Family Christian Stores has recognized five companies—Provident Distribution, Tyndale House Publishers, Lighthouse Christian Products, Bridgestone Multimedia Group and Evergreen Enterprises—as "the industry's elite suppliers."

On Aug. 2, the largest Christian retail chain—with almost 300 outlets nationwide—presented its 2012 Vendor Awards in Grand Rapids, Mich., recognizing vendors in the categories of Supplier of the Year, Ministry Impact, Business Innovation, Partnership, and Service and Distribution.

The awards' top honor, Supplier of the Year, was given to Provident Distribution "for its overall focus on business growth, strength in service, marketing and promotional efforts support, and excellence in product innovation."

In the past year, Provident has released albums from Casting Crowns and MercyMe, as well as the faith-based films Courageous and October Baby. Provident "demonstrates great creativity in promoting key releases in ways that drive sales," as well as raising almost $75,000 for The James Fund, the primary philanthropy of Family, Family Christian added.

The Ministry Impact award went to Tyndale House Publishers. Tyndale recently partnered with Family Christian on three separate ministry Bible initiatives in which customers could donate a Bible to a woman seeking help at a crisis pregnancy center, a high school student in Ghana, Africa, and a Spanish-speaking child in Latin America. Through the programs, Family Christian's customers have donated more than a million Bibles in the past three years.

For the second year in a row, the Business Innovation Award was given to gift company Lighthouse Christian Products (LCP). "This year, they created a new company to serve Family Christian's expanding direct import needs, offering up excellent product development and effective sourcing practices," Family Christian said.

The Partnership Award was presented to Bridgestone Multimedia Group for "partnering with Family Christian to achieve solid business metrics, strong marketing and co-op participation and exceptional support of many promotional initiatives," Family Christian said.

The Service and Distribution Award went to Evergreen Enterprises, a designer and manufacturer of home and garden décor, for "maintaining a strong in-stock position, providing cost savings and profitability with margin improvement, and partnering on freight efficiency," Family Christian said.

"The awards are a small token of our appreciation, but we are so grateful to be working collaboratively with suppliers who share a common vision with us towards achieving our calling," said Family Christian Senior Vice President of Merchandising Craig Klamer.

The vendors recognized each received an LCP bronze statue designed by artist Max Greiner and entitled The Divine Servant, depicting the account of Jesus kneeling to wash the apostle Peter's feet.

In addition to the awards ceremony, vendors attended Family Christian's annual James Fund event, A Day of Serving, A Night of Giving, featuring performances by Matthew West, Sanctus Real and Karyn Williams, as well as an inspirational message from author and motivational speaker Pat Williams.

Lucimarian Roberts, author of My Story, My Song: Mother-Daughter Reflections on Life and Faith (Upper Room Books), died Aug. 30 in Mississippi with her family at her side—including daughter Robin Roberts, co-anchor of ABC's Good Morning America. She was 88.

Roberts' memoir, an April release that features contributions from her well-known daughter, details pivotal moments in her life, revealing how faith and music have provided strength to face life's challenges.

Sarah Wilke, publisher of The Upper Room, said Roberts' witness will "continue to bless all who knew her in person or through the pages of her book."

Missy Buchanan, co-author of My Story, My Song, added: "I have no doubt that Mrs. Roberts is still singing God's praises."

Roberts "was the first African-American to head Mississippi's Board of Education," according People magazine. "She loved the written word and the poetry and joy of song. She even recorded a CD of hymns for her family as a gift last year."

Buoyed by a number of recent best-sellers, B&H Publishing Group has seen an "incredible turnaround," according to its parent company, LifeWay Christian Resources (LCR) publishing arm.

During LifeWay's trustees meeting Aug, 27-28 at Ridgecrest Conference Center in Ridgecrest, N.C., Thom Rainer, president of LCR, told the group that he was encouraged with "the incredible turnaround of B&H Publishing Group, which was once an afterthought but is now a strategic part of our organization," Baptist Press (BP) reported.

B&H Publishing has released a number of best-sellers in the last year, including The Resolution for Men by Stephen and Alex Kendrick, and The Resolution for Women by Priscilla Shirer—both tie-ins to the faith-based police drama Courageous.

B&H also recently launched B&H Kids, a new children's imprint. Releasing this fall, the first titles will feature two film tie-ins, including Firebird by Brent McCorkle and Amy Parker (October)—a story featured in the forthcoming movie Unconditional. The other tie-in is Courageous Teens by Michael Catt and Amy Parker, to be released this month and the latest in a string of products based on the 2011 Sherwood Pictures movie, Courageous.

Meanwhile, LifeWay's trustees passed a motion to continue selling the updated New International Version (NIV) Bible in its LifeWay stores. The action was in response to a motion referred by the Southern Baptist Convention this summer requesting that LifeWay reconsider its decision in February, following an exhaustive study, to continue selling the NIV 2011 translation, BP reported.

"Our decision to sell the 2011 NIV does not constitute an endorsement of it," board chairman Adam Greenway, who chaired the study committee, told trustees. "We endorse what we publish, and we publish and endorse the HCSB [Holman Christian Standard Bible]."

Faith-based publishers reported a 15% increase in May from religious e-books compared to the same month last year, continuing a pattern from previous months, according to the latest figures available from the Association of American Publishers (AAP). The category also saw a rise of more than 41% for the year to date versus January-May 2011, with sales of nearly $53 million.

In contrast, religious paperback sales experienced a 31% decrease for the year to date versus January-May 2011, with sales of more than $72 million. In the same date range, religious hardcover sales were down 1.2%, with sales of $122 million. Overall, book sales from religious publishers for the year to date versus the same time frame in 2011 saw almost a 7% drop to more than $266 million.

Religious hardcover sales were down more than 21% in May over the same month the previous year to $21.6 million, while religious paperback sales decreased more than 11% for the same period, totaling nearly $16 million. Overall, book sales from religious presses saw a 12.6% decline to nearly $49 million in May over the same month the previous year.

With 1,188 publishers reporting, AAP's Monthly StatShot report included data from Concordia Publishing House, Gospel Light, Moody Publishers, NavPress, Thomas Nelson and Tyndale House Publishers, among others in the Christian market.

In a decision that could spur an e-book price war in the publishing industry, a federal judge has approved a settlement between the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster in a civil antitrust case that accused the companies of publishers' price-fixing digital books, the New York Times reported.

The Sept. 5 ruling by Denise Cote, the federal district judge in Manhattan, N.Y., overseeing the case, comes a week after the three major publishers reached a deal for more than $70 million with 54 states and U.S. territories to settle their price-fixing claims. Also still to come before Cote, that settlement has yet to be approved.

In her ruling, Cote called the matter a "straightforward price-fixing case," of which the settlement had been widely expected to be approved, the Times reported. The ruling promised to empower Amazon to drop the price of many e-books back to $9.99 or lower in the coming months, a move that could pressure competing retailers to do the same.

The DOJ filed the antitrust suit in April against computer giant Apple and five publishers—Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Penguin Group (USA) and Holtzbrinck Publishers (Macmillan)—to allow greater competition on e-book prices. Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster denied wrongdoing, but agreed to settle with the government. However, Penguin, Holtzbrinck and Apple declined a settlement, so the companies face a trial next summer.

The DOJ said that the defendants sought to raise e-book prices "significantly higher" than the $9.99 level at which they were selling, Bloomberg reported. The publishers viewed Amazon.com's discounted prices on e-books as a "substantial challenge to their traditional business model," according to the complaint.

Hachette publishes Christian books under its FaithWords and Jericho Books imprints. HarperCollins is the parent company of Zondervan and Thomas Nelson. Simon & Schuster publishes Christian titles under Howard Books.

The settlement was criticized by Barnes & Noble, the Authors Guild and the American Booksellers Association.

Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild, told the Times that the biggest losers would be traditional independent bookstores. If the cost of a newly released e-book drops further, the bookstores will have more trouble selling hardcover books at their current prices, he said.

When the settlement was first announced, Amazon called it "a big win for Kindle owners," and said it looked forward to eventually lowering its prices on e-books.

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Lysa TerKeurst held two spots—Unglued at No. 4 and Made to Crave at No. 18 (both Zondervan)—on the General best-sellers list from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA), tracking sales for the week ending Sept. 1, according to Pubtrack Christian data.

The Top 20 General best-sellers were: 1. KJV Standard Lesson Commentary, 2012-2013, softcover (Standard Publishing); 2. Jesus Calling, Sarah Young, hardcover (Thomas Nelson); 3. KJV Standard Lesson Commentary, 2012-2013, large print softcover (Standard Publishing); 4. Unglued; 5. The Harbinger, Jonathan Cahn (FrontLine/Charisma House Book Group); 6. Jesus Calling, Young, deluxe (Thomas Nelson); 7. NIV Standard Lesson Commentary, 2012-2013, softcover (Standard Publishing); 8. Jesus Calling, Young, large print deluxe (Thomas Nelson); 9. Heaven Is for Real, Todd Burpo (Thomas Nelson); 10. NIV Standard Lesson Commentary, 2012-2013, large print softcover (Standard Publishing); 11. Crazy Love, Francis Chan (David C Cook); 12. 90 Minutes in Heaven, Don Piper (Revell/Baker Publishing Group); 13. Not a Fan, Kyle Idleman (Zondervan); 14. Grace, Max Lucado (Thomas Nelson); 15. Implosion, Joel C. Rosenberg (Tyndale House Publishers); 16. The 5 Love Languages, Gary Chapman (Northfield Publishing); 17. Coming Home, Karen Kingsbury (Zondervan); 18. Made to Crave; 19. The Circle Maker, Mark Batterson (Zondervan); and 20. Battlefield of the Mind, Joyce Meyer (FaithWords).

The Top 10 Fiction best-sellers were: 1. The Harbinger; 2. Coming Home; 3. The Bridesmaid, "Home to Hickory Hollow" No. 2, Beverly Lewis (Bethany House/Baker Publishing Group); 4. The Struggle, "Kentucky Brothers," No. 3, Wanda E. Brunstetter (Barbour Publishing); 5. The Amish Bride, Women of Lancaster County," No. 3, Mindy Starns Clark (Harvest House Publishers); 6. Lethal Legacy, "Guardians of Justice" No. 3, Irene Hannon (Bethany House/Baker Publishing Group); 7. Redeeming Love, Francine Rivers (Multnomah Books); 8. Whispers in the Wind, "Wild West Wind," No. 2, Lauraine Snelling (Bethany House/Baker Publishing Group); 9. Not in the Heart, Chris Fabry (Tyndale House Publishers); and 10. Taming the Wind, "Land of the Lone Star" No. 3, Tracie Peterson (Bethany House/Baker Publishing Group).

The top five Bibles were: 1. The Story: Teen Edition, NIV, softcover (Zondervan); 2. NIrV Adventure Bible for Early Readers, hardcover, (Zonderkidz); 3. NIV Adventure Bible, hardcover, (Zonderkidz); 4. The Story, NIV, deluxe, hardcover, New International Version (Zondervan); and 5. NLT Hands-on Bible, hardcover (Tyndale House Publishers).