PW: Nota Bene

Lynn Garrett |

May 15, 2000

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Nota Bene
Lynn Garrett -- 5/15/00

Don't Get Left Behind
Tyndale House, publisher of the phenomenally successful Left Behind fiction series, is launching the seventh title, The Indwelling: The Beast Takes Possession, with a 10-city tour beginning in San Diego on May 23, the book's lay-down date. Events in each city--to be held in auditoriums and at large churches--will feature authors Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim LaHaye leading "an evening of worship, fellowship and outreach" featuring Dove Award-winning Word recording artist Wayne Watson and Rocket Town artist Ginny Owens, along with emcee Mike Trout, cohost of the popular Focus on the Family radio show. In each city, there will also be traditional signings at bookstores across the spectrum-Christian, general independent and chain and mall stores. The San Diego date will be a homecoming of sorts for LaHaye, who pastored in the area for 25 years. Other stops on the tour include Portland, Ore. (May 25), Denver (May 30), Grand Rapids (June 2), Chicago (June 3), Atlanta (June 5), Louisville, Ky. (June 6), Oklahoma City (June 8), Dallas (June 9) and Houston (June 10). The closing event in Houston will be broadcast live to Christian radio stations around the country. The previous six books in the Left Behind series have made PW's religion and general bestsellers lists as well as the New York Times list, with sales topping 13 million copies. That success has inspired a two-million-copy print run for The Indwelling; pre-sales of 1.3 million have affirmed Tyndale's confidence in the book.

Award Winners
Two Christian publishing houses are celebrating special recognition for their books. Two InterVarsity Press titles were among 10 winners of the annual book awards of Christianity Today magazine: Intelligent Design by William Dembski won in the Christianity & Culture category, and The Story of Christian Theology by Roger Olson won in Theology & Ethics. Evangelical Truth by John Stott won an Award of Merit. Another IVP title, Family Ministry by Diana Garland, was named Book of the Year by the Academy of Parish Clergy, an association of primarily mainline Protestant ministers. That award was presented at Princeton Theological Seminary on May 10. At NavPress, celebration surrounds Satisfy Your Soul by Bruce Demarest, which won the 2000 ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Award. ForeWord, which covers the independent publishing industry, established the award in 1998 to recognize "vital books published by small, independent and university presses."

Short Takes
Two religion publishing associations have new leaders: Ellen Frankel, CEO and editor-in-chief of the Jewish Publication Society, has been named president of the Jewish Book Publishers Association, the first woman to hold the position (as well as the first woman to head JPS). She can be reached at (800) 234-3151 or jewishbook@aol.com. The new executive director of the Catholic Book Publishers Association is Terry Wessels; she is a partner in TM Enterprises, a conference management company. Wessels can be reached at (815) 332-3245 or cbpa@aol.com.

Cokesbury.com, the United Methodist Publishing House's e-commerce bookselling site, has averaged 50,000-60,000 visits per month since its August 1 launch. The site is projected to generate revenues of $1 million by its first birthday on July 31. UMPH owns 70 bricks-and-mortar Cokesbury stores in the U.S.
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A version of this article appeared in the 05/15/2000 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline: