Following some professional and personal updates, we embrace the energy of the coming summer by digging into a recent Publisher's Weekly Religion article highlighting how "anxious readers" are apparently buying up Bibles. It felt like a suspiciously familiar trope, so we tried to unpack that assumption a bit.

No mention of the widely publicized decreases in church attendance, or religious disaffiliation as a whole, but we an earlier article claimed some publishers, very different ones, are "saying Amen to resistance" with books from the progressive left (and the conservative right too, of course) responding to our overheated political climate.

But even that framing feels shoehorned. We wonder where are the truly fresh takes? Where's the deeper dives beyond the stereotypes? (Again, is "mainstream audience" even a useful term anymore?) If you're tired of the tired tropes and assumptions, we hope you'll tag along for some rousing discussion.

Specific articles mentioned can be found at publishersweekly.com, News > Religion section: "Religion Publishers Say Amen to Resistance," and "Anxious Readers Turn to God."

Publishing Disrupted is at PublishingDisrupted.substack.com

Mick Silva is at MickSilvaEditing.substack.com

David Morris is at dvdmorris.substack.com, LakeDriveBooks.com, and Hyponymous.com.

In this episode, David and I talked about the difference between writing books that seem important or interesting, and writing the stories that you didn't choose, but must be told. That's a massive difference, and it's not often talked about enough. So we talked about it.

I shared two quotes: one from Jeff Foster about being less prepared and more vulnerable, and another from Brené Brown on owning your story. Both fit nicely into what we're really trying to do in these conversations: to take time for a more honest response to the big disruptions in our lives, and to consider what we want to do about them. Relating, sharing, writing, and living, all ultimately working toward better integration.

Jeff Foster's book is You Were Never Broken.

Brené Brown's is The Gifts of Imperfection.

Publishing Disrupted is at PublishingDisrupted.substack.com

Mick Silva is at MickSilvaEditing.substack.com

David Morris is at dvdmorris.substack.com, LakeDriveBooks.com, and Hyponymous.com.

David and I discussed our impressions of the FFW writers conference this year where we had many conversations at the Lake Drive Books table about some of our favorite topics--and books.

For some reason, none of the big 5 Christian publishers were there. Which is pretty interesting when you realize this is one of the bigger and better-known book conferences that included many well-known Christian authors.

Come listen in as we bat around some theories and try to determine whether there's a similar reason the most popular faith-based publishers and mass culture are so monolithic and risk-averse.

Publishing Disrupted is at PublishingDisrupted.substack.com

Mick Silva is at MickSilvaEditing.substack.com

David Morris is at dvdmorris.substack.com, LakeDriveBooks.com, and Hyponymous.com.