It's for You

How I finally narrowed down my book audience--kind of

iStock credit: DragonImages

In keeping with all the boundary-setting lessons I’m learning, recently I’ve also discovered I really do need to figure out who my reading audience is. That’s what people in the publishing biz tell you, and I’ve just never been good at nailing that down—not for my writing, not for the Pilgrimage, and not for church either. I create what comes to mind as I interact with Jesus and the people I can see, and my philosophy is pretty much: if you’re interested, it’s for you. If you’re not, that’s okay. Someone else probably has something else for you, and what I’m offering can be for another person.

This is still my philosophy really. But two or three weeks ago, I had a small crisis with the title of my upcoming book, and it was then that I realized I had to make a choice—maybe not about who the book is for, but who I choose for it to appeal to.

It started when my publisher sent me nine covers to choose from, and I shared them with my family, and my husband said, “There’s not one thing in this title that says this book is about Peter.”

“Well,” I said, “It used to be Follower: How Getting Close to Jesus Brought Simon Peter to Himself, but then so many literary agents and publishers told me no one wants to read a character profile, and it really is about the reader and their identity in relation to Jesus, so that’s why I changed it.”

But Paul didn’t seem convinced, and neither did my stomach, because Anxiety Gut instantly took over, and then I spent the evening frantically asking my beta readers and my Kickstarter backers for alternative subtitle suggestions. The Follower ship had already sailed, but maybe there was a plausible and appealing subtitle. There was. So I took a poll to social media, but even in setting up the question, I realized I had a group of people in mind who I really especially hope will read Follower.

In spite of the results on Instagram which were opposite from everywhere else, technically the title naming Peter (choice B, above) was the numerical winner. But I noticed something intriguing:

Most (not all) of the people who voted for B were men and/or still have some kind of healthy connection to a church and the practice of Bible reading. Most (not all) of the people who voted for A were women and/or find church and the Bible triggering, even if they’d like to still go to church or read the Bible and really really hope that Jesus is as good as they once were told He is. Also, most of the second group of people took the time to explain their vote, in ways best summarized by my friend and undeservedly loyal supporter, Fayelle Ewuakye:

I feel like anyone kinda deconstructing or side eyeing religion/Christianity is gonna be more open to A than B. In my anecdotal experience, many are balking at Paul and anyone else who has been used unfairly and incorrectly to push agendas. But many still love Jesus. Or still want to. Pushing the focus of the title into Jesus' light without bringing anyone else into it is what does it for me. I would be interested and then maybe be okay with Peter being the vehicle through which we're getting closer to Jesus.

I feel like B speaks to the academic/solidly Christian demographic. It's not terrible, but it seems way more scholarly and one thing I love about your writing is that it doesn't make me tired or feel oppressed like many scholarly works do.

Follower definitely isn’t scholarly. But I do think it’s knowledgeable. One thing I know, that I put into the book, is the story I’m telling. But the other thing I know is the people I long to have read it. Once I started seeing the trends and who was voting what, I realized that, while I still really hope churchgoing, Bible-reading people will pick up their copy of Follower; How Getting Close to Jesus Brings You to Yourself (just like I hope you’ll take Pilgrimage courses, if that’s you), and even discover some new things about familiar stories and about Jesus and about themselves, my focus audience is the person who can’t handle either church or the Bible right now, but might still pick up a book about Jesus. The back cover blurb makes it extremely clear that the vehicle of self-discovery is the story of Simon Peter, so there’s no bait and switch, but at least the title keeps the gate open. (Look at me hinting at two of the three primary metaphors in the book—fishing, and sheep-herding.)

Focusing on Bible-allergic deconstructors is a risk, my friends. In a day and age, and among a group of people, where “heretical” can be a compliment, I think my book is best described as “unconventionally orthodox.”¹ Among a group of people who are looking for ways decisively to fight the powers that be, some powers of which have included people who talk about “following Jesus” a lot, the idea of following Jesus—even if you find yourself in the process—doesn’t, I imagine, feel all that compelling. And for people who have been abused by (usually male) church leaders—even given the title and the fact that a woman wrote this book—clicking “Buy Now” on a book about Jesus’ main man-disciple is probably a stretch.

So maybe I should’ve gone with the more straightforward title. Maybe that audience is bigger. I mean, actually, that audience is demonstrably bigger. But think about this with me: many people in that larger, more traditional demographic would also pass on this book, for the very same points, even if it’s for the opposite reason. A deconstructor might balk at the term “orthodox,” but a traditionalist is probably going to be a little leery of “unconventional.” A de-churched person might get nervous about the term “following Jesus,” but a contented churchgoer will certainly (some of them told me so) be put off at the idea of finding themselves—even in connection with Jesus. And while a person who still reads their Bible every day may have no problem with the idea of a study about Simon Peter, for a whole lot of them, the fact that a woman wrote it is going to rule it right out.

Let’s be honest—this whole book is a risk. At least from a marketing standpoint. I kind of hope it is from a spiritual standpoint, too, though. A good risk, I mean. The only call to action, really, is to follow Jesus. The world-changing thing happens when someone—anyone, from either “audience”—decides to try it.

The cover was also not my family’s first choice, but Fayelle agrees: it’s my whole personality. And really the perfect illustration for “unconventionally orthodox.”

Follower: How Getting Close to Jesus Brings You to Yourself is launching on amazon on April 2, 2025. But you can preorder it directly from me via the form below, and you’ll probably get it sooner. Hang onto your receipt, because it will be your proof of purchase that will get you into the online launch party on April 6th! Stay tuned for more information about that. In the meantime, please know whichever subtitle you preferred, I actually wrote this book for you.

1. In defense of my deconstructing friends, I need to insist that there are very few if any that I know of who are actively looking for heresy or seeking to become heretics. I just got done with a conversation with one friend who was talking very earnestly about wanting to make sure he was faithfully following God’s calling and didn’t miss it. But even the term “orthodox” gets applied to some very unorthodox beliefs and ways these days, and so sometimes, since there doesn’t seem to be an accurate term to describe “Christian but not the kind I was taught about, or not the kind I see in politics right now,” the word heretic becomes more appealing instead, even if it isn’t accurate.