Evangelical category 'didn't perform well' in 2009, publisher reports

Thomas Nelson remains the top Christian publisher in terms of revenue, and its evangelical book market share grew from 29.3% to 32.6% in 2009, according to the Nashville-based publisher's reports of the top 10 U.S. book publishers.

In a recent blog posting, Thomas Nelson CEO Michael Hyatt revealed data from the company's two top 10 lists of leading trade and Christian publishers. Based on revenues for the 12 months ending Dec. 31, the lists were created from a proprietary database developed by Nelson and derived from various point-of-sale (P.O.S.) systems from multiple sales channels.

Random House remained the No. 1 trade publisher, growing its market share from 15.9% to 17.5%. Pearson, which includes Penguin Group (USA), was the second-leading trade publisher, although its market share was relatively flat—from 11% to 11.3%. Hachette Book Group USA moved up from No. 5 to No. 3, largely due to the success of the "Twilight" series.

"Thomas Nelson maintained its position at No. 7, but our market share (among trade publishers) dropped," Hyatt wrote on his blog. "Frankly, the entire Christian category didn't perform well, as evidenced by the fact that we actually gained share in the Christian segment. Tyndale House Publishers fell off the list completely."

In terms of the leading Christian publishers, the top four remained the same, although Zondervan and Tyndale both lost market share, while Baker Publishing Group sales remained flat. Propelled by The Love Dare—by Fireproof movie-making brothers Stephen and Alex Kendrick—B&H Publishing Group climbed from No. 7 to No. 5, while FaithWords dropped from No. 7 to No. 10.

"All in all, the last two years have been tough," said Hyatt, noting that it has been almost two years since his previous summary of the data. "I think the Christian segment in particular has suffered for lack of a blockbuster title to drive people to our category. When you have mega-bestsellers like The Prayer of Jabez, the 'Left Behind' series, The Purpose Driven Life and Your Best Life Now, all publishers benefit because it gets people in the stores. We haven't really seen anything comparable for 18 months.

"But publishing is kind of like the weather," Hyatt added. "Christian publishing, especially, has gone through a dry spell. But this will eventually change. While I never want to presume on the future, if history is any guide, we are overdue for some rain."

Meanwhile, The Love Dare (B&H Books/B&H Publishing Group) surpassed William P. Young's The Shack (Windblown Media/Hachette Book Group) as the best-selling Christian book of 2009, according to the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA).

The publishers group recently released its listing of last year's best-performing titles. Francis Chan's Crazy Love (David C. Cook) was third 0n the 2009 list, ahead of Jesus Calling by Sarah Young (Thomas Nelson). The top 10 also included Gary Chapman's perennial The Five Love Languages (Northfield Publishing/Moody Publishers) at No.6.

ECPA also recently released its top 10 best-selling Christian authors, with Max Lucado listed as No. 1, followed by Stephen and Alex Kendrick and Karen Kingsbury. Next were Stormie Omartian, William P. Young, Ted Dekker and Francis Chan.

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