I’m not a published author but feel God has gifted me to write full time. Do you think it is a realistic goal to expect my writing to provide my yearly income?

It takes about 1.5 to 2 years to write a book. Assuming you have a publisher interested in your book, the book would need to sell between 10-12,000 copies in order for the publisher to break even. 20,000 copies is considered a good seller. An established author would need to sell 50,000-250,000 in order to break even depending on the advance, printing, marketing budget, etc.

The amount of money brought in does not usually justify the amount of time spent on writing the book. There are very few full-time Christian writers. It's very rare ...

What is your opinion on pen names?

I think we’re on the same page with pen names. My concern would be in two areas: intent and effect.

Why do you write fiction?

I have always loved stories, and the Bible is the greatest story ever written. The unfolding drama of redemption is a story, but it is a true story. When we write fiction, what we are doing is making up a story as, what J.R.R. Tolkien called, ‘sub-creators.’ Creators with a small ‘c.’ We are made in his image, so we can invent a story, and that story, though invented, is not ‘false.’

Long Tomorrow: A Letter from Best-Selling Author Randy Alcorn

To those who ask me about the challenges of writing, I learned long ago that I should never wait for inspiration or a good beginning.

I believe I’ve read somewhere that your book Deadline is being made into a movie? Could you share about that?

Chuck Norris approached me four years ago, asking me to come stay with him to talk about making a movie. He said Deadline had a great impact on him, and he really wanted to see it produced. Since then we’ve been with Chuck and Gena a number of times, in California and Texas, and they’ve come up to Oregon to our place, and we’ve developed a close relationship. (You should have seen the reactions when Chuck walked in with me to our home church where I used to be a pastor; our church is in Boring, Oregon. No joke, that’s the name of the town. Let’s just say celebrities don’t find their way to our church.) Chuck and Gena are sincere followers of Christ, looking for biblical counsel and seeking to grow and honor the Lord.

Randy Alcorn, author of the novel Deception: Passion in His Pen

Unlike authors who, after landing their first contract, find themselves on a runaway treadmill trying to churn out one manuscript after another, often on topics about which they have no passion, Randy Alcorn has cleared a different path.

Quote on Writing

Since God did not give me the gifts of a monk, he made me a monk’s failed cousin, a writer. Both callings render you slightly odd, a man alone in a room, denying one part of his manhood in order to awaken another. Both force you to shape silence and darkness and waiting into prayer. Both teach you the agonies of silence and of speaking, and the way God’s voice can brim in each. Both require you to listen much, pray much, study much, plow much. One demands you drink much wine, the other much coffee. I’ll ...

Randy Alcorn Talks About Heaven, Small books, Christian Fiction

You referred to your interest in heaven as a passion and a hobby. When did that begin?

C. S. Lewis on Writing the Chronicles of Narnia

Some people seem to think that I began by asking myself how I could say something about Christianity to children; then fixed on the fairy tale as an instrument; then collected information about child-psychology and decided what age-group I’d write for; then drew up a list of basic Christian truths and hammered out “allegories” to embody them. This is all pure moonshine. I couldn’t write in that way at all. Everything began with images; a faun carrying an umbrella, a queen on a sledge, a magnificent lion. At first there wasn’t even anything Christian about them; that element pushed itself in of its own accord. It was part of the bubbling.

Can Fiction Tell the Truth?

Imagination and truth go together in good literature. Because a story is “made up” does not necessarily mean it is not true. It means it is imaginative. Fiction is basically literature about imaginary people and events (and includes mysteries, fantasy, drama, science fiction, and more). The definition of fiction is to shape, to fashion, to feign. Feigning is imagining-making visible images for invisible things. Why should I read fiction if it is just made up? I read it because it helps me pay attention to life. Reading good fiction is not simply a frivolous activity for those who aren’t ...