 Digital sales increase mirrors record business for electronic readers during busy holiday season
Christian publishers saw “a large spike” in e-book business, following huge sales of Amazon’s Kindle and other e-readers during the holiday season. Industry leaders predict Christian books will continue to find a growing audience in the mushrooming digital market—the fastest-growing sector in the publishing industry. After Christmas, Amazon announced that its third-generation Kindle e-reader had sold in the millions. The retail giant reported—also without disclosing specific numbers—that on Christmas Day, more people turned on new Kindles for the first time, downloaded more Kindle applications and purchased more Kindle books than on any other day in the company’s history. Meanwhile, Barnes & Noble’s said that its Nook Color was the company’s No. 1-selling holiday gift item. Customers bought or downloaded nearly 1 million e-books on Christmas Day alone, the company reported. “We saw a large spike between Dec. 26 and Jan. 1—a 300% increase for that week based on the previous eight-week average,” Baker Publishing Group National Accounts Manager Nathan Henrion told Christian Retailing. Top e-book sellers from Baker during the holidays were Choosing to See by Mary Beth Chapman, 90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper and Christmas at Harringtons by Melody Carlson. “We are forecasting e-book sales in 2011 to be 9.5%-10.5% of sales,” Henrion said. “We expect e-book sales to continue to grow at a reasonable pace. All indicators from the past 12 months show no sign of the market approaching a leveling-off period or slowing down. Zondervan spokesperson Tara Powers told Christian Retailing that the publisher’s e-book sales were “very strong” during the holiday season. The digital version of the updated New International Version made several best-seller lists after being released before Christmas, becoming Zondervan’s fastest-selling e-book. Zondervan had nine titles among the digital best-sellers in the weeks after the holidays, Powers said. “We also saw a lift in sales of both frontlist and backlist titles because of the e-book influence during Christmas.” The publisher expected to more than double its digital sales againTin 2011, she added. “We’ll continue to promote our titles across traditional, digital and social media, with a particular emphasis of developing and offering unique digital content on our titles and authors,” she said. “We expect digital sales to continue on a very aggressive growth rate throughout the year as new devices enter the market and consumer adoption really accelerates for e-books.” Although Thomas Nelson’s Christmas e-book sales were not yet available at press time, the company saw a 300% increase in digital books business last year, according to Senior Vice President of Specialty Publishing Tod Shuttleworth. Nelson’s best-selling e-book titles during Christmastime were Todd Burpo’s Heaven Is for Real, Max Lucado’s Fearless, Ron Hall and Denver Moore’s Same Kind of Different as Me, Eric Metaxes’ Bonhoeffer and the NKJV Holy Bible. “E-book sales will continue to be an area of rapid growth,” Shuttleworth said. “E-readers are now very affordable, books are priced competitively and there is great selection. In addition, retailers like Amazon have made their e-reader available on a myriad of devices—
Android, iPhone, laptop, iPad. Digitization is opening up new opportunities for readers to find our books.” Tyndale House Publishers also did not have final December numbers at press time, but the company expected “to see a spike” in e-book sales, according to Director of Marketing Services Alan Huizenga. Top-selling digital books were Drew Brees’ Coming Back Stronger, Tony Dungy’s The Mentor Leader, Joel C. Rosenberg’s The Twelfth Imam and Francine Rivers’ Her Mother’s Hope and Her Daughter’s Dream. “We expect our e-books sales to more than double from last year, and our e-book revenue was substantial last year,” Huizenga said. “We will be releasing all titles in e-book format, not simply segmenting top-list product. We will also be doing more in the area of promotions and bundling.” Elsewhere, Crossway saw more than a 100% increase in e-book sales through the Christmas season compared with the same period in 2009, according to E-book and Digital Licensing Coordinator Liz Young. Additionally, Crossway’s digital book sales grew by more than 100% last year over 2009’s sales. The publisher’s popular holiday e-book titles were ESV Classic Reference Bible, ESV Study Bible, John Piper’s Think and Don’t Waste Your Life, Mark Driscoll’s Doctrine and Darrin Patrick’s Church Planter. “We expect e-book sales will more than double in 2011 based on the broadening of the market and the implementation of some new marketing strategies, including the assignment of dedicated marketing personnel,” said Crossway Senior Vice President of Operations Daniel Kok. 
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