More evidence has come in that points to 2024 being a very good year for sales of religion books. For the first half of 2024, unit sales of print religious book rose 12.1% over the comparable period in 2023 at outlets that report to Circana BookScan. The gain came entirely from nonfiction titles, which rose 12.8% offsetting a 5% decline in the much smaller fiction category.
Religion was the best performing category among all adult nonfiction subject areas in the first half of the year, and sales easily outperformed total print sales in the first six months of 2024, which were down 0.4% from a year ago.
The top-selling religion book in the first half of the year was Mostly What God Does by Savanah Guthrie, which sold more than 155,000 copies at BookScan reporting outlets. In second place was Practicing the Way by John Mark Comer, which sold about 130,000 copies. In all, books written by Comer sold roughly 210,000 copies in the first half of the year.
While Guthrie had the top selling title, two authors who are no strangers to the bestseller list sold the most total copies. Lysa TerKeurst led the way, selling almost 400,000 copies with her Forgiving What You Can’t Forget her bestseller at about 92,000 copies. Sarah Young followed Terkeurst, with her books selling nearly 358,000 copies.
Also playing an important role in boosting religion sales were Bibles and Bible-study books. The Bible In 52 Weeks by Kimberly D. Moore was the top-selling study guide, selling over 135,000 copies. The five bestselling Bibles combined to sell about 365,000 copies in the first six months of 2024.
The BookScan figures support comments made by religion publishing executives this spring who told PW that sales in 2024 were running ahead of a good 2023 and that the biggest driver was the demand for Bibles, Bible studies, and devotionals.
