Solid Trade Show for Liturgical Market

By Jana Riess, with reporting by Marcia Z. Nelson, Religion BookLine -- Publishers Weekly, 6/4/2008

Sales and traffic were steady if unspectacular at RBTE, the Religious Booksellers Trade Exhibit, held May 27-30 in St. Charles, Ill. Despite the almost concurrent timing of BEA in Los Angeles, coupled with the high price of gasoline and airfares, show co-founder Bob Byrns said that attendance was "very comparable" to previous years. The show had approximately 155 exhibitors (in the range of prior years' 150-160 exhibitors), about 225 buyers, and upwards of 900 people in total attendance.

The only factor Byrns cited as slightly reducing attendance was the controversial presence of Bishop Gene Robinson as an evening speaker: four Catholic stores protested the speech of the gay Episcopal bishop by boycotting RBTE. But Byrns said there had been minimal fallout from Robinson's presence and that most attendees took it in stride.

Catholics, Evangelicals Forge Partnerships

One of the more obvious trends at the show was the increasing cooperation between liturgical and evangelical publishers, once suspicious of one another. Paraclete Press announced a reciprocal relationship with evangelical powerhouse Zondervan, in which it will alert Catholic retailers to Zondervan's Catholic products, currently at about half a dozen titles. In turn, Zondervan will present Paraclete author Scot McKnight, popular with the Emergent crowd, to the CBA market—an especially good fit since Zondervan will release its own McKnight title this fall. "I think they will be a big help to us in reaching the CBA retailers, and we will be a big help to them in reaching the Catholic stores, because we do that really well," said Jon Sweeney, associate publisher for Paraclete.

At Doubleday, editor-in-chief and associate publisher Trace Murphy noted increasing cooperation between Doubleday, which includes the house's extensive Catholic line, and WaterBrook/Multnomah, which focuses on the evangelical market. "You can't dispute the facts in terms of how difficult it is with the economy in general, and the fate of independent booksellers specifically," he said. "But what is a positive development is the recognition of serving a 'believer' audience. While some stores may need to or choose to dedicate themselves to a focused denomination, there are many stores that are working more broadly across denominational selling and serving a broader spectrum of customer. This is a smart business move, and it may be indicative of a cultural recognition of shared goals between Catholics and evangelicals."

RBTE's Byrns also said that several evangelical visitors attended this year's show in search of possible future exhibiting opportunities or partnerships: FaithWords, the evangelical division of Hachette which has been steadily beefing up its Catholic titles, sent a scout, and a visitor from the CBA organization also came. Evangelical behemoth Thomas Nelson—which has made news lately for pulling out of both BEA and ICRS—sent Matt Baugher, v-p and publisher for spiritual growth and practical living. Baugher said he came to support Nelson partner Liturgical Press, which displayed select Nelson titles aimed at the liturgical trade. Baugher cited Nelson's new seven-book series on the spiritual disciplines as one with cross-market appeal.

Still, some traditional RBTE stalwarts gave the show a skip, including Sheed & Ward (Rowman & Littlefield's Catholic imprint) and Continuum.

Traffic Solid, Despite Economic Uncertainty

Traffic was fair to good at what is traditionally an order-writing show, but the assessment varied widely, depending on who you asked, the time of day and a publisher's location on the show floor. On Thursday afternoon, the aisles were easy to navigate. "Yesterday was busy, today it's quieter," said Bobbi Jo Heyboer, senior director of marketing at Baker Publishing Group. A few publishers commented on a surge in business the morning after the first day. "People did their homework last night," said Linabel Herrera, author relations manager at Crossroad Publishing, a Catholic house.

"We've taken quite a number of orders, and people seem upbeat about their stores and what's going on," said Sheryl Fullerton, executive editor at Jossey-Bass. "It was nice to have Phyllis Tickle [The Words of Jesus] here signing, and to see how beloved she is among this group of people." Fullerton said that buyers are well-educated about this market and have a strong sense of what will sell in their stores, a thought seconded by Will Bergkamp, Augsburg Fortress's director of trade and academic sales, stores, and events. "I think they're looking for sure sales: authors that are known, formats that are immediately appealing. They're not taking as many risks in hard economic times," he said.

Sam Eerdmans, v-p of sales and marketing for Eerdmans, reported that orders were "a bit down from last year," but said that considering the state of the economy, that was not surprising. The economy is "making me and my colleagues pursue more and more special sales," such as book clubs--Eerdmans has gotten several of its children's books into Scholastic Jr., Library Guild, and the like, and two of its adult books into Book of the Month Club.

Two New Clients for IPG

U.K.-based Lion Hudson announced that it will begin selling its books directly to the U.S. market, after more than 30 years of selling through licensing and co-publishing deals with U.S. houses. International rights director Tony Wales said that Lion would continue to work with U.S. publishers to honor existing contracts and series, but that new products would be sold through Trafalgar Square, a division of Independent Publishers Group. "We will be releasing about 60 new titles each year, with a little over half being for children," said Wales.

More good news for IPG: Crossroad also used the show to publicize its change of distributors. Beginning this month, the Chicago-based company will distribute Crossroad and Herder & Herder trade books.

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