Popular Bible teacher Beth Moore is trying her hand at fiction. Will Christians read it?
In between writing Bible studies and speaking on tour with her Living Proof Ministries, the 58-year-old author composed her first fictional title, The Undoing of Saint Silvanus.
Scheduled to be released in September, the book follows a young woman returning home to New Orleans.
Moore told Christianity Today, “Who knows if I’ll ever write another novel, that’s entirely up to Jesus,” “But somehow he saw fit for me to get through this one.”
Sales of religious fiction recently took a nosedive but that didn’t stop industry veterans from launching a new Christian fiction publishing house last month, with plans to release 40 to 50 titles in 2017.
Among Americans overall, fiction is a good bet. When given a chance to read for fun, most adults prefer to settle in with a fiction book than with a nonfiction book – that’s according to a recent Barna Group survey.
But Barna also found that practicing Christians (those who have attended church in the past month and say their religious faith is very important in their life) would much rather pick up a nonfiction Christian book than a fiction Christian book.
In fact, among all adults, Christian nonfiction is more popular than Christian fiction: 13 percent of Americans prefer Christian nonfiction, compared with 8 percent who prefer Christian fiction.
Meanwhile, Evangelical leaders told the National Association of Evangelicals in December that they’d like to see more books on mission, social action, and evangelism.