Religion publishers arguably have more trade show options than any other category, with specialized book exhibits for evangelical Christian, Catholic/Episcopal, Jewish, New Age, and academic houses. That’s one reason there were far fewer religion publishers exhibiting at BookExpo this year—21 vs. the more than 50 of a decade ago (“BEA Now a Low (or No) Priority for Many Religion Houses,” PW, May 9).

But those who were at BEA last week were upbeat, and while bemoaning the rapidly increasing costs of exhibiting at the show, they expressed a continued commitment to being there. “It’s still the best place for us to see everyone at one time instead of flying all over the country for meetings,” said David Lewis, executive v-p of sales and marketing for Baker Publishing Group.

The dominant topic in the category these days is clearly the afterlife (see Books Briefly in this issue of RBL). Baker’s Revell imprint has seen its 90 Minutes in Heaven camped on the bestseller lists for nearly four years, and it was joined six months ago by Thomas Nelson’s Heaven Is for Real. But the book drawing the most media attention is HarperOne’s Love Wins. Author Rob Bell has been criticized by fellow Christians for his inclusiveness when it comes to who will go to heaven. He drew more than 100 people to his BEA signing, and while in New York taped a prime-time special for Nightline that will air later this month. Next comes hell—just before the show David C. Cook announced a new book from Francis Chan (Crazy Love) that will deal with the darker side. Erasing Hell: What God Said about Eternity and the Things We Make Up is set to release in July.

Although new Christian house Worthy Publishing did not exhibit, its inaugural list was prominently featured at Oasis Audio’s booth. Oasis was celebrating two coups—it has deals to produce simultaneous-release audio versions of Worthy’s fall books as well as the audio of Chan’s forthcoming title. Oasis continues to grow its list and forge partnerships with some of the major Christian houses. Said publisher Tammy Faxel, “BEA has been great for us. We had heavier traffic than ever and strong interest in Belieber! [Worthy] and The Five Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace [Northfield/Moody] along with a number of our other upcoming new releases.”

Baker has a fall book that promises to draw media interest to another unfortunately timely topic. In October its Revell imprint will publish I Am in Here: The Journey of a Child with Autism Who Cannot Speak But Finds her Voice by Elizabeth Bonker and Virginia Breen. Bonker is a 13-year-old with autism who cannot speak but learned to communicate by typing and reveals her inner life through her poetry.

Jonathan Merkh, publisher of S&S’s Howard Books imprint, was already seeing plenty of press for Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin, an expose by former Palin aide Frank Bailey that released the day BEA opened. The book got pre-release coverage from the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and other national print media, as well as ABC News, CNN, NPR, and Fox. An Associated Press video and story ran that day; the story called the book “a scathing tell-all.” Merkh said 150,00 copies had shipped.

FaithWords publisher Rolf Zettersten noted that the Hachette imprint celebrated its 10th anniversary last year and “currently has 50 million books sold.” A new imprint, Jericho Books, will begin publishing books by “edgier” evangelical Christian authors in fall 2012, according to Jericho v-p and publisher Wendy Grisham (sister of John). Among the first will be Jay Bakker (Son of a Preacher Man), whose FaithWords book, Falling to Grace, has drawn some heat in Christian quarters because of Bakker’s unabashed advocacy of LGBTQ rights. Bakker was at the FaithWords booth and told RBL his next book “won’t look back as much” (he’s the son of Jim and Tammy Faye) and will be more topically oriented. “The Church needs reformation and I hope to be a part of it,” Bakker said.

One religion publisher who said he might not return next year is Stuart Matlins of Jewish Lights/Skylight Paths. Matlins said he has not yet committed for 2012 and is considering bowing out after more than 20 years at BEA. “With the big cost increases next year we might not be here,” said Matlins.