Casscom Media is building its business through key partnerships, including an agreement with Scandinavia Publishing House.

Specializing in the co-production of such products as children’s Bibles and gift books, Scandinavia is “one of the largest publishers of children’s Christian products in the world,” said Don Greve, vice president of marketing at Greenville, Texas-based Casscom, which is perhaps best known for its work duplicating the King James audio Bible narrated by Alexander Scourby.

Abingdon Press has hired Robin Glennon as sales manager of customer service and inside sales. She will direct sales efforts for independent Christian bookstores, academic and international customers, as well as overseeing all customer service processes and relationships.

Dallas-based EchoLight Studios filed a lawsuit Sept. 30 against two recently terminated executives for what the Christian film production company calls a “campaign of sabotage.”

The suit was filed in Tarrant County (Texas) Court against two former executives—Christopher Morrow, who served as EchoLight’s chief global strategist, and Bobby Downes, who was president of the company. The executives were fired in late September by former U.S. Senator and Republican presidential nominee Rick Santorum, who was hired as the company’s CEO in June.

Chuck Smith—influential author, pastor and founder of Calvary Chapel—died Oct. 3 in his California home after a two-year battle with lung cancer. He was 86.

Known for his welcoming demeanor, Smith was a pioneer in the so-called “Jesus movement” of 1960s and ’70s.

Retail sales in November and December is forecast to increase 3.9% to $602.1 billion, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF). This would be higher than the 3.5% increase seen in the same period in 2012 and the 10-year average holiday sales growth rate of 3.3%.

However, the forecast was calculated before the government shutdown that resulted from Congress’ failure to agree on a spending bill to fund the federal government by Monday night. The shutdown has temporarily furloughed 800,000 federal workers and—if the congressional impasse is not resolved soon—could damage consumer confidence going into the holiday season.

Sally Lloyd-Jones’ The Jesus Storybook Bible has topped the weekly Children’s Books best-seller list for the week ending Sept. 27, according to CBA’s CROSS:SCAN sales data.

Retailer Mollie Lassiter Flowers surprised everyone at the Christian Authors Network (CAN) devotional time at last month’s Christian Product Expo (CPE) Murfreesboro when she asked that her big prize be given to three other stores.

After hearing from CAN President Angela Breidenbach and fellow authors Karen Whiting, Ava Pennington and Cecil Murphey, and before meeting other CAN authors in attendance, retailers were presented with prize packages of books each worth more than $1,000.