Bryan Sumner
Plenty of people today are often discriminate when it comes to reading Christian fiction books. Since it is labeled as “Christian,” they often think that it will be all about religion and Christianity and that they will be bombarded with teachings, so they shy away from even picking up the book.
Christian Fiction Books Have Different Views
There is no denying that you can find plenty of people who are interested in fiction books, but most of them think twice before picking out a book with a Christian theme, especially if they are not Christians themselves.
What they don’t realize is that they are missing out on so many great Christian fiction books by doing so.
Being termed as Christian fiction often doesn’t mean that all of the themes will be outwardly religious or obviously displaying Christian teachings.
In fact, most Christian writers only rarely talk about their faith and beliefs in their books unless it was relevant to the plot details.
For example, there is C.S. Lewis. Lewis was an awesome Christian writer and he wrote books that are loved and gave entertainment, but only subtly incorporate Christian beliefs.
If you read Chronicles of Narnia, you will notice how Lewis creatively incorporated his faith in the characters and plot; making it difficult to interpret unless you are a scholar.
You see, there is hardly any reason why you should refrain from reading fiction books made by Christian writers.
They might incorporate their faith in it, but it doesn’t mean that they will smother you with it. It won’t work that way.
Hence, there is no reason why you should refrain from reading Christian fiction materials.
Reading Christian Fiction Books
If you are on the other side of the page and instead of a Christian fiction reader, you are an author for Christian fiction books, then there might be several things that you want to do to reach your audience.
Although it is not a big endeavor to win people and encourage them to read your book, there are still some things you might like to do to promote yourself and your book. For instance, you can hire a publicist.
Publicist can help to smoothen out your communication with your publishing house so that you can easily promote your book and at the same time get the message out.
These publicists will also take care of the promotional or marketing campaigns conducted by retailers to ensure that your book gets promoted properly. It is essential to enlist the aid of a publicist so that you can be sure that your book gets the right exposure it needs.
Another thing to keep in mind is to make use of important resources that are available, for instance the Internet.
What you can do is create a great website that will be all about your book or maybe you can just create your own website as an author and then provide all the information that they need about the book and your work.
It is not difficult to read and understand Christian fiction books, even advertising your book is not really tough.
All you really need is an open mind and a bit of effort to make your endeavor succeed. Pretty soon, you’ll be seeing great results.
More info on Christian Fiction Books
Tags: christian epic books, christian fiction books
Posted in Literature · February 14th, 2010 · Comments (0)
The phrase “book club” to me is automatically associated with classics like Charles Dickens, or modern works, but it’s always rooted in the realms of literary or social commentary. But sometimes, people just aren’t interested in reading “A Tale of Two Cities” – so you shouldn’t be surprised to find that book clubs span a ton of other categories besides the usual mystery/thriller, historical romance, and memoir. Be creative and try introducing one of these categories to your book club – just think of the fun you could have coming up with book club questions!
Cookbooks
Why not? Cookbooks can be highly personal, especially if it’s well-written. Not only do you get to suss out personal details about the cook, you get the bonus benefit of trying out recipes.Sample questions: How did food impact the cook’s childhood/adulthood? Did you find these recipes frustrating? Did you try improvising ingredients?
Graphic novels
Why not? Many graphic novels are tantamount to literary classics, but with stunning illustration to go along with the compelling story.Sample questions: How do splash pages and irregular panels express broad concepts like intense emotion and the shifting of time? Does the style allow you to better accept outlandish settings like space or futuristic dystopias? How do the writer and artists work together to express characterization and plot development? Did any parts take you by surprise? Were you able to detect patterns in either storytelling or art?
Erotica
Why not? If everyone is comfortable enough to talk about sex and what turns you on (this is the kind of thing I’d see more in a college dorm than a room of mothers), then you could have some truly illuminating discussions about culture, sexuality, and even identity. Also, these are usually short story collections, so you can interact only as much as you’re comfortable with.
Sample questions: Which lover (male, female, or in a same-sex story, clarify which character) did you find yourself identifying with? Why does the author decide to set the story in a bedroom/office/airplane bathroom? Were there elements to a story that unnerved/disgusted you, and why? Is there artistic merit to erotica?
Photo collections
Why not? Whether it’s a tribute to famous musicians, celebrity scandals, landscapes, or landmarks, a picture is worth a thousand words. Think you can come up with more than that in a discussion?
Sample questions: (Steer away from technicalities – unless you’re all photo buffs! – and stick with personal reactions.) Why did the artist decide to use color/black-and-white? Is this a candid or a posed photo, and how does that affect your reaction? What is the message that the artist is trying to transmit?
Audiobooks
Why not? This isn’t so much a theme as a different style of experiencing the content, so perhaps this will dip into the Sedaris and Patterson categories. But introducing the audiobook option could ensure that more members get to actually read the book before the next meeting, due to the ability to have it in the car or on a morning jog. Plus, it can be a more personal experience to have a book read to you by someone, especially if it’s narrated by the author him/herself.
Sample questions: Were you surprised at how good/bad the narrator was? Did the story have one or more narrators, and which works better? Did you find yourself focusing more or getting more distracted listening to the book? (Plus other questions based on the specific category you choose.)
Learn more about book clubs and the questions you can ask at this digital book club, which is currently covering The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Tags: book, book club questions, digital book club, Literature, lovely bones
Posted in Literature · December 21st, 2009 · Comments (0)