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Publishers Weekly

Religion Supplement:
Tracking the Mega-Categories

Jana Riess -- 5/29/00
How booksellers and librarians make sense of it all



What do the Book of Common Prayer and God's Little Devotional Book for Women have in common? While both seem at opposite ends of the spectrum of religion titles, they reflect the religion reader's all-consuming desire to cultivate daily spirituality. Publishers are branching off in apparently divergent directions to meet the demand for daily doses of quiet contemplation, offering on the one hand the ancient, formal daily prayers and on the other, contemporary and highly specific devotional literature for moms, teachers, teens and other target groups.

These simultaneous trends toward normative, universal prayers and market-specific daily devotionals are of a piece. Above all, readers want to infuse their everyday lives with spiritual meaning. Whether that means praying the divine offices five times each day or skimming inspirational snippets from niche devotionals, consumers are clearly gravitating toward books that make sacred the everyday, and booksellers and librarians are scrambling to stock--and to spotlight--the most popular selections.
Praying for Sales
As the spirituality phenomenon mushrooms into all areas of book publishing, prayer books and devotionals remain two of the more "pure" genres of religion books, pointing readers to concrete forms of spiritual practice. While trends come and go, the most recent trend seems to be a backward gaze. Ancient forms of prayer are enjoying an encouraging revival. Among the many new-yet-old titles on the topic is Robert Benson's Venite, released in February from Penguin Putnam. Benson visited the Davis-Kidd store in Nashville for an author signing in early March, at the start of Lent. Store manager and assistant buyer Jeff Oliver says, "I can sell Venite with Robert Benson at any time," though of course liturgical seasons are clear times for buying prayer books, traditional or otherwise. To support the signing, Oliver created a small display table of liturgical spirituality titles, including a couple of Lent-focused items, the Book of Common Prayer and a store favorite, Always We Begin Again: The Benedictine Way of Living (Morehouse, 1996) by John McQuiston II. "It's a tiny book that you can keep in your pocket or purse. It came out four years ago, and it just flew out of here. It's modern, but it's also got that kind of timeless quality because it's Benedictine."


Oliver sees the demand for more traditionally focused books extending to every sector of Christianity. On the Catholic side, one of the store's most popular new prayer books is Loyola's The Book of Catholic Prayer: Prayers for Every Day and All Occasions, designed for families to use at home. It offers the option to do some of the prayers in traditional Latin. "People are not necessarily always happy or comfortable with Vatican II," Oliver observes. Mainline Protestants are also getting into the act. "We've had people asking for books on the traditional Protestant denominations," he notes. "And this being Nashville, there are lots of other places they can go for that sort of thing."

Another forthcoming prayer title promises to help Christians return to timeless modes of communing with God. Robert E. Webber's The Prymer: The Prayer Book of the Medieval Era Adapted for Contemporary Use will be released in October from Paraclete Press, the publishing arm of the liturgically oriented Community of Jesus on Cape Cod. The Prymer is based on a 15th-century prayer manual that was used by lay persons in their daily prayer; it was eventually replaced (for Protestants) by the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. Webber, professor of theology at Wheaton College and author of Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail (Morehouse, 1989) and Ancient-Future Faith (Baker Book House, 1999), sees a broadening potential audience for liturgically-based prayer books. He sees the trend back toward traditional prayer most strongly among Generation Xers, who "are more skeptical about the future, and therefore more interested in the past."

It's not just Christians who are witnessing a resurgence of traditional prayer. Nina Beth Cardin, a Conservative rabbi who serves as the director of Jewish life at the Jewish Community Center in Baltimore, Md., also perceives a pan-Jewish "search for the authentic, for the eternal, for something beyond the self" in America today. Even the liberal-leaning Reform movement, she notes, decided two years ago to place greater emphasis on traditional study and prayer. One perennially popular collection of prayers is the Psalms of the Hebrew Bible. "The Psalms are accessible, private prayers of the Jewish tradition," says Cardin. "They speak of deep personal pain. It's very comforting to know that someone else spoke from the depths of despair, and was answered."

Bookstore owner Michele Yanow, of Tree of Life Judaica and Books in Seattle, agrees that many Jews are returning to time-honored traditional practices. She sees this trend most vividly in the increasing numbers of customers who are requesting Hebrew-language prayer books. "There's something deeply resonant about praying in an ancient language that is thousands of years old," Yanow notes, adding that two top sellers in this category have been The Artscroll Transliterated Linear Siddur (Shaar Press, 1998) and the seven-volume My People's Prayer Book series from Jewish Lights.

Devotionals for Dollars
While Jewish and Christian publishers have followed consumer demand by churning out traditional, ancient prayer books, the Christian market has also seen a flood of very contemporary daily devotionals--of every size, shape and subject--in the last decade. At the Parable Group, a confederation of more than 330 independent Christian stores that pools its sales information, sales of devotionals held steady last year, according to Dave McShea, Parable's merchandiser of books, Bibles and software.

The Family Christian Stores chain of 360 outlets in 39 states reports a healthy increase in sales of devotionals in the last five years, Jon Wilcox, Family's book buyer, tells PW. He says that in the mid- to late 1990s, the devotional category enjoyed double-digit increases, slowing to 8% growth in 1999, mostly because of the absence of any new devotionals by major authors. He has high expectations that the ongoing sales of Max Lucado's winter 2000 title with J. Countryman,
Grace for the Moment, will propel the category back into the double digits for the bookstore chain. McShea says that devotional literature ranks "fourth or fifth" in overall sales at Parable stores, behind fiction, Christian living and family and marriage titles. At Family Christian stores, the rankings are similar: Christian living dominates at 22%-25%, followed by fiction at 12% and charismatic books at 8%; devotionals are "pretty much neck and neck" with family life titles, at 4%-5% each (these rankings do not include Bible sales). A Zondervan title, The Women of the Bible: A One-Year Devotional Study of Women in Scripture (1999) by Ann Spangler and Jean E. Syswerda, has been selling extremely well at Family Christian stores, notes Wilcox. Last year's hottest titles included Experiencing God Day by Day by Henry T. Blackaby and Richard Blackaby (Broadman & Holman), Jesus Freaks by D.C. Talk (Albury) and Stormie Omartian's The Power of a Praying Wife and The Power of a Praying Parent (Harvest House). Parable has also enjoyed sales success with Steve Green's Morning Light (Harvest House), Charles Stanley's On Holy Ground (Nelson) and Omartian's titles. By far, however, the bestselling devotional, at both chains, remains the classic My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers (published in various editions from different publishers, including Discovery House and Barbour).


At the Library
For librarians, keeping pace with all the developments in devotional literature can be a challenge. Kathleen Sullivan, collection development coordinator for the Ph nix Public Library system, notes that it is impossible for her to choose among the plethora of devotional materials now available, particularly since most publications don't typically review them. "Some direction would help," she concedes, noting that she gleans information from sales rankings and customer reviews on Amazon.com. "The only devotionals we go after are the ones that are bestsellers already," says Sullivan. "There are so many of them, and once you start going down that road, where do you stop?" She also observes that given the nature of the beast, most people who are interested in devotionals will purchase one, not borrow it from the library. "They want these books for daily reference, by their bedside."

Tom Horne, selection librarian for the 23 branches of the Seattle Public Library system, says he orders a representative sampling of devotionals, but it's "not comprehensive." He g s by Brodart's tip sheets, which combine reviews from PW, Library Journal and Booklist, and has learned to be wary of relying too heavily on Amazon. "That only tells you what an individual reader wants, which is very different from a professional review."

Are the Niches Too Narrow?
While the trend in prayer titles is to look back in time for ancient insights, using rather generic prayers to express timeless human angst, the inclination of contemporary devotionals is to specify, specify, specify the target audience.

Is this strategy paying off? Nashville bookseller Oliver notes that at Davis-Kidd, many of the niche devotionals wind up on the remainder table, while branded books by known authors or musical artists enjoy strong sales. Bestselling devotionals have included titles by Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II, as well as local Christian pop singer Michael W. Smith. "I'm not convinced that the niche books find the audiences they're directed to," says Oliver. "The better the name, the better they sell. If it's branded, at least buyers know what they're getting."

If the niche devotionals are not the hottest sellers in the general retail market, they remain a staple of many Christian stores. Parable's McShea remarks that niche devotionals "seem to do very well because of their gift book orientation. They're very seasonal." Zondervan, he comments, has enjoyed great success with its Devotional Bible series, which features devotions interspersed with the complete text of the Bible. While niche devotionals have sold steadily, Wilcox agrees with Oliver that "the devotionals that have done the best tend to be driven by who the author is. The Charles Stanleys, Max Lucados and Chuck Swindolls still get the most play."

Although the proliferation of niche devotionals may be welcome news for publishers and authors, who can continue to follow a simple formula to ensure marketing success, some industry watchers point to the superficiality of many of these titles. Yet, there is a place for the consolation of a specific shared experience. Rabbi Cardin, who has suffered pregnancy loss, offered comfort to other disappointed parents in last year's
Tears of Sorrow, Seeds of Hope: A Jewish Spiritual Companion for Infertility and Pregnancy Loss from Jewish Lights. Cardin collected rituals, prayers and p ms for specific days in the Jewish calendar as well as the often-undiscussed events surrounding infertility treatments and miscarriage. While she is glad that the book has provided hope to so many families, she also wonders about the escalation of prayer books and devotionals for every possible life circumstance. "Have we forgotten the ability of the Psalms to meet these situational needs?" the rabbi asks.


Among Jewish "devotionals," however, the trend is still to search the depths of the tradition, according to Tree of Life's Yanow. At her store, the top seller in this category is a local rabbi's title, A Journey of Awakening: 49 Steps from Enslavement to Freedom (Skynear Press, 1998) by Rabbi Ted Falcon. This daily reflection book for the period from Passover to Shavuot marks the days between the Exodus from Egypt to the receiving of the Torah on Mount Sinai.

As book consumers rally around titles that focus on tradition while meeting their up-to-the-minute daily spiritual needs, booksellers and librarians will continue their careful trend-spotting vigil, trying to anticipate consumer demand. "The pendulum is swinging back to a deeper spirituality," predicts Yanow. "The best books make the ancient liturgy accessible."
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