Do you ever stroll through the Christian / Inspirational section of your local bookstore and wish there were more books that
feature voluminous ruffly dresses on the cover? More books that don't star emotionally torn widows setting off for the frontier? That aren’t all about how you “feel” and the “journey you’re on?” More books that you'd actually want to
So do we. Gut Check Press is proud to bring you books your mom wouldn't like. Books without the obligatory tearful conversion scene. Books with sharp edges.
No flowers. No fluff. No fainting.
Interview with Co-Founder and Secretary
of the Interior, Ted Kluck:
How did Gut Check Press come to be?
When I was a child, I dreamed of three things: Being an author, an athlete[1] , and a publishing mogul. I currently spend a lot of time in co-founder Zach Bartels’ basement, smoking cigars and looking at bad evangelical ephemera. We figured why not create some of that ephemera ourselves?
Do you ever get the feeling that middle-aged women run Christian publishing?
I do. That's why there's a proclivity of Amish Girl fiction, and that's why there's a discernable lack of books written by men, primarily FOR men. Don't get us wrong, we love middle aged women. Our moms are middle aged women. Our wives, Lord willing, will be middle aged women someday too.
What did you learn by publishing several books with traditional secular and Christian houses?
I've met and built relationships with a bunch of fun, smart, hardworking people in publishing. But I also think it's weird that making a book (from idea to bookshelf) is usually an eighteen-month process. These houses all employ an army of full-time employees with health benefits and cubicles, most of whom are away at a conference when you try to call them on the telephone. The publishing industry loves conferences. We figured we could handle this on our own and potentially have a lot more fun doing it.
Are you bitter?
No...(bites fingernails, sighs)...maybe a little.
Will you still work with traditional houses, in addition to running the Gut Check empire?
Of course.
What are some phrases we’ll never hear at Gut Check Corporate Headquarters?
“Feasibility Study.” We don’t have these at Gut Check. Our feasibility studies consist of deciding whether we like a book enough to do it or not. We may do ten books a year....we may do one book every ten years. We realized that a lot of the reason why it takes years for a book to go from the idea phase to the bookshelf in traditional publishing is that nobody actually wants to take responsibility for the success or failure of a book.
But still, look at all of the books that fail?
Yep.
What else, phrase-wise?
“I’ll have to run that by the committee.” We don’t have committees at Gut Check Press
What are some phrases we WILL hear at Gut Check Corporate Headquarters?
“Keep the Talent Happy.” We really believe in this one.
What are your submissions guidelines?
We don’t accept unsolicited submissions from authors other than ourselves at this point. That may change, but I doubt it. We’d be willing to waive this policy for Jim Harrison, Kevin DeYoung, Tim Lahaye, Jerry Jenkins, or any of the Baldwin Brothers. For the aforementioned, our door is always open.
Footnotes:
[1] This is the only thing I actually dreamed about.
