Judging a Book By Its Cover

With the advent of eBooks and ereaders like Kindle, Nook, and iPad, the aspiring writer has an opportunity to be on par with the Big 6 publishing houses. The one thing that they had in the past that authors did not was distribution. Now, you can get that rather easily with free accounts with Amazon, Barne & Nobles, and a slew of others.

The convenience of being able to produce your own book and keep all the profits for yourself is liberating, to say the least. The savvy indie publisher/author will know when to do things themselves and when to call in a professional.

One of the instances that I am adamant about calling in a pro on is in the area of book covers. In this industry, people judge a book by its cover and rightly so. It can make or break a book as I've mentioned before. I scrutinize covers constantly and will be the first to tell you that if I dislike the book cover, as in it looks cheap and unprofessional, I will not buy the book. Hands down. No discussion. It is a reflection of how serious the author is taking their craft and when they can't take it seriously enough to present a polished product, I'll pass.


In Christian fiction, I find this to be the number one problem. In perusing the Christian sci-fi Top 100 at Amazon, it took me to about the 40s before I found a cover by an indie author that looked professional. It was called The Didymus Contingency by Jeremy Robinson. The cover is good and it actually prompted me to check out a couple of his other titles.

Even if the book is free, if the cover looks amateurish, I won't bother looking further at an unknown author. There has to be a perception of value that I'm getting from the beginning. Apparently, I'm not the only one that thinks this way. Over half the readers will agree with me when they shop for a book. Of course, this is fiction only, not non-fiction which is a different story.

Since the cover is so important, it would behoove you to make sure yours looks the best that it can. I suggest saving up the money, budgeting between $400 and $600 dollars. You can get a very nice looking cover for that price.

Below is a short list of book cover designers/artists that I recommend (remember, this is for fiction only):

• Carl Graves - Extended Imagery
• Christopher Steininger
• Book Cover Express
• Author Support
• Howard David Johnson

The book cover above is a part of Carl Grave's portfolio. Guy is good if you're going for the thriller novel look. Christopher Steininger is just a good artist. The two companies listed make pretty good covers and Howard David Johnson does some top notch work for romance and fantasy.

The long and the short of it is that you don't want to cut corners here for the sake of a lack of funds. Everything that we do we should do for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). This is an area where you need to bite the bullet and get someone to do it for you. It's the first step in getting folks to take notice of your book. And that's the point, right?

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Posted in: book covers,fiction,self-publish

ChristianWriters.com: The Un-Christian Christian Forum

I've been thinking long about whether to write this post and needed to make sure that it was going to be a post that didn't end up being the opposite of what I wanted it to be. Some time has passed and I feel compelled to write this and let the chips fall where they may.

I recently was a member of the Christian Writers.com forum. At first, I thought it would be the place for me because...well...I love the Lord. Seems reasonable to seek out others that were supposedly like minded and writers. Writing is a lonely endeavor and we need that kind of support.

I posted on there for a while but it began to occur to me that something was amiss. Some of the moderators were acting in ways that were not only questionable but simply wrong. Quite frankly, sinful.

I also noticed that no one could be challenged on the forum if they had bad doctrine or theology and wanted to use that to justify it in their writing. I personally was being accused of doing things I hadn't done. Moderators were sticking their noses into conversations that had nothing to do with them and began wrongly interpreting what was beings said putting words in mine and others' mouths.

It wasn't all bad. I actually made some good connections with people in the short time I was there and I still am in contact with them. But because of these actions, I announced that I was no longer going to post on the forums. I did that not to bring attention to myself, but to let people know that there were elements on that forum that were not attracting Christians but driving them away. However, I did say I was going to pop in every once in a while to the separate social groups I was a part of to check in on those people I had  relationships.

It was a week after that post that I decided to check in and found that I no longer had an account. I wrote to find out if I was banned and for what reason. Still waiting for an answer on that.

Apparently I wasn't the only one. The moderators went on a rampage I suppose. I don't know the details but it was apparent that they didn't like me and my direct approach with a stance on strong doctrine. They also didn't like the "tone" of my posts.

Now, in all my years on the Internet, I have never been banned from a forum or treated in that manner to where I can't even get an explanation. In short, this was the rudest, most unloving, immature forum I've ever been on. Hands down.

That all being said, I don't have any hard feelings. But I can't, in good conscious, recommend any Christian writer to join that forum, especially if you disagree with the moderators or have strong opinions. I will continue to strongly dissuade people from joining the forum if asked. Apparently, the same grace by which Christians are saved is not extended there and we don't need that. They're part of the problem, not the solution for Christian writers. It's sad really but no surprise in the day and age we live.

What I'm hoping is that someone will contact me from the site and there can be some kind of reconciliation as brothers and sisters in the Lord. However, I'm not going to hold my breath. That's grievous and sad but the reality.

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Posted in: Christian writing,writing

Christian Fiction: Reality and Necessity

If you're wondering, yes, I am still working on this blog. However, I had to write a post in relation to something I read recently.

There was a post over at the blog Novel Rocket titled The "Myth" of Secular Fiction. Though it was a play on words, the basic argument laid out by Mike Duran, the author, was that the line between the sacred and secular is unclear and should not be implemented when it comes to art, specifically fiction writing. One particular quote that caught my attention was the following:

By dividing the "spiritual" and the "secular," not only do we create potential animosity or suspicion between camps (the same animosity that forced Lewis towards unbelief), we simply miss God's larger work in the world.

There is much that can be said on Mr. Duran's assessment but I'm only addressing this particular statement since it's the culmination of the article's overall point. I'll address other points in upcoming posts.

Let me say succinctly from the onset that this kind of view is unbiblical.

Secular simply means worldly: of the world, by the world, in support of a worldly worldview. The term is often misused among both Christians and non-Christians and therefore it only creates more confusion. The problem when it comes to fiction writing or other art is actually getting the definition of the terms correct from the beginning.

The Bible is clear about separating  godly and ungodly. Good and evil. Holy and unholy. Spiritual and flesh. There is a fear in our culture today and it is sweeping through churches where to hold fast to this kind of antithetical view is unwise. Some even say un-Christian or unloving. Yet God has clearly laid this out in his word (Psalm 34:14, Proverbs 4:27, Isaiah 33:15, 2 Corinthians 6:17, 1 Thessolonians 5:21, 1 Peter 1:16).

When we separate Christian from non-Christian writing, we are actually fulfilling a biblical mandate not to make a brother stumble (Romans 14:13). While we still have the freedom to do so, we should make a distinction for those who may be weaker in the faith as well as to edify others in the faith (Romans 14:19). Art does not trump the well being of another Christian for the sake of liberty.

Writers who are Christian should not, in any way, support a secular worldview which can be extrapolated from the overall theme of a written piece. Whether we want to admit it or not, when we write something, fiction or nonfiction, we are writing from a presuppositional worldview. This can be deliberate or indeliberate but rest assured, it will come through. If that worldview is not biblically and doctrinally sound, we run the risk of muddying the waters for a lost world, adding more to the problem. In addition, there's also the risk of missing the overall point of our mission on earth as Christians which is to glorify God, standing and representing the truth at all times in all things.

The assumption that Lewis's unbelief was somehow fueled by the antithetical is erroneous. It is clear that if a man doesn't choose God, it has absolutely nothing to do with antithesis but with his own evil heart (Jeremiah 17:9, Psalm 14:1-3, John 3:20, James 1:14-16). He simply blamed it on the antithetical which was the same thing that happened in the garden of Eden (by the way, I love me some C.S. Lewis so don't interpret this as some kind of negative referendum towards him).

Animosity between the secular and the Christian should be expected (John 15:19). We are not called to be friends with the world (James 4:4). We're not even called to change the world. We're called to be faithful and represent the truth, reproving the works of darkness that's in it (Luke 16:10, Ephesians 5:11). That means in everything that we do incuding writing (1 Corinthians 10:31).

In short, any writing that supports and promotes a secular worldview we have a duty to:

1. Reprove as false.
2. Warn other believers not to partake in it.
3. Shun it.

There should be a clear and unmitigated distinction in Christian versus secular writing, fiction or not.

All that being said, it does not mean that everything that's not in a Christian bookstore is secular. I'll cover this in my next post.

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Posted in: Christian fiction,Christian writing,fiction,writing life