Proclaimer Blog
Reflections from the EMA Bookstore
This week we are beginning our review of the EMA Bookstore with tenofthose.com. These are all anecdotal observations; nevertheless, there is some truth here that is worth reflecting on:
- 2012/13 was a good year for books with some really strong, helpful, gap-filling titles published. It's exciting to see UK publishers at the forefront of this work. It seems publishers are, on the whole, becoming smarter about their new titles. That's great news, because there is enough crud around already. We recommended some of these titles, but the truth is there were a dozen more we could have commended. I will try to blog about some of these over the summer.
- There is a discerning hunger for good books. Preachers do not, on the whole, come to the EMA (or any other conference) for the BookStore. Nevertheless, many have commented to us on the importance of a well-stocked, carefully-chosen group of titles. We were slightly unsure how space might work; in the event we brought 1,000 titles, but could have extended this (and we will in 2014) by another 25%.
- Preachers are beginning to think more broadly than books they might read themselves. They are thinking about evangelistic books, books that congregation members could read and so on. We've tried to foster that at the EMA and we're really glad to see it beginning to take hold as a culture.
- There are still significant gaps in the book market, despite the large number of books available in the UK. There are still precious few books for teenagers, for example. And there are few books dealing with the issues raised by age and dementia. One or two are appearing, but nothing compared with books on, say, youth work and marriage (please, no more books on marriage!)
- Preachers have become light readers. Some of our weightier volumes, chosen very carefully, sold very few copies. That may be a price issue, but casual conversations with preachers reveal that we are, on the whole, becoming lighter readers. Those heavier volumes require greater time and intellectual investment, but preachers, we need to be stretched!