June 2009
New Agent at Wordserve!
While the industry is shrinking, Wordserve is expanding. We’re very honored to have Caleb Seeling on board as a new agent who has joined the team. That means we will continue to search out new voices and great writers. Caleb will be a generalist, like all of us must be, but he will be looking for authors who speak to the 18-35 year crowd, as well as general market properties.
Here is a bit more about him:
Caleb has a very broad range of work experience including community organizing Black churches in inner-city Detroit, teaching sociology, providing family and individual therapy, running a permanent housing program for chronically homeless people, and developing a communications package for the prevention department of an HMO. While these jobs paid the bills, his concurrent unpaid experience includes organizing artist gatherings, recruiting and publishing writers for community arts projects, initiating and facilitating film screenings, and most recently, founding a local branch of the International Arts Movement.
Immediately prior to joining WordServe, Caleb was an acquisitions and developmental editor for NavPress. He originated, developed, and launched the NavPress Deliberate line, initiated the partnership between NavPress and the Via Affirmativa artist group, and held the company’s first authors’ forum at Glen Eyrie which included Leonard Sweet, Spencer Burke, Makoto Fujimura, Margaret Feinberg, Scott Cairns, and John Armstrong. Immediately after leaving NavPress, Caleb founded Samizdat Creative Services which provides editing, writing, and consulting for self-publishing writers. He also writes for the online arts magazine The Curator and is a regular columnist for Examiner.com as Denver’s Faith and Family Examiner.
Caleb is a native Coloradan and lives with his wife—a doula and midwife-in-training—and four children in Littleton. He does not have a dog.
Visit Caleb’s blog at http://calebjseeling.blogspot.com and his Examiner column at http://www.examiner.com/x-11213-Denver-Faith--Family-Examiner.
New York Times Bestseller?
Congratulations to Marcus Brotherton for hitting the New York Times extended bestseller list for his book that debuted in May called We Who Are Alive and Remain. On the Hardcover Non Fiction list it was #34 the week of June 28th, #28 the week of July 5th, and #32 the week of July 12th. That doesn’t “officially” make it a New York Times bestseller, but it’s still darn good.
Google Update
We continue to get news and reviews from every source imaginable about Google’s plans to make ALL books available to anyone, anytime. They have already scanned and uploaded hundreds of thousands of out-of-print or public domain books, as well as books still in print. The settlement to authors for this privilege will be finalized (as of today) by September. As a former author with about 20 out of print books, I’m personally going to approve of the settlement. There will be small cash payments, but not enough to buy a round at Starbucks for your and your friends. More to come soon (I promise) as to the details and our recommendations. But I want to urge EVERY author to check out the site and do some research yourself on what you should be doing to protect your intellectual property. The official Settlement website is: http://www.googlebooksettlement.com.
An old friend and colleague in the industry is Chip MacGregor. He blogged about this issue and I thought it was great stuff. Go to his website: www.macgregorliterary.com and then to his blog and scroll through to his May archive post. It’s worth the effort.
ICRS (formerly CBA)
As many authors are aware, the yearly International Christian Retailing Show (ICRS) happens in Denver next week. Rachelle and I will be our usual busy selves meeting with editors, but you will also hear how terrible the attendance will have been. We were told that as of two weeks ago, they had less than 1,000 attendees from retailers coming. While that number will most likely rise, it’s truly a harbinger for things to come in the Christian book selling industry. With retail down to less than 2,000 stores, and most sales happening through publisher/chain meetings months before, the need for ICRS as we’ve always known it is seriously doubted. Thomas Nelson and Waterbrook both are not even coming to the event, and next year in St. Louis, our guess is quite a few other publishers will stay home.
The face of CBA is changing rapidly as the economy hurts the book buying habits of everyone, but also as publishers and retailers struggle to find buyers of what has typically been a brisk industry. With fewer retailers to sell their books too, and those retailers stocking fewer books in less quantity, it remains to be seen how it will affect new and even established Christian authors.
In the months ahead, we will continue to report to you what is happening and why, but just know that the CBA book industry as we knew it over. It’s morphing, evolving…hopefully for the better. More to come.
Clients in the News
The tragic and triumphant story of Wordserve client Terry Caffey appeared in People Magazine the week of June 18th. His book, Terror by Night (written with James Pence) will come out from Tyndale in October. Hopefully with accompanying major media.
New Publishing Contracts
Quiet Time Ministries president Catherine Martin continues her publishing career with another book, this time a woman’s devotional, to Harvest House.
Lisa Velthouse, communications guru and writer at Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids writes a memoir called Craving, her story of a six-month period of time where she fasted from sweets and learned about her life and relationship to God in extraordinary ways, to Tyndale.
James Bell, a whiz at collecting contemporary stories, was selected to be the compiler of an 8-book (what could be 12-book) series of books that Guideposts will publish in a “God Answers Prayer” continuity series.
Dale Black signed with Bethany in a book called My Flight to Heaven that details the story of his small plane crash, his near death and coma, and his remembrance of a trip to heaven. This event happened 40 years ago when he was 19, and Dale is just now telling his story to the world.
Pastors and church planting consultants Hugh Halter and Matt Smay signed with Zondervan for The Genius of the AND, a book for leaders on how any church can continue on in their normal Sunday gatherings AND start forming missional communities to reach out to sojourners; they don’t have to quit one to start another (A Leadership Network book).
Musician and speaker Bob Kilpatrick will write with his son and author Joel Kirkpatrick for Zondervan a book titled The Art of Being You, a title that makes the case that God is an “art” God and not as much a “math” God of details and debits and credits.
Receiving a bronze star in Iraq as a nurse, Army Reserve Lt. Colonel Susan Luz (with Marcus Brotherton) signed with general market publisher Kaplan Publishers for a memoir of her life and her time in the Middle East. The book is titled The Nightingale of Mosul and will be published in May of 2010.
New Releases
In April:
9-11 survivor Leslie Haskin published Got Has Not Forgotten About You…and He Cares More Than You Can Imagine, with Bethany House Publishers
Prolific and beloved novelist Gilbert Morris release Angel Train, the fourth and final book in an 1800’s historical romance with Broadman & Holman.
In May:
Paula Rinehart released What’s He Really Thinking?: How to be a Relational Genius with the Man in Your Life with Thomas Nelson.
Joan Webb released It’s a Wonderful (Imperfect) Life: Devotional Readings for the Women Who Strive Too Hard to Make It Just Right with Regal Books.
Gilbert Morris released Sonnet to a Dead Contessa, the final book in “The Lady Trent Mystery” trilogy, with Thomas Nelson.
Patti Lacy released her second novel with Kregel called What the Bayou Saw.
In June
New novelist Deborah Vogts debuts her first novel with Zondervan called Snow Melts in Spring.
Margot Starbuck released her first book, a memoir called The Girl in the Orange Dress: Searching for a father who does not fail with IVP.
Richard Abanes released Religions of the Stars: What Hollywood Believes and How it Affects You with Bethany.
Archive - click to view
January 2009 Author News & Recent Releases
February 2009 Author News & Recent Releases
March 2009 Author News & Recent Releases
June 2009 Author News & Recent Releases
