Christian Retailing

The digital publishing revolution isn't just about newly written books. The Bible has been presented as an award-winning audio project in recent times and is proving increasingly popular among e-reader users.

In a Christian Retailing roundtable forum, the magazine discussed the growth of the non-print Bible market, and the opportunities and implications, with leading suppliers in the category.

The digital trend is not being driven by technology alone, according to Aaron Linne, executive producer of digital marketing/manager, B&H Publishing Group. "It's a lifestyle thing," he said. "For me, looking at things digitally, there's not a divide there. It's just digital is the way I consume media. Typically if it's not an open thing where I can consume that media however I want, I'm not as likely to buy it."

Shawn Carroll, COO of Immersion Digital (Glo Bible), added: "One of the things that we discovered is the nonlinear nature of digital media ... being able to dive in, explore and get context. Being able to share your experiences is also hugely important in this era of Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. The idea of an interface that speaks to people in the way they want to interact with media and on the devices that they cart around with them is important."

Eric Metaxas' biography of World War II German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer—Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy—has been named the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association's (ECPA) Christian Book of the Year.

The Thomas Nelson book was also voted the Non-Fiction title of the year in the association's 2011 Christian Book Awards, announced May 2 on the eve of ECPA's annual meeting and Executive Leadership Summit in Colorado Springs, Colo.

It marked the second successive year that Thomas Nelson took the prestigious award. Richard Stearns' The Hole in Our Gospel was named Christian Book of the Year and the Christian Life title of the year for 2010.

Christian retailers across the country have chosen the winning products in the 11th annual Retailers Choice Awards, sponsored by Christian Retailing magazine. Among a record 350-plus nominations in 39 categories, 41 winners were voted as best of the year.

Tyndale House Publishers and Thomas Nelson tied for the most wins, with eight each. Tyndale had 10 finalists and Thomas Nelson 25 finalists in the running.

Sarah Young’s devotional writing fared well with two wins: Jesus Calling: 365 Devotions for Kids (Children’s Nonfiction) and Jesus Calling: Deluxe Edition in Backlist, both from Thomas Nelson.

Chris August, , Jason Crabb and Point of Grace were the big winners during last night's 42nd Annual Gospel Music Association (GMA) Dove Awards.

They pulled down three Doves apiece at the event, held at Atlanta's historic Fox Theatre—the first time the show took place outside of Nashville. For the second year in a row, Battistelli took home Female Vocalist of the Year honors, and she also won the fan-voted Artist of the Year and Pop/Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year for "Beautiful, Beautiful."

A first-time nominee, August was named New Artist of the Year and Male Artist of the Year, and was recognized with the Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year for No Far Away (Fervent Records/Word Distribution).

Crabb won Song of the Year for "Sometimes I Cry"; Inspirational Recorded Song of the Year for "Joseph"; and Traditional Gospel Recorded Song of the Year for "Go Tell It On The Mountain." His father, Gerald Crabb, won Songwriter of the Year.

Point of Grace took home Country Album of the Year for No Changin' Us (Word Records/Word); Christmas Album of the Year for Home for the Holidays (Word Records/Word); and Country Recorded Song of the Year for "There Is Nothing Greater Than Grace."

Soul Surfer—the inspirational life story of surfer Bethany Hamilton, the Christian teen who had her left arm bitten off by a tiger shark—again finished in fourth place in its second weekend, grossing an estimated $7.4 million from more than 2,000 theaters, the Los Angeles Times reported. Heavily marketed to the faith-based community, the movie—which stars …

‘Soul Surfer’ has ‘Word of Mouth’ Read More »

Zondervan and its Spanish-language division, Editorial Vida, will simultaneously publish a book by José Henríquez—one of the Chilean miners rescued last year who was regarded as "the pastor" of the group.

To be released Oct. 12, the first anniversary of the rescue, Miracle in the Mine will tell Henríquez's spiritual journey leading up to the mine collapse—which drew worldwide attention—and the group's rescue after being trapped underground for 69 days. Thirty-three miners from Mina San José, Chile, were trapped 2,300 feet below the earth's surface, surrounded by more than 700,000 tons of unstable rock.

"I'm eager to share how our faith in God helped me and my friends to survive this experience," Henríquez says. "Although I have not fully embraced our so-called 'celebrity' status, if writing this book will serve to bring others to know the truth of God's Word, then my experience will have been for good."

The songwriter award nominees have been announced for next week's 42nd Annual Gospel Music Association (GMA) Dove Awards.

Chris August, Gerald Crabb, Jason Ingram, Joel Lindsey and Wayne Haun received Songwriter of the Year nods. Ingram now has 12 Dove nominations—the most anyone has received in one awards season, GMA said.

The winners will be announced 8 p.m. EST, Wednesday, April 20 at Atlanta's historic Fox Theatre—the first time the show will take place outside of Nashville. To be hosted by Sherri Shepherd, co-host of ABC's The View, the show will air Easter Sunday, April 24, on the Atlanta-based Gospel Music Channel.

Presenters include Greg Jennings, Kim Fields, Yvette Nicole Brown, Chonda Pierce, Kevin Sorbo, Mandisa, Ruben Studdard, Leigh Ann Tuohy and Collins Tuohy.

William P. Young's best-selling novel, The Shack, comes to the stage next month in an experimental event exploring new ways of bringing books to life.

Stories From the Shack will feature music, dance, sand painting, aerial artistry and comments from Young and some of the readers whose lives have been touched by his novel. The two-hour presentation, featuring audience interaction, will be "sort of a mash-up of Cirque du Soleil meets Charlie Rose," says co-producer Jim Henderson.

Soul Surfer—the inspirational life story of surfer Bethany Hamilton, the Christian teen who had her left arm bitten off by a tiger shark—took fourth place in its debut weekend, grossing an estimated $11.1 million from 2,214 theaters, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com.

Heavily marketed to the faith-based community, the movie—distributed by Sony Pictures' TriStar label and marketed by the studio's faith-based division Affirm Films and FilmDistrict—was made for $18 million.

"Audiences seemed enamored with Soul Surfer, giving it a rare A-plus," said the Los Angeles Times, referencing CinemaScore's moviegoer polling. "That means the film is off to a solid start, especially considering the teenage girls who propelled it to success are on spring break over the next few weeks."

The family film—which stars AnnaSophia Robb as Bethany; Dennis Quaid as her father, Tom; Helen Hunt as Bethany's mother, Cheri; and Carrie Underwood as church youth leader Sarah Hill—beat projections by $1 million for its theatrical debut, USA Today reported.

Publishers need to "e-publish or perish," according to international book partners James Elwell and Ellen Banks Elwell.

The Tyndale House Publishers couple—he director of international publishing, she international publishing assistant—believes that for readers, "this is the best time in history" with so many choices of media type.

But "for publishers, it's a time of big headaches and wonderful opportunities. We're trying to figure out multiple formats, digital rights, contract e-rights and internal corporate complexity."

While books will not go away, publishers need to recognize that reading is like cooking, in that most U.S. households have a conventional oven and a microwave, but use each for different purposes.

Soul Surfer—the inspirational life story of surfer Bethany Hamilton, the Christian teen who had her left arm bitten off by a tiger shark—will open in more than 2,000 theaters tomorrow, April 8, across the country and in Canada.

Heavily marketed to the faith-based community, Soul Surfer stars AnnaSophia Robb as Bethany; Dennis Quaid as her father, Tom; Helen Hunt as Bethany's mother, Cheri; and Carrie Underwood as church youth leader Sarah Hill.

Rated PG for an intense accident sequence and some thematic material, the film has received some positive early reviews. The Orlando Sentinel noted that Soul Surfer is "the best faith-based film ever made, an uplifting, entertaining and wonderfully-acted. ... The religious subtext is handled as lightly as you'd expect in a movie about surfers. Bethany's faith gives her stoicism and resolve in the face of a calamity, alters her priorities and gives her purpose."

One of the largest private collections of biblical manuscripts and artifacts in the world, gathered by the family behind a Christian retail chain, debuted at an exclusive reception on Thursday night.

Some of the 30,000-plus pieces in The Green Collection are to be on show at the Vatican Embassy in Washington, D.C., in an event to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible.

Best-selling author Max Lucado leads the field in this year's Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) Christian Book Awards, with three of his Thomas Nelson titles in the Bibles, Inspiration and Nonfiction categories.

Lucado, who has won 12 Christian Book Awards and been recognized as a finalist 32 times since 1978, is the first author to appear on the finalist list three times in the same year, ECPA said.

Out of 226 entries of books and Bibles published in the past year, five finalists in six categories were chosen to vie for the best Christian books and Bibles for 2011. The association's Christian Book Awards will be presented in Colorado Springs, Colo., May 2, at the start of ECPA's Executive Leadership Summit. One title will be chosen among all the finalists to be named the 2011 Christian Book of the Year.

Despite the disappointing box-office tally of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Walden Media is looking to produce the fourth film in the franchise based on C.S. Lewis' beloved children's fantasy novels.

"We are starting to talk to (20th Century Fox) and the C.S. Lewis estate now about The Magician's Nephew being our next film," Michael Flaherty, co-founder and president of Walden Media, told The Christian Post. "If we can all agree to move forward, then what we would do is find someone to write the script. So, it could still be a couple of years."

Best-selling author Rob Bell's controversial new book, Love Wins (HarperOne), has debuted at No. 2 on the New York Times Hardcover Advice & Miscellaneous best-seller list for the week of April 3.

HarperOne brought forward publication of the book—subtitled "Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived"—from March 29 to March 15 because of interest in the title, which critics say promotes universalism.

Founding pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Mich., Bell has denied that he espouses universalism—the belief that all humans end up in heaven, and hell is not physical place.