What challenges do Christian writers face in trying to reach people?
Good question. My feeling is that you can’t say either small books are better, or small books are worse. Some people say small books are better because people read them who wouldn’t read bigger books. Other people argue small books are bad because they over-simplify. There is a Christian columnist for the Oregonian who interviewed me on the success of small books. He was primarily talking about The Prayer of Jabez. He said, skeptically, ” How long are these books?” I said, “Sixteen to 17 thousand words, which for a book is very, very small.” He said, “You can’t portray truth accurately in something that small.” I said, “Well, that’s interesting. If you took the Sermon on the Mount, does that convey truth?” “Well, of course.” “How many words are in the Sermon on the Mount? I don’t know, but it’s fewer than 16 thousand!” And then I added, “Well, you make your living writing a column that is 800 words, three times a week. And you’re telling me you can’t tell the truth in 16 or 17 thousand
