I'm half way through this and finding it a satisfying read:
Posted on 08/09/2006 9:08:25 PM PDT by Alex Murphy
As part of her response in Publishers Marketplace to HarperCollins’s decline in sales for the fourth quarter, CEO Jane Friedman characterized religious publishing in a lot of trouble, saying the category “is starting to see hard times.” She said HarperCollins is seeing “heavy returns,” and is witnessing a “contraction in the CBA” (Christian Booksellers Association), which she likened to what the American Booksellers Association has gone through.
All of which has led The Book Standard to investigate what exactly is going on in the religious-book market so far this year.
Nielsen BookScan—which does not include data from CBA—confirms that presumption that the category benefited enormously during 2005 and 2004 from two dominant titles—Your Best Life Now, by Joel Osteen, and Rick Warren’s The Purpose-Driven Life. The latter was one of HarperCollins’s best-performing books.
With help from these bestsellers, religious books moved 21.8 million units in 2004, and 23.1 million in 2005. With higher numbers overall for books, the market share number moved the other way, year on year: Religious titles made up about 8.1 percent of 2004’s overall number, but declined slightly to 8 percent for in 2005.)
How important were those two heavy-hitters? Best Life and Purpose-Driven combined to sell more than 1,274,000 from the beginning of 2005 through week 31 (or this time last year). So far in 2006, the same two titles, which still are the top-selling religious titles, have combined to sell more than 335,000.
But while Purpose-Driven Life, a HarperCollins title, isn’t flying off the shelves at the rate it has in previous few years, the decline in major bestseller sales does not, in fact, seem to be affecting overall religious-book sales: From the beginning of 2005 through week 31, religious books sold more than 13,180,000 copies. So far this year, 13,145,000 religious books have been sold—a percentage decline of only 0.3 percent.
“We’re really seeing a flat market,” said Joel Primer, manager of Client Development for BookScan. “The difference is negligible.”
Back to the Future? One can only hope.
CC&E
Keep up the good work!!!!!!
Uh, how do I say this?
It's a legitimate story. It's not satire. I wish it were.
Given what I've heard (White Horse Inn sometimes plays interviews Shane Rosenthal has done at the CBA convention -- it's appalling.) religious publishing could use a good winnowing.
Best Life and Purpose-Driven combined to sell more than 1,274,000 from the beginning of 2005 through week 31 (or this time last year). So far in 2006, the same two titles, which still are the top-selling religious titles, have combined to sell more than 335,000.
Meanwhile, stuff I want to read sells in the thousands of copies, total. [sarcasm]And Kim Riddelbarger is getting rich peddling eschatological sanity on every grocery story book rack, yes-sirree Bob.[/sarcasm]
Murphy's Axiom #43 - "you can only get 80% of what you want."
Given what I've heard (White Horse Inn sometimes plays interviews Shane Rosenthal has done at the CBA convention -- it's appalling.) religious publishing could use a good winnowing.
Ditto for Christian musicians. I've read interviews that exposed several previously-admired artists to be flaming political/social liberals, or flagrantly ignorant in their own faith. It's sad to realise that (sometimes) artists and writers don't actually understand anything deeper than what they've already written.
Meanwhile, stuff I want to read sells in the thousands of copies, total.
Ditto for me - and the scarcity makes it difficult to even locate copies of some. There's one book I'm trying to find that has maybe 2500 copies in print. Meanwhile, every used book store I browse has dozens of copies (literally) of Purpose-Driven Life and Your Best Life Now in the Religion section - so many are being traded in that they can't even be given away. I've considered picking up a copy of each to see what all the excitement was about, since they're so easily had for cheap. I haven't yet, as it appears there's no point - those fads are going out of fashion and no one's soliciting my opinion on them anymore.
It's in trouble for the secular publishers who have "religious studies" imprints. Ask Ignatius Press if they're in trouble...
Do you know if Ignatius supports itself financially i.e. turns a profit) or if it's supported by grants, etc from the Church?
IMO a publishing firm is only "successful" if it has a market for what it publishes, and can publish w/o suffering a fiscal loss for the effort. Now a financial backer might support the effort because he/she believes in spreading the content to a wider audience, but then IMO the publishing company is actually a ministry, because it's marketing a product for which there is insufficient existing demand to offset costs.
What Ignatius Press has (that HarperCollins lacks) is a discriminating editor, and investors who believe in the editor's vision more than their own wallets. That's not a bad thing, but when someone other than the intended audience ends up footing the bill for such a vision, I'm not sure I would call it "successful".
FWIW, this wasn't meant as an insult to Ignatius Press. I have no idea what their financial status/fiscal model is. I just threw this in to hedge my bets.
I'm half way through this and finding it a satisfying read:
I have a love hate relationship with those interviews.
I hate them because I hear how bad things really are out there.
I love them because they validate much of what the GRPL stands for.
I have limited time, so I stick with the Bible. Too often other books have an agenda and use the book to convince themselves and others they are right, when they are wrong.
One of Christianity's most beloved books is now updated for today's American martyrs! Here are just a few of the suffering saints of the 21st century you'll read about:
-On May 3, 2003, Donald White was suddenly fired by his agnostic boss for reading Christian blogs all day on his work computer.
-Mary Ann Clayton, while driving to work on Sept. 21, 2002, was subjected to honking and cursing by an enraged commuter who saw Mary Ann's "Jesus Loves You" bumper sticker after she cut him off in traffic.
-On Dec. 16, 2001, anti-Christian vandals stole the Santa Claus figurine from Lee Raymond's outdoor nativity scene and ruined his family's Christmas.
Read this modern version of a Reformation classic and see why Christianity Today calls it "a thin book perfect for rolling up and using to smack whiny Christian brats up side the head!"
Oops! I'd better get back to work, before I get persecuted for my faith!
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