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Religion Update
Feature
D
TYNDALE HOUSE PUBLISHERS
Daisy Hutton
Dave Lewis
42 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y F E B R U A R Y 1 0 , 2 0 1 4
BEST
SELLING
AUTHOR
of Gods at War and
Not a Fan
What people are
saying about Kyle ...
Kyles words are, at once,
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kyleidleman.com
Contact a David C Cook rep
at 800.323.7543 or visit DavidCCook.com
Religion Update
about 25% of Cooks business, accounting for some 70% of fiction unit sales.
We would like to see more fiction in
digital format, he says. The standard is
still the same for both physical and digital; there is always that danger of thinking, well, we cant sell it as a book, maybe
its a digital. That [format] shouldnt
lessen the contents quality.
Digital grew at a slower rate for Baker
in 2013 than in previous yearsbut still
in double digits. Digital business overall
now adds up to slightly more than a
quarter of the companys total revenues,
Lewis says, while total fiction sales make
up 36%.
River North saw steady growth in
digital. We continue to think of digital
as an additional
sale of a title, not as
a substitutionary
sale, says Keiser.
However, we are
encouraged by
increased sales of
Deborah Keiser
print books from
e-book promotions and are measuring
the best way to balance this tension.
Digital sales appear to have leveled off
for Abingdon. We continue to look for
ways to use digital backlist as a promotional tool for new releases and to remind
readers that they can get previous books
from an author or series on digital, says
Clements. I think it is key that we crosspromote so readers can find our books in
whatever format best meets their needs.
Weve heard it beforeto succeed in
publishing today means we must produce stellar content that can be applicable across all formats.
Tyndales Watson says, In general, the
[digital] numbers have become more
predictable. There are always exceptions,
certainly. But finding new ways to draw
attention and heat for digital promotions
and social media efforts is always on the
table.
The print-to-e-book mix is no longer
the obsession for publishers that it has
been for the past two years, says HCCPs
Hutton. The focus has shifted to optimizing the content we publish in every
| Feature
44 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y F E B R U A R Y 1 0 , 2 0 1 4
NEW
FROM
BESTSELLING AUTHOR
DEE HENDERSON
The #1 author in Christian romantic suspense
delivers an exciting new novel! Henderson has hit
a wide range of bestseller lists with her most recent
releases, including the New York Times and USA
Today. Her loyal fan base and solid storytelling
make Undetected a must-have this spring.
Religion Update
ing retail market and the battle for the
consumers mind-share means that we
have to be more intentional and more
creative with marketing than ever
before, Clements says. We must equip
our retailers to be successful and drive
the consumer to them. We have to be
ever more mindful of the margins and
make hard decisions about the things
that impact cost of product, but may not
influence the consumer to purchase the
book. There are so many moving parts
and we are working to keep all the wheels
turning and going forward.
Baker offers aggressive pricing promotions on print fiction titles, as we do
with e-book fiction titles, says Lewis.
Broadly speaking, there is a general
downward pressure on the retail price of
fiction books in all formats. It also seems
to be more challenging to launch new
authors into the bookstores, since they
seem to prefer investing their space and
money in the more proven authors.
Bargain price fiction that taps into the
impulse buy is doing well, notes Tessie
DeVore, executive v-p at Charisma
House. Recognizing that price point is
becoming a more sensitive issue, she
says, the company experimented with
bundling titles by some of its Realms
fiction authors in 2013. We have also
begun evaluating manuscripts not just
for print but for e-book-only potential,
DeVore says. Thats a new thing for us
to start doing. We have done a few
e-books only, but not in the fiction category yet.
While the number of titles from traditional publishers remains in decline, selfpublishing activities continue to
explode, notes Hutton. While this
variety and choice is ultimately good for
readers, it also creates tremendous challenges for discovery. With so much inexpensive and free content available to
readers, authors and publishers must
work even harder to communicate the
identity and value of the stories we offer.
She adds, The pressure on the marketing function is unprecedented. This is no
time for the same old thing; its an innovate-or-die moment for publishers in
| Feature
category fiction.
KEEPING UP WITH
CHANGING CONSUMERS
Not all of the business difficulties publishers expect are directly technological
or commercial. Some are cultural. River
Norths Keiser believes that the openness she sees in Christian women to reading books like erotic fiction megaseller
Fifty Shades of Gray is something I
think Christian publishers need to consider seriously. She wonders: How can
we provide content that serves this audience in a way that honors Christ and
captures the imagination of the reader?
This is both a challenge and an opportunity.
Keiser also points to younger and
younger users of digital devices. What
does this mean for content development
as machines become faster, smaller, and
more powerful? she asks. And as
always, whats next? We need to anticipate the trends.
Hutton, too, expresses concern about
how reading is changing in an electronic
era. Many of us in this industry have
deep underlying concerns about undeniable changes in expectations that readers
are bringing to content, she says. The
primacy of the immersive read has been
unassailable for the past hundred-plus
years. Has this changed? As we become
accustomed to the hundreds of frequent
and fragmented bursts of content that we
experience each day, do our brains begin
to shape themselves around this new
reality and make us crave story immersion less?
Says Clements, The battle for attention and mind-share has never been more
intense. She adds: E-mail, social media,
television, gamingall demand time
and focus, which means less time is spent
reading for entertainment. The attention
span of readers is shorter than it was even
a few years ago.
All of this shapes the changing market, Clements says. We counteract this
by co-opting these mediums to engage
readers and funnel them back to our
books, and by selecting and publishing
46 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y F E B R U A R Y 1 0 , 2 0 1 4
Religion Update
Feature
Marketers Help
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Religion Update
became annoying scenery blockers. At
HCCP, were selective about how we ask
authors to use their valuable time on
social media, says Bond. Publicists act
as coaches, helping [authors] to follow
strategies we see working well for other
authors and brands.
Authors who are using social media well
are conscious of its social and relational
aspects, Ruchti says. They use it to build
trust, to offer added value that may not
necessarily be related to their books. And
they use it to listen as much as to talk.
A role model in this regard might be
consistently bestselling Karen Kingsbury, whose most recent, Fifteen Minutes
(Howard Books), debuted on the New
York Times list last fall. Birkhead attributes that in large part to her social
media efforts. She has done an amazing
job of attracting a huge online audience
of nearly 300,000 and keeping them
engaged through the years, he says.
Birkhead emphasized advertising in
music markets because of the American
Idollike plot line, earning such strong
radio attention that Kingsbury was
invited to guest-host national morning
drive-time shows on several occasions.
An author having strong social media
means there is a built-in audience that is
waiting for the next thing, he says.
Capitalizing on that should be part of
every marketing campaign.
ON CONSTANT ALERT
Digital publishings sizable bite out of
the print fiction pie also requires adept
marketing. Says Bond, When it comes
to digital promotions, the good news is
that developments in results tracking
make it much easier to observe effects on
sales and change course quickly.
She adds, Were constantly learning
about the messaging and imagery that
works best with various outlets and to
experiment with different advertising
outlets, she adds. Gone are the days of
developing a marketing plan, pushing it
into motion, and waiting months before
guessing about what made an impact.
As a result, teams are on constant alert,
Bond says, planning for future cam-
| Feature
50 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y F E B R U A R Y 1 0 , 2 0 1 4
GREAT BOOKS
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www.christianbookservices.com
Religion Update
Feature
52 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y F E B R U A R Y 1 0 , 2 0 1 4
MOVEMENT
IN THE
GENRES
Interest in suspense
a n d i t s s i s t e r,
romantic suspense,
is growing across
the board, from Ramona Richards
small houses to larger ones. Along with
romantic suspense, Im excited to see
growth in medical suspense, says
Ramona Richards, editor at Abingdon
Fiction. Richard Mabrys Prescription
for Trouble series for us (2010-2011)
kickstarted our interest in acquiring
more. Outside the suspense genre,
Richards cites novels that have medical
interest points, including Severed Trust
(2013) and the forthcoming Out of the
Ruins (May). She adds, There is also an
interest in character-driven mysteries,
but thats still a weaker genre than [suspense]
Long of Bethany House agrees. The
most popular genres to emerge in the last
couple of years are suspense and romantic
suspense, a category that has grown substantially at Bethany thanks to Dee Henderson, Lynette Eason, Dani Pettrey, and
Irene Hannon. Were always open for
more.
FaithWords editor Boys adds, Suspense is hard, though, because its all or
nothing; Ive found that people who read
suspense tend to be one-author readers.
This makes it hard for new authors to
break out.
Ami McConnell, senior acquisitions
editor for fiction at Harper Collins Christian Publishing, sees historical romance
sales on the wane but readers eager for
contemporary romance, citing Colleen
Coble (Rosemary Cottage, 2013) and
Denise Hunter (Dancing with Fireflies,
Mar.) as prime examples.
Readers are interested in historical
romance during turbulent economic
times because they want to harken back
to simpler times, but as we emerge from
turmoil and from the Fifty Shades erotica, readers are seeking new, clean
romance, she says. Its wonderful that
were able to reach readers in new ways.
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Religion Update
| Feature
Feature
Religion Update
have always
had the view
that agents are
more than deal
makers who
disappear after
a sale, but are, in
fact, partners with
writers and pub- Natasha Kern
lishers in the publication process, says
Natasha Kern, founder and director of
Natasha Kern Literary Agency.
CAREER COUNSELORS
The partnership Kern speaks of underlines one of the difficulties of agenting in
the 21st century: agents are career counselors more than ever as authors face
myriad publishing options and pressure
to become social marketers as well as
writers.
Chip MacGregor, founder of MacGregor Literary Agency, says, We have
to help authors with their career planning. That means
we help them figure out what they
can publish with a
major press, what
might work best in
a niche press, and
what they can selfChip MacGregor
publish. Early on in
my agenting career we didnt talk about
marketing, but now I could spend all my
days marketing if I wanted.
Kern reviews catalogue and jacket
W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y . C O M 55
Religion Update
necessarily full-time, Collins says.
Those who own their backlist are republishing the books themselves. Others are
writing contracted as well as self-published novels. Other Christian novelists
have gone into self-publishing full-time,
such as myself, James Scott Bell, and
Athol Dickson.
A desire to cross genre lines is another
reason authors consider self-publishing.
Gail Gaymer Martin is established in
category romance with 54 books, but
hopes to break into writing longer novels. I have other novels, both written
and that I would like to write in other
genres, such as womens fiction. I have
seriously considered self-publishing if I
cannot make an impact on the publishers
who are slow at responding to authors
not already established with them, says
Martin, an ACFW executive board member.
Grant of Books & Such has seen some
of her authors struggle to get their books
back into the marketplace. Clients want
to see their backlist titles available to
their readers, and our agency has helped
them to self-publish. But Ive seen that
even established authors arent effective
in selling backlist when its re-released
unless they have a very strong social
media presence and are offering series to
their readers rather than individual
titles, she says. A few of my clients are
writing original material and self-publishing, but its too soon to know what it
takes for this to be a successful venture.
Rick Christian, president of Alive
Communications, Inc., sums it up:
Most self-pubbers tend to be either
newbies willing to sell their content for
little to nothing; authors who have lost
the support of their publishers; or those
who post out-of-print works or stockpiles that traditional markets cant
ingest. Yes, they reap the lions share of
revenue by going it alone, but if you sell
only 17 copies, whats the true net
return? The harsh reality is that the vast
majority of these titles are as invisible as
a lost-kitty sign on a freeway lamppost.
| Feature
AGENTS
WOES
Spencerhills Solem
points to the difficulty of finding a
committed publisher in a time
when publishing Karen Solem
and selling are
changing dramatically, but says it is also
hard to find a great client. People want
instant success and take only a shortterm approach. Im trying to find clients
interested in going for the long haul.
Agents also face difficulties over which
they have little control. For Steve Laube,
founder of the Steve Laube Agency, The
biggest challenge we face is the suppression of the advance dollars. Everyone in
this economic climate is striving to manage their cash flow and mitigate their
risk. The sentiment is echoed by Grant,
who calls advances conservative, and
MacGregor, who says he isnt seeing
publishers take big risks in Christian
fiction, both in advances and in unknown
authors.
Sales expectations are also a problem.
One of the challenges is placing an
author whose previous sales have been
modest, says Laube. Adds MacGregor,
An author who has released a couple of
books, even at a small house, that have
sold modestly is not even getting a look
by most CBA publishers now. Im better
off taking them a new author with a great
idea than an author with a couple of
books with middling sales.
Christian of Alive Communications
highlights two abiding issues facing
agents and their authors: lead times
sometimes out of kilter with the instant
nature of todays world and rejections
for certain authors who dont have much
platform. He points out that many of
the megaselling franchise properties,
including the Left Behind series, began
with rejections by numerous houses.
REASONS FOR OPTIMISM
Yet bright spots remain for agents as they
attempt to sell their clients products.
Says Laube, Fiction continues to be a
56 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y F E B R U A R Y 1 0 , 2 0 1 4
growth category in the Christian marketplace. Those publishers who are leveraging the power of e-book sales are doing
the best.
Grant points to the readers. Readers
of Christian fiction are avid. Once they
discover an author, they want to read
everything by that writer, she says.
E-book sales are also on her radar: Publishers are still working to figure out how
best to drive e-book sales, but once they
do, I think the future of fiction is very
bright.
Publishers are adjusting, says Solem.
Christian publishers have been working
very hard to find the new models for a
new century. Some have done an amazing
job and are transforming the old style of
business to the new, but its a process.
The good news about Christian fiction
goes beyond sales, e-books, and platform.
MacGregor says, One bright spot is the
freedom authors have, largely due to the
open theological debate going on in the
church at large. This has created so much
freedom for artists to explore real questions and how they interact with their
faith.
He adds: Christian fiction isnt going
anywhere. Its growing and evolving.
People say the sky is falling because its
not growing the way it was six or seven
years ago, but the fact is that nothing can
be sustained forever. Its not dying; its
consolidating.
Kern is also optimistic. There are
millions of Christians worldwide who
enjoy uplifting and inspiring stories. In
addition, e-books open up ways of reaching readers who never would have gone
into a Christian bookstore or would
never have looked in that section of a
regular store. The publishing of Christian fiction is changing, but in many
good ways.
Good content, says Christian, has
value. As the industry gets squeezed and
it becomes more difficult for publishers
to achieve sales targets and grow their
businesses, its clear that good communicators with fresh, compelling ideas will
always generate interest and competition.
Profiles
IN
Religion Update
Profile
Tracy
Groot
Redemption
in Dark
Places
It takes an
imaginative
author to find
inspiration for a
Civil War novel
in Captain Kirk.
But Tracy Groot,
a two-time
Christy Award
winner (Flame of
Resistance; Madman) says the
seed for her new
book, Sentinels of
Andersonville
(Tyndale, Jan.), was planted when she
channel-surfed past the handsome mug
of a young William Shatner in an old
movie.
I am a huge Trek fan and thought,
What is Captain Kirk doing in this
Victorian-era courtroom drama? she
says. He had somebody on the stand
and they were talking about this prison
where thousands of Union soldiers
died.
The made-for-TV movie The Andersonville Trial was based on historical
events, when Confederate guards turned
away four wagons full of food collected
by their neighbors to feed starving
Union prisoners. There was one woman
in particular who was told it was treason
if she tried to feed these men, Groot
says. I was horrified. That event just
lodged in the back of my brain.
The story forms the foundation of Sentinels of Andersonville, a melding of
American history with the parable of the
Ted Dekker
Dare to Forgive
Religion Update
explores one of those truths [forgiveness]
that all sages teach, but so few are willing to hear, including me. Walking the
path of a Water Walker is transformative
in every respect.
Transformation is what Dekker hopes
his novels achieve. He has published
more than 30 novels, but it was only in
2010 that he decided to pursue writing
for the young adult audience with the
Lost Books trilogy. Im still a child in
many respects, growing younger each
year, Dekker says. I didnt so much
write YA for my kids as for that child in
me that continues to discover great mystery and wonder as I mature. As the
father of three daughters, Dekker had a
lot of inspiration for creating the voice
of Christy, the protagonist in Water
Walker. Having raised three teenage
girls, at times I think I might be one
myself, so it comes naturally.
The Outlaw Chronicles trilogy was
800-458-3766
www.judsonpress.com
| Profiles
inspired by what doesnt come naturallyfacing his own failures and asking
the question, what if? Dekker drew
inspiration from the failure to find lasting satisfaction in what the world has
deemed as success, he says. Weve been
deceivedit isnt striving and grasping
that rewards us with peace and power, its
letting go. And it seems that we take that
journeyof unlearning what we were
taught about [finding] success in money,
relationships, career, and matters of
faithonly when the old way fails us.
Like his beloved superhero Daredevil,
Dekker dares readers to let go. He hopes
the message they take away from Water
Walker is one of forgiveness. Its
stunning to realize that so much gain
comes not from vindication or revenge
or even protecting ones interests, but in
letting go of all you think keeps you
safe, he says. This is the juju of Water
Walker, and its potent medicine indeed.
True forgiveness is not absolving the
person who wronged youits releasing
any wrong done to you in the first place.
You have that power.
Paige Crutcher
Billy Coffey
58 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y F E B R U A R Y 1 0 , 2 0 1 4
T. Davis Bunn
Listening to God
His new novel, The Turning (River
North, Apr.) may bring exactly that for
T. Davis Bunn: a turning to a new platform and new audiences for his Christian
suspense fiction.
Bunn, a three-time Christy Award
winner, will offer a series of lessons
based on The Turning on Moody Radio,
which is owned by the same parent company as River North. He will be the first
fiction author to create such lessons for
Moody Radio, which usually features
the teachings of pastors, scholars, and
other Christian leaders.
Profiles |
Religion Update
It is almost
indescribably
high, the barrier Christian
novelists find
when being
considered for
radio or television, because
they are not
considered teachers, Bunn says
from Florida,
where he lives
when he is not
teaching writing
at Oxford University. But when
Deborah Keiser,
associate publisher for River
North, met Bunn at a conference, she
knew that if anyone could break the barrier, it was him. Says Bunn, I decided if
Heart-pounding, Spine-tingling
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Religion Update
making them into something real.
This message grows out of Bunns own
experience. He converted to Christianity
when he was 28 and gave up writing as
a kind of sacrifice, but later came to feel
that God wanted him to use his writing
as a means to serve. Now, having sold six
million books in 16 languages, he writes
a book a year for Moody and another for
Bethany House.
By being still enough to listen and
give God a chance to speak, I was also
making room for the gift to grow, he
says.
Kimberly Winston
Murray Pura
Transporting Readers
Just as the wildly popular PBS series
Downton Abbey has captured the attention of American viewers, so has Canadian author and Baptist minister Murray
Puras the Danforths of Lancashire Park
series (Harvest House) kept a rapt readership looking forward to each new volume in the trilogyfirst with Ashton
Park, then Beneath the Dover Sky, and
now with London Dawn (Feb.).
It is not hard for Americans and Canadians to relate to and empathize with
the experiences of the British people,
says Pura. The British way of life fascinates them, he adds, which is clear from
how North American readers have adopted British storiesA Christmas Carol, Pride and Prejudice, The Chronicles of
Narniaas their own, a part of their
cultural heritage as well.
The saga of the Danforth family begins in WWI England, picks up in 1924
with Adolf Hitler looming over Europe,
and continues through the late 1930s as
the family gathers in London for a homecoming of sortsone that is about to be
shattered by the imminent Battle of
Britain and the Blitz.
A self-proclaimed Indiana Jones,
Pura has traveled extensively throughout China and the Middle East, among
other places, and considers himself part
academic and part adventurer, an anthropologist of sorts who studies cultures to better understand people. He
60 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y F E B R U A R Y 1 0 , 2 0 1 4
| Profiles
Allison Pataki
Religion Update
josh franer
Profiles |
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W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y . C O M 61
Religion Update
Books in
Brief
Bridge to Haven
Francine Rivers. Tyndale, $25.99 (480p)
ISBN 978-1-4143-6818-4
Sing for Me
Karen Halvorsen Schreck. Howard,
$14.99 trade paper (336p)
ISBN 978-1-4767-0548-4
Reviews
62 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y F E B R U A R Y 1 0 , 2 0 1 4
Water Walker
Ted Dekker. Worthy, $14.99 trade paper
(304p) ISBN 978-1-6179-5274-6