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| ACTA: Spirituality without footnotes By Patty Gayes SPECIAL CONTRIBUTOR There are many challenges facing Catholic publishers now, but the biggest is to help clear out “the two big gorillas in the room,” said Gregory Pierce, co-publisher at ACTA Publications. Who are the “two gorillas?” Pierce explained: “One is the new fear in the world after Sept. 11. The other is the skepticism about the church after the pedophilia scandal. “One thing publishers will have to do is to help people deal with both of these issues,” Pierce said, “as people look outward to see what they can do to help the world, and also inward to what their church is all about.” Appropriately, ACTA is an acronym for “Assisting Christians To Act.” The publishing company is Chicago-based, at 4848 N. Clark Street, under the direction of Pierce and Tom Artz, co-publishers. Started in 1986, ACTA is one of the few small, for-profit religious publishers around. Most are owned by religious organizations, Pierce said, or are a branch of a much bigger secular publishing company. ACTA’s niche in the Catholic publishing market is to produce, “books for the end-user of Christianity, books for average people that will help them live their lives and deepen their spirituality. “I always say ‘there are no footnotes in ACTA books’” quips Pierce. Some of their biggest sellers are Chicagoan John Shea’s books and tapes, including his “Gospel Food for Hungry Christians” series. “It’s a fallacy to say Catholics don’t read. Catholics read, but they don’t all have an interest in reading about their spirituality. The involved, active people in the parishes – the ‘usual suspects’ I like to call them – are reading these books now. But the average Catholic may have a real interest and not even realize spirituality books are an option for them.” Last week, when the Catholic Book Publishers Association met in west suburban St. Charles, one of the agenda items was to address this challenge–reaching more of the Catholic population. The association, which includes most small- and medium-sized Catholic publishers nationwide, agreed to undertake a project to encourage Catholics to read spiritual books. “We came up with lots of creative ideas. For example, we may ask pastors to mention a particular book in their sermons, in exchange for offering a copy of the book free of charge to the parish. If we had advance notice of the sermon, we could have ordering information for the book on hand,” Pierce said. The way people buy books about their spirituality is changing, he added. Some buy through direct sales–each publisher has a catalogue sent to a mailing list of individuals and parishes. Some buy through independent Catholic and Christian bookstores. But a growing percentage find spirituality books in secular bookstores, particularly the big chains like Barnes & Nobles, or through their internet services, like Amazon.com. RELATED STORIES: LTP: Promoting a richer prayer life Loyola: Books for everyday Catholics Front Page | Digest | Cardinal | Interview |
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