Nelson Tightens Editorial Standards for Authors

by Jana Riess, Religion BookLine -- Publishers Weekly, 12/6/2006

When Thomas Nelson announced its new One Company initiative, which will eliminate all 21 of its imprints, at an all-employee meeting on October 13, executives also revealed that a theological "content filter" would be in place for future acquisitions. While the company will honor all existing contracts with previously acquired authors, future contracts will require authors—even those writing in non-religion categories like business—to signal their agreement with both the Nicene Creed (recognized by most Protestant and Catholic, and some Orthodox, Christians) and Philippians 4:8 from the New Testament.

"The 'content filter' is really nothing more—or less—than our 'editorial standards,'" Nelson CEO Mike Hyatt told RBL. "My perspective is that editorial standards are inescapable. With the possible exception of Judith Regan, everyone has them." Nelson's rapid growth over the last five years, he said, had caused some misalignment between the company's core values and some of its published books. Hyatt declined to mention specific titles or authors.

Although it has been rumored that the new editorial standards led Thomas Nelson to cancel a contract with controversial Florida healer Benny Hinn, Hyatt flatly denied that. "We didn't cancel his publishing contract and in fact had nothing under contract with him," said Hyatt. "We haven't published him in four or five years just because he hasn't written anything."

Still, it is unlikely that Hinn's brand of Charismatic theology could pass the litmus test of the Nicene Creed, and some industry insiders have wondered whether other Charismatic authors in Nelson's former Ignite imprint will be able to assent to all its tenets. Then, too, there is the question of creeds in the first place: one of Nelson's top authors, Max Lucado, is a pastor in the Church of Christ, a denomination which has traditionally rejected all creedal formulations and standard confessions of faith as a matter of principle, though most members align themselves with Nicene theology.

Nelson's decision is not just about belief, but about the bottom line. Hyatt noted that as part of the company's preparation for this decision, it evaluated the marketplace success of recent Nelson titles that would have either passed or failed the new editorial standards. "In that study, we discovered that projects that didn't meet up to our new standards accounted for only 2% of our total 12-month revenue," he said. "Worse, titles that would not have met our standards sold, on average, 47% fewer copies than titles that met our standards."

Hyatt asserts that even with the heightened theological filter, no topic will be unpublishable for Nelson's authors. "We want to encourage them to write across a broad spectrum of categories," he said. "Some books will be explicitly Christian; some implicitly Christian. But all will be written from a broad Christian perspective. That's the unique contribution we feel called to make."