Are
American book buyers aware that many US Christian books (those from the
leading evangelical publishers) are often cheaper here in Australia?
Maybe I
don’t know where to look, but, in America, a best-seller like “Rumours of
Another World” by Philip Yancey doesn’t seem to be available for less than
around US$13.79 (Amazon).
At Word it’s A$16.95, which is equivalent to US$12.54 (A$1 = US$0.74), and
if you buy before January 3rd you get a further 15% off. There
are numerous other examples.
This is
good news for a book addict like myself. It’s less good news for local book
writers, of which I am also one.
A couple
of years ago I completed writing a novel with a Christian theme, and began
the tortuous task of trying to find a publisher (I’m still trying). I phoned
a senior editor at one of Australia’s largest publishing houses.
“Australian publishers aren’t so interested in Christian fiction,” she told
me. “Word and Koorong import mass quantities of American titles and sell
them so cheaply that local publishing houses can’t really compete.”
Word and
Koorong are massively patronized by local evangelical Christians. And
because they sell so cheaply, it means that general bookstores don’t
normally stock many of the popular evangelical titles.
Evangelicals are supposed to be big on – er – evangelism. But we have
created our own book ghettoes, where, I suspect, few non-Christians venture.
In Australia today, the spiritual seeker who heads to the religion section
of his or her local bookstore will be confronted with heaps of copies of the
latest works of John Shelby Spong and the Dalai Lama, but is unlikely to
find much Philip Yancey.
Click
here for previous
commentary of a curmudgeonly nature, by me, on this topic.
And
speaking of holiday reading, don’t miss Andrew Careaga’s
excellent article on punk rock.
Read,
too, the just-published “Analysis
of Religious Liberty and Persecution Trends, 2003” from the World
Evangelical Alliance. Here are the main trends:
-
Trend One
– Escalating occult violence;
-
Trend Two
– Escalating authoritarianism
-
Trend
Three – Increasing fragmentation;
-
Trend
Four – Rising Islamic fundamentalism.
Compelling and chilling reading.
December 26th, 2003
