GRAMMY-winning artist latest release is the first Christian album since 1997 to notch the top spot 

GRAMMY-winning artist TobyMac's latest release, Eye On It (ForeFront Records/EMI CMG Distribution), landed on the top spot on the Billboard Top 200 chart Sept. 5—marking only the third time ever that a Christian album hit No.1 on the main U.S. album chart.

Eye On It was also the first Christian album since 1997 to notch the top spot on the Billboard Top 200 after selling 69,000 copies in its first week, according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan. Released Aug. 28, the first Christian album also debuted at No. 1 on the Christian Albums chart.

Additionally, the album was No. 1 on the digital albums chart, with 35,000 downloads sold—50% of its overall debut, according to Billboard magazine. Sales for TobyMac's fifth studio album (27%) came from Christian bookstores, Nielsen SoundScan said.

TobyMac's chart-topper puts him in the company of country star LeAnn Rimes, whose inspirational record "You Light Up My Life" reached No. 1 on the Billboard chart in 1997, and Bob Carlisle, who notched two weeks on the top spot in the same year with "Butterfly Kisses (Shades of Grace)."

Eye On It is TobyMac's ninth entry and third top-10 placing on the Billboard Top 200. As part of the trio dcTalk, he claimed five more hit albums on the tally, including the No. 4 album Supernatural (Virgin Records) in 1998, according to Billboard.

Prior to TobyMac's achievement, other Christian bands had some recent close calls at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200. In 2011, Casting Crowns' Come to the Well (Beach Street Records/Provident) and Red's Until We Have Faces (Essential Records/Provident) both debuted and peaked at No. 2, while earlier this year, David Crowder Band's Give Us Rest (sixstepsrecords/EMI CMG) also topped out in the runner-up slot.

In other music news, singer-songwriter Matthew West was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Best Original Music and Lyrics for his song “The Heart of Christmas” from the film of the same name.

Distributed by Mission Pictures International, the film debuted on GMC in December 2011 and attracted more than 3.6 million viewers, making it the highest-rated, world-premiere movie in the history of the network.

Based on real-life events, The Heart of Christmas tells the inspirational story of 2-year-old Dax Locke, whose struggle with Leukemia sparked a worldwide outpouring of support for his family. Despite treatment, the doctors tell Dax’s parents that he will not live to see Christmas Day. Driven by their faith and determined to give their son one last Christmas, Dax’s parents decide to put decorations up early and celebrate the birth of Jesus. Image Entertainment plans to release the 86-minute DVD Oct. 9.

Earlier this year, West was also nominated for two GRAMMY Awards, a GMA Dove Award and a Billboard Music Award.

Thomas Nelson anticipates high sales from formerly self-published novel

A sold-out crowd filled Christ Fellowship’s Gardens campus in South Florida Aug. 31 to watch as storyteller Michael Neale’s The River came to life in a multimedia event dubbed The River Experience. The novel, which was self-published with a small print run, was picked up by Thomas Nelson and released Sept. 18.

With themes of loss, forgiveness and redemption, The River tells the story of Gabriel Clarke who learns to face his fears and become a man, coming to grips with the sacrifice that led to his father’s death but saved a foolish young kayaker’s life.

Having journaled ideas for the book for years, Neale believes the story was given to him by God.

“It was like the story chose me,” he said in a WAY-FM radio interview.

The idea for the story began more than a decade ago when Neale and his wife, Leah, were on a Colorado River rafting trip, when she fell into the river but emerged unhurt. Just the day before, another rafter had died in the rapids.

Performing what some have described as a “living book,” the live event featured Neale, who narrated passages from the novel and presented original music along with a small group of musicians. A cinematic experience, the audience watched as much of the story was told through film on a large screen. A brief message at the end of the evening by the church’s teaching pastor, author John Maxwell, brought home the gospel story inherent in The River.

This year’s multimedia event marked the second time the story was brought to life at the church where Neale is artist-in-residence, Todd Mullins is lead pastor and Tom Mullins is founding pastor. The event was a benefit for Hope for Freedom, a Christ Fellowship initiative to aid the victims of modern-day slavery.

The previous event, in October 2011, saw 1,200 copies of the novel sell out to the enthusiastic crowd, and this year attendees stood in a long line at a photo booth where they could have their photo taken with Neale after the performance.

Songs by Neale—a Dove Award-winning songwriter whose music has been recorded by artists such as Michael W. Smith (“Rise Above”), Natalie Grant (“Your Great Name,” Dove Awards for Worship Song of the Year), Rebecca St. James (“In A Moment”), Todd Agnew (“I Need No Other”) and Phillips, Craig and Dean (“Saved the Day”)—were part of The River Experience, which he produced with collaborator Michael Whitaker.

The softcover book and e-book ($16.99 each) and the novel in Spanish, El Rio ($14.99, Grupo Nelson), were simultaneously released in September. On Nov. 6, Thomas Nelson will release The River Discussion Kit, an eight-session DVD study featuring short videos by the author and extra footage not used in The River Experience.

An adaptation of the full-length event was scheduled to be performed Oct. 6 at Women of Faith in Portland, Ore.

For pictures from The River Experience, visit www.christianretailing.com/photos/theriver.

Thomas Nelson Chairman Michael Hyatt keynotes Dallas gala

American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) announced the winners of the Carol Awards for fiction at its conference gala in Dallas. Michael Hyatt, former chairman and CEO, was keynote speaker at the Sept. 22 event that honored titles from a number of publishers, including Thomas Nelson and Zondervan, both now under the HarperCollins umbrella, and Baker Publishing Group.

Drawing from Eccl. 7:10, Hyatt encouraged attendees to lean into the changes in the publishing world.

“You resist the changes and hope we’ll go back to the old days,” Hyatt said to the ACFW conference audience and the publishing industry it represented, “but you won’t go as far as if you lean into the change.”

He asserted that people still “need stories to sort out the meaning of what

they’re experiencing”—a mission ACFW member writers are only too happy to help fulfill.

The Carol Award—formerly the ACFW’s Book of the Year Award and renamed to honor Christian fiction pioneer editor Carol Johnson—honors the highest achievement for published authors of Christian fiction.

The 2012 winners were:

HarperCollins: Debut Novel: Fairer Than Morning by Rosslyn Elliott (Thomas Nelson); Long Historical: Fairer Than Morning by Rosslyn Elliott (Thomas Nelson); Romantic Suspense: Lonestar Angel by Colleen Coble (Thomas Nelson); Mystery: Falling to Pieces: A Shipshewana Amish Mystery by Vannetta Chapman (Zondervan); Young Adult: The Merchant’s Daughter by Melanie Dickerson (Zondervan).

Baker Publishing Group: Long Contemporary: The Search by Suzanne Woods Fisher (Revell); Short Historical: The Deepest Waters by Dan Walsh (Revell); Long Historical Romance: To Win Her Heart by Karen Witemeyer (Bethany House).

Tyndale House Publishers: Long Contemporary Romance: My Foolish Heart by Susan May Warren.

Barbour Publishing: Novellas: An Accidental Christmas from A Biltmore Christmas by Diane T. Ashley/Aaron McCarver.

Harlequin: Short Contemporary: Lakeside Reunion by Lisa Jordan (Love Inspired); Short Contemporary Suspense: Nightwatch by Valerie Hansen (Love Inspired Suspense).

Marcher Lord Press: Speculative Fiction: Broken Sight by Steve Rzasa.

B&H Books: Suspense/Thriller: Fallen Angel by Major Jeff Struecker/Alton Gansky.

Penguin Group (USA): Women’s Fiction: Dandelion Summer by Lisa Wingate (Penguin Praise/Berkley).

Other awards presented were: Lifetime Achievement Award: Allen Arnold; Editor of the Year: Julee Schwarzburg; Agent of the Year: Nicole Resciniti (The Seymour Agency); Mentor of the Year: Allison Pittman; and Member Service Award: Jeanne Marie Leach.

More than 700 ACFW members, industry guests and publishing professionals attended the gala that capped the largest conference focused exclusively on Christian fiction.

Church Supply Source serves retailers, while POD option aids publishers

Send The Light Distribution’s new Church Supply Source initiative will enable retailers to build church supply sales, while Ingram’s advances in color print-on-demand technology provides a high-speed solution for publishers around the world.

Aiming to help Christian retailers serve churches in their area, Send The Light developed the store-church program to help retailers identify and contact churches to keep them informed of the church supplies they carry.

“We hope to be able to give the stores new resources that will help them to easily approach area churches with information about their offerings,” said Karen Bilbrey, director of business development at Send The Light, which stocks more than 5,000 SKUs of church supply products.

A dedicated web page—Churchsupplies.stl-distribution.com—makes available to stores free downloadable flyers to customize and take on visits to churches. The site also will showcase monthly specials and resources such as advice on what product to carry and ideas and practices that are working for other stores.

“Retailers that I have met with were thrilled to have some assistance in these challenging times when many have had to cut back on staff due to budgets,” Bilbrey said.

Mark Phillips, vice president of sales and marketing at Send The Light, said the initiative is “geared to helping stores develop new business in an area they might not feel comfortable with striking out on their own.”

Feedback shows that stores are “increasing their sales with just a small amount of effort,” he said. “Church supplies is one genre that cannot lose ground due to being digitized, so developing that partnership between stores and area churches is a vital part of retailers being able to improve sales through this market.”

Send The Light, Anchor Distributors and Spring Arbor, part of Ingram Content Group, all now offer print-on-demand (POD) services. Ingram recently announced significant advances in color POD technology, allowing for a much greater range of color books to be quickly printed and distributed around the world.

“High-speed color inkjet printing is poised to be a real opportunity for publishers looking for more efficiency in book manufacturing and the print supply chain overall,” said Phil Ollila, Ingram’s chief content officer. “Through our new inkjet color option, publishers can use print-on-demand for a whole new range of titles.”

Ingram’s print-on-demand unit, Lightning Source, recently launched its new standard inkjet color book option for publishers. Promising that savings will be passed from Ingram to the publisher, POD books from Lightning Source are to be competitively priced.

O’Reilly Media has worked with Ingram to beta-test the distributor’s new color inkjet offering.

“I’ve seen the first editions off the press, and the quality is excellent,” said O’Reilly President Laura Baldwin. “In a changing market, Ingram’s new color POD gives us another option to bring more color books to more readers worldwide while simultaneously lowering our costs.”

Lightning Source is manufacturing color books using inkjet technology for publishers worldwide from its Tennessee location, complementing its current premium color offering. Plans are in place to expand the inkjet capability to its Pennsylvania location by the end of the year and internationally in early 2013, the company said.

Ingram has also made ordering easier for retailers. With a simplified search mechanism added earlier this year, the redesigned iPage is “more Amazon-like,” said Ingram Chief Commercial Officer Shawn Everson. ? It also is more customizable and has an extended title base.

Additonally, stores can now monitor the site to see where an order is in process, and in January, Ingram plans to institute a new tool to further simplify the ordering process.

Some Christian publishers encourage thoughtful political engagement

With the U.S. presidential election this month, Christian retailers in red or blue states have the goods to prompt political discussion—that is, if shoppers want them.

Moody Publishers has sold nearly 29,000 copies of How Should Christians Vote? by Tony Evans (May), with Family Christian Stores a top customer. Amy E. Black, a Wheaton College professor of political science, has also published with Moody. Her Honoring God in Red or Blue: Approaching Politics With Humility, Grace, and Reason (May) encourages the Christian to be a voice of reason in the political fray.

“Grateful to have two highly educated and well-spoken authors addressing this important topic,” Janis Backing, publicity manager for Moody Publishers, said the two “approach the subject from a different perspective, but each one provides helpful information about the important role we play as citizen and a Christian in every election. They each challenge readers to consider a variety of issues as they work through the process of choosing a party or candidate.”

InterVarsity Press addresses political matters from differing perspectives as well. One of its most recent titles is A Free People’s Suicide: Sustainable Freedom and the American Future (IVP Books, July) in which author and sociologist Os Guinness argues that the American experiment in freedom is at risk.

“In some quarters, our book by Ron Sider titled Fixing the Moral Deficit is quite popular,” said Jeff Crosby, associate publisher and director of sales and marketing. “It addresses a different set of core issues than Guinness and from a somewhat different political or ideological perspective, and yet there is an overlap and both fit well within the broadly evangelical framework that InterVarsity Press is known for.” 

InterVarsity has also published What Mormons Believe by Robert M. Bowman Jr. (IVP Books, August), which contrasts Christianity with Mormonism, the faith practiced by Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. In June, Worthy Publishing issued The Mormonizing of America by best-selling biographer Stephen Mansfield. And in October, Kregel Publications offered an updated and expanded edition of Answering Mormons’ Questions by Bill McKeever and Eric Johnson.

Mardel’s 35 stores were seeing a “pick up” in the sale of political/election titles closer to the election, said Kevin McDonell, merchandise manager. McDonell sees Joel C. Rosenberg’s Implosion: Can America Recover From its Economic and Spiritual Challenges in Time? (Tyndale House Publishers, June) as a success, along with Indivisible: Restoring Faith, Family and Freedom Before It’s Too Late by James Robison and Jay W. Richards (FaithWords, February).

As in previous years, Logos of Dallas hasn’t seen a strong performance in political book sales. However, owner Rick Lewis sees two titles “ahead of the pack” at his store: A Free People’s Suicide and How Do You Kill 11 Million People? Why the Truth Matters More Than You Think by Andy Andrews (Thomas Nelson, January).

The late Grant R. Jeffrey’s One Nation, Under Attack: How Big-Government Liberals are Destroying the America You Love (WaterBrook Press, October), takes a battle-ready approach.

“Christians, like all Americans, are hammered by political slogans and propaganda, usually rendered in a few lines and out of context,” said Ron Lee, senior editor at WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group. “Rarely do they have a chance to read an in-depth treatment that takes a careful look at the bigger picture, examining the story behind the story. And hardly ever do we see an analysis of America’s economic and political challenges viewed in light of biblical prophecy. That is one of the things that Grant Jeffrey brings to the discussion that makes this book important.”

Dee Henderson's Full Disclosure (Bethany House/Baker Publishing Group) debuted at No. 8 on the General best-sellers from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA), tracking sales for the week ending Oct. 6, according to Pubtrack Christian data. Released Oct. 2, the book is Henderson's first title to release in six years.

The Top 20 General best-sellers were: 1. I Declare, Joel Osteen (FaithWords); 2. Jesus Calling, Sarah Young, hardcover (Thomas Nelson); 3. Praying God's Word, Beth Moore (B&H Books/B&H Publishing Group); 4. Jesus Today, Young, hardcover (Thomas Nelson); 5. The Harbinger, Jonathan Cahn (FrontLine/Charisma House Book Group); 6. Jesus Calling, Young, large print deluxe (Thomas Nelson); 7. Not a Fan, Kyle Idleman, hardcover (Zondervan); 8. Full Disclosure; 9. Heaven Is for Real, Todd Burpo (Thomas Nelson); 10. Jesus Calling, Young, deluxe (Thomas Nelson); 11. Unglued, Lysa TerKeurst (Zondervan); 12. Love Does, Bob Goff (Thomas Nelson); 13. Crazy Love, Francis Chan (David C Cook); 14. The 5 Love Languages, Gary Chapman (Northfield Publishing); 15. Grace, Max Lucado (Thomas Nelson); 16. Change Your Words, Change Your Life, Joyce Meyer (FaithWords); 17. The Ultimate Conversation, Charles F. Stanley (Howard Book); 18. The Bridesmaid, "Home to Hickory Hollow" No. 2, Beverly Lewis (Bethany House/Baker Publishing Group); 19. One Thousand Gifts, Ann Voskamp (Zondervan); and 20. KJV Standard Lesson Commentary, 2012-2013, softcover (Standard Publishing).

The Top 10 Fiction best-sellers were: 1. The Harbinger; 2. Full Disclosure; 3. The Bridesmaid; 4. Coming Home, Karen Kingsbury (Zondervan); 5. All Things New, Lynn Austin (Bethany House/Baker Publishing Group); 6. When a Heart Stops, "Deadly Reunion" No. 2, Lynette Eason (Bethany House/Baker Publishing Group); 7. River of Mercy, "Riverhaven Years" No. 3, B. J. Hoff (Harvest House Publishers); 8. The Bridge, Karen Kingsbury (Howard Books); 9. Accused, "Pacific Coast Justice" No. 1, Janice Cantore (Tyndale); and 10. The Fiddler, "Home to Hickory Hollow" No. 1, Beverly Lewis (Bethany House/Baker Publishing Group).

The top five Bibles were: 1. The Story, NIV, deluxe, hardcover, New International Version (Zondervan); 2. NIV Adventure Bible, hardcover, (Zonderkidz); 3. ESV Thinline Value Edition Bible, TruTone, chestnut, filigree design, English Standard Version (Crossway); 4. NLT Chronological Life Application Study Bible, hardcover, New Living Translation (Tyndale); and 5. ESV Thinline Value Edition Bible, TruTone, midnight, flame design (Crossway).

by Christine D. Johnson

FaithWords, the Christian division of Hachette Book Group, has entered into a publishing partnership with Casa Creación—the Spanish-language imprint of Charisma House, Charisma Media's book division—to broaden the reach of its authors. Hachette will handle the U.S. Spanish market, while Casa's focus will be on the rest of the Spanish-speaking world.

In talks since July's International Christian Retail Show in Orlando, Fla., the two publishers signed an agreement this month to work together. FaithWords will select key books for Casa to translate and promote, an arrangement that should aid FaithWords in reaching the "grass-roots" readers in the international Spanish market, said Tessie DeVore, executive vice president at Charisma Media.

"We are thrilled about this new partnership with Casa Creación, which will help us more effectively reach a growing Spanish-language audience," said Rolf Zettersten, Hachette's senior vice president and publisher.

A key element of the partnership is in the "strategic thinking of which titles should be released and when," DeVore said.

"This is critical in a very positive way for the Joyce Meyer brand, the Joel Osteen brand, John C. Maxwell and a few others because this is going to help expand the already huge platform they have among Spanish-speaking people," she added. "This partnership will help to solidify them in the Spanish market and make sure their message reaches every corner."

Luis Fernandez, consultant to Casa Creación, also sees the agreement as "a strategic partnership for Casa in the opportunity that it has right at this moment to take this product into Latin America and into Puerto Rico."

Under the agreement, titles that will release in January include Yo declaro (I Declare) and Lecturas diarias tomadas de Cada día es Viernes (Daily Readings From Every Day A Friday) by Osteen; and Las 15 leyes indispensables del crecimiento (The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth) by Maxwell. In April, Meyer's Making Good Habits, Breaking Bad Habits is expected to release in Spanish.

Casa Creación's best-selling books include the Spanish editions of Choo Thomas' Heaven Is So Real!, Osteen's Your Best Life Now and Jonathan Cahn's The Harbinger.

Note: This story has been updated since its original posting.