Religionis woven into a lot of books these days—from fictional speculation on the real history of Christianity to how-tos on achieving a divinely slim body or doing business faithfully. Bestseller charts have consistently listed religion or spirituality books near the top for the past several years, and the Association of American Publishers has been measuring monthly double-digit sales growth in religion. To understand this surge in detail the industry can use, PW conducted an online survey of 10,000 consumers in May. Comparing their experience with survey results, publishers and booksellers across the country nodded in agreement with certain findings, occasionally raised questions or sometimes said the shoe just didn't fit.
Pervasive Interest, Practical Wisdom
Many publishers think of religion and spirituality in the broadest terms as they assess the market and publish books. "I've said for many years that God has moved into every category of the bookstore," says Joel Fotinos, director of religious publishing for Penguin Group USA. Fotinos and others agree that thinking about religion and spirituality in a more comprehensive way mirrors how Americans are bringing spiritual values and practices into how they live. "It makes sense to me that people would see these books in a broader way," Fotinos says.
Books are an essential tool because the life of faith is less shaped today by institutions and is more individualized, cut-and-pasted from a variety of convenient sources. Books are better organized than the information free-for-all of the Internet, allowing focus and providing depth. They are a teacher conveniently available on the nightstand or bookshelf. "A book is a powerful instrument to give you knowledge," notes Carl Weschcke, president and publisher at Llewellyn, which has published in the alternative spirituality market since the 1960s.
An expansive view of religion and spirituality brings with it publishing opportunities. While many scoffed that Dan Brown's bestselling thriller The Da Vinci Code (Doubleday, 2003) had nothing to do with real religion,the novelist's unorthodox views of the history of Christianity sparked reader interest across the faith spectrum, in traditional teachings as well as the more esoteric corners of Christianity that Brown's book drew on. The novel raised questions that other books then jockeyed to answer. Novels that employ religious ideas and capture public attention are "a good thing for religious publishers," says Michelle Rapkin, religion publisher at Doubleday."I have to think the subject matter is part of the reason the book has launched like a rocket," adds Sheri Dew, president and CEO of Deseret Book Co., a Mormon specialty publisher.
Even while the market enlarges, there are disadvantages to understanding religion and spirituality so broadly. A number of publishers said that using bestselling titles, especially fiction, to gauge interest in religion and spirituality skewed findings, overstating true interest in the topic. Only a handful of titles and authors command millions of readers.
Ironically, even book publishers who benefit from the interest in all things spiritual sometimes wonder if it's a bit much. "There's almost too much intercrossing between faith and everything else, but that's a sign of people saying you can't split these up any more," says Julie Saidenberg, sales and marketing director at Shambhala Publications, a Buddhist specialist.
The Downside of the Upsurge
"The Da Vinci Code sold more by itself than a dozen companies combined," says Michael Leach, publisher at Orbis Books, a Catholic house. "If you include diet and motivational stuff, you're getting into Oprah Winfrey land," including books that are really self-help rather than religion or spirituality.
Defining the religious or spiritual universe more narrowly provides clarity about who will read what and where to market it, some publishers point out. "We advertise in Shambhala Sun and Tricycle [Buddhist magazines] and we're done," says Saidenberg at Shambhala, which is having success with a 150th-anniversary edition of Henry David Thoreau's classic Walden this year. "When the books get wider, it becomes a harder job," she adds.
Moreover, when spiritual interest is so generally asserted, some questions become harder to answer. How many of the 17 million readers of Rick Warren's The Purpose-Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? (Zondervan, 2002) are traditionally religious, and how many are simply looking for life's meaning? Are religion sales overstated? What has crossover appeal for ABA and CBA markets? "A lot of publishers are interested in what's the actual percentage of crossover potential," says Everett O'Bryan, v-p of sales at Tyndale House. "This [broader] view over-enhances that."
And while marketing departments spend money on focus groups and panels, all surveys asking people about their behavior or interests are subject to faulty self-reporting. Jon Sweeney, editor-in-chief at the multifaith SkyLight Paths, suggests that questions measuring religion or spirituality exclude those with only casual interest in the subject. "Those who are highly committed are going to respond heavily," he believes.
Surprising Demographics
The decade-long boom in religion and spirituality books conventionally is believed to be driven by the 76 million—strong cohort of baby boomers. PW's survey, however, found a much younger audience, with 45% under the age of 35. Publishers are uniformly encouraged by that.
"That is happy-making news," says Leach at Orbis. "I have a whole series of books written for them." Melissa Crane, director of marketing for trade books at fellow Catholic publisher Loyola Press agrees, but notes that PW used an online survey, which might have filled the survey pool with more younger adults to begin with. "You have more 25- to 34-year-olds online," Crane says, adding, "but there's definitely young adult conservative Catholics emerging in the Catholic market." She cites the house's successful The New Faithful: Why Young Adults Are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy by Colleen Carroll (2002).
The tradition-based faith of our grandfathers is wearing modern clothing, though. Religion and spirituality topics have become familiar enough over the past decade—call it the Oprah and Chopra factor—that younger adults are searching broadly and deeply. Choices have multiplied in typical modern fashion, even as the political and social climate in America prompts recognition early in life that faith makes sense in—and of—a grave new world.
"We live in a world that, particularly in the last few years, has had some pretty major ground shifts in terms of meaning and faith," says Mark Tauber, associate publisher at Harper San Francisco, which does well with a broad variety of Christian spirituality books and authors ranging from classic C.S. Lewis to such contemporary traditionalists as Eugene Peterson and Richard Foster. Peterson and Foster are among the editors of the Renovare Spiritual Formation Study Bible, due out next April.
A younger readership with concerns about relationships, childrearing and family is eye-opening information for publishers, says Doubleday's Michelle Rapkin. "I think I need to leave New York more," she says. "There's a lot going on out there." Doubleday's Fumbling: A Pilgrimage Tale of Love, Grief, and Spiritual Renewal on the Camino de Santiago by Kerry Egan (Sept.) aims for that group.
Some publishers have evergreen backlist that works for young adults. Alternative religion specialists know that a new generation is always ready to discover basic texts. "Interest in our Weiser line is coming from people in younger groups because they haven't seen the books before," says Michael Kerber, president of Red Wheel/Weiser/Conari, a house that targets general spirituality readers as well as those interested in the occult and the esoteric aspects of religious traditions.
Several major evangelical Christian houses say their experience and audience differ, citing CBA market studies showing the largest audience between the ages of 35 to 50—typically, a married woman in her 40s. Yet they and other publishers are developing products for younger adults and paying attention to how they conceptualize the market and the product.
"We've been focusing on intentionally publishing to that age category in the last two years," says David Lewis, director of sales and marketing at Baker Publishing Group. "We see that as a growth area and have found it to be so." Kent Wilson, executive publisher of Colorado Springs, Colo.—based NavPress, says that younger audiences present an exciting prospect. "We are finding it to be one of the fastest-growing demographics of religion and spirituality," he says. NavPress has developed a line called TH1NK,with 25 titles; one of its top sellers is The MessageRemix: The Bible in Contemporary Language (2003), a Bible paraphrase by minister Eugene Peterson.
Zondervan has developed two in-house teams to produce and sell Bibles, one focused primarily on younger adults ages 18—34, with secondary emphasis on teens age 13—17. Another team concentrates on readers age 35—55, with secondary emphasis on older readers. For younger adults the house has developed the word on the street (Sept.), an entry-level paraphrase Bible by British performer Rob Lacey that comes packaged with a CD of Lacey reading the text. Zondervan also has a cross-departmental group of younger adults whose job is to publish half a dozen books a year for their peers, and it is running a writing contest looking for new books for this group. Ben DeVries's A Delicate Fade (May) is one title being published for this age group. "It's a moving target," notes Scott Bolinder, executive v-p and publisher.
In the past couple of years, Tyndale has developed two new imprints for younger adults: Salt River, publishing nonfiction on contemporary topics and thirsty(?), aimed at older teens. The latter line includes fiction and nonfiction, and two new titles aim at the audience for moral fantasy: The Shadow at Evening and Power of the Night (The Lamb Among Stars) (both Sept.) by British author Chris Walley.
A small niche with different, distinctive and challenging demographics is the Jewish market. The core market for the Jewish Publication Society is the adult Jewish learner, a group that is "small but loyal," says Ellen Frankel, editor-in-chief. Recent statistics showed that one-quarter of the adult Jewish population is engaged in some study at least once a week, and of that group almost 70% are 50 and older. At the same time, a campus-based Jewish studies boom is educating a younger generation about Judaism. "The thing that's promising for the future is that maybe those people curious about Judaism in college will continue reading and buying books," says Frankel.
Sales Flow Through Many Channels
It came as no surprise to any publisher that chain bookstores were cited by more than two-thirds of survey respondents as the place where they shop for religion and spirituality books. (See "The View from the Sales Floor.") But different publishers have strengths in a variety of other sales channels, depending on their niche and audience. And some expressed concerns about the health of ABA and CBA indies that are a necessary part of the distribution mix, in large part because they stock deeper in backlist.
"My biggest account for my division is Barnes & Noble," says Jonathan Merkh, senior v-p and publisher of Nelson Books, the nonfiction division at evangelical Christian publisher Thomas Nelson. Nelson's distribution in both CBA and ABA chains is bigger than its mass market sales at discount outlets such as Wal-Mart. For Nelson Books, CBA chains as a whole produce more volume because of breadth of title selection, but ABA sales are helping drive the publisher's growth. "Abig part of my growth over the past couple of years, and the biggest opportunity for growth going forward, is in the general market chains," Merkh says.
Zondervan, publisher of The Purpose-Driven Life, reports record sales and profits, as well as evolution in where it sells books. Ten years ago, sales were at least 80% in the CBA market; now sales are closer to a 50-50 split between ABA and CBA, and "the whole pie has gotten bigger," says company executive Scott Bolinder. Within those two markets lie differences. On the ABA side for Zondervan, 20% of sales are to independents, 80% to chains, while, says Bolinder, "there is a much stronger independent channel within CBA"—about 70%.
What's being sold also plays differently at different outlets. Baker Publishing Group, which includes the Bethany House fiction division, sells more fiction through online channels and big box retailers, while its nonfiction sells better at bookstores.
The surge in sales through nontraditional outlets isn't all Left Behind novels and Rick Warren books, either. You can buy popular mainline Protestant theologian Marcus Borg at Costco, reports HSF associate publisher Mark Tauber. Or even Wiccan and alternative spirituality titles. "We have sold at times through Costco and Target, but not consistently," says Carl Weschcke at Llewellyn.
Alternative spirituality and other well-defined niche titles can do well at specialty independents—Michael Kerber at Red Wheel/Weiser/Conari calls them "Bell, Book and Candle" stores, after the vintage film comedy—but also at chains, which can devote more shelf space to a wider variety of titles. Price clubs also fit for some titles. "We don't sell to Wal-Mart, but we do sell to some price clubs, and they have discovered the power of nonreligious spirituality," Kerber says. Spirituality author Hugh Prather fits those outlets.
Amazon.com and a variety of online channels, including their own Web sites, are important to different publishers, especially those with well-defined markets. "We are heavy into online sales," says Sheri Dew of Deseret, which also owns 41 retail bookstores in the West in addition to its publishing operation. Buddhist specialist Wisdom, Catholic house Loyola and T&T Clark, the academic arm of Episcopal-leaning Continuum, are among those noting the online factor among their channels.
A number of publishers also mention that specialty markets can be important. Loyola sells to Catholic parishes. Ministries and parachurch groups also add to sales for any publisher with titles of interest to such groups. "Everyone has that as a part of their business," says Tauber at HSF.
As channels multiply, where does that leave indie bookstores? In PW's survey, Christian and general independents were comparable in strength, cited by a little less than a quarter of book buyers. Some publishers say indies are even more important for their sales.
"As chains lessen the variety or volume of what they're taking in, indie bookstores are important to us," says Tim McNeill, publisher at Wisdom Publications. "We are very concerned that Christian indies came up so low," says Kent Wilson, executive publisher at NavPress. Wilson says his house's backlist needs that outlet even as it also experiences growth in sales through chains and discounters. "We need to address the problem of reduced strength of Christian indies," he says. The Christian sales universe is shrinking, as the CBA recently reported. In 2003, 271 "unique Christian outlets" closed.
Authors Sell Books
In a crowded market, getting the message out about a book requires grabbing the attention of potential readers using the media they are likeliest to see. Those avenues will vary by author and book, yet publishers agree: on a variety of media platforms, authors are the best sellers of their own books.
"The single most effective and potent advocate for a book is the author," says Joel Fotinos, religious publisher at Penguin. Putnam author T.D. Jakes, the African-American preacher with a large congregation and even larger following, drew more than 100,000 to family-oriented rallies in Atlanta in June. Jakes's successful Woman, Thou Art Loosed has also given rise to a stage play and a movie scheduled for release in the fall. "People want the message in a variety of ways," says Fotinos.
WaterBrook Press can sell books at the well-attended conferences led by authors like Liz Curtis Higgs, who writes both nonfiction and fiction, and Kay Arthur, a Bible teacher. "Their books sell really well," says Steve Cobb, president of WaterBrook, a division of Random House that publishes for evangelical Christians.
In the Mormon market, a one-day seminar sponsored by Deseret called "Time Out for Women" can reach 3,000 women at once and introduce a variety of authors to a market more receptive than those wandering into a bookstore. "We're doing more and more things to take our product right to the customer," says Dew.
Media attention establishes currency and credibility. Publicity prompts sales for authors at Harper San Francisco, and good placement in bookstores amplifies exposure. "Getting the books stacked up and getting the TV and radio is the perfect blend," says HSF exec Mark Tauber.
Given the variety of sales channels and platforms, religion and spirituality might well seem ubiquitous these days. The books are certainly showing up in unexpected places. Says Zondervan's Bolinder, "I've seen inspirational books for sale at a car wash."
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From a sales perspective, religion and spirituality is a category that offers some answers to big questions and life issues. Christian answers—both nonfictional and fictional varieties—are popular now.
Parables, jataka tales, tales of the rebbes, teaching stories from Rumi's Mathnawi—for thousands of years, religions have freely used the vehicle of story to make a point. In religion and spirituality publishing today, fiction is pointedly succeeding. PW's consumer survey found that 68% of buyers had purchased fiction (broadly defined; see "About the Survey") in the past year. Many religion publishers say it's a necessary and successful part of their program, and more than a few are planning to add fiction.
