Entitle Books, an e-book subscription service, has launched Entitle Christian, devoted exclusively to Christian books.
Bryan Batten, Entitle CEO, said Entitle Christian came about through observing downloading behavior and surveying customers. “We saw that if someone bought one Christian book, they tended to only buy Christian books, similar to romance buyers,” Batten said. Customers also indicated a desire for a place to see only Christian titles—“they did not want to see, for example, erotic fiction.”
Entitle offers subscribers access and ownership of two, three, or four e-books per month at rates starting at $9.99 and works on iOS, Android, Kindle Fire, Nook, Kobo, and Sony eReader devices. Customers retain ownership of titles even if they leave the service. Entitle offers some 200,000 e-books across all categories and genres; more than 10,000 are now offered within Entitle Christian. Participating publishers currently include Baker Publishing Group, David C. Cook, B&H Publishing Group, HarperCollins Christian Publishing, and Howard Books, among others.
Batten said publishers across the Christian spectrum, not just evangelical, would be represented, including denominational Protestant and Catholic houses. All publishers’ titles also are offered through the general Entitle service, and although there are separate sign-ups, “if an Entitle Christian subscriber wants to switch over to Entitle, that’s no problem, we take care of that for them,” he said.
Having the Christian-only service is an effective marketing and sales tool, Batten noted. “It gives us direct marketing opportunities through churches and makes it easier for customers to buy. It cuts down on the noise and captures those who are specifically interested in those books.”
