The edginess of using a secular publisher

[Lisa Lickel]

I had to justify publishing with a secular publisher. Very secular. Just added glbt line right about the time I signed. Pretty much all the other christians who pubbed with them dropped out. Did I just want to be published so badly that I'd do anything? WWJD?
Cheap shot, I know, but honestly: who do you want reading your books? And why?

I had a great discussion with my dil last weekend about the value of fiction. Sometimes it's a fine line between entertainment and morality preaching. What don't you get about "fiction" the writer of The Shack says. I imagine George Lucas said the same thing about SW, yet there's a whole "church" of the Force.

A question I get a lot at interviews, and I give it, too, is what do we want readers to know about ourselves or anything else for that matter, when they're done reading? I want my readers to know that they haven't wasted their money, for one thing (even though I have to apologize for a less than stellar edit on Grace), but I am also giving them a piece of myself. Maybe other professionals who have been doing this a lot longer know how to put on a personna when they tell a tale, but I don't. You get to see inside of my soul, just a glimpse, when you read me.

Who do I want to see me? And why?

It also took a great deal of courage for the publisher to put "inspirational women's fiction"on the back of my book. I actually didn't know that until I took it to a book store once, to pitch it. The pubber and I talked about it beforehand, obviously, and came up with something else. I thought. But as far as I know, she doesn't put out a category like that in her catalog. Still hasn't. I'm not even on the pubber website. Not much promo, either. There's always two sides to every story. At least.

Entertainment? Moral? Just a couple of hours break from reality? Everyone reads for a reason of her own.