October 18, 2006   • BEHIND THE NEWS   • In Radical Reorg, Nelson To Drop Imprints   • Book Profiles Recently Canonized American Saint   • Tyndale Moves 'Left Behind' Street Dates • SHORT TAKES   • Loyola Gives Away Books; ATB Adds Members; Howard Adds Staff • Q&A   • Tony Campolo: Letters to a Young Evangelical: The Art of Mentoring • SPOTLIGHT ON...Interfaith Relations   • Let's Just Talk • RELIGION IN REVIEW   • Three Reviews Coming in Publishers Weekly on October 30   • A Starred Review Coming in PW on October 30 • BESTSELLERS: October Christian Marketplace Bestsellers • COMING ATTRACTIONS • HOW TO SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE BEHIND THE NEWS In Radical Reorg, Nelson To Drop Imprints by Lynn Garrett In a move called the One Company Initiative, Thomas Nelson is eliminating all of its imprints and reorganizing its publishing functions around strategic publishing units keyed to BISAC category codes. The company’s 18 imprints (as well as the three it just acquired with its purchase of Integrity) will be phased out effective April 1, according to president and CEO Michael Hyatt and executive v-p and chief publishing officer Tami Heim. The restructuring was announced to employees on Friday. "The old imprint model no longer serves us well," Hyatt told RBL. "It’s an inside-out way of looking at the market, self-focused rather than customer-focused. The only ones who care about imprints are publishers, and they are expensive to maintain." The category model, said Heim, reflects how people shop, with research showing that most shoppers look for books based on author, message and topic. Over the past several months Nelson has developed a proprietary database using data from STATS and Nielsen BookScan to look at the size and growth rates of categories and the company’s market share in those categories, said Hyatt. "We saw how we are doing in categories we’re already in, and we also saw some we want to get into." Tracking their books’ performance by category will give Nelson a much clearer picture of how the titles are performing. The reorganization will also eliminate title redundancy and improve communication across the company. Read the full story... Book Profiles Recently Canonized American Saint by Amy Tracy On October 16, Mother Theodore Guérin (1798-1856), founder of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods in Indiana was canonized by the Vatican, making her the eighth American to receive sainthood. For Greg Pierce, president of Chicago-based ACTA Publications, the canonization of Mother Theodore offered a unique opportunity to bring out a new edition of a biography that had been out of print for decades. The Eighth American Saint: The Life of Saint Mother Theodore Guérin, Foundress of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana (ACTA, Nov.) was written by Katherine Burton in 1959 under the title Faith is the Substance. In June, Pierce contacted Mary K. Doyle, author of The Rosary Prayer by Prayer (ACTA, 2006) and a graduate of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, asking her to write a new foreword and afterword for Burton’s book. The afterword provides an eye-witness account of the canonization ceremony Doyle attended in Rome. Read the full story... Tyndale Moves 'Left Behind' Street Dates by Lynn Garrett Tyndale House announced today that it would delay by one month the hardcover release of Kingdom Come, the sequel to the Left Behind series and the final book in the series. The new street date is April 3, 2007. In a statement, senior v-p and publisher Ron Beers said the reason for the delay was "to bring Left Behind fans the best possible ending to the series." Tyndale is also delaying the release of the paperback edition of the third prequel to the series, The Rapture, "in order to create more room between it and the release of the Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins book John's Story from Penguin Putnam." The new street date for The Rapture in paperback will be January 22, 2007. Tonight (Oct. 18) ABC's Nightline will feature a segment on Left Behind and its effect on views of the Middle East and end times prophecy. SHORT TAKES Loyola Gives Away Books; ATB Adds Members; Howard Adds Staff by Lynn Garrett To launch The Shoemaker's Gospel by Daniel Brent (Oct.)—the press's first original novel—Loyola is betting $59,000 that giving away books will ultimately sell books. Rather than spending on advertising or on mailing copies to reviewers and journalists, Loyola will send more than 3,500 gratis copies (worth $16.95 each) to pastors, deacons and religious education directors nationwide, hoping not only to inspire those religion professionals personally, but also to move them to spread the word and recommend the book to others. Read the full story...   Q&A Tony Campolo: Letters to a Young Evangelical: The Art of Mentoring by Kerry Ose In this latest addition to the popular Letters to a Young…series (reviewed below), Campolo takes a Pauline approach to the issues of our day. RBL: What led you write this book as letters to young evangelicals? Campolo: The thing that motivated me was the opportunity to communicate to a new generation of young people the pitfalls that have been tragic for older evangelicals. Evangelicalism is in a precarious position. On the one hand, it is doctrinally strong, affirms the Apostles’ Creed, [and] emphasizes a personal, saving relationship with Jesus Christ, and scripture as an infallible guide for living. On the other hand, over the last couple of decades, evangelicalism has been seduced into the politics of the Religious Right. It’s anti-gay, anti-poor, and anti-environment. Young evangelicals need to know that this is not the only way, and that there is a positive way to live out faith that addresses the needs of the poor and the environment and that is compassionate to gays. Read the full story... SPOTLIGHT ON...Interfaith Relations Let's Just Talk by Marcia Z. Nelson It took a while for author Jeffrey Goldberg to finish writing the just published Prisoners: A Muslim and a Jew Across the Middle East Divide (Knopf, Oct.) He had originally contracted to do the book in 2000. But news happens—a second Palestinian uprising, 9/11. So Goldberg's day job as The New Yorker's Middle East correspondent kept him busy. Moreover, the book he was writing was changing. "I thought I was getting my answer that reconciliation was happening, and then it didn't work," Goldberg told RBL from his Washington, D.C., home. "I also was a bit depressed about the state of this particular universe, the Israeli-Palestinian universe. I just didn't want to write something that was unremittingly black." He didn't. The book focuses on the most unlikely friendship that develops over two countries and 15 years between the author, who served a stint in the Israeli army, and Rafiq Hijazi, a prisoner Goldberg guarded during his army service. "I wanted to write a book that went inside the hearts of people engaged in this fight," said Goldberg, who has won a National Magazine Award for his reporting. Read the full story... RELIGION IN REVIEW Three Reviews Coming in Publishers Weekly on October 30 Shiva and the Primordial Tradition Inner Traditions. Alain Daniélou, $14.95 paper (144p) ISBN 978-1-59477-141-5 Better known in Europe than in the U.S., the late French intellectual Daniélou (1907-1994) forged an eclectic career spanning several disciplines, though he is best known for his work on Indian music and culture. READ FULL REVIEW Facing Your Giants Max Lucado. W Publishing Group, $22.99 (256p) ISBN 0-8499-0181-2 Mega-seller Lucado, with 40 million books in print, will draw more readers into his fold with this newest release that focuses on the life of the Old Testament hero David. READ FULL REVIEW Letters to a Young Evangelical: The Art of Mentoring Tony Campolo. Basic Books, $22.95 (224p) ISBN 0-465-00831-3 Campolo offers a strong enough addition to Basic’s Letters to a Young... series that even older readers will learn a thing or two. READ FULL REVIEW A Starred Review Coming in PW on October 30 American Islam: The Struggle for the Soul of a Religion Paul M. Barrett. FSG, $25 (320p) ISBN 978-0-374-10423-8 Near the end of this fascinating and carefully researched portrait of Islam in contemporary America, a California mosque experiences a surprisingly heated internal debate about whether to host a fireworks celebration on the Fourth of July. Somehow, the "canopies of red, white, and blue that for a moment illuminated the minaret and dome" of the mosque crystallize many of the tensions that Barrett describes, particularly how many struggle to be faithful Muslims and patriotic citizens during troubled times. One great contribution of the book is the diverse portrait it offers of Islam in America today, but as Barrett shows, ideological and racial diversity haven't necessarily been easy: Pakistani immigrants are sometimes at odds with African-American converts and (mostly white) Sufi spiritualists; feminists draw angry fire as they strive for greater equality; and self-proclaimed "progressive" Muslims feel at odds as American mosques become increasingly conservative and strident. Barrett is an engaging writer who puts a human face on all of these issues. The book is remarkably even-handed, but Barrett can also be critical at times, whether analyzing the shortcomings of the Patriot Act or pointing to the inconsistency of a self-starting New York imam who works for justice but also praises Muslim extremists. Balanced and insightful, this grassroots journalistic account mines the complexity and depth of American Islam. (Jan.) BESTSELLERS: October Christian Marketplace Hardcovers Captivating John & Stasi Eldredge. Thomas Nelson The Purpose-Driven Life Rick Warren. Zondervan Cure for the Common Life Max Lucado. W Publishing Twelve Extraordinary Women John MacArthur. Nelson Books For Women Only Shaunti Feldhahn. Multnomah The Copper Scroll Joel Rosenberg. Tyndale Heaven Randy Alcorn. Tyndale For Men Only Shaunti and Jeff Feldhahn. Multnomah The Journey Billy Graham. W Publishing The Prophet Francine Rivers. Tyndale Paperbacks Found Karen Kingsbury. Tyndale Jerusalem Countdown: A Warning to the World John Hagee. FrontLine/Strang Battlefield of the Mind Joyce Meyer. FaithWords 90 Minutes in Heaven Don Piper with Cecil Murphey. Revell The Five Love Languages Gary Chapman. Northfield/Moody Wild at Heart John Eldredge. Thomas Nelson Night Light Terri Blackstock. Zondervan Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World Joanna Weaver. WaterBrook The Power of a Praying Wife Stormie Omartian. Harvest House The Bishop's Daughter Wanda Brunstetter. Barbour All rights reserved. ©2006 CBA Services Corp. and Spring Arbor Distributors by Evangelical Christian Publishers Association.     COMING ATTRACTIONS Next week in RBL we’ll look at The Black Bible Experience, with an all-star line-up including Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett and Samuel L. Jackson. We’ll also preview Essential Torah, a new handbook from Schocken.   PW Religion BookLine from Publishers Weekly Editors: Lynn Garrett (lgarrett@reedbusiness.com); Daisy Maryles (dmaryles@reedbusiness.com) Contributing Editor: Jana Riess © 2006 Reed Business Information. Published weekly. If your links aren't working, you can view this newsletter by copy and pasting the following URL into your browser: publishersweekly.com/eNewsletter/CA6382413/2287.html To read past issues, click here. 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