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For anyone longing to hear the voice of God, the book market has a growing reply: you can. And you need not confine yourself to classic scriptures that constantly are reprinted. Scholars and industry observers say readers have unmatched access today to books claiming to be divine revelation-that is, God's own words.

Some in recent years sparked sensations. Conversations with God, by Neal Walsch (Putnam, 1999), and The Celestine Prophecy, by James Redfield (Warner Books, 1997), reached best-seller lists, begot sequels and spawned followings who saw the authors as prophets.

Others are less well known, such as Salam: Divine Revelations from the Actual God, by Shyam D. Buxani (SAU Salam Foundation, 2003). Despite small odds fur success, self-publishing opportunities have enabled works in the new-revelation genre to become long-shot contenders as a big seller--or the text that births a new religion.

Publishers traditionally cast a skeptical eye on manuscripts asserting they are divine revelation, according to Lynn Garrett, religion editor at Publishers Weekly. That's because, she says, most are poorly written and have little new content of value to offer. "I seem to get more self-published submissions than ever before," Garrett said. Though numbers in this "new revelation" genre are not officially tracked, she said, "there are always a few" that would fall into the category.

Authors of would-be scripture range in approach from New Age to ultraconservative, but they generally share at least one trait: thick skin. Salam, for instance, required 20 years of work and reportedly more than $100,000 from the author's own pocket to become a published text. Mainstream and religious bookstores alike have in the end refused to put it on their shelves. One distributor, saying "Salam deserved a bit more comment" than a standard rejection letter, wrote author Buxani: "This title is an exercise in old-time, hardshell, pig-ignorant, radical neo-Gnostic Dualism which I had thought the Consciousness of Humankind had moved way, way beyond."

The spread of new revelations seems to know no borders. From Australia, for instance, an author known as "The Little Pebble" claims to provide direct messages from the Virgin Mary--a much-claimed phenomenon in the history of Catholicism. Through his nine booklets, he attracted enough followers to inspire a five-year investigation and a bishop's mandate to disavow any affiliation of the author with the Catholic Church.

America, however, may be uniquely disposed now to welcome new revelations. One major reason: those Americans who no longer depend on established religious authorities for spiritual guidance. "Religion has become deregulated," said John Berthrong, dean of the School of Theology at Boston University and author of The Divine Deli: Religious Identity in the North American Cultural Mosaic (Orbis, 2000). "That means many people who would have lurked in the shadows of the occult are now out in the open. There's just much more freedom to express yourself without fear."

In a deregulated religious climate, readers show a fascination with ancient writings that might have become scripture had authorities not rejected them. The Gospel of Thomas, for instance, has remained in print for more than 40 years, generating repeated rounds of analysis, including that in Elaine Pagels's recent best seller, Beyond Belief (Random House).

There are, of course, examples of prophets recording revelation first and then going on to found a great movement upon the text's code for life. Muhammad founded Islam in this manner in this seventh century; Joseph Smith began Mormonism by the stone method in the 19th.

Scholars tend to discount any new contenders as hopeless. "Some of them really do become large mass movements," Berthrong said. Especially if the future brings disaster or a great deal of uncertainty, "I would not be at all surprised to see that," he added.--G. Jeffrey MacDonald, RNS