That’s because Tolkien, Lewis, and McDonald could NEVER get published today in the Official Christian (TM) Publishing industry. Not Christian Enough, No Chick Lit Appeal to the target demographic, Not Safe Enough for the Whole Christian Family, Not Sweet Enough, et al.

Here’s a link to a Brit Christian SF writer that says it better than I can — “Sex, Death, and Christian Fiction” by Dr Simon Morden.

And another to “Minister or Entertainer” by Steve “Meltdown at Madame Tussauds” Taylor that covers much of the same ground.

Me? I’m going mainstream, to the main SF publishers.

According to Jeff Gerke over at Marcher Lord Press (who was in the Christian publishing industry for years), the target market for Christian (TM) fiction — and the actual sales demographic for Left Behind — is basically Born-Again Bored Housewives, just like the target market for Twilight and Harlequin bodice-rippers, Except CHRISTIAN (TM).

(But then, a lot of what goes on among American Evangelicals is basically “Just like last year’s fad, Except CHRISTIAN (TM)!”)

Last year, one of our spies in the Lost Genre Guild attended some sort of CBA/ECPA Christian Publishers conference. The buzz in a lot of the presentations was The Next Big Thing: Christian Paranormal Romance — “Just like Twilight, Except CHRISTIAN (TM)!” You can’t call them Vampires, but they still have to Sparkle in the sunlight. (While actual Christian paranormal romances like Sue Dent’s Never Ceese are recduced to small-press or self-pub.)

It’s something I’ve seen in Furry Fandom: Fanboy Fanservice. A fanboy will buy anything that floats his/her boat and Fanservices his/her obsession, no matter how bad. Whether what turns them on is fur & tails on all the characters or Bible-verse quotes and Altar Call Endings. As Lewis put it, “An addict has low sales resistance.”