You’d think publishers would learn. How much money have they lost over the years by buying books — fiction and non-fiction — from stars and social media iconoclasts? Those were bad but this goes beyond bad. This goes beyond, “Maybe I can read it if I drink enough”. It even goes beyond “I’ll buy it to show how woke I am.” It is just plain bad — as the professional reviews and Amazon reviews show.This author reflects the frustration of new voices in all media, but also the possibility of what publishing can become in this century as it de-centralizes.
Try and write something innovative for a church publishing house. As most of their budgets are claimed by church leaders and a select cadre of safe, innocuous clergy and laity for whom they have created a safe, innocuous market, there isn't much left over for new voices. Rejections of those who are not members of the "in-crowd" are routine.
Out of curiosity, I recently tallied up the names of those whom I know who are commonly published by the in-house companies. Granted, I'm limited in that I only know about 2/3 of them, but they tend to be my age, far whiter than am I, and either bishops/moderators or blessed with a wherewithal that permits them not to be bound to traditional church work.
In other words, they are the last people from whom I want to hear as they don't represent the common experience of mainstream Protestants. I don't mean this petulantly, it's just that their perspective tends toward the uniform and bland. If I want that I can simply read press statements from the Protestant churches.
We are far beyond the cowboy days of Protestantism, unfortunately, so the likelihood of some maverick publisher seeking out alternative voices is rather low. There is no Lawrence Ferlinghetti in contemporary Protestantism; there probably never will be.
As the stigma of self-publishing lessens, it may be interesting to see what will be produced in the near future.