Crossover Alliance Vision And Indiegogo Campaign

For the longest time, a good portion of Christian fiction has had a negative stigma, particularly with non-Christians. Many Christians believe Christian fiction should be G or PG rated, injected with a very strong message of forgiveness, with Christ mentioned somewhere in the novel. They also believe that the story should veer away from offending others or causing a stir. Because of this, many non-Christians have looked on Christian fiction as a genre to steer away from because of its preachy and sometimes unrealistic nature. To add insult to injury, Christian publishers add to this stigma by building their publishing guidelines around the same formula, severely limiting the variety of unique stories they allow to pass through their gates.

When the self-publishing movement occurred – and Christian authors realized they didn’t have to follow the “rules” anymore – a genre known as edgy Christian fiction arose. Authors began crafting Christ-centered fiction that fell within the lines of science fiction, fantasy and romance. But there was still a strange stigma regarding the content that was allowed in these pieces of fiction. Swearing, sexual content, and even violence were still trapped behind an invisible fence that authors built around their fiction for fear of being ostracized by the Christian community.

I wasn’t content to have this fence around my fiction, and in 2009 I self-published Black Earth: End of the Innocence, the first novel in my Black Earth series. End of the Innocence broke many of the “rules” of Christian fiction by portraying edgy content and tough spiritual themes. Rape, murder, political corruption filled the pages of End of the Innocence, building a dark backdrop in which I could place themes of redemption and sacrifice.

When it came time to market my work, I came across an online group specializing in edgy Christian fiction, however most of the authors were women and most of the women specialized in edgy Christian romance. Unsure how to fit my work into that crowd, I ventured off and started an online community called The Crossover Alliance. Built around edgy Christian speculative fiction, The Crossover Alliance’s purpose was to draw authors and readers of this type of fiction together to help market it to the world.

Years later, I am in the process of turning The Crossover Alliance – http://www.thecrossoveralliance.com – into an online publishing company specializing in edgy Christian speculative fiction. The demand for this type of fiction – Christ-centered speculative fiction filled with real-world content – is growing. The big name publishing companies no longer have a say in what type of fiction can make it through the iron gates. Many authors are looking to specialize in this genre, while numerous readers are looking for more stories that cross the lines between secular and Christian fiction.

A few weeks ago, I launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise capital for the start of this company. I didn’t reach my goal, but in turn, a new business structure was constructed and now I have an Indiegogo campaign – http://igg.me/at/TCA – running to raise a more modest amount of funds to cover a variety of business expenses over the course of our first year. Please consider pledging to the campaign, as you can score a digital subscription to our entire first year’s catalog and maybe even score a few extra subscriptions to hand out to your friends and family.

David N. Alderman is an indie author of two speculative fiction series—Black Earth and Expired Reality. You can find all of David’s work at http://www.davidnalderman.com. He is also the founder of The Crossover Alliance (http://www.thecrossoveralliance.com), a publishing company specializing in edgy Christian speculative fiction. He participates in National Novel Writing Month (http://www.nanowrimo.org) each year. When he’s not writing or spending time with family, you can find David gaming on any number of different consoles.