Bestseller Bytes

by Daisy Maryles, Religion BookLine -- Publishers Weekly, 9/13/2006

“Five out of ten marriages today are ending in divorce because love alone is not enough. Yes, love is vital, especially for the wife, but what we have missed is the husband’s need for respect. This Love and Respect message is about how the wife can fulfill her need to be loved by giving her husband what he needs—respect. And the husband can fulfill his need to be respected by giving his wife what she needs—love.”

From the first paragraph in Emerson Eggerichs’s bestseller, Love & Respect. He and his wife host “Love and Respect” conferences nationwide. Since its September 2004 publication, the book has sold more than 400,000 copies.

Heaven, published by Tyndale in October 2004, has 276,000 copies after nine printings; rights have been sold for seven languages. Randy C. Alcorn researched this topic for more than 25 years. A former pastor, he founded Eternal Perspective Ministries in 1990 to encourage others to “see life through the eyes of eternity.”

Found is book 3 in Karen Kingsbury’s bestselling Firstborn series, launched by Tyndale in June 2005 with Fame, followed by Forgiven in October; the publisher reports sales to date of more than 350,000 for the two combined. Found has about 170,000 copies in print and Kingsbury fans can look forwardto book #4, Family, this October.

Atheist-turned-Christian (in 1981) Lee Strobel, the award-winning former legal editor of the Chicago Tribune, is the author of some 20 bestsellers, including The Case for Christ. His two other Case titles—The Case for Faith and The Case for a Creator—are also regularly reported on bestseller lists, and all three were among the top 10 religion paperback bestsellers at Borders last month. He is currently working on The Case for the Real Jesus, the sequel to The Case for Christ, scheduled for fall 2007. Sales for all Case products come to more than 8.5 million copies.