Wall art company Carpentree recently acquired the framed art license for The Bible series from producer Mark Burnett and actress Roma Downey.

“We will be the exclusive licensee to frame this product,” said Jordan Hobson, sales director with the Tulsa, Okla.-based company.

A Debut Avenue exhibitor at last month's International Christian Retail Show (ICRS) is expressing gratitude to God for a positive outcome despite being robbed after the event.

Teresa Thibault—owner and founder of Heart Gifts by Teresa, makers of hand-painted Christmas ornaments—told Christian Retailing that someone broke into her vehicle in the hotel parking lot June 26, the last day of ICRS in St. Louis.

"They didn't take a GPS or new digital camera, but they took some movies and a bag of orders/invoices in manila folders," said Thibault, whose business began in her kitchen in North Carolina in 1992. "I was devastated because I didn't know how was I going to get in touch with the retailers who placed orders."

After contacting the police, she started driving home to North Carolina, spending the night in Nashville. However, Thibault's office manager called in the morning, informing her that someone who worked in a Rally's hamburger restaurant in a St. Louis suburb found manila folders with Thibault's name in the restaurant's parking lot.

"I was so excited that we turned around and drove back to St. Louis," said Thibault, who took at least 25 orders at ICRS. "Every folder where there was credit card numbers in the invoices was taken, but the business cards weren't taken. The blessing was that I was able to call the customers, tell them what happened and that all of the orders needed to be reordered. As far as I know, no one's cards had been compromised."

Thibault couldn't reach two stores who placed orders—Every Good Gift Store and Gospel Bookstore.

"It's amazing how good God is," Thibault said. "I was able to get in touch with everyone, except two people, and some placed larger orders than before. I think it's a miracle."

The break-in won't keep her from attending ICRS again.

"I had a wonderful experience," said Thibault, who had a booth in Debut Avenue. "I really loved it. I had good contacts and good business. I was very happy with the quality of customers and service. I saw people praying in the aisles. I do gift shows and I don't see that. I will definitely be back to ICRS."

For more information on Heart Gifts by Teresa, visit www.heartgiftsusa.com.

The Obama administration announced Tuesday the postponement of the implementation of the employer mandate. The government is delaying until 2015 the requirement that businesses with more than 50 employees provide health insurance to their workers or pay a penalty, USA Today reported.

In a separate move, contraceptives will stay covered under provisions of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare), the New York Times reported. Despite strong resistance from religious organizations, the Obama administration said June 28 that it was moving ahead with the rule requiring most employers to provide free "morning-after" and "week-after" pill coverage in their employee health insurance plans.

The postponement announcement was made by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) after numerous complaints from businesses argued that the requirements of the new healthcare law were too complicated and difficult to implement in time.

Other key parts of the law, including the health exchanges where individuals can buy insurance, are on schedule to open Oct. 1, wrote Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to President Obama, in a White House blog released Tuesday, USA Today reported.

The delay also does not change the individual mandate, which requires most Americans to purchase insurance. Some consumers may receive subsidies to help them pay for the insurance depending on their incomes.

Jarrett said the move shows the Obama administration is paying attention to the concerns of business.

"As we make these changes, we believe we need to give employers more time to comply with the new rules," Jarrett wrote. "Since employer responsibility payments can only be assessed based on this new reporting, payments won't be collected for 2014."

The delay provides the IRS more time to simplify reporting requirements, as well as for businesses to understand reporting systems, USA Today reported. The government still wants businesses to voluntarily begin reporting in 2014, so they will be ready for 2015.

Business groups had complained that the law created an administrative burden as businesses attempted to update technology and plan to provide health coverage to their employees, despite not knowing how much the insurance would cost.

Businesses with more than 50 employees would have paid a fee of $2,000 per uninsured employees after the first 30 employees. The Congressional Budget Office anticipated those penalties to generate $4 billion in 2014, USA Today reported.

For the second year in a row, a novel by Ginny L. Yttrup has been honored in ForeWord Reviews' 2012 Book of the Year Awards.

Yttrup's Lost and Found (B&H Books) won a Gold award in the Religious Adult Fiction category. She also won the category last year for her debut novel, Words (B&H Books).

The Evolution of Adam by Peter Enns (Brazos Press//Baker Publishing Group) was honored with a Gold award in the Religion Adult Nonfiction category, while Mortal Fire by C.F. Dunn (Monarch Books/Kregel Publications) won a Gold award in Romance Adult Fiction.

A panel of judges composed of librarians and booksellers named 248 winners in 62 categories for 2012, with the titles narrowed down from more than 600 publishers and 1,300 entries. The winners were announced at a ceremony June 28 during American Library Association's Annual Conference in Chicago. ForeWord characterizes itself as a publication that "reviews good books independently published."

Visit botya.forewordreviews.com for a complete list of the winners.

GRAMMY-nominated band Skillet is winning praise and national media attention for the band's first album in four years.

USA Today gave Rise (Atlantic Records/Word Records/Word Distribution), released June 25, three out of four stars, and the album debuted in the top five of iTunes.

The album has a coming-of-age theme relating to the story of an average American teenager coming into adulthood and being faced with the world's problems.

"Along with Mumford & Sons and the Black Keys, Skillet was one of just three rock acts to get a platinum album in 2012," USA Today observed. "They achieved this by finding the common ground between disaffected hard-rock fans and their Christian-rock counterparts. On its eighth album, the band pushes its musical limits with a coming-of-age tale that begins in a world that appears irreparably broken."

Atlantic Records hosted a party recently at New York City's Hudson Hotel to commemorate the band's new project and the RIAA Platinum certification of Skillet's previous album, Awake (Atlantic/Ardent/INO Records/Provident Distribution), and the hit single "Monster." The recognition represents 1 million units sold of the band's 2009's album.

Skillet also was recognized with RIAA Gold certifications for the singles "Hero" and "Awake & Alive," indicating more than 500,000 units sold.

The band features singer/bassist John Cooper, guitarist/keyboardist Korey Cooper, drummer Jen Ledger and guitarist Seth Morrison.

To read our extensive Skillet Q&A, visit www.christianretailing.com for our June digital issue.

English-language books from U.S. publishers have seen strong sales growth in fiction and e-books worldwide, according to the second annual Association of American Publishers (AAP) Export Sales Report.

Recently released, the report showed "worldwide growth" in the Adult and Young Adult (YA) fiction categories. The report looked at 2012 net sales revenue from international markets and includes data from all major publishing houses.

Among the report's findings:

• Total 2012 net revenue from non-U.S. markets was more than $833 million, increasing 7.2% from 2011. Publishers' net revenue from export of e-books increased by 63% and print books rose 1.3% during the same period.

• For e-books, the revenue-generating territories were led by Europe, followed by the U.K. and then Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India. Germany showed the greatest year-to-year revenue gains, while New Zealand, Spain, Italy, South Africa and Brazil also saw significant e-book revenue gains.

• The top territories generating revenue from print were Asia, Europe, the United Kingdom and Ireland. The top countries that saw strong print sales were the U.K., Germany, Australia, South Korea, the Philippines and Singapore. The countries with the greatest year-to-year increases in print revenue were the Philippines, the U.K., France, Colombia and the United Arab Emirates.

• YA fiction "showed powerful growth" in nearly every international market, especially Asia. The numbers were driven by contemporary authors and titles as well as perennial classics. YA fiction sales were especially strong in print paperback editions.

• Online retail sales saw strong growth in Italy, Spain, Japan, France, China, Germany and Brazil.

Data for the report was extrapolated from BookStats Volume 3, co-produced by AAP and the Book Industry Study Group.

For more information on the report, visit http://www.publishers.org/press/111/.

The follow-up to this spring's hugely successful 10-part TV miniseries of major Bible stories will be broadcast on NBC. The network said Monday it was teaming with producer Mark Burnett (The Voice, Celebrity Apprentice) for A.D.: Beyond the Bible (working title), the Los Angeles Times reported. The broadcast date has not been announced.

"NBC is thrilled to bring this highly anticipated sequel to Mark and Roma's The Bible to network television," said Jennifer Salke, the network's president of entertainment. "There was huge interest in this project within the television community, and NBC is gratified by Mark's confidence in our ability to partner with him and position this miniseries as true event television."

Creator of Survivor, Burnett and his actress wife, Roma Downey, of Touched by an Angel fame, produced The Bible, which aired for five Sundays in March on the History Channel—culminating on Easter Sunday—was viewed by 95 million cumulative viewers.

Released on DVD and Blu-ray April 2 by Twentieth Century Fox (Provident Distribution), The Bible has become the top-selling miniseries of all time, having sold more than 1 million units in the past three months, The Hollywood Reporter said.

Burnett had been in talks with History, which is owned by the A&E Television Networks, about bringing the sequel there, but NBC offered a larger paycheck, the Times reported.

"Our new series, A.D.: Beyond the Bible, is another massive project and a major commitment, but it's a story that has to be told," said Burnett and Downey. "It's a story that changed the world. We look forward to making this an enormous television event on NBC."

A.D: Beyond the Bible will follow the period after Jesus' death and the ensuing unrest in the Holy Land.

"I followed the development process of The Bible closely with Mark and knew that the story was far from over after Christ's crucifixion," NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt said. "In fact, what happened in the aftermath, which is essentially the beginning of Christianity, is utterly fascinating.

"The day after The Bible premiered, I told Mark we were on board with no hesitation for the follow-up miniseries," Greenblatt added. "This will be attention-getting in every way, and we're proud to continue our association with Mark, which has just grown exponentially from The Voice."

The new miniseries will be executive-produced by Downey, Burnett and Richard Bedser. Burnett is also recutting the Jesus part of The Bible miniseries into a feature.

Burnett said that he and Downey could possibly distribute Bible-related programming for the next 10 years, The Hollywood Reporter stated.