RELIGIOUS WRITING

Religious writing. This is a genre wide open to freelance submissions—whether for articles, short stories, books, poetry or fillers. The publishers primarily are Christian, Catholic, or Jewish. If you want to write for any of them, you need to be affiliated with that religion and have a clear understanding of their beliefs and interests. The Christian publishers fall into two categories denominational (associated with a specific denomination, such as Southern Baptist or Congregational), and nondenominational (no denominational affiliation). Those publishers also fall into evangelical publishers, such as Southern Baptist, Nazarene, and Assemblies of God; and mainline church denominations, such as Lutheran, Episcopalian, and Presbyterian. Some of these publishers will accept an implicit Christian message where others insist on an explicit Christian message.

This genre includes publications for young children through senior adults. The market includes needs for religious adult publications, children's publications from nursery school through junior high, teens, pastors and leaders, missions, women, and devotional publications. There are about 500 religious publications. Generally speaking, most of these publications have small circulations and go from no payment, up to competitive payments from the larger publications.

There are also book publishers that publish books exclusively for the religious market. They cover many topics, but all must have a religious slant. Religious publishers believe they have a mandate to publish only religious books. Although there are denominational and nondenominational publishers, most of the denominational ones now publish books for an audience wider than only their denomination. They all make their books available in religious bookstores. You will find a list of Christian and Catholic publications and book publishers in the Christian Writers' Market Guide, http://www.stuartmarket.com. For a listing of Jewish publishers, go to: http://www.avotaynu.com/ajbp.html.