Singing the Midlist Blues
A midlist author is one whose books are well received but have failed to make a commercial breakthrough, whose work sells solidly but unspectacularly, who's well known within the writing community but the majority of book buyers have never heard his name. --David Armstrong, How Not to Write a Novel: Confessions of a Midlist Author
It’s the label no author wants: midlister.
The word is sometimes spoken with disdain: “Ugh, that is so midlist,” or “She’d better stick with one publisher or she might just end up as a midlister.”
Oh no! Anything but that! The midlist author never finds his or her name at or near the top of anyone’s best-seller list—perhaps even when that list is divided into highly specific sub-categories such as “Protestant fiction chick-lit.” No, even then, the author can’t seem to break into the top ten, or even the top twenty. But she still writes a terrific little piece of chick-lit, and she has some faithful readers.
Never mind that thousands have found her works life-changing—the healthcare professional rethinking abortion; the family member reconsidering her decision to walk away from Christianity; the neighbor who is seriously considering the claims of Christ for the first time.
The midlister finds little comfort in such information, because what matters is the bottom line. Money and sales.
Yes, to be a midlister is often to provide one’s publishing house with its bread and butter. But it’s also often to “get no respect.”
I’m not saying this because I’ve never made anybody’s best-seller list. I actually do know what that feels like, nanosecond-like as it was. And I know the thrill of having long lines waiting to get signed copies of my book at CBA. (Okay, so it was about sex and it was free, but still….)
I am saying this because of my concern about the celebrity-driven mentality I see in Western Christendom. Ironically, a lot of these celebrities’ books are written by ghostwriters who are, you guessed it, midlist authors. That’s the only way such celebrities can keep cranking out four or five books per year while also speaking three out of four weekends every month. They have to have help from non-celebrity types who are willing to get no credit. And the low-profile authors allow themselves to be part of such arrangements because of the potential for ministry, even if nobody knows who they are.
If you are a big-sales author using ghostwriters, take a risk. Step out on the faith you claim to own. Rather than preaching about community, show your commitment to it by insisting on two or three names on the cover instead of yours alone. Is it truly honest to do it any other way?If you're an author, work hard to perfect your craft and sell your books. But try never to lose sight of this truth: The goal is His renown, not ours. And never judge other authors by their sales. We all know some scary people with great sales and some fabulous people with lousy sales. As with anything else, man looks at the outward; God looks at the heart. The best book I’ve ever read on ministry made no one’s list. And the pastor with probably the greatest readership in the world is shepherding a church of about 400. Yet by posting free sermon transcripts online at a site that gets four million hits per year, he’s making a huge impact discipling the nations.
But you’ve probably never heard of him. I hear the only name he likes to drop is the name of Jesus.