David C. Cook has sold more than one million copies of Francis Chan’s Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God since its release in May 2008. Chan’s first book, it has ascended multiple bestseller lists including those of USA Today, Publishers Weekly, CBA Marketplace, and the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. The book calls for radical devotion to Jesus, and Chan has donated all author royalties for this and his second book ( Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit; David C. Cook, 2009) to charity. His first two books for children — Halfway Herbert and The Big Red Tractor and the Little Village (also David C. Cook) release this fall.

Revell author Mary Beth Chapman (Choosing to SEE: A Journey of Struggle and Hope with Ellen Vaughn; Sept.) is featured in the September 6 issue of People magazine, on newsstands this Friday, with a q&a and a review of the book. Chapman is the wife of Grammy and Dove Award–winning recording artist Steven Curtis Chapman and president of Show Hope, a nonprofit organization the Chapmans founded to provide financial assistance to families wanting to adopt orphans, both domestically and internationally. Revell is an imprint of Baker Publishing Group.

Tyndale is sending novelist Francine Rivers, author of more than 20 bestselling novels including the Publishers Weekly and New York Times bestseller Her Mother’s Hope, on a tour of nine bookstores in Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee between September 16 and 25. This will be the author’s first visit to stores in these four states. All of these events will take place within the two weeks following the September 14 street date of Her Daughter’s Dream, the sequel to Her Mother’s Hope. For tour dates and locations, go to http://mediacenter.tyndale.com/3_news/press_releases.aspx.

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Also at Tyndale, Coming Back Stronger: Unleashing the Hidden Power of Adversity, the recently released memoir by New Orleans Saints quarterback and Super Bowl XLIV Most Valuable Player Drew Brees (written with Chris Fabry) ,reached as high as #1 on the Wall Street Journal list, #2 on the Publishers Weekly list, and #3 on the New York Times list. On August 29, the book was on the New York Times list for the sixth consecutive week. These rankings put Brees’s Coming Back Stronger “in elite company as one of the bestselling biographies or autobiographies about an athlete still playing his sport,” according to Tyndale. Brees has done more than 70 print and broadcast interviews, including ABC’s Good Morning America, FOX News’s Hannity and On the Record with Greta Van Susteren, NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and an entire day of interviews at ESPN. He has signed more than 20,000 copies at 12 events in seven states (Alabama, California, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, and New Jersey). At many of the signings, people camped out overnight to have Brees sign their books.

Baker Publishing Group has acquired some 300 in-print and forthcoming academic titles from Hendrickson Publishers. Some of the titles are by authors previously published by Baker, and they will be added to the company’s Baker Academic list. Baker has long been known for its academic as well as trade publishing, and has increased its academic presence over the years. Hendrickson is a prominent publisher of Bibles and Bible reference books.

B&H Publishing Group has added Andreas Köstenberger to its B&H Academic editorial staff as director of acquisitions effective September 1. He will continue to serve as director of Ph.D. studies and professor of New Testament and biblical theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., and as editor of the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society. Köstenberger also is the founding president of Biblical Foundations, an organization with the aim of “restoring the biblical foundations of the home, the church, and society,” and the author, editor, and translator of more than 20 books.

WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group’s Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream by David Platt, is now in its 14th print run, with 250,000 copies in print. Since its May 4 publication date, Radical has been on the New York Times Paperback Advice list for eight weeks, reaching #5. The book also has appeared on the CBA Top 50 bestsellers list at #3 and at #2 on the CBA Christian Living list. Platt is a first-time author and pastor of the Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Ala. According to WaterBrook Multnomah, Platt “calls Christians to devote themselves to Christ’s teachings instead of pursuing the ideals of the American Dream.” He began the year-long Radical Experiment project at his church, which resulted in nearly 100 families applying to become foster parents, 40 households committing to move into an inner-city neighborhood in Birmingham to serve the community, and the church donating $500,000 from the 2010 budget to fund 21 Compassion International programs in India.

The American Academy of Religion has selected the 2010 recipients of the Awards for Excellence in the Study of Religion (in three categories) and the Best First Book in the History of the Religions. To see the list of winners, go to

www.aarweb.org/Programs/Awards/Book_Awards. The awards will be presented at AAR’s 2010 Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Ga., October 31, 2010.

The ChristianTrade Association International is organizing a two-day translation rights show in Oradea, Romania, October 1-2, in advance of the 2010 Frankfurt Book Fair. ChristianTrade’s Marketsquare Europe will bring together eastern European publishers for the pre-Frankfurt rights show. CTAI will also award the fourth European Christian Book of the Year award at the show. The event is designed to “make it cost-effective for rights managers to reach eastern European publishers,” according to ChristianTrade CEO Kim Pettit. “The exhibition fee, lodging, food, and transport costs should mean that for just about $1,500, a company can multiply its impact in this region.” Romania is a key market for translation in eastern Europe, and publishers from other countries — including Armenia, Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine — are already planning to attend. ChristianTrade is covering food and lodging for eastern European publishers from outside Romania. At least 50 publishers are expected. For more information or to download the exhibitor application form, go to the ChristianTrade Web site. http://christiantrade.com/8428.html