The weather cooperated this week for the consultation and presentation day by Christian Resources Together. I heard before the day started that some 140 people were to be coming, and the sanctuary in Central London where we were meeting certainly seemed brimming with people.
In the social mingling afterward I left my papers somewhere, so can’t give you the official spiel. That can be found elsewhere (see Phil Groom’s blog for the tweets from the day, for instance). But I was greatly encouraged by the meeting. And the presentation that stood out for me was by James Catford, Chief Executive of Bible Society. (As Steve Mitchell tweeted, it was “worth coming just for that.”)
A full outline of his talk will be in next month’s Christian Marketplace so I won’t steal their thunder. But James rooted his talk on 2 Corinthians 4:7-12 “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show us that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” and encouraged us to realize that God has entrusted us to carry forth his treasure to the world.
James was the first of the day to name what we’ve been through – the IBS-STL sale has been a seismic shift in our industry, and if we need to grieve, we should do so. The market is unstable and has probably overcorrected with this shift, but things will settle down again. But in unstable times, more than ever do we need strong relationships within the trade.
What really stood out for me, as someone involved in editing and writing, was the discussion time when representatives of the Association of Christian Writers said how they’d like authors to be involved. Afterward I was talking with authors Vernoica Heley and Marion Stroud, and Marion had a wonderful picture that communicates it well. She said that now the partnership is like a three-leaf clover, including publishers, distributors and retailers. But when you add the authors, it becomes like a four-leaf clover.
Our small group discussed the value of authors joining the conversation. After all, without artists and authors, what do we have to sell? Nothing! And I know that authors feel out of the loop. I heard this just last week as I interviewed three of the Authentic authors for my next column in Christian Marketplace (Adrian Plass, Michele Guinness and Nick Page). Nick, for instance, said that as an author, no one had really talked to him about the changes in the industry, or what the effects of new technologies such as ebooks will be. (And Nick is actually pretty up on the state of the market; see his blog for his comments on bookselling.)
I would love to see authors being part of the discussions and the training days. It can only be good if we could get more authors meeting more booksellers and distributors. Authors and artists would benefit by hearing from the front-liners and booksellers would meet those behind the covers of a book or album.
So how can we turn a three-leaf clover into one with four leaves?
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