Why so many Christian books?

[Arrghus]

Please do not get me wrong: I applaud the efforts of those to inform others about freebies and deals - Christian-themed books or not!

I am just curious as to why there is such a deluge of free Christian-themed content (generally for Kindle, but sometimes for other devices).

Is this a bit of electronic evangelising? Or just a few very generous publishers wishing to hook in a few extra future customers?

[FizzyWater]

I would suspect it's a little of both. There's always some hope that some (nonChristian) would pick one up by mistake and react to the message.

I also suspect that Christian fiction is a rather niche market - and if you think about many people's (print) book buying habits (standing it line at the grocery store scanning the bestsellers in the impulse aisle?), I suspect they're also trying to get the word out that the books exist.

I know some non-religious types who like the books solely of the general lack of overt sexuality or violence (as well as limited "bad language"), as long as the books don't get "too preachy".

[sufue]

I too have been amazed at the number of Christian-themed freebies/deals. I tend to skip right over them, and I'm sure there are folks who want the Christian-themed books that skip right over the others. I wonder if it would make sense to have two sub-forums? Or are there lots of folks who read both?

[crich70]

I'd guess part of it is the turn of the Millennium not so many yrs back and the greater availability of the market online. It is a niche market as mentioned earlier and they probably don't get as much advertizing offline as they do online. There are a lot of smaller publishers who can benefit from selling their books online and whom wouldn't be as likely to make a sale as some of the bigger ones are via conventional marketing.

[carpetmojo]

Originally Posted by sufue

I too have been amazed at the number of Christian-themed freebies/deals. I tend to skip right over them, and I'm sure there are folks who want the Christian-themed books that skip right over the others. I wonder if it would make sense to have two sub-forums? Or are there lots of folks who read both?

Let's have a kindle sub-forum first, it's getting ridiculous..........

[BrowseTheStacks]

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

Let's have a kindle sub-forum first, it's getting ridiculous

One forum. One world. One peace.

[carpetmojo]

Originally Posted by Arrghus

..........I am just curious as to why there is such a deluge of free Christian-themed content...................

So they can have something to swear on...
........ and books that aren't for burning.

[rcuadro]

I personally thing it is something to try and use religion as a selling point and not so much content. I could be wrong but those are my 2 cents.
It is done with some small business also. There is a small electrical repair company near where I live whose logo conveniently make a cross

[Phogg]

What Fizzywater said.

There is a market for books without overt sexuality, and "Christian" fiction serves it consistantly, even for nonreligious people.

[TalonNYC]

Originally Posted by Arrghus

Is this a bit of electronic evangelising? Or just a few very generous publishers wishing to hook in a few extra future customers?

Many Christian churches preach taking the message to the world, so distribution of free ebooks does exactly that. Since those same churches are also the publishers of the books, they can get the word out by giving the ebooks away for free and further the message without spending tons on printing costs.

[pendragginp]

Originally Posted by Phogg

What Fizzywater said.

There is a market for books without overt sexuality, and "Christian" fiction serves it consistantly, even for nonreligious people.

Yep. It's gotten way harder to find fairly 'clean' fiction.

[Harry_Y]

Originally Posted by pendragginp

Yep. It's gotten way harder to find fairly 'clean' fiction.

I have to agree

Many times I am reading a book and they throw in sex and swearing
and I am left wondering why the author felt the need to put it in.

Many times it ruins a good book.

[DiapDealer]

Many times I am reading a book and they throw in sex and swearing
and I am left wondering why the author felt the need to put it in.

'Cause for many readers, a character crying; "shucky-darns!" when they smash their finger—or are confronted with major adversity—just doesn't quite cut it. It's no real mystery, here. People who swear regularly in their daily lives are more likely to write a book with swearing in it. Make sense?

All of which has absolutely no bearing on the prodigious amount of free Christian Fiction out there. I happen to think it's fantastic for Christians and non-Christians alike. I've read several Christian works that could have just as easily been released by a traditional publisher and no one would have known the difference.

[queentess]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

'Cause for many readers, a character crying; "shucky-darns!" when they smash their finger—or are confronted with major adversity—just doesn't quite cut it. It's no real mystery, here. People who swear regularly in their daily lives are more likely to write a book with swearing in it. Make sense?

There was one book where gratuitous sex really became obvious to me: Replay by Ken Grimwood. Loved the book. There was a large section where the two main characters are exploring a life filled with casual sex and recreational drugs. But that made sense to the story, and it was incredibly interesting. THEN there was this random out-of-nowhere sex scene that didn't advance the story, didn't have any bearing on the characters, and really just pulled me out of the story. This happened near the end of the book, and I was never able to get back into the story. It really ruined the story for me. No plans to read it again or recommend it to anyone, even though I enjoyed everything but that scene. But it dominates my memory of the book and tainted the ending for me.

As for swearing... I recently watched Burlesque. (Yeah, I know. I had hoped, despite the negative reviews, that I would at least enjoy the costumes, make-up and choreography. Turns out all those things sort of sucked.) Anyway, the characters randomly drop a few f-bombs and it felt forced and didn't go with the story at all. Some of that was bad acting, but mostly I think it was bad writing. Maybe the writers don't know how to swear properly?

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by queentess

Maybe the writers don't know how to swear properly?

Oh, there's definitely THAT, too!
There's very little worse than an inexperienced curser when they're practicing. They need to be able to hold their own in a Glou'ster pub before they even think about including it in their writing.