Forty years after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to legalize abortion, Christian market publishers and suppliers are focused on promoting their pro-life products.

Tapestry Productions recently announced a partnership with LifeWay Christian Resources to present new artwork from Ron DiCianni—Before I Formed You in the Womb—as a significant part of its 2013 in-store pro-life effort.

Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) honored Edwin Hawkins, Tremaine Hawkins and Kurt Carr during its 14th annual Trailblazers of Gospel Music Awards Luncheon.

Held Friday, Jan. 18 at Michael W. Smith's Rocketown club in Nashville, the event also recognized BMI's Most-Performed Gospel Song of the Year: Kirk Franklin's "I Smile" from his Gold-certified album Hello Fear (Verity Gospel). The Walls Group performed the song, which Franklin co-wrote with James Samuel Harris, Terry Steven Lewis and Frederick Tackett, during the event.

A tribute to Carr featured performances by the Donald Lawrence & Co. singers, Lisa Knowles, Sheri Jones-Moffett and Amber Bullock. Hawkins' songs were performed by Shirley Ceasar, Bishop Paul Morton, LaShun Pace, Kierra Sheard, Jason Nelson and Jonathan Nelson. Anaysha Figueroa, Le' Andria Johnson, VaShawn Mitchell and Yolanda Adams sang a special tribute to Hawkins.

CeCe Winans and Donnie McClurkin hosted the luncheon along with BMI President and CEO Del Bryant and BMI Vice President Catherine Brewton.

BMI is a performing rights organization, which represents more than a half-million songwriters, composers and music publishers in all genres of music and more than 7.5 million compositions.

Suppliers reported seeing good sales and meeting new contacts at Christian Trade Association International's (CTAI) Marketsquare International in Atlanta.

Held Jan. 6-8 at the Westin Airport Hotel, CTAI's sixth annual winter show convened right before CBA's NEXT 2013 training event and the start of The Atlanta International Gift and Home Furnishings Market.

The event, which featured international sales, training, networking, inspiration and fellowship, drew 70 foreign and U.S. buyers, and approximately 40 suppliers.

"We had good sales, met new contacts and had a great time," said Bill Cross of Kirkbride Bible Co. "We'll be back next year."

In addition to the U.S., countries represented at the show included Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Ghana, India, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa and the United Kingdom.

"This was the first time I came to a Christian Trade event," said Wale Adefuye of Life Class Services in the U.K. "I was really impressed by the information and contacts I made over the two days."

Part of the association's Professional Booksellers Institute, the event included training sessions such as "Excellence in Customer Service" and "Displays and Merchandising for Your Store," which were presented by CTAI Director of Training and Membership Development Jack Scott.

Attendees also recognized the contributions of CTAI founder Jim Powell, who died of cancer Nov. 19 in Queensland, Australia.

Click here for more information on future CTAI events.

Baker Book House, a historic independent Christian bookstore in Grand Rapids, Mich., will mark its new look with a "Grand Opening Week" celebration, starting today. The store is managed by Sue Smith, who is the newly named chair-elect of CBA.

The festivities will feature a ribbon cutting today by Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell, visits by authors William Lane Craig, James Dobson and Wanda Brunstetter, and other events throughout January, including an appearance by singer and author Babbie Mason.

After nearly 12 months of renovations, a soft opening of its retail space in November brought 250 guests into the store to talk with best-selling author Ted Dekker. On Jan. 15, Baker Book House's driveway, warehouse and loading dock opened.

"We have recreated everything," Smith told Christian Retailing. "From carpeting to lighting, from adding event space to installing a fireplace. The store is completely new."

What began as a remodeling project to replace dated and worn carpeting, wall coverings and display units became a total reconstruction of the store starting last March, which included moving the entrance, adding a café and revamping every aspect of the 28,000-square-foot space. Founded by Herman Baker as a used bookstore in 1939, the family-owned store expanded from 16,000 square feet.

The used book section, while in a different location in the store, still carries 100,000 titles and is still bare-bones when it comes to décor. The store now features an ICONS Cafe.

Click here for more information on Baker Book House, and see our February issue for a full feature, complete with photos of the newly renovated store.

Christmas and 2012 sales results vary widely for Catholic stores and suppliers, according to a recent Catholic Marketing Network (CMN) survey.

"These are very challenging times for our industry," said CMN President Alan Napleton. "There is no doubt many stores and suppliers are struggling mightily, yet 47% of respondents reported an increase in Christmas sales this year, while only 29% reported a decrease with the remainder saying that sales this Christmas season were flat. For the entire year, over 61% of respondents reported a year over year increase in sales, while only 27% reported a decrease in total sales for 2012 compared to 2011."

During the 2012 Christmas season, 22.4% of respondents reported were flat. For the whole of 2012, 8.1% reported that sales were flat.

Click here for complete results of the Catholic Marketing Network survey.

Christian Retailing’s awards program is accepting nominations for 2013, its 13th season honoring the best products in the Christian retail market. Winners of the Christian Retailing’s Best awards—formerly known as the Retailers Choice Awards—will be announced at the International Christian Retail Show in St. Louis in June.

Companies entering products by Jan. 25 benefit from the Early Bird discount (for every five paid, get one free entry), but nominations are being accepted until Feb. 15, 2013. Nominating companies or authors will be invoiced for the appropriate entry fee. This year’s fee is $60 per entry, but no sample product is required as in previous years.

Baker Book House in Grand Rapids, Mich., hit a home run with its 2012 Bible Sale, continuing its annual tradition.

Held Nov. 17, the promotion offered by the recently renovated independent store offered a 50% discount on all in-stock Bibles. The sale also included 50% off Bible covers and accessories.

"We sold 219 Bibles along with many other things," Sue Smith, store manager of Baker Book House, told Christian Retailing. "Best of all, quite a number of new customers walked through our doors. To me, that's the best part."

Louis McBride, Bible and academic book buyer for Baker Book House, said the store started receiving calls a week from people before asking, "When is your Bible sale?"

"This is a sale that we have really come to enjoy," McBride said. "As I expected, the top translations shopped were NIV (New International Version) and ESV (English Standard Version). I saw one lady with four ESV Study Bibles along with some other Bibles. A surprising number of people were interested in the New American Standard. I usually sell quite a few copies of The Message, but there wasn't that much interest in it. The NLT (New Living Translation) seemed to do fairly well, too."

"We had just slightly lower sales than last year, which is not bad, given we just moved into our new space," he said. "There were a few times when you couldn't fit another person down the aisle. ... It seemed as soon as one group of people was done browsing, another group would take their place."McBride added that it was "a great sale" overall.

The store sold 96 NIV and 39 ESV Bibles during the sale. Interestingly, Baker Book House's annual Bible sales by translation in 2012 followed the same trend with its top five sellers the day of the sale. Last year, the store sold 4,152 NIV (including sales of The Story), 893 ESV, 576 KJV (King James Version) Bibles, 555 NLT and 321 The Message Bibles.