Publishers will readily agree that, historically, there have been segments of the children's religion book market that have fallen through the cracks. For a plethora of reasons, children's religion titles weren't reaching as many readers as they should have. Titles produced specifically for a price-point—conscious Christian Booksellers Association market were not always of the best quality. And booksellers in American Booksellers Association stores, as well as other retailers, have not always been confident about which religion titles for kids to carry or where to shelve them. But in recent years, the situation has begun to change, at both the publishing and retail levels.
These days, children's religion titles—including Bibles, devotionals, Bible stories, picture books, novels and licensed character products—are being sold across "a very wide variety of channels," says Dan Lynch, publisher of Tommy Nelson. Lynch lists CBA and ABA stores, wholesale clubs, mass-market discounters and drug and grocery chains as the most common outlets for his company's titles. Tommy Nelson publishes the well-known picture books by Max Lucado, including a new multimedia series, Hermie the Caterpillar.
Everett O'Bryan, v-p sales at Tyndale, agrees with Lynch's assessment, adding that online retailers, distributors, international, Books Are Fun [a display marketer of books], book clubs and various ministries are also part of the market mix. The Tyndale Kids brand is perhaps best known across channels as the publisher of the Left Behind Kids (40 titles) and Little Blessings (22 titles) series.
Though all the publishers we spoke with mentioned an array of retail accounts, many of them also lamented disappointing penetration in some areas. "There's no channel that we're not in, but we want to grow in all of them," says Lynch. "The religious stores carry the breadth of our line, but other retailers take very targeted titles. I think many retailers miss out. Over 80% of the population of this country consider themselves religious, but only a very small percentage will ever go to a Christian bookstore. There's a huge audience prone to buy our product, if they could buy it in the stores they frequent."
Lynch noted that The Twelve Dogs of Christmas, an example of "good values in a fun book," has sold more than 400,000 copies in the general market. The company also expects strong general retail numbers for a September title called Boogers Are Blessings, a book written by a nine-year-old boy that Lynch says is "in the tradition of Walter the Farting Dog."
Zondervan, home to the VeggieTales and Beginner's Bible lines, is one company that took formal steps at the corporate level to address issues of market share. "About 10 years ago, our research showed us that 75 million adults had a strong affinity to our products [religious/inspirational books & Bibles]," says Verne Kenney, v-p, sales and forecasting. "However, with the channels of distribution we were in at that time—70% of our business was driven from CBA stores—we were only reaching 8% of that number. So Zondervan, which includes Zonderkidz, launched a corporate-wide channel-of-distribution strategy to put our products into the hands of consumers where they shop. Today, for Zonderkidz and Zondervan, sales of our products break down into 50% through CBA and 50% in other channels."
Zondervan spokesperson LaVenia LaVelle adds, "Zonderkidz has aligned its marketing and promotional efforts to be channel specific. It was a move that has allowed Zonderkidz to meet the needs of each retail channel with tailored promotions and marketing materials."
But even with broader distribution, Christian children's titles still meet with retail resistance. "We get some good reasons, but we get some excuses, too, as to why retailers don't want to carry our products," says Lynch. "Sometimes a buyer is naïve and doesn't understand the religion sector. And we've run into prejudices—buyers who don't agree with the message of a book won't stock it. But some walls are coming down."
Michael Thomson, sales director at Eerdmans, notes that his company's best market penetration has been in independent (ABA) bookstores. "Chains like Barnes & Noble are flooded with stuff, so it's hard for us to get an equal footing. And it's been difficult for us with mass market stores—maybe because they pay more attention to the major players, or maybe we don't know quite how it works." Thomson also pointed to his company's efforts to raise the bar in terms of production—hoping to allow Eerdmans titles more entrée into other markets. "We strive to employ artists and writers well known in the ABA market; we work very hard to keep the quality up there," he says. Adds Thomson, "We just had a strategizing meeting about how we can refine our ad campaigns and improve our Web site and publicity efforts. Our sales reps are charged to leave no stone unturned."
In the end, for Christian children's book publishers, it appears to be a case of fighting the good fight. "I think we need to educate the retail gatekeepers and then teach customers that the books are there," says Lynch. "Putting them spine-out in a back corner just isn't going to do it. We want to be featured like any other publishers."
