Has it really been 15 years since the first Chicken Soup for the Soul book released? I fondly remember getting one from my cousin as a birthday gift and sharing all the stories with my co-workers, including one about a child buying shoes for his ailing mother that would later be encapsulated in the NewSong holiday hit, “The Christmas Shoes.” Tears were, of course, shed.

I imagine many more hearts were tugged, as the series, which is considered the bestselling publishing series in history, has amassed sales of over $1.3 billion and has over 112 million books in print.

Although the bulk of the titles are geared to general market customers, publicist Rusty Shelton told me that Christian retail channel “remains one of the biggest markets they have.” Fourteen of the more than 200 Chicken Soup (more than 5% of the total list) titles have hit Christian retail, four recently arriving this past December, and NavPress publishes the Chicken Soup for the Soul Bible.

Shelton says the series is undergoing a bit of a resurgence, as creators Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield sold a “significant stake” to William J. Rouhana Jr. and Robert Jacobs, who in turn found new partners for the series, including Simon & Schuster Publishing (distribution through Howard Books). The covers have also been redesigned and a deal is in the works for a television show with Dick Clark Productions.

The “rebirth” of the series helped the publisher double the cash flow from 2007 to 2008, Shelton said.