African-American Market Comes of Age

So says Publisher's Weekly, about the African-American Christian publishing market, in an article here.

Not so fast, I say, and I believe some of the quoted subjects would agree with me.

The African-American Christian market hasn't come of age. It's always been there and has been eager, even dying, for good content. By that I mean, stories in its language, from its perspective, by its authors, with its flavor.

"What most people don't know is that we're dealing with a 200-year-old tradition, with the writing and publishing of religious materials within the African-American church,” says (Tony) Rose. “Frederick Douglass and other writers used the church as a vehicle to sell their books and pamphlets, and they self-published through their churches. African-Americans always wrote, always read—we had to write about our plight, whether it was slavery or Jim Crow or some demeaning situation. What we're seeing now is an extraordinary re-emergence of this self-publishing movement, whether it's urban literature, Christian literature, fiction—and religion is leading the pack."

What has come of age is the industry's acknowledgement and recognition of this market.

"Like a slow-boiling stew on a back burner, it just took some houses a while to recognize just how viable a market it was—and tap into it correctly. "

There have been non-fiction titles going back many years, although they were few and far between. Christian fiction with an African-American viewpoint, however, is a newer animal. But publishers, seeing the success of titles by authors the likes of Victoria Christopher Murray, Jacquelin Thomas, ReShonda Tate Billingsley, and Michele Andrea Bowen realized there might be something out there worth mining.

In more recent years, we've seen a spurt in independent publishing, most notably the new Urban Christian imprint of Urban Books, and we've seen more mainstream publishers, like Moody and Baker, develop inspirational or Christian fiction lines featuring African-American authors.

Authors like Kendra Norman-Bellamy, Tia McCollors, Angela Benson, and Felicia Mason along with more recent faces, like Dwan Abrams, Sherri Lewis, Mikasenoja, Shauna Burton and Sheila Lipsey, have brought fresh voices to the market.

So it's nice to see that the market and the industry have finally connected.

And where do we find these books, since although Borders, Books-a-Million and other booksellers are trying, we're still hard pressed to find our books on shelves? African-American booksellers and churck book stores.

Some [religion] houses are promoting authors who are trying to reach the urban lit genre of readers, with gritty story lines and 'real' characters, but without all the trash, and they have a dilemma,” says (Pam) Perry, who places Revell's Rhythms of Grace by Marilyn Griffith in this category. “It looks like a very urban street-lit novel, [intentionally], but they're between a rock and a hard place. It's too Christian for some of the basic bookstores and too gritty for the CBA bookstores. Where they're finding the biggest jolt in book sales is through African-American Christian conferences and in our church bookstores.”

Of course you can find titles like this one online too.

I'm excited and encouraged. I know authors who have put away their manuscripts--or didn't bother to write them--because they couldn't sell their stories to CBA publishers and didn't know how to tap into the ABA market. I wouldn't quite call what's happening an "explosion" but it does suggest that doors are opening, both with independent and mainstream publishers for a different type of Christian fiction.

The type that feels like home.

Have you read any African-American Christian fiction? If so, what, if anything, struck you as different from your other Christian fiction reads?

Peace & Blessings,
Patricia
Stay focused. Move Forward. Believe.