The second major event of November--but not as important as Jonathan's birthday, of course--was the ECPA Publishing University, held in Lombard (Chicago), Illinois, from November 4-6. This was the third Publishing University, offered by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, that I have had the opportunity of attending. Various tracks for the different aspects of publishing are led by leaders in the industry, and it's always a good time for professional development.
It's interesting to be in the same hallways and elevators with industry leaders like Mike Hyatt of Thomas Nelson and Dwight Baker of Baker Publishing Group, but attendees were given a special look at one of the giants of publishing with keynote speaker Jane Friedman, CEO of HarperCollins, owner of Zondervan.
The next two days were filled with sessions devoted to the different areas of book publishing. I primarily attended the sessions for editors, but I did attend one marketing session and one publicity session. Two of the editorial sessions had to do with working relationships between editors and authors and editors and literary agents. The authors want us editors to have a relationship with them, and honestly, even though I'm kind of new to this, I never imagined not being friends with my authors. So I was happy to learn that I have been taking the right approach.
One session had to do with editing books for readers beyond the church. The presenter explained to us that writing that reaches readers beyond the church must depict a Christ-saturated worldview, be authentic (I've never heard that before [sarcasm here]), and maintain that Christ is a mystery (i.e., we don't have all the answers). It shouldn't be bogged down with "Christianese," should offer up fresh metaphors (one example was a passage from Donald Miller comparing his spiritual journey to penguin mating habits, and I still don't quite get it), and have conversational diction peppered with four-letter words (if we REALLY want to reach the unchurched).
Having just celebrated Reformation Day by sharing an article on Luther's understanding of the power of the Word in team devotions, this session was less than inspirational to me. I'm a believer in presenting the gospel as the Scriptures present it, and I get a little nervous when people start talking about "making it relevant" so that it will be appealing to nonbelievers. The truth is that the gospel will always be an offense to those who don't believe; we are called to tell the truth, and then we need to trust the Holy Spirit to do His work. And this is the exciting potential for those working in Christian publishing: offering gospel truth in an understandable, yet uncompromising, way and watching to see how God, in His providence, will use it. His Word will not return void, and we must be faithful in presenting it, even if it means using Christianese.
ECPA Publishing University is an important tool and worthwhile experience. There is much to be gained by sharing in the knowledge and accomplishments of others in the Christian publishing industry. It's always exciting to hear about the trends and issues facing Christian book publishers, hopefully making us all more effective in our jobs.
4 comments:
Annette, I think these metaphors when used in talking about a person's experience in a spiritual memoir do serve to grab the attention of readers in a way that "Christianese" cannot. Whatever is meant by christianese- I don't think that is the gospel either. What I do have a harder time with is when some authors don't seem to clean it up or mature, but maybe this is because they are paid by their publisher to keep speaking the way they do.
"I did learn that it is possible to give an hour-long commercial for a publishing company while reading from a script,"
Glad to hear I wasn't the only who sat there wondering when she was going to actually say something worth sitting there for.
Hi Jim,
Unfortunately, Ms. Friedman's address was not the best thing about Pub U. I guess to be fair, she did say some interesting things about publishing in developing countries and Harper Collins use of the Internet.
Julia--Look for an up and coming post on Christianese. I've been thinking a lot about this topic, and thinking about all that I could write about it.
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