In today’s Shine, Perishing Republic! news:
Image books isn’t going to be taking on any new authors.
Image Books, the Catholic-interest imprint of Crown’s Christian Publishing Group, will cease acquiring new titles, the company announced March 9. In a statement, Tina Constable, senior v-p and publisher of Christian Publishing, said, “After careful review, we have decided to focus our resources and creative energies to continue to maintain and nurture the deep Image backlist…..we have made the difficult business decision to no longer acquire additional new titles for the Image Books publishing program, which we will discontinue as a frontlist imprint.”
The move makes at least short-term sense. While books by top evangelical Christian authors routinely have robust sales in frontlist, such out-of-the-gate blockbusters are rare for Catholic books.
But take heart! New authors are still finding a home in the publishing world, and making a nice living at it. New authors like Lauren Fern Watt, who has been offered a rumored $750,000 to spin her photoessay “I Took My Dying Dog on a Bucket-List Adventure” into something that someone is going to go ahead and call a book, because why the fork not.
*Sob*
Here’s an excerpt from what apparently functioned as a winning book proposal:
In my book, I plan on discussing what Gizelle taught me about my relationship with Peter, and what it means to love people unconditionally, too. I won’t go into the reasons why Peter and I didn’t work out after two years here and now, but Gizelle eventually showed me that I should try to love my boyfriend like I loved her: unconditionally and without expectations to change him.
As a Catholic author working on a second book, I’m just trying to keep my head on straight, do my best, and hope that someday, somebody will take me on a bucket list adventure that involves donuts.
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