The “Great Divorce” makes publishers unhappy at religion scholars’ meeting

By Marcia Z. Nelson -- Publishers Weekly, 11/11/2008 8:54:00 PM

“Slow” was putting it mildly, and “disastrous” and “dismal” were also adjectives of choice for religion publishers in describing sales to scholars of religion attending the annual conference Nov. 1-3 of the American Academy of Religion. For the first time since the decision was made in 2003, the AAR met in Chicago apart from the Society of Biblical Literature, which is scheduled to hold its annual meeting in Boston Nov. 21-25. The split has been dubbed “The Great Divorce” between the two major professional groups for the country’s religion specialists teaching in colleges, universities, divinity schools and seminaries. If AAR and SBL are sundered spouses, religion publishers are their unhappy relatives, forced to choose meetings or pay their way to travel to, staff and supply two conferences.

“What a bad idea,” said Sheryl Fullerton, executive editor at Jossey-Bass, articulating what many publishers said about the split. “This is a big selling show for us and people are not coming through.”

Many reported fewer browsers, slower sales. “I had heard there were 5,000 people here, but you would never know it,” said Bobbi Jo Heyboer, senior director of marketing for Baker Publishing Group. AAR put the registration total at 6,000, a number that includes members, exhibitors, spouses/partners, and some duplication of records. This year 131 companies exhibited, compared to 150 last year.

Many publishers also agreed that this first year of dual shows was a trial year for them to help them determine how many books to bring and which ones or at which show to host author receptions and debut titles. “This is the first year we have things for both groups of people, but we’re not sure who likes us better,” said Bryan Williams, regional sales manager for Abingdon Press. “We’ll test it and see what happens.”

Still, the verdict was not universally gloomy. A number of publishers were making at least some lemonade out of the lemons of their circumstances by meeting with authors, scouting potential authors, networking with colleagues. “It’s great for publisher to publisher relations,” said Nicole Smith Murphy, associate director and product and sales manager of Baylor University Press.

And yes, there were sales. Publishers offer their books to academics at discounts of 40 to 50% and sometimes greater in order to get them in the hands of readers who might then adopt those books for courses they teach. Early Monday, the last day of the show, some reported lots of customers. “People were running in” to HarperOne’s booth near the hall doors, reported Diane Burrowes, director of academic and library marketing for HarperCollins.

While the dominant explanation for low sales was the Great Divorce, some also faulted the economy. Josh Messner, development editor for Fortress Press, said academics feeling the economic pinch didn’t want to pay to fly home with a suitcase full of books. “That’s going cost them $30 now,” he said. “The days of people walking around with stacks of books is over,” agreed Bernadette Price, associate publisher of Orbis, who also said her company could not afford to do two meetings.

Separate shows for religion scholars will continue until 2011, when both AAR and SBL will meet concurrently and under the same roof in San Francisco. Robert Puckett, AAR director of meetings, said that a lot of work would need to be done to reunite the two large meetings beyond 2011. He also acknowledged the burden placed on publishers by the dual meetings. “They have the most valid argument for why we need a joint meeting,” Puckett said.