As publishers find their way through the digital wilderness, one sector is leading the rest toward a land where revenue from e-books might someday flow like milk and honey: Christian fiction.

Robert Liparulo: Knocking Down a Wall

These days it doesn’t take long to change the face of marketing. According to Tom Dean, senior marketing director in the trade book division at Zondervan, “The game has changed dramatically in the past 18 to 24 months.” That change comes thanks to the power of social spaces that allow authors to interact with thousands of readers quickly and easily. Facebook, Twitter, blogging, and new avenues such as Pinterest put authors in direct contact with both established and potential fan bases.

The more things change, the more they stay the same”—the old saw describes the state of Christian fiction in 2012. Try to spot inspirational fiction trends for spring, and you could get run over by an Amish buggy. But could the bonnet craze be cooling off? As PW looks at the category at the start of a new year, it appears the appetite for all things Lancaster County, while still healthy, may be spawning new, perhaps smaller, trends. Romance and the longing for a simpler life, along with nostalgia for the pioneer spirit, are fueling the imaginations of authors and the acquisitions of publishers.

How much money is a book really worth? Is it the $25 to $30 publishers typically ask for the hardcover edition? Is it the discounted price plus shipping that an online retailer charges? What if there’s only a Kindle edition you can buy, for 99 cents? Is that same book worth nothing on days when it’s given away free? Is it even correct to call such a digital entity “a book”? The easy answer is that a book is whatever readers decide is a book, and it’s worth whatever they’re willing to pay for it.

Butter, eggs, heavy cream with sherry, and lobster—combined in ramekins and topped with a puff pastry. Like many recipes from Lobster (Storey, May), there is no sparing fat for health concerns. This season’s batch of cookbooks represents an ode to fresh flavor—both traditional and cutting edge.

It's Oscar season, and we here at PW, well, we love the movies…almost as much as books (of course). In honor of Oscar season--and all the nominees based on books--we’re holding a contest!

Our picks this week include a Girlchild and That Woman, Darlings and Disenchantments, Beautiful Souls and bunny detectives, the Emergency State and The Last Great Senate, and more.

Last week, the account of a 19-year-old’s affair with JFK made headlines—and there’s more sex-and-celebrities memoirs on deck. But there’s also a far more noble trend at work in this week’s releases.

In The Darlings—what we called “two parts Too Big to Fail, one part The Devil Wears Prada”—debut author Cristina Alger introduces Paul Ross and the family he marries into, the Darlings of Manhattan.