Christian Fiction Book Reviews

CFRB: Thank you for giving us a few precious moments to have a sit down with you.

Jeff Gerke, of Marcher Lord Press: You're welcome.

CFBR: You have been in Christian Publishing for some time, when did you start getting the itch to work with Christian Speculative Fiction?

Jeff Gerke: I think I had that itch from age 12, when I saw the original Star Wars movie. Watching that movie was like having someone unscrew the top of my head and plug the story straight into my cerebrum. I'd never been that blown away by a movie. Then I became a Christian several years later--and a few years after that discovered the Lord of the Rings novels. I was blown away again, this time by a book but again by a speculative story. Adding the awareness of the power of speculative stories to my growing Christianity caused me to begin thinking in terms of "the Christian Star Wars" and such.

When I sat down to write, that's what naturally oozed out of me. My first trilogy was a set of near-future technothrillers about virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and genetic engineering.

Then, when I started working on staff as an editor for Christian publishing companies, the books I wanted to see published were the SF and fantasy stories that would cross my desk. I usually got shot down in my efforts to get them published, but very early on I became a champion for those books. When I went to Christian writers conferences and saw how many great writers there were who were doing amazing Christian speculative fiction but having no place to sell them, I redoubled my efforts.

That journey eventually led to me launching my own publishing company dedicated to becoming the premier publisher of Christian speculative fiction.

CFBR: Tell us about your publishing company. How does it differ from the main stream Christian publishers, who you saw rejecting these great books?

Jeff Gerke: You know you've created something new when people on both sides of the debate misunderstand it.

In some ways, Marcher Lord Press is more like a traditional Christian publisher than anything else. We're an advance-paying, royalty-paying publishing house that publishes less than 1% of the submissions we receive. The acquisitions process is exactly like at a mainstream house. We produce print books and e-books, not e-books only.

In other ways, we're not like a traditional house at all. We don't try to get into bookstores. Nearly all our sales are done online. Instead of selling thousands of units, our typical novel sells in the low hundreds. We use print-on-demand technology, not traditional offset presses. We have no inventory and no warehouse. We have no staff besides me.

This leads to confusion. For instance, when people hear that we use print-on-demand (POD), they automatically assume we're a self-publishing/vanity press. Not so. POD is just a technology. Instead of printing thousands of units and letting them sit in a warehouse, I print exactly the number of books I have orders for. An order for 1 book comes in--1 book gets printed and shipped. How does that make it a vanity press? The author pays nothing. The unit costs are higher this way, but my overhead is so much lower that I'm still raking in a much higher percentage of the profit per sale.

Another confusion comes because we're not in bookstores. The time when bookstores could demand insane discounts from the publisher and then send books back for a full refund (often in a damaged condition) if they don't sell in six weeks is OVER. I don't give massive discounts and I don't take returns. So bookstores don't like me...and people misunderstand me. Because of this misunderstanding, I had a couple of prominent agents in Christian publishing telling everyone that all I produced was e-books. Gah!

To sum it up, I'm like a traditional Christian publishing house, but much smaller. Smaller financial totals, lower total sales, smaller staff, etc. MLP is a micro-publisher. This also makes people automatically assume that we're low-quality. But a look at our covers and the awards we've won--including a Christy Award and a Carol Award just this year--will hopefully put that thought to rest.

We're a new model. A slimmer, more nimble model that appears to be sustainable even in these financial times. We've been in the black since Day 1 and that continues, by the grace of God.

CFBR: In these economic times, that is the way to go. Tell us some of your success stories like By Darkness Hid, by Jill Williamson.

Jeff Gerke: For a small press just starting out, we've been blessed with an inordinate amount of awards and positive press coverage.

By this October we will have published only 15 novels, and yet 4 of them have been positively reviewed in Publishers Weekly and 2 in Library Journal. We've also won or been finalists in several major and minor awards for the industry. Marcher Lord Press books have won a Christy Award, an ACFW Carol Award, and the EPIC Award, and have shown well in the Clive Staples Award and the Indie Award. Plus our covers have won awards too. In the recent ACFW Carol Awards, MLP novels or staff were up for a Carol in four categories--and in one category of 6 finalists, 4 were MLP novels.

The tagline for Marcher Lord Press is "the premier publisher of Christian speculative fiction." I think we can safely make that claim after a year like 2009--and 2010 looks to be at least that exciting.

Jill's books have been a great boost for us. Not only did her first book win the Christy Award, which opened several doors for us, but her novels continue to be our bestselling books. Granted, our sales numbers won't impress Thomas Nelson or Tyndale. But because my model breaks even on a very small number of units sold, Jill's books have broken even very early and continue to sell very well. This helps fill the coffers so MLP can do more in the future, and, since my authors receive a 50% royalty rate after break-even, it also results in nice quarterly checks for the author.

Indeed, almost half my authors are receiving quarterly royalty checks. Ask any traditional Christian publishing house if they can say that!

CFBR: Some of our readers don't even know what Christian Speculative is, can you tell us some of the themes your authors have tackled?

Jeff Gerke: Speculative fiction is an umbrella term. It is a convenient way of speaking about various strange genres like science fiction, fantasy, time travel, supernatural thrillers, vampire, superhero, horror, end times, spiritual warfare, paranormal, alternate history, and more. Or, as I like to say, "anything weird."

Christian speculative fiction is anything weird from the Christian worldview.

Speculative genres Marcher Lord Press has published so far have been fantasy, SF, technothriller, space opera, and a couple that are impossible to categorize. We have a new one coming out October 1 that I describe as "Moby Dick meets Apocalypse Now--with Nazis." That's König's Fire by Marc Schooley. All the books we publish are worth reading, imo.

As far as themes, we've looked at what constitutes humanity, how would the God of Christianity break back into a futuristic world ruled by sharia law, how strong is man's flesh nature, and many more.

Christian speculative fiction is the ideal lab bench for studying just about any theme or question. It's like a parable--once removed from our reality and therefore able to slip past the defenses and get right to the heart.

CFBR: Moby Dick meets Apocalypse Now-- with Nazis! Wow! Throw in some time traveling Dwarves, and I am so there.

Jeff Gerke: That's book 2. [kidding]

And Marc's first book, The Dark Man, is even harder to classify. It's something like, "A dystopic psychological thriller about a master of disguise-slash-futuristic Saul on the road to Damascus who takes down Christian cells for the government while dodging helicopter gunships, investigating the disappearance of his mother, falling in love, and talking to a wooden block puzzle." *he laughs* It's amazing, but so unusual that not everyone "gets" it right away. It's well worth a read.

CFBR: It is clear, Christian Speculative fiction has quite a reach. Have any of your titles generated controversy?

Jeff Gerke: No, not a one. We were actually anticipating some fallout from A Star Curiously Singing by Kerry Neitz. I call it "I, Robot meets Muhammad in space." *He grins* It's the story of what might happen in a future dominated by sharia law if Christ were to begin re-invading the world. This book, along with The Tenth Crusader by Kirk Outerbridge, takes us to what I believe is the front lines of the most serious threat to our country since World War 2: the steady advancement of Islam. I expected some threats or hate mail on these, but so far we've received none.

CFBR: You have quite a job. Do you have to travel a lot, or do a lot of conventions?

Jeff Gerke: I don't do any conventions. The only one I might go to is the annual ICRS convention, but that's mainly for publishers that want to get into bookstores (and spy on what the others are doing) *he laughs*, and I don't need that.

I do go to a lot of Christian writers conferences, though. In 2009 and 2010, I've been to more than I've ever been to before. This year--counting smaller events, half-day conferences, and full-on 4-day conferences--I will have gone to 14 such events. I started going to so many last year because my first fiction craftsmanship book, The Art & Craft of Writing Christian Fiction, had just released and I wanted to promote it.

I also go because God has given me the gift of teaching, so teaching Christian novelists how to better do what it is they're trying to do is a way I feel I build up the body of Christ. And I love encouraging Christian novelists.

I've got a new fiction craftsmanship book coming out October 17th, this time from Writers Digest Books. It's called Plot Versus Character. So I'll probably go to several Christian writers conferences in 2011 to promote that one.

On the other hand, it does put a hardship on my family when I'm gone so much, so maybe I'll begin dropping the number of conferences I go to. On the other hand, having a secular book come out might bring invitations to teach at some secular writers conferences. That would be fun to try, I think.

Besides, for editors and publishers, writers conferences are pretty amazing. Where else can book nerds be rock stars?

CFBR: You are far from a book nerd, Jeff. It was a true pleasure to talk with you. Feel free to send us a review copy of any must-reads you think our readers would like, and I will review them personally. This is, after all, my genre of choice. God bless you in all you do.