Sue Dent's Thirsting for Blood Series: The First Werewolf/Vampire Series to Overwhelming Appeal to CBA Christian Market Readers as well as to its Intended Audience of General Market Readers

    RIDGELAND, MS, September 19, 2009 /24-7PressRelease/ -- In spite of books being deemed socially acceptable for distribution to the Christian market by Spring Arbor, the perceived Christian publishing industry here in the U.S. refuses to acknowledge the success of any work from a non-affiliated Christian publisher with few exceptions.

Larger Christian bookstore outlets such as Lifeway and Mardels as well as large on-line venues such as CBD only carry affiliated work or non-affiliated work that is heavily targeted toward their conservative evangelical readers. Writings about vampires and werewolves and other such paranormal content are completely unacceptable fodder with the exception being that the work can vaguely allude.

"I was never more surprised when affiliated authors and readers from the CBA and ECPA market started leaving wonderful reviews and comments on my first book."

Eric Wilson of affiliated Thomas Nelson wrote in his review of Dent's first book that Dent was "circling the camp, howling for someone to take notice." The industry itself hasn't taken notice but many of their readers certainly have. Snippets from recent reviews generated from a Christian blog tour show what some of what these readers think about Ms. Dent's general market work:

"Aaaah! Finally! I have waited for this book to release since the day I set down "Never Ceese" after finishing it in record time." ~ Janna R. Ryan

"I'm blaming Sue Dent for my current lack of sleep -- once I got around to reading Forever Richard, I couldn't put it down!" ~ Caitlynn Lowe

"I couldn't wait to sink my teeth into the follow up book to Never Ceese. I didn't know how the story could get any better, but it did." ~ Raquel Soto

To read more about what these bloggers had to say you can visit www.ForeverRichard.com and click on Media Room.

"I try to link to as many reviews as possible," Dent says. "But it takes a good bit of time and I do a lot of my promotional work myself. Not because I have to (my publisher certainly pulls some load) but because I feel I need to."

There are also numerous reviews from Sue's general market readers Christian and otherwise. Perhaps the biggest feather in Sue's cap to date is the review done by Maryann Boo of the British Fantasy Society.

"Because I'm relatively new and have a small publisher, I'm always having to work harder to get those reviews that really make a difference. I was ecstatic when Craig Lockley of the British Fantasy Society contacted me to make sure they'd get their opportunity to review Forever Richard. And then to read the review--it was quite motivating."

You may read the review here in full at: http://tinyurl.com/ma23e3

What does Sue say about appealing to a market she never expected to appeal to?

"Well I honestly thought it would be a good thing or at least a better thing than what it's turned out to be. Sure I have a lot of readers who favor CBA and ECPA targeted fiction yet no non-affiliated Christian publisher can advertise on affiliated sites and non-affiliated Christian books aren't allowed in affiliated stores or rather your larger Christian Bookstores. It doesn't even matter if your work has been officially approved for the Christian market by Spring Arbor. At least that's true here in the US. Affiliated awards programs and writers conferences and book shows are also closed to non-affiliated Christian publishers for the most part. It's really disheartening and things don't look like they'll be changing anytime soon. Good thing I don't depend on this industry to keep me afloat."

The month of October is shaping up to be a big month for Ms. Dent. On October 25th she will be moderating a paranormal literary panel at the Vampire Film Festival in New Orleans, Louisiana put on by Reel Entertainment. You may visit www.vampirefilmfestival.com to get more information.

You may also read an interview done by author/promoter Catherine Karp here:
http://suburbanvampire.blogspot.com/2009/09/sue-dent-interview-vampire-film.html

Ms. Dent's Thirsting for Blood series will also be spotlighted at The Open Book Society with Never Ceese being their book club choice for the month. That web address is www.openbooksociety.com.

Another fan will be spotlighting vampire fiction on his blog in October including Ms. Dent's series. You can follow Ms. Dent's blog to read more about this when details become available. Sue blogs at www.suedent.blogspot.com.

A final thought from Ms. Dent.

"Do keep up with what non-affiliated authors are doing in the general market and support them. Otherwise you're going to miss out on some good story-telling that isn't targeted to any particular group of Christians but rather written for the broader market.

The Writers' Cafe Press is a small but growing publishing company that provides readers with quality literature, respectful of Christian values. TWCP specializes in works of speculative fiction--science fiction, fantasy, horror--written from a Christian worldview. Learn more about TWCP at http://www.thewriterscafe.com

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