The Good Book, Bible publishers point out, is also a very old book, full of archaic references, outdated language, and ancient lineages and conflicts too hard for today's reader to follow. So if they want to keep their share of this evergreen market—and they do—publishers must revise, revise, revise. New translations, which are labor- and time-intensive, don't debut often, and new niche-targeted Bibles have almost disappeared. So while there are several brand new products this year, most publishers are mining their Bible backlists and asking, What can we do to make it fresh? Fortunately for Bible buyers, that means going beyond a flashier cover to rethinking, reediting and reformatting the well-loved text.
"It is a backlist business," says John Sawyer, v-p of Bible marketing at Zondervan. "People tend to hold on to Bibles, so they are not looking for what is new and hot but what is tried and true. So while we often release new Bibles, the majority of our success is based on the backlist that delivers year after year."
The New and the Old
Zondervan learned that the hard way this year with the debut of the New Testament in the Today's New International Version (TNIV) translation, which featured gender-inclusive language and was hammered by many in the evangelical Christian community ("That's putting it nicely," Sawyer acknowledges). Still, the brouhaha has not discouraged Zondervan from its plan to bring out new TNIV products, including the complete Bible in 2005, and then moving on to publish its other popular Bibles in the TNIV. The target audience for TNIV product will continue to be younger Christians. "They are more sophisticated and understand the complexities of life, so when a leader of the previous generation comes out against the TNIV, they are more likely to think for themselves," Sawyer says.
The TNIV aside, Zondervan primarily is focusing on renewing the old. This month brings the release of the company's all-time bestseller, The NIV Study Bible featuring revised notes and scholarship that took five years to complete. Also redone is The Student Bible, NIV (Aug.), updated with new notes and a subject index by original editors Phillip Yancey and Tim Stafford. The Quest Study Bible (Feb. 2003) has 1,000 new questions submitted by Bible readers to make a total of 8,000 commonly asked questions about the sacred text, and The Full Life Study Bible (Mar. 2003), in both NIV and KJV, has revised notes. All of these Bibles, published between 1992 and 1997, sold between 750,000 and six million copies per title. Despite this enviable track record, the revisions will be vital to future success, Sawyer says.
The focus on revisions doesn't mean there will be no new Bible product from Zondervan, where niche Bibles once proliferated. The Sports Devotional Bible, a partnership with Sports Spectrum magazine, with covers that look and feel like either a real football or a basketball, was published in July.
At Oxford University Press, everything old also is new again. This month, OUP celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Revised Standard Version by releasing The Holy Bible, RSV and sponsoring a panel discussion on its development at Yale University, home base for many of the original contributing scholars. The original pages have been electronically reset and the text is offered with or without the Apocrypha. Also "new" is the centenarian Scofield Study Bible, featuring the first-time pairing of the New King James Version (NKJV), a favorite of evangelicals, and the popular Scofield study notes, which are more than 100 years old. But the look of this Scofield is more USA Today than yesterday, with charts and other graphics tracing word and name origins, chronologies and genealogies. "We prefer to think of this as an augmentation of the Scofield," says Rob Stone, OUP's director of Bible sales and marketing. The new features "will help the reader deepen their understanding of what they are reading in the text by Scofield." Another new feature is a Logos Library System CD-ROM included with each new Scofield, loaded with the KJV, Scofield notes, dictionaries, concordances and commentaries. Also from OUP is The Catholic Study Bible, NAB, which will include a New American Bible concordance for the first time. The packaging of Bibles with concordances and CD-ROMs is new for OUP, Stone says, and points to a larger trend within Bible publishing (see sidebar, below).
Thomas Nelson, too, is looking back to go forward. They have revived 1997's The Open Bible, KJV (Sept.) with updated notes, and recruited 31 new contributors for a new edition of 1991's The New Spirit-Filled Life Bible (Sept). The Inspirational Study Bible, originally published in 1997, will have new notes from its original editor, bestselling inspirational author Max Lucado, for a March 2003 release. Tim Jordan, marketing director for Nelson Bibles, says revamping the backlist is just good business. "[Working on] the Bible is very time-intensive and not something you can churn out for the next hottest topic that goes by," Jordan notes. "We can update for a particular generation that is looking at things through a different lens than we were 20 years ago, but the scripture doesn't change." Nelson has brought back 1991's New Century Version (NCV) translation, which it acquired along with Word Publishing (now W Publishing) in 1992. Also from Nelson are The Youth Bible, NCV (June), another 1991 title with new notes and features; The New Inspirational Bible, NCV (Feb. 2003); The Extreme Teen Bible, NCV (2001); and kidsBible.com, NCV (Oct.). Laurie Whaley, Nelson's brand manager for the NCV, says plans are to market this translation primarily to the general market, because CBA consumers prefer more traditional translations. "The NCV is a better match for people who are not as familiar with the Bible or may be reading it for the first time," Whaley says. There are some brand new Nelson Bibles, too, including the So That's Why Bible, NKJV (Oct.) which comes with a CD-ROM to help with chronologies, maps, family trees and other hard-to-keep-straight aspects of the Book.
The big news at Broadman & Holman is that you can judge a book by its cover—or at least choose to buy one based on that—with B&H's new Varsity Color Bibles, which feature leather covers in one of the five most popular school colors—blue, orange, red, purple and crimson. Between the colored covers—which can be stamped with a school logo—is a choice of either the Cornerstone Ultrathin Bible or the Ultrathin Reference Bible in either the KJV or the NIV. The Bible as school souvenir is the brainchild of Ricky King, product development manager for Bibles and reference books at B&H, and he says sales have exceeded expectations. He believes the success of the Varsity line is proof the niche Bible is not dead, if it is appropriately developed. B&H also will provide an easy-to-understand Bible for new Christians with The Gift: A New Testament for Believers, HCSB (Jan. 2003). The Bible offers doctrinal summaries and other special helps like lists of "Top 10 Biblical Truths" and a "Plan for Salvation." This is the latest product in B&H's still-progressing Holman Christian Standard Bible translation, which should be complete by spring 2004. A checkbook-sized version, The HCSB New Testament with Psalms and Proverbs, is due next March.
While other publishers are sprucing up their backlists, Tyndale is focusing on frontlist with several completely new titles, all in their New Living Translation, which debuted in 1996. Among them are The Men of Integrity Devotional Bible, NLT (Oct.), a joint partnership with the Promise Keepers organization and Christianity Today magazine. It features devotionals from a stellar cast, including Henry Blackaby, Phillip Yancey, Bill McCartney and Bill Hybels. For Catholics, there is The Holy Bible Catholic Reference Edition, NLT, the first Catholic Bible in the NLT. Jeffrey Smith, marketing manager for Tyndale, says he thinks today's Bible customer is just as concerned—if not more so—with Bible features as with translation. "As customers become more demanding, they want more specialized properties," he notes. Tyndale's sales figures may bear him out—their Bible sales grew by 24% this last year, according to Smith.
Popular Paraphrases, Study Tools
In June, NavPress published the first one-volume version of Eugene Peterson's popular paraphrase of the Bible, The Message. The complete Bible has been 10 years in the making, with sections published separately since 1994. Toben Heim, publisher of the newly created The Message division (News, Sept. 16), says the paraphrase-as-Bible-translation is here to stay. "People today are more open to the concept of personal spirituality," Heim says, something he believes the paraphrase aids as an "alongside" tool to be read with other, more literal, translations. "There are more and more churches and individuals excited to just soak in the scripture, and the paraphrase allows them to do that in a unique way." The complete The Message had shipped 460,000 copies by mid-September.
Crossway/Good News Bible Publishing also has a paraphrase with A Passion for God by Raymond C. Ortlund, Jr. (Oct.), a retelling of the Book of Romans. But the jewel in its Bible crown is The English Standard Version Bible, which debuted in 2001 and became available in multiple covers and bindings last month. Marvin Padgett, v-p of editorial, told PW this translation is much favored by evangelical Christians for its faithfulness to the original King James Version (KJV), even when that 1611 version may be obscure. "If an underlying passage is partially difficult, we left it that way in English," he says. "We did not, do not and will not pander to our readers." The house recently partnered with Concordia to produce a version of the ESV as a pew Bible for the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. Leadership Ministries Worldwide has the OUTLINE New Testament with Thompson Chain References (July), which marks the first time in almost a century that B.B. Kirkbride Company has licensed its popular references to another publisher. The Bible features outlines in the margins to aid pastors in preparing sermons. And Abingdon Press, the trade arm of the United Methodist Publishing House, has completed its 12-volume New Interpreter's Bible (June). It includes both the NIV and NRSV translations and is intended mainly for scholars and pastors. Harriet Olson, senior v-p at UMPH, says the house will pare down the work to a single-volume New Interpreter's Study Bible sometime in 2003. "There are a wide variety of things people want in a Bible, and publishers are trying to find the right combination of components to serve them well."
Returning to the Roots
Harper San Francisco has its first Bible in nine years, The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible, translated and with commentary by Martin Abegg Jr., Peter Flint and Eugene Ulrich (Nov.). This Bible reflects the more than 50 years of scholarship completed since the 220 scrolls were discovered in the caves of Qumran, and includes "lost" psalms and some otherwise unknown biblical fragments. John Loudon, executive editor of HSF, considers this one of the most authentic translations of the Bible because it is of the oldest version of the Hebrew Bible in existence. "This is the closest we will come to the Bible that Jesus read," he says. And although the Dead Sea Scrolls are more closely associated with scholars, this Bible is intended for general readers. HSF also is publishing The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls by James VanderKam and Peter Flint in November. Combined with its earlier The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation by Michael Wise, Martin Abegg Jr. and Edward Cook (1999), the three are intended to be used as a set.
At the extreme end of getting back to basic texts is Bridge-Logos Publications, which, through its nonprofit arm, Bridge-Logos International Trust, offers The Complete Evidence Bible (Oct.). Edited by Ray Comfort, it is a "slightly more comfortable version" of the KJV, says publisher Guy Morrell, in that "it doesn't have any thee's and thou's." Morrell says the Bible was a reaction to the glut of niche and specialty Bibles on the market. "You go to the stores and there are 2,000 versions with 3,000 commentaries in 1,000 translations," he says, with only slight exaggeration. "We stood back and said this Bible thing is ridiculous." B-L wanted to return to the Great Commission, Jesus' commandment to go out and share the good news. And for that, Morrell says, you need no more than the basic Bible. "This isn't for the university professor, it is for any one of us," he says. B-L released a New Testament version in 2001 and will sell the complete Bible in both the Christian and general markets.
Breaking it Down
While many publishers offer complete Bibles, others break it down into sections, usually groupings of New Testament books. Here too, the overarching approach is to put a new face on an old work. For example, this April, Riverhead published the paperback reprint of The New Covenant: Four Gospels and the Apocalypse, a literary translation by poet and biblical scholar Willis Barnstone. The book is Barnstone's attempt to look at the New Testament—which is usually translated from the Greek—through the prism of the Judaism from which it arose. He replaced Greek names with Hebrew ones and changed much of the prose to poetry, including the entire story of the Apocalypse, which he holds was originally a Hebrew poem. Cindy Speigel, Riverhead's co-director of editorial, says returning to age-old texts like the New Testament and translating them anew, "makes them appear fresh to us. We come to a book that we have expectations about, but we take a look at something we thought we knew and see ourselves differently."
From Trafalgar Square comes The People's Bible (Sept.) a new "interpretive" translation of the New Testament by a liberal British rabbi, Sidney Brichto. The book is the first in a series that will eventually encompass the entire Bible, and the next installment will appear in about a year. Paul Feldstein, managing director of Trafalgar, says the series is not intended for any particular religious audience, but for anyone who feels intimidated by picking up a traditional Bible. "It may be daunting or overwhelming to pick up a Bible and dive in," he says. "This makes it easier to read, and it is in small portions." In March 2003, Trafalgar will publish The Lion Graphic Bible with script by Mike Maddox and illustrations by Jeff Anderson. Originally published by Lion in the U.K. in the late 1990s, this will be its first appearance in the U.S., and Feldstein expects its the artwork to stir some controversy. He also thinks the book will appeal to more than comic-book lovers. "Graphic novels have a very wide market," he notes. "It starts with teens, but I think many adults read them as well."
The Catholic Book Publishing Company, which chiefly produces prayer books and Bibles sanctioned by the Catholic Church, offers The Psalms: St. Joseph New Catholic Version (Sept.). The book is aimed at Catholics who love the simpler, more traditional language of some of the older Bible translations. Anthony Buono, CBPC's senior editor, says the book is a direct response to consumer requests. "We got a lot of angry calls from people who wanted the 1970 version of the Psalms," instead of the 1992 version, which was designed to be sung. "They just wanted a straight translation of the Psalms." The desire for the older, more traditional language has always run like a current under the post-Vatican II Catholic Church, and Buono sees no end to that. American Catholics, he says "are about half and half" divided between those who want traditional language and those who like more modern, inclusive language.
Out on the Edge
One of the more unique titles on the market is Westminster John Knox's r father n hvn: up 2 d8 txts frm d Bible, edited by Simon Jenkins (Nov.), a compilation of many of the more famous passages of the Bible translated into text messaging language. Culled from the Web site of ship-of-fools, a "magazine of Christian unrest" no longer available in a print edition, one of the beatitudes becomes "hpy ru por" and the Lord's Prayer begins "dad@hvn, ur spshl." While the most likely buyers will be teens and 20-somethings who routinely use text messaging to communicate, WJKP execs believe this small book—it fits in a pocket, like a cell phone—will speak to anyone who might have grown too familiar with the Bible passages. "There are different emphases and perspectives that come out in these versions," says Phillip Law, WJKP's U.K. director and the acquiring editor of the book. "Looking at the ways people have compressed these very well-known laws and verses into text messages makes me think about what they say in a way that may not come through if I read the original." Still, says Chris Conver, director of sales, "This is not a product for people who don't believe you can approach the scriptures in a lighthearted fashion." For those more serious folks, Conver promises a new Bible in about year, in the NRSV translation, that will focus its notes, commentary and devotions on social justice concerns. "There are study Bibles out there, but they approach the reader just at the level of personal concern," he says. "But we believe there is a customer base out there that wants to look beyond that and ask, 'How can I speak to the needs of the world?'"
Not a part of the canonical Bible, but viewed by many as a sacred text, is the Gospel of Thomas, which has been published off and on—most notably by Harper San Francisco in 1992—since its discovery in 1945. In September, SkyLight Paths, a division of Jewish Lights Publications, published the apocryphal text as The Gospel of Thomas: Annotated and Explained translated by Stevan Davies. Jon Sweeney, SkyLight's editor in chief, calls the book a natural for the house's Illuminations series, which features facing-page notes for novice readers of sacred texts. "Our book allows the reader without background in Christian history or theology to read this difficult text with understanding," Sweeney says.
And Torah Too
There is not a lot of activity this year in the publishing of Jewish sacred texts, with a few notable exceptions. Mesorah, a nondenominational Jewish publishing house with Orthodox roots, published The Rubin Edition of the Tanach: Samuel I and II by Rabbi Nosson Scherman in September. Rabbi Scherman, Mesorah's general editor, says the book is the second in a series being published over the next several years. The first volume, Joshua and Judges, came out in 2000, and the house is now at work on the two books of Kings, which should be out by 2004. Mesorah completed its first Tanach, in one volume, in 1996, but this one has more commentary and is intended for the average person rather than for scholars. "It will be helpful for scholars, but by no means is only for a scholarly audience," Rabbi Scherman says. "There is very definitely a shortage of this kind of publication." The Rubin Tanach also has newly typeset Hebrew and includes three commentaries most popularly used in the Jewish home, one that was written about a century ago and two dating from the Middle Ages. Mesorah is also still at work on its translation and commentary of the Talmud. It will ultimately number 73 volumes—number 59 appeared in August—and is being translated into Hebrew and French.
Although the Jewish Publication Society is not publishing a new Torah this year, it has launched an aggressive campaign to promote its TANAKH, which it says is the most widely read English translation of the Jewish Bible in the world. In April JPS sent a Bible mailer to 5,000 key book buyers, rabbis, educators, synagogues, Jewish community centers, gift shops, day schools and JPS members and customers to renew awareness of its TANAKH line, which includes a variety of editions and commentaries.
For the Young
In youth Bibles, two established trends still hold—dividing the market into ever-smaller niches based on age or gender, and the design of Bibles to look more and more like Web sites and computer games. At Zonderkidz, the children's division of Zondervan, marketing director Kathy Needham says targeting children by gender makes sense. "We saw this happening in adult Bibles about eight years ago," she notes. "And while the world is moving toward everything being gender neutral, the reality is that young boys and girls have very specific questions, and we wanted to be helpful in that." August brought the release of The Boys Bible, which highlights the four "growth areas" described (in somewhat different words) in Luke 2:52—"smarter, stronger, deeper, cooler." Verses that deal with these four characteristics are highlighted and emphasized throughout. The complementary version for girls is The Young Women of Faith Bible, published in 2001. Needham has an acronym that now underlies Bible publishing for "tweens," or young adults—"KGOY," or "kids growing older younger." "That's the whole idea with tweens," she says of the eight—12 crowd. "They want to do more bold, brave things than I wanted to do when I was that age, and you have to design your products so they are meeting their needs, because they are more demanding." These demanding consumers are the intended audience for The Edge Devotional Bible, NIV (April 2003), which offers stories-within-the-scriptures about five multiethnic characters who learn the Bible's lessons along with the reader. To promote the book, Zonderkidz has enlisted the help of the Christian "tween" musical group Jump 5, who will appear in promotional materials.
Broadman & Holman expanded its Bible products for children and teens this year, most notably with The TruthQuest Inductive Student Bible, edited by youth minister Steve Keels (Feb.). It's been given a new cover and a new nylon case that can be purchased separately or with a TruthQuest paperback Bible. The line includes a whole string of supporting products, including a journal, a prayer devotional and a television show that will begin broadcasting on the FamilyNet channel this fall. TruthQuest brand manager Stephanie Huffman says that teens' desire to "go deep" is what drives the brand. "You are looking at a generation that is dealing with shootings in its schools," she says. "I didn't have to worry about that. But this is the 9/11 generation. They want to find some meaning to life because it might be short."
Just as its adult Bibles are all new, so are Tyndale's Bibles for teens and tweens. For teens, there is The Jesus Bible, NLT (Oct.), published in partnership with Standard Publishing. Including both the Old and New Testaments, it particularly highlights the words, thoughts and actions of Jesus and how they might apply to teenagers. For tweens—here ages 10 to 12—there is The New Life Bible, NLT, the first time Tyndale has targeted this age group. Among the topics tackled in The New Life Bible are abuse, abortion, depression, homosexuality and other issues "kids face at an ever earlier age," Smith says.
In spite of all these innovations, there is still a market for the traditional story Bible. That belief led Merle Good, publisher of Good Books, which is best known for cookbooks, to publish The Bible for Children (Oct.), his company's first foray into children's Bibles. "This Bible is not trendy and we are not trying to get in and out of some niche," Good says. "Some will go for a trendy thing and others will go for something that has a classic and more substantial feel to it." Early numbers bear him out—the first print run was 50,000, and they already have gone back for another 100,000. The book has found its way into general market and Christian bookstores, mass merchandisers and discounters. The American Bible Society also offers a traditional children's story Bible with Bible Now (July) for ages four to eight. Young readers of the Jewish Bible will not be left out: JPS has The Kids' Cartoon Bible by author-illustrator Chaya Burstein (July).
What will the future bring for Bibles—more innovation or a return to the traditional? Publishers seem bullish in both directions. B&H's King sees a growing respect among consumers for older translations. "I think over the next few years, consumers are going to take a harder look at them and gravitate more toward what they know and are comfortable with," he says. Stone at OUP says it is important for Bible publishers to remember that what they are selling is not only a sacred text but a commodity—like a microwave or a DVD player—that should be marketed like the latest product. "People of faith are looking for a resource that is a cut above another book," he says. "So in addition to having the insides of the product up-to-date, we have to package the product in a savvy way."
And no one is taking their eyes off the younger generations, with their increasing tech savvy and shrinking attention spans. But, warns Nelson's Jordan, there is a danger in misjudging them. "Part of the newer generation is leaning more toward conservative values," he says. "So it may be, if you try to get too commercial, they'll reject it. Down the road publishers might be overshooting them—over-creating, over-designing. They may say to us, 'Give me the straight text Bible, I don't need you telling me what to think.' "
Zondervan's Sawyer thinks the age of the "me-too Bible"—the numerous copycats of a successful title—must come to an end. Zondervan research shows that half of all Bible inventory drives 90% of sales, and he believes it is the tried and true that still works best. "The plug is in the bathtub, and there is no drain in the Bible market."
