More Inroads into Religion

Major trade houses continue to invade Christian publishers' terrain

By Lynn Garrett, with reporting by Jana Riess and Phyllis Tickle -- Publishers Weekly, 6/18/2001

Thursday and Friday were an exhibitor's marathon for the many religion publishers who had to divide staff between the Religious Booksellers Trade Exhibit in St. Charles, Ill., and BEA (see sidebar). It was the 10th year for RBTE and the ninth year it has been able to piggyback on BEA (the exception was when BEA went to L.A. in 1999). By all reports, the scramble was worthwhile, with religion houses enjoying another successful RBTE and a solid BEA as well.

The biggest story at BEA was the continuing invasion of Christian publishing by big New York trade houses, the latest being Warner, which officially launched its new evangelical Christian line at a Friday luncheon. In opening remarks, Warner publisher Jamie Raab noted that old barriers between the CBA and ABA worlds have broken down, a trend that has become particularly pronounced in the past few years. Last summer's CBA International convention was the scene of some controversy when it became public knowledge that Warner had successfully wooed Thomas Nelson publisher Rolf Zettersten to head the new line. Just weeks before this year's BEA, Nelson filed suit against Zettersten for violating his noncompete agreement by approaching Nelson authors for Warner; just days before the show, Zettersten announced he had signed John Maxwell, whose Failing Forward and other business titles have been bestsellers for Nelson. A publishing executive who wished to remain anonymous told PW, "If Nelson loses that suit—and it probably will—there are a slew of ex-Nelson employees who will feel freed from their own non-competes. It will be interesting to see what happens."

Maxwell's first Warner book isn't due until 2003, but the fall list includes books by such CBA mainstays as Jerry Jenkins, coauthor of the phenomenally successful Left Behind fiction series, whose September novel for Warner, Hometown Legend, is a tale set in a small town that revolves around the high school football team. Continuing the sports theme will be a September advice book by Dodger great Orel Hershiser, Between the Lines: Nine Principles to Live By (written with Robert Wolgemuth, a former Thomas Nelson executive). Jenkins was the coauthor of Hershiser's 1989 autobiography, Out of the Blue, which was published by Wolgemuth & Hyatt, a short-lived publishing company founded by Hershiser's current coauthor and Mike Hyatt, who has succeeded Zettersten as publisher at Thomas Nelson.

The Little Prayer That Could

While the Left Behind juggernaut continues to roll along, the most recent phenomenon in Christian publishing is Multnomah's controversial The Prayer of Jabez, which by BEA was up to eight million copies in print and had been the subject of a Good Morning America segment, a Time magazine article, and both a front-page story and an opinion piece in the New York Times, as well as countless other media mentions. Penny Whipps, publicity manager, told PW, "Traffic has been solid, almost continual, with the most interest in Jabez and Secrets of the Vine [the follow-up title, currently on the PW and NYT bestseller lists]." Kevin Marks, senior v-p, said, "There's no doubt the third Wilkinson book [still untitled], out next May or June, will be a hot product."

Another publisher who must be very happy about Multnomah's success with Jabez is Thomas Nelson, whose children's division, Tommy Nelson, has signed with Wilkinson and Multnomah to release four titles for kids preschool through "tweens." The Prayer of Jabez for Kids (same size and format as the adult book) and The Prayer of Jabez for Little Ones board book are scheduled for July; The Prayer of Jabez for Young Hearts picture book and The Prayer of Jabez Devotions for Kids: Living Big for God are October releases. Nelson executive v-p Lee Gessner told PW, "We hope to build a whole children's publishing strategy around what has become a very successful brand for Multnomah. We're moving our whole publishing strategy to more of a brand orientation." Along those lines, Tommy Nelson also released this month a title for teens and tweens by John Maxwell: Leading from the Lockers. Gessner commented that Nelson had met with more internationals and seen more rights interest in its books at this BEA than ever before. "Frankly, we weren't adequately prepared for that, and we will be next year." In what has been a tough year financially for Thomas Nelson Inc., one bright spot has been its Word division, which has been profitable, according to Word publisher David Moberg, who said, "We'll continue to use BEA to tout our major general-market releases, with more galleys and more giveaways." He added, "The show has scaled back in a healthy way, and it's a great place for creating buzz."

Zondervan, which recently debuted its updated Zonderkidz.com Web site, also has a strong children's line and a plan to emphasize books for tweens in 2002. Zonderkidz's list of bestsellers is dominated by Bibles, and the company owns two-thirds of the children's Bible market and nearly 30% of the Bible storybook market, according to marketing director Kathy Bieber. One non-Bible success has been The Legend of the Candy Cane (1997), which has sold more than 350,000 copies. Among the authors feted at a hot-ticket party hosted by HC president Jane Friedman on Saturday night were Harper San Francisco authors Jamling Tenzing Norgay (Touching My Father's Soul, May), Kent Nerburn (Road Angels, June) and Kenny Kemp, whose 1999 title, Dad Was a Carpenter, sold 20,000 copies and won the Writer's Digest award for best self-published book before being picked up by HSF and released this May. Kemp's next book, tentatively titled The Carpenter of Galilee (volume one in a three-book series) is due out in 2003.

Laying Down the Weight

One trend in evidence at the show was the plethora of books linking the battle of bulge with spirituality. The Regal Books imprint of Gospel Light offers two books by Carole Lewis, leader of First Place, a Christian dieting program based at First Baptist Church in Houston. First Place (July) provides the details of the program; Choosing to Change (Aug.) gives "the bare bones," according to Regal publicist Marlene Baer. Also in August, Regal will publish the First Place member kit, which includes a Bible study, a leader's guide and orientation videos. Thomas Nelson's October title is Thin Within: A Grace-Oriented Approach to Lasting Weight Loss by Judy Halliday, a registered nurse, and Arthur Halliday, a physician. Like First Place and the Weigh Down program (popularized by Gwen Shamblin in books for Doubleday and Thomas Nelson before Nelson dropped her in a theological dispute), Thin Within offers workshops through a network of churches. The Thin Within program and book will also be promoted through the Women of Faith conferences, estimated to reach 375,000 women each year. A multifaith approach is taken by Kensington's Citadel Press with The Prayer Diet: The Unique Physical, Mental, and Spiritual Approach to Healthy Weight Loss by minister Matthew Anderson, due out in September. And another house with titles on the topic is Hazelden, with five on display at its BEA booth, among them Food for Thought and Inner Harvest, two from the Hazelden Meditations Series. For those who've decided to revel in their size, Wildcat Canyon Press offers Bountiful Women: Large Women's Secrets for Living the Life They Desire by Bonnie Bernell.

After exhibiting its adult line with Abingdon last year, Eerdmans had its own booth in the religion section, along with, once again, a booth for its Eerdmans Books for Young Readers line in the children's area. There was joy at two new honors: Song for the Whooping Crane by Eileen Spinelli, illus. by Elsa Warnick, won an IPPY (Independent Publisher Book Award) for best children's picture book for ages seven and up, and its nine-month-old Web site, www.eerdmans.com, won the 2001 Benjamin Franklin Award for Best Designed and Effective WWW Homepage. Still family-owned and operated, this year Eerdmans is celebrating its 90th birthday.

The University of Pittsburgh Press was highlighting its Pitt Poetry Series, but this year with a new and more emphatic twist. Top on the Pitt Series list for spring is Journey: New and Selected Poems, 1969–1999 by Kathleen Norris. Norris, bestselling author of such nonfiction religion/spirituality titles as The Cloister Walk and Amazing Grace, is currently on tour promoting her memoir, The Virgin of Bennington (Riverhead). According to Pitt marketing director Dennis Lloyd, Norris is opening and closing every appearance and reading for Virgin with a selection from Journey. As a result, he told PW, the collection "has been getting a good bit of interest" at BEA.

Oprah at Three O'Clock

Paulist Press showed two faces at the convention, with side-by-side booths, one red and the other a tranquil blue, the latter highlighting Paulist's three-year-old HiddenSpring imprint. Paulist marketing director John Thomas explained, "We wanted to give HiddenSpring a separate identity and a higher profile this year, though next year we'll probably go back to one exhibit." On Sunday, HiddenSpring editorial director Jan-Erik Guerth experienced every publisher's dream at BEA—an Oprah sighting. "She walked right by our booth, and I got up the courage to stop her and give her a copy of Conversation, which I've been wanting to get in her hands for a long time," he told PW. (Published last fall, the book by Theodore Zeldin is subtitled How Talk Can Change Our Lives.)

Beyond Words Publishing has what must be one of the more unique spirituality titles on its fall roster: The Beatles Way: Fab Wisdom for Everyday Life by Larry Lange (Sept.) offers "Seven Foundations of Fab" for seekers who want to make the famous Liverpudlians their gurus. And for those who want to figure out how to write and publish such a book, Beyond Words' October Spiritual Writing: From Inspiration to Publication by Deborah Levine Herman might be just the ticket. Considering how healthy the religion/spirituality category continues to be, that's one how-to that might find ready readers.

Highlights

The Prayer of Jabez starting to looklike a franchise-builder
New children's lines and titles targeting the "tween" audience
Several publishers linking the battle of the bulge with spirituality
Last but far from least—an Oprah sighting

Double Options for Booksellers in Religion

Booksellers again got a double dose of religion in 2001, first the Religious Booksellers Trade Exhibit—targeted to Catholic and Episcopal bookstores—and then BEA within an hour's drive. Not all of the buyers who attended RBTE chose to make the eastward trek to McCormick, however. Katherine Pinard, manager of the Sacred Path Books & Art shop in Cleveland, told PW, "RBTE is the most awesome show because it is so particular to Episcopal booksellers. We don't even do BEA—we don't have the time, and we find everything we need here."

That must be music to the ears of RBTE cofounders and organizers Peter Dwyer and Bob Byrns, since next year BEA meets a month earlier in New York, and they have decided not to relocate or reschedule RBTE. "With Mother's Day, graduations and First Communions, our booksellers can't leave their stores in early May anyway," said Dwyer, who just before the show had been promoted to director of the Liturgical Press. Added Byrns, trade marketing manager for Liguori Publications, "The spacing of the two shows next year might ease some of the burden on exhibitors." Dwyer said he expected the separation of the two shows to have "some effect" on RBTE attendance. "This year we saw more Europeans here, and more foreign-language rights activity. Next year it will be tough on the internationals." That sentiment was echoed by Joanna Moriarty, editorial director for SPCK Publishing in the U.K. "We don't know what we will do yet. Both shows are important for us, so we might just have to split up staff to do both." Dwyer and Byrns told PW attendance was up 8% this year, with 228 buying stores and 159 exhibitors.

Exhibitors across the board were more than pleased with RBTE. Said Paraclete sales rep Laura McKendree, "This has always been our best show, and by Wednesday we had taken more orders than during the whole show last year." Our Sunday Visitor marketing director Jill Kurtz told PW that RBTE is "our number one show." Surprising additions this year included Conari and New World Library—better known in the New Age market—who shared a booth and enjoyed good traffic, displaying their general spirituality and Christian-oriented titles, such as Conari's Christian Acts of Random Kindness. (At BEA, Munro McGruder, marketing director of New World, said the two houses will be back at RBTE next year and each will likely have its own booth.)

Commenting on the humane logistics and pacing of RBTE, Paulist Press marketing director John Thomas said, "You can tell this show was organized by guys who spent their lives standing in booths and never got to eat lunch." (RBTE's show floor shuts down for lunch, and show-organized luncheons this year featured popular singer-songwriter John Michael Talbot and Jewish Lights author Lawrence Kushner).

Another publisher who appreciates the "sense of community" created by the lunch breaks was Eric Major, director of religious publishing for Doubleday. "RBTE is so important—we publish into the heart of this market, doing books on 'faith with boundaries.' " At the show, Major fielded several Doubleday authors, including Scott Hahn, Ronald Rolheiser (another luncheon speaker) and Molly Wolf. "This show keeps us in touch with the marketplace—talking to dealers helps us shape our list," Major said. He added that he didn't think the separation of the two shows next year would "make much difference."

Jossey-Bass, moving aggressively into the liturgical market, had an expanded presence and product line at RBTE this year. Signing at the show was Sarah York, author of Pilgrim Heart: The Inner Journey Home (Apr.). Mark Kerr, marketing director, said, "She signed 400 books here—we ran out." He also noted that Episcopal stores are selling Jossey-Bass's titles for religion professionals in bulk to churches and other groups. (When Jossey-Bass first exhibited at RBTE four years ago with just four titles on its new religion list, Carol Brown staffed the booth. This year she was there as marketing director for PageMill Press, newly revived as a Christian imprint of Wildcat Canyon Press.)

Zondervan was again at RBTE seeking the liturgical market for its Catholic Women's Devotional Bible and previewing its new Good News Translation My Book line, which debuts this spring. "We're here to listen," said Sharon Cole, promotion manager for Zondervan Bibles. The company surveyed booksellers about their Bible needs, and will also adapt its Bible translation guides and develop other merchandising aids for this market. "For example, they need smaller shelf-talkers, not the big displays that work well in the CBA stores," said Cole.

As further evidence of the growing cross-faith cooperation in the religion market, Spring Arbor hosted Tuesday Dealer Day at RBTE, introducing a new RBTE Bestseller List order form, broken down by subcategories and featuring religious goods as well as books. Zondervan partnered with Loyola Press to host Catholic booksellers at a Wednesday dinner. The show also featured a first-time inspirational fiction exhibit, combining titles from 10 publishers, most of them evangelical Christian but also including Ignatius Press, which abandoned RBTE several years ago in favor of the more conservative Catholic Marketing Network show. Carol Johnson, v-p of editorial at Bethany House, who organized the exhibit, said she was pleased with the interest from liturgical booksellers in carrying these titles, which were specially selected to work well across the faith spectrum. Buyers were able to place orders through Spring Arbor. She added, "This is good practice working together, and we are thinking of doing other kinds of combined exhibits here, maybe in children's, for example."

Also laying a foundation for future ventures were two booksellers' groups. The Episcopal Booksellers Association began organizing itself four years ago at RBTE. This year, EBA—currently at more than 80 members—voted to incorporate and allowed vendors to join as non-voting members for the first time. On Thursday, representatives from 50 Catholic bookstores met and agreed to form an association, appointing a director and launching several initiatives.

The 11th Religious Booksellers Trade Exhibit will be held May 28–May 31, 2002, at the Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles, Ill.