of her readers.

One of the things that God has taught me through blogging is how much I value full creative control. While my paid work doesn’t offer me full creative control because there are industry guidelines I abide by, this blog has been a balm to my soul because I can share myself in an uncensored way.

After reading a book about self-publishing, I’ve concluded that it’s a ton of work and some financial risk, but that it also allows for the fullest possible creative control that honors God.

I’ve also stopped purchasing books from traditional publishers. Even if the book in question doesn’t contain anti-God material, I know that so many books produced traditionally do and don’t want to support that. I believe in voting with your dollar, so the only books I’ve purchased for the past year or so are either Bible study books or independently published ones.

I don’t know if voting with your dollar is enough to tear down Goliath, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. Let’s try to make a point of financially supporting those who we know seek to honor God.

If you have self-published a book, feel free to share a link to it in the comments (assuming that it’s God honoring). This is one way that we like-minded friends can all support each other in our publishing goals.

Ok, that’s all for today, tender friends! Thank you so much for stopping by, and thank you to the new friends! I’ll be sharing a post on regional speech patterns on Monday, which might sound dorky, but is actually fascinating and related to the writing life. Thursday’s post will be another one on self-compassion as part of living your best life.

Thank you for sharing!

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