Christian Retailing

Christian publishers not panicking over drop in fiction sales Print Email
Written by Shawn A. Akers   
Wednesday, 11 February 2015 04:36 PM America/New_York

Christian-booksNielsen BookScan’s recently published data that indicated Christian fiction sales dropped a significant 15% from 2013 to 2014. That sounds like bad news, but some Christian publishers are taking the data with a grain of salt.

“We know the numbers are true, but we’re not in a panic,” Karen Watson, associate publisher for Tyndale told Publishers Weekly. “Tyndale does fiction very well and it is a profitable part of Tyndale’s business.”

Revell and Bethany House—the two fiction divisions of Baker Publishing Group—are continuing to publish at full capacity despite flat lined revenue, according to Vice President of Sales and Marketing David Lewis. Revell and Bethany House publish a combined 80 to 90 titles a year.

“Our trade paper fiction revenue declined by 8%, our e-book revenue increased by 3%, and our cloth fiction has increased by 45%,” Lewis told Publisher’s Weekly. “We see that revenue share by format continues to adjust to the current market realities.”

Lewis said he attributes the revenue stagnation to more titles put on sale and significant discounts at brick-and-mortar accounts, and to fewer big releases last year. The increase in cloth fiction sales—only 6% of total fiction sales—is due to more sales in the library market.

HarperCollins Christian Publishing, with its Thomas Nelson and Zondervan fiction lines, publishes 55-60 new titles each year and actually experienced revenue growth in 2014.

“Print is here to stay, but the category is undergoing a period of reinvention,” Daisy Huton, vice president of fiction,” told PW. “The migration to digital reading is part of this, but the changing demands of our readers are an even bigger factor.”

WaterBrook Multnomah, which merged with Penguin House in 2013, is finding new opportunities for print sales. “The different divisions are learning from each other about how to really service our retailers, and that is not always value pricing,” Shannon Marchese, WaterBrook Multnomah’s senior editor for fiction told PW.

WaterBrook Multnomah publishes 12-16 fiction titles a year, with the house finding new opportunities thanks to the Penguin/Random House merger in 2013. “[The different divisions are] learning from each other about how to really service our retailers, and that is not always value pricing,” she said.

Hutton told PW that the “health of brick-and-mortar retails is critical to the fiction ecosystem.”

“It is not about prioritizing print over e-book purchasing and reading, but rather about continuing to support the discovery that happens at retail stores,” she said.

Publishers with major fiction programs told PW they aren’t panicking over the numbers.

“There are still a number of new opportunities out there, so this isn’t concerning,” Marchese said. “Books have value, fiction has value, and we’ll continue to put out quality voices for our readers.”

“We can spend our energy lamenting the decline of our category, or we can continue to believe that our authors have something to say and stories to tell, and then be all about providing them with the support they need to say it and have it be heard,” Hutton said.