The Importance of Christian Books for Men

from Pat Morley

Volume 248
September 17, 2007

What can you tell me about how Christian books for men are purchased and read?

First, a background: A lot of people think that Christian men don’t read. I think what people might mean is that, “Men don’t go to Christian bookstores to buy books.”

In any event, sales of Christian books for men are a fraction of sales for women’s books. This is a genuine problem because no movement can flourish without a strong literature.

Soon we will design and conduct a market research project (e.g., survey and focus groups) to understand how Christian books for men are purchased and read. We will ask questions to uncover, for example:

• Why are Christian books for men purchased?
• Where are Christian books for men purchased?
• How are Christian books for men purchased?
• When are Christian books for men purchased?
• By whom are Christian books for men purchased?
• What are the reading habits of Christian men?
• Who is not currently purchasing Christian books for men that would if properly approached?
• Why did the Christian books for men that did sell, sell; versus the books that didn’t sell?
• What else?

What can you tell me? If you have insight into any of these questions, I would love to hear from you by email at patrickmorley@maninthemirror.org.

I believe that in time, with God’s help, we can figure this out. For example, we saw how easily God put over 1,000,000 copies of The Man in the Mirror into men’s hands during the 2000 Million Book Giveaway. And that program—now called “Books for About $1”—is up to around 7,000,000 books.

We praise God for that, but the general marketplace obviously can’t sell books for a dollar. We need thriving Christian men’s literature that motivates and rewards authors, publishers, and booksellers.

For the glory of Christ and no other reason,

Pat Morley, Ph.D.