A reader named Stacy contacted me with the following question:
Cecelia I love your books…unfortunately were I live (NM) they do not carry many AA Christian Fiction books at the library.
Has anyone found a Black Christian Fiction book club? We really need one…the ones I have found don’t carry many AA authors.
Please let me know.
I had to contact Stacy to determine what she meant. The term book club appears to have a double meaning nowadays. I asked her if she meant the gatherings that people have periodically to discuss books, or if she meant the book club where you receive catalogs in the mail and order the titles of your choice.
She meant the latter.
The truth is, there are no Black Christian fiction book clubs that I know about. If they exist, then someone should respond to this post and enlighten me!
One way that you can purchase commercially-published Black Christian fiction from a book club is through Black Expressions Book Club. I’ve noticed they’ll usually have an African American Christian fiction section in their catalogs and on their website.
My first book, which was released exclusively through book clubs, was an African American Christian fiction title. It was acquired and featured in Crossings Book Club first and a month or so later it was featured in Black Expressions Book Club catalog as the feature of the month.
Crossings is another bookclub that features Christian titles only. They’ve had a number of African American Christian fiction titles over the years.
Most of the book clubs are owned by a company called Bookspan. Bookspan is a company that is a merger between Bertelsman(The Doubleday Book Club Empire) and AOL Time Warner.
About Bookspan
Unless things have changed, I believe this is still the case. I would think if an African American Christian Fiction book club were to be started, then Bookspan would do it? I’m just speculating about this because although I know the business side, somewhat, I have no idea of how somebody would go about contacting Bookspan about starting an African American Christian fiction book club. I suppose one could send an email to Bookspan via their website to make a suggestion about starting a Black Christian Fiction Book Club, but it’s hard to say how the results would pan out!
The best I’ve been able to do, as I’m sure Stacy has probably already noticed, is to start a website exclusively for Black Christian Fiction Authors. I created this website since I noticed that I had a hard time finding a collective unit on the web which displayed all African American Christian fiction authors. I hope readers find it useful.
Until next time,
Cecelia Dowdy
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I love Cecelia’s writing as well, very passionate. New and upcoming books making a stir. The best one I have heard about and I pre-ordered it already is a book by a unknown author titled THE TRUTH “The Illumination of Conscience” the title itself stirs up a sense of intrigue. The one chapter that the author has available on his website http://www.thetruthbooksite.com seems very thought provoking and gives you a profound sense of understanding of how our world works. I look forward to getting the book and reading the rest. In anycase it is well worth checking out for yourself.
Anonymous, I apprecite your visiting Cecelia’s Christian Fiction Blog and leaving a comment. However, I just want to stress that my writing is passionate in my love for the Lord, and I feel passionate about my characters. I don’t want people to misinterpret your comment as meaning “sexual passion”…