Karen Kingsbury's latest installment in her movie-world series, Take Four (Zondervan), takes the top spot in the August best-sellers list from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA).

Former Gothic-horror novelist Anne Rice, who penned two acclaimed novelizations of the life of Jesus after returning to her Catholic roots, has announced that she has "quit being a Christian."

Writing at her Facebook page, the author of the "Christ the Lord" books carried by some Christian retail stores, said that she remained committed to Christ as always, "but not to being 'Christian' or to being part of Christianity.

To be released tomorrow, Aug. 3, The Mentor Leader: Secrets to Building People and Teams That Win Consistently is Dungy's follow-up to Uncommon and Quiet Strength. In The Mentor Leader, co-written with Nathan Whitaker, Dungy makes a case for the importance of mentoring as a tool for transformation--both in individuals and teams.

Distribution leader Skip Prichard has offered a message of encouragement to those who fear that digital publishing could harm the book business.

The president and chief executive officer of Ingram Content Group--which includes Christian products distributor Spring Arbor (SA)--believes there is a silver lining in the dark clouds others see.

Riley has served as chief operating officer of Word Entertainment since 2008, and has been responsible for all the business operations of Word Label Group, Word Music Publishing, Word Distribution and Word Music. Since joining Word Entertainment in 2005 as senior vice president of marketing, he has been instrumental in revitalizing the company's staff and artist roster as well as launching or acquiring businesses in merchandising, e-commerce, artist booking, touring, brand management and sponsorship.

In his new role, Riley will oversee Word's entire operation, including artists and repertoire (A&R), sales and marketing, music publishing, distribution, church resources and artist services. Riley succeeds Mark Bright and will report directly to John Esposito, president and CEO of Warner Music Nashville (WMN), the Nashville-based music operations of WMG.

One of Nashville's most acclaimed producers, Bright will continue to work with WMN under the terms of his existing production deal with Warner Bros. Nashville.

"I am deeply honored to accept this role as we prepare to enter Word's 60th year of making Christian music," Riley said. "It's been a great pleasure to work as part of the Word organization, especially since it has meant seeing this team bring about consistently incredible results-both in our established businesses as well as in all of the new areas we have entered."

Mike Curb, chairman of Word Entertainment, added: "I believe that Rod Riley is the perfect choice to lead Word into the next decade. He has the vision and the experience to meet this major challenge."

Prior to joining Word, Riley served as senior director of sales at Provident Music, Sony Music's Christian music label. In 1999, while still with Sony, Riley and his wife, Susan, launched Fervent Records-a record label that now has artists such as BarlowGirl, Francesca Battistelli, Group 1 Crew, Sidewalk Prophets, PureNRG and Big Daddy Weave. Originally distributed through Sony, Riley sold Fervent to Word Entertainment in 2005.