‘Revolutionary’ agreement swaps companies’ information on channel sell-in and returns

Several leading Christian publishers are opening their business books to each other to get a better handle on trends and opportunities.

Half a dozen companies are participating in the service that was due to be launched in June by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA), which allows them to track information about distribution of others ’ titles.

The program gives participants access to data about sell-in to and returns from six channels—Christian retail; mass market; Internet, book clubs and college; international export; direct to consumer; and other.

Taking part are Crossway, David C. Cook, NavPress, Thomas Nelson, Tyndale House Publishers and Zondervan, who have been involved in discussions and testing for almost two years. Other publishers who use PubTrack Christian, the sales data service ECPA offers in conjunction with R.R. Bowker, will also be invited to join in.

“I would call this revolutionary,” ECPA President and CEO Mark Kuyper said of the arrangement. “It will be the most comprehensive, richest data available in publishing today and is only available because the publishers have chosen to share information with each other.

The association’s information and technology director, Michael Covington, said that gaining access to channel-level data on titles would help publishers “make better decisions and invest their dollars in better ways so that eventually more books are sold, and that is to everybody’s good.”

Participants were willing to share information because “there’s a certain level of protection, and they feel like the potential reward for access to this data is far greater than any risk of putting it out there.”

Crossway Executive Vice President for Sales, Marketing and Media Geoff Dennis said: “Viewing the data from other publishers, which is only available if we participate, makes us more effective in our ability to determine the relative effectiveness of our publishing program.”

He added that “this industry is markedly different than the secular market in that we are partners with other Christian publishers in the dissemination of content that will edify the church body—there is a missional component to the work that we do as Christian publishers, and therefore, we are comparatively more open to sharing info that will facilitate this mission. In many ways we are ‘partners in the gospel.’ ”

Tyndale House Publishers Vice President and Chief Information Officer Teresa Clarke told Christian Retailing that accurate data “is critical for effective decision making.”

The program was prompted by a lack of visible data about how Christian books were being sold and what their total market was, said C. Ryan Dunham, senior vice president of sales and marketing for David C. Cook.