A short, but probably not sweet beginning because I’ve got stuff to do..

The first problem confronting the contemporary Catholic publisher is…who’s buying our books and where?

One would think, logically, that the Catholic publisher, like any publisher, would be seeking to get its books out to as many people as possible in places where those buyers actually go to buy.

Not so simple.

For you see, research shows that most people buy most of their books in places like Wal-Mart, price clubs, chain bookstores and online. But the old guard of Catholic publishing doesn’t tend to emphasize those venues for several reasons. One, they’re hard to get into – except for the online sources, although those have their own problems – and a challenge to get shelf space in, especially the more specifically Catholic your book is, unless it’s newsworthy and controversial or written by Scott Hahn (God bless him!). Secondly, there are questions as to where the serious Catholic bookbuyer is going to buy his or her books – are they going to be shopping for their books on sacraments at Wal-Mart? Probably not. Third, there’s the whole issue, unspoken but there, I have no doubt, of alienating the Catholic bookstore owners.

Because, you see, the Catholic bookstore owners, just like any independent, are deeply threatened by big box stores, chains and online bookselling. They are not pleased when they see a publisher actively seeking to prominently place their titles in any of those spots, and for good reason. There have been a few articles recently about how “Christian” bookstores – evangelical – are watching their sales drop because their customers can buy The Purpose-Driven Life and Left Behind and a number of other popular CBA titles in Wal-Mart and Borders now, at a deep discount.

So there’s a dilemma. It leads to a certain timidity in marketing on the part of many (not all) Catholic publishers, a reluctance to really get out there and get titles out to the general public in the places where they’re buying books because they don’t want the owner of St. Cyprian’s Bookspot to be angered and they see most of their titles only appealing to that crowd, as well as the parish market anyway.

So the question we end with is…are Catholic publishers about evanglizing or about preaching to the choir? Can a Catholic publisher actually do both? Is it possible?

BTW, speaking of the chains, De-Coding is supposed to be endcapped in Barnes and Noble during June – if you go into a store and it’s not – if it’s stuck under “W” in the religion section, let them know they need to move it. It’s my understanding that all of the stores are supposed to be encapping it (putting it on those little display shelves on the end of the big shelves).