Thomas Nelson tops fiction category

Written by Eric Tiansay

Thursday, 27 August 2009 02:47 PM America/New_York

Thomas Nelson reports that it has claimed the largest market share percentage of fiction in the Christian retail channel through June--more than 20%, according to the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association's Pubtrack data system's quarterly category analysis report for the first two quarters of the year. The report ranks bookstore sales of more than 200 publishers in the category.

"We listen closely to the readers and retailers to deliver the optimal mix of genres, formats and prices for our novels," said Allen Arnold, senior vice president and publisher of fiction at Thomas Nelson. "And in just five years, we're honored to be the No. 1 Christian fiction publisher--with one out of every five novels bought at Christian retail since the beginning of 2009 published by Thomas Nelson."

The company's fiction division was launched in January 2004 under Arnold's leadership. Nelson had 23 of the top 50 fiction best-sellers during the first quarter of this year and 21 of the top 50 in the second quarter. Fireproof--Eric Wilson's movie novelization--and Ted Dekker's Kiss remained in the top 10 during both quarters.