No one who knows ambitious, relentlessly entrepreneurial Campbell Wharton would be remotely surprised to learn that the book-loving boy from Sydney, whose mother was a church worker, would grow up to launch a new Christian division for a Big Five publishing house.

In an interview with PW, Wharton, who was named SVP for Penguin Random House Christian Publishing Group last October, laid out an "aggressive" plan to "to double the non-fiction title count over the next three years." He won't choose one audience lane between evangelical readers and those he calls "Christian Curious." Instead, he's eyeing the whole expressway.

Today, the division released its logo and mission statement. Wharton said that the logo, which is emblazoned with a stylized cross that is shaped by 22 dots in stained glass colors, is inspired by Psalm 22 and Christ's cross. The mission statement declares that the house will be "a home for Christian authors writing distinctive, inspirational, and culturally relevant works, bringing them to the broadest possible readership."

"Our goal, and what I think our strengths are, is that we take our all authors to the next level," says Wharton. For example, he points to John Mark Comer, winner of the ECPA Christian Book of the Year award last week for Practicing the Way, his third consecutive bestseller published with WaterBrook. (The imprint also publishes Comer's Practicing the Way ministry, including nine Practices books outlined in Comer’s foundational title and a Companion Course Guide to the related video curriculum.) An as-yet-untitled trade book, part of Comer’s current contract with WaterBrook, is set to release in fall 2026.

PRH Christian just announced its next four-book partnership with Comer, with the trade titles set for release in 2028 from WaterBrook. The imprint is the flagship of the PRH Christian division, which also includes Multnomah; Image, a Catholic imprint; Forum, which publishes conservative thought leaders; gift imprint Ink & Willow; and a children's publishing program.

Wharton expects the division to reach beyond its evangelical base readership to what he calls "opportunity audiences." These, he says, "may be readers who are drawing spiritual content or inspiration from pastors and teachers on YouTube, or TikTok, or Instagram. They may say they have no religion, but they're actually 'Christian curious.' So, we have to meet them where they are, whether that's online, through the online events, through email marketing, or through influencers."

Wharton has always been somewhere in Penguin Random House. Fresh out of the University of New South Wales with a degree in media and communications, Wharton says he scoured the newspaper classified ads until he spotted one for a production assistant at PRH Australia. He calls it "the perfect entry point, because it gave me this whole bird's eye view of the publishing process and taught me the nuts and bolts of how a book is made."

Building a religion division

One foot in the door wasn't enough, however. "I entered the green card lottery, and as soon as I won, I said, 'I want to come to New York and try to make it,' " says Wharton. The self-described "gutsy, ambitious 23-year-old" bought a one-way ticket to the Big Apple, where he "knocked on the door of every publishing house" until "a publicity assistant job came up at the PRH Crown division, and I went for it. They might have felt tired of this Australian guy calling HR all the time for a job so they said, 'We're going to give this guy a shot.' "

Within five years, Wharton had become publicity director at Crown, where he earned a reputation as a "celebrity wrangler," working with everyone from Martha Stewart to Carol Burnett to U.S. presidents. Always looking for more opportunities, he eventually accepted a job as associate publisher.

In 2017, Wharton, who grew up in the Anglican church and was about to start his first term on the board of Episcopal Charities in New York, added a Christian focus to his career. He became VP and deputy publisher of the WaterBrook, Multnomah, Image, Forum, and Convergent imprints. By 2023, years before the official birth of PRH Christian as a division, he was already using that name to describe the group. (Convergent later split off to join Harmony and Rodale in the Random House Publishing Group.)

Building new capabilities and expanding audience are now top of mind for Wharton. He mentioned that the division is looking into picking up more titles on Christian living, works by "voices of color," middle-grade chapter books, and graphic novels, beginning with a graphic format spinoff from their popular Wingfeather middle-grade series. He adds that the division may consider bringing in more works of social commentary, and possibly joining the trend focused on titles about prophecy and the end times.

Publishers in the religion sector have been reporting report year after year sales increases, with Bibles and Bible-related products leading the charge. The biggest step that could be ahead for PRH Christian is whether—or when—to add Bible publishing to the mix.

"To build a Bible program is a really, really big undertaking," Wharton concedes. "One thing that we can influence in the short term is being a lot more aggressive in acquiring Bible study resources." It follows that one of Wharton's first major hires—Madison Trammel, who was named editorial director in February—comes to the division after years at Bible publishing powerhouses B&H and HarperCollins Christian Publishing.

But looking ahead doesn't preclude looking back. Wharton plans to bring on a backlist director and brand director in the months ahead, and has a team already tasked to identify "the gems on our backlist and look at how to breathe new life into them, making sure our backlist and our authors stay relevant. We have some incredible authors who continue to be mainstays in the Christian publishing space. Backlist maximization is a cornerstone of our strategy."