If the Bible is the dairy section of religion publishing, then Bible stories for children are milk cartons sized for kid consumption. Children’s religion publishing sells a lot of those cartons, but it also offers a wide variety of books on topics beyond the Bible, such as good manners, mindfulness, and dystopia. Publishers agree that the children’s market is a challenging one. It’s sensitive to price points, has different gatekeepers than the adult market, requires its own kind of marketing, and is broad enough to accommodate lots of niches and needs.

Publishers agree they need to shape their message carefully to be accepted by the general market. “We got pushback about things that were too preachy,” says Julie Solomon Backman, publicist for Nelson’s gift and children’s lines. Too much religion lands a children’s book in the religion section of a bookstore and makes it harder to get general market reviews. “It’s like a whole different world, learning who’s important, how long it takes for things to get established,” says Anita Eerdmans, v-p of publicity and promotion at Wm. B. Eerdmans. That said, opportunities and success do exist.

One Major Expands

The children’s line at Thomas Nelson is getting bigger, anchored in market-tested authors and products. Christian pastor Max Lucado’s Hermie & Friends line is relaunching in the fall, with new art, a new character named Little Hermie, and new pricing. The line will include DVDs, board books, and readers. The original Hermie line sold more than 5.5 million units. Another market veteran, Sheila Walsh, kicks off a new series, Gabby, God’s Little Angel, for 3–7-year-olds, following the success of Walsh’s Gigi, God’s Little Princess line, which has sold more than 1.5 million units. The current market heavyweight is Nelson’s bestselling Heaven Is for Real by Todd Burpo, which has logically spawned an illustrated children’s edition, releasing in November. The adult book recounts what Burpo’s three-year-old son, Colton, experienced as a visit to heaven when the child underwent major surgery.

Middle-grade fiction is being revamped, with plots and topics that parallel mainstream fiction for those age groups, says Nelson publicist Backman. Think variations on Percy Jackson: Spirit Fighter by Jerel Law, a pastor, opens the Jonah Stone, Son of Angels series. Jonah and his sister, Eliza, must save their mother, who is a Nephilim, or half-angel, when she is kidnapped. “We’ve seen parents looking for titles that make Christianity and faith-based themes exciting,” says Backman.

Another Refocuses

Zondervan is intentionally shrinking its children’s line. When publisher Annette Bourland took the helm of Zonderkidz, the children’s group at Zondervan, in 2007, the line included 120 titles a year; that has been decreasing by 15%–20% to concentrate resources. Premium picture book titles are also being decreased as that part of the market continues to contract, and Zondervan is moving toward more value pricing of $10 or less. Because digital is another market imperative, Zondervan will test Kindle singles—short stories that YA and middle-grade authors will pen to promote or continue their stories that are in print; the singles won’t appear in print.

Zonderkidz also has deliberately shifted its market. When Bourland began, almost 80% of its market was Christian, with the rest general market. Today, Bourland says, around one-third of sales and revenue come from the Christian market, another third from general market outlets including big boxes, and a third from ABA bookstores. “We have books that are clearly and solidly CBA-centric, and books with crossover appeal,” Bourland says.

Zonderkidz is developing two new brands for which it has great expectations: one is the Nature of God series of books and DVDs by Peter Schriemer, a wildlife educator and filmmaker who hosts Critter Quest! on the Smithsonian Channel. Zonderkidz wants to take advantage of interest in PBS-style documentaries and DK-type children’s reference books that school or religious educators can use. “We had a curriculum developer work with us” in development, explains Bourland. A new brand coming soon: picture books by popular Christian personality Joyce Meyer featuring animal characters, for kids ages 4–7. Every Which Way to Pray will kick off the line in spring 2012.

Using Value Pricing

Tyndale House’s roots are in children’s publishing—Kenneth Taylor founded the company in 1962 in part to make the Bible understandable to his own children. “It’s always been a mainstay here,” says Katara Patton, acquisitions director of children’s and family products. “It’s also a very hard market.”

The house is looking at price points, given the draw of value pricing, and doing some repackaging of proven backlist. Tyndale’s Little Blessings line is being repackaged, and two books from its Question line are due next Easter in soft cover at $3.99. Tyndale sees an opportunity among all the season’s bunnies for some Christian products, and “sometimes people just don’t have $10 to spend on a kid,” Patton says.

Tyndale is also developing princess-themed books and products—“little girls really do like pink,” Patton notes—but the focus for young girls is spiritual rather than material. “The message is helping girls understand their value early on,” Patton says.

Evolution: One Publisher’s Story

Like Tyndale House, Wm. B. Eerdmans has published children’s books almost from the beginning of its 100-year history, though it did not establish Eerdmans Books for Young Readers until the mid-1990s. Its aim was to publish high-quality religion books for children that would compare favorably with general trade books. “Too often it seemed that religious titles looked like recycled Sunday school materials, with second-rate art and preachy text,” says Anita Eerdmans.

Like other publishers, Eerdmans finds children’s publishing difficult. Children’s book prices don’t tend to go up, even as costs do. “It’s trickier to make money,” Eerdmans says. The Christian market adds another problem; its more conservative slice needs explicit references to God and Jesus, or retailers and customers won’t buy.

Over time, Eerdmans has begun to publish fewer overtly religious books and has expanded its range of other children’s titles, translating distinctive, sometimes quirky, European titles. “We think they can stand out in the American market,” Eerdmans says. The press’s religion books tend to be about saints or familiar Bible stories or texts that cross sectarian boundaries and find acceptance in general interest stores and public libraries. Sales and reviews reflect that acceptance. “We’re happy with how well we’ve been selling, and how well our books are being received,” Eerdmans says.

Revolution: The Digital Explosion

The key to effective digital publishing in the children’s market is to do it where it makes sense. That’s the kind of advice publishers pay Mary Manz Simon to hear. Simon is an early childhood educator, an author who has sold three million books in the Christian market, and a trends analyst. “We’re talking about more than book-plus,” she tells PW. “We’re talking about a whole renaissance for kids.” Apps for young children have become popular with parents, who can hand the phone or tablet to a child in the backseat of the car; digital experts have dubbed it the “pass-back” phenomenon.

But that doesn’t mean everything needs to have an app. Digital book components make sense “when they increase the emotional connection of the child with the story,” Simon says. “If you have too many games, they’re going to lose the story line.” Apps also don’t make as much sense for the bedtime reading ritual, a time when parents are inclined to turn off their e-devices and snuggle up with kids and a storybook. “It’s you and the child and the pages, and people still want that,” Simon says. “That’s not saying you can’t have a screen on your lap.”

Finding More Opportunities

The screen part of publishing today gives an advantage to publishers with graphics-rich content. Kingstone Media, which publishes comics and graphic novels with appeal to teens as well as adults in a variety of imprints, is developing a graphic Bible over a three-year period that it expects to contain 2,000 pages of content in both static and interactive e-versions. That makes sense, given that the 2011 children’s book of the year in the Christian market was The Action Bible by Sergio Cariello (David C. Cook).

The e-frontier can also refresh the old, as Concordia Publishing House, the publishing arm of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, has discovered. Its time-honored Arch Book series of Bible stories is available as an iPad app that allows children to record their voices as they read the stories. Concordia has found global as well as technological opportunities. The Arch Book brand and Bible-related materials the house produces are thriving in Spanish. Concordia publisher Paul McCain says the house has found “great receptivity” to Spanish-language materials.

Diversity Multiplies Niches

Though the bulk of the U.S. children’s religion book market is evangelical Christian, other world religions are also publishing for kids, spanning the faith spectrum. (See the story on Jewish kids’ books, p. 28.) Paulist Press, a Catholic publisher, has done children’s books for all of its 143-year history. The press acquired Ambassador Books in late 2007 to boost its children’s profile, adding 30 backlist titles. “We were looking to upgrade our approach into the children’s market,” says Bob Byrns, marketing and sales director.

Now the press is taking a different tack. Earlier this year, Paulist stopped using two independent contractors who had been doing their children’s acquisitions. “Going forward, what we want to do is focus more on high quality, do fewer, but do things that are very special,” says managing editor Donna Crilly.

Publishers who specialize in Buddhist books have developed small lines of children’s titles. Those books are not intended to teach little Buddhists nor do they use Buddhist terminology. Rather, they apply Buddhist spiritual wisdom to children’s issues, especially the developmental question of dealing with emotions.

Parallax Press, in Berkeley, Calif., which publishes the work of Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, developed its children’s imprint, Plum Blossom Books, in 2005 and does two books a year, says publisher Travis Masch. When the practice of mindfulness derived from Buddhist meditation is presented without religious language, it works well for schools, particularly as a technique for conflict resolution and anger management, Masch explains.

Another specialist in Buddhism, Wisdom Publications, in Boston, also has a modest children’s line. Peter the Cow, a character who learned meditation in 2009 (Moody Cow Meditates by Kerry Lee MacLean), returns next year for a new lesson in Moody Cow Learns Loving-Kindness.

As religion publishers refine their products for children, expect to see increased quality and variety. It’s a learning experience—for kids and for publishers.