One of my church friends gave me a copy of The Shack for Christmas. I hadn't really planned on reading this. Umpteen people have told me how great it is, but--and this is sort of an immature thing about me--I don't like to do things that everybody else is doing. I especially don't like to read things everybody else is reading. That's why it took me a couple years to read Blue Like Jazz, which I really liked. Maybe I'll like The Shack just as much.
Something interesting about this book is that it's currently the sole title of its publisher. That is, Windblown Media was created to launch this book. The reason: the publishers didn't think a secular publishing house would be able to market the book effectively, and they didn't think a Christian house would know what to do with it either.
This makes sense to me. The mainstream houses probably aren't as in touch with the Christian book-buying bases, which are established and distinct. Christian houses, on the other hand, have to maintain a certain kind of authoritativeness, and they can only push the envelope so far. So a book that speaks directly to Christians but wants to explore beyond the Christian establishment, yeah, probably falls through the cracks.
So Windblown published it a la carte, so to speak, and it's sold a bajillion copies. And I say, good for them.
Here's to interrupting the status quo. Because sometimes, to quote Dr. Horrible, the status is not quo.
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2 comments:
extra points for the dr. horrible quote.
I've emailed with Wayne J., the windblown guy. His blog really pushed me to do the blog, and try and move toward self-publishing. We'll see how the status quo works for Runaway.
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