GRAMMY Award-winner Scott Stapp’s Proof of Life (Wind-up Records/Provident Distribution) has soared up the charts since hitting shelves Nov. 5, with the album debuting on three Billboard charts: No. 7 on the Rock Chart, No. 35 on the Current Album Chart and No. 3 on the Current Contemporary Christian chart. 

Since announcing the release of the album—his first solo album since 2005’s Platinum-selling The Great Divide—Stapp’s Twitter followers have more than doubled, jumping to greater than 101,000 in just a few weeks.

Faith-based publishers reported a modest sales dip in August, though net paperback sales grew 13.6% versus the previous August, according to the latest figures available from the Association of American Publishers (AAP).

Religious presses’ net sales of all titles, including ebooks, shrank from $50.5 million in August 2012 to $49.5 million in August 2013, a 2.1% decrease. Total net sales from the first eight months of 2013 fell by 3.2% over the same period last year—$347.2 million versus $358.6, respectively.

Gospel Light transferred the publishing rights of all First Place 4 Health materials to the First Place 4 Health nonprofit organization, effective Nov. 7.

For the past 13 years, Gospel Light has been the publishing partner for First Place 4 Health—producing, distributing and marketing group starter kits, member kits, Bible studies and accessory items from the Christ-centered nutrition and weight loss program. The transfer also includes the books of Carole Lewis—director of First Place 4 Health—and of Associate Director Vickie Heath.

The Christy Award committee is seeking entries for the 2014 Christy Awards.  Interested parties can find guidelines and entry forms at: www.christyawards.com. Entries are due by Dec. 10.

The 2014 Christy Awards will be presented June 23, during the International Christian Retail Show in Atlanta.

Outlaw—the latest thriller by Ted Dekker that has taken him on a cross-country tour to tell his personal story—took the No. 1 spot on the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) Fiction best-seller list as well as the No. 5 spot on the General list for the week ending Nov. 9.

The top 20 ECPA General best-sellers were: 1. Jesus Calling, Sarah Young, hardcover (Thomas Nelson); 2. The Reason for My Hope, Billy Graham (Thomas Nelson); 3. Four Blood Moons, John Hagee (Worthy Publishing); 4. Jesus Calling, Young, large print deluxe (Thomas Nelson); 5. Outlaw, Dekker (FaithWords); 6. Fifteen Minutes, Karen Kingsbury (Howard Books); 7. The Duck Commander Devotional (Howard Books); 8. Emotions, Charles F. Stanley (Howard Books); 9. The Greatest Gift, Ann Voskamp (Tyndale House Publishers); 10. Jesus Calling, Young, women’s edition (Thomas Nelson); 11. Jesus Today, Young (Thomas Nelson); 12. Miss Kay’s Duck Commander Kitchen, Kay Robertson (Howard Books); 13. Si-cology1, Si Robertson, Mark Schlabach (Howard Books); 14. Jesus Calling, Young, deluxe (Thomas Nelson); 15. You’ll Get Through This, Max Lucado (Thomas Nelson); 16. The 5 Love Languages, Gary Chapman (Northfield Publishing); 17. One Way Love, Tullian Tchividjian (David C Cook); 18. The Seasons of God, Richard Blackaby (Multnomah Books); 19. Heaven Is for Real, Todd Burpo, Lynn Vincent (Thomas Nelson); and 20. Unspoken, Dee Henderson (Bethany House/Baker Publishing Group).

Many a retailer has learned the hard way it doesn’t take much to lose a customer. The Holiday 2013: Top Trends to Watch survey, commissioned by workforce management solutions company Kronos and conducted online by Harris Interactive, shows it only takes an average of 2.2 negative experiences for Americans to stop purchasing from a retail brand across any channel.

Underscoring the urgency of a seamless omnichannel experience, more than two-thirds of Americans (68%) agree that a negative shopping experience within a single channel negatively impacts their perception across all shopping channels, including physical stores, online, mobile, phone centers and catalog.

Caleb Breakey plans to give away 6,000 copies of his new book, Called to Stay (Harvest House Publishers), during his grass-roots tour in support of his book’s message.

Called to Stay, Breakey’s first book, addresses the problem of millennials leaving the church and explains why the church needs them. Breakey himself was nearly one of those statistics. Instead, he chose to stay and engage his generation in a dialogue, urging them to do the same.