eChristian received two nominations for the prestigious Audie Awards, announced recently by the Audio Publishers Association.

Prepared for a Purpose by Antoinette Tuff and Alex Tresniowski, read by Robin Miles, and published in print by Baker Books, and Steel Will by Shilo Harris and Robin Overby Cox, read by Johnny Heller and published in print by Baker Books, both received nominations in the Inspirational nonfiction category.

“We are thrilled to receive these nominations,” Cory Verner, publisher for christianaudio said. “An Audie nomination brings attention to the best audiobooks published in a given year. It is a testament to the hard work of our company, employees and narrators as well as a reminder of the great content that publishers like Baker Books offer. We thank the APA for this recognition of the excellence of christianaudio titles.”

Christianaudio has received 11 Audie nominations in the last three years and two category winners. The Audies, sponsored by the Audio Publishers Association (APA), is the premier awards program in the United States recognizing distinction in audiobooks and spoken word entertainment.

Winners will be announced at the Audies Gala on May 28, 2015, at the New York Academy of Medicine in New York.

Baker Publishing Group titles have been included among the Top 10 Novels of 2014 by Family Fiction magazine.

This newly revised publication has a growing list of readers who nominated and selected winners in 10 different categories, including The River, Silenced, Surprised by Love, and Meant to Be Mine.

The River, by Beverly Lewis, was chosen for the honor in the Amish category. Silenced, by Dani Pettrey, made the top 10 list in the romantic and suspense categories. Family Fiction honored Julie Lessman’s Surprised by Love in both the historical and romance categories, and Becky Wade’s Meant to Be Mine, made the list in the romance category.

For a complete list of winning publications, please click here.   

Family Fiction magazine is a great source for reading about the latest books from fiction authors, discovering behind-the-scenes information on the writing process, and learning about events that inspire the stories that readers love.

A Life to Love, a film about faith and the power of God and the first feature-length movie produced by Belief Pictures, is set to begin shooting in August for a release date of May 2016.

The film stars Canadian actress Hannah Brennen, who portrays a 17-year-old girl named Janie who must come to terms with the brutal murder of her mother. She quickly plunges into a life of suicide and depression.

“Everything the character goes through in her life takes a toll on her faith,” says Chris J. Zayachkowski, the film’s director. “We’re trying to take a compassionate and empathetic approach to suicide and mental illness as we examine it from a Christian perspective.”

The cast also co-stars Lauren Dutchak, Tiffany Jordan, Kelly Lamb and Karalynn Edgar.

“It is our belief that the film’s positive message will provide people hope in their daily lives. We want to show them that God is real and always there. He really does care what happens to people everywhere. This includes kids and teens.”

The project will be shot digitally on Blackmagic cameras and a crowd-funding campaign is scheduled to go live on March 5.

“We’re very excited to be launching our Indiegogo campaign and we have worked hard to create incentives for people who want to donate to the campaign,” Zayachkowski says. “You don’t need to give a lot of money. We have incentives that start as low as $1. We are even pre-selling the DVD and it can be purchased at a price of $15.00.

“The funds will be used during the production period to help cover costs such as housing, food, transportation and insurance. We’re even donating a portion of the proceeds from the film to the Kids Help Phone. Everyone can donate and get involved in the film regardless of their budget.”

The film will be shot in the first two weeks of August 2015 in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario and should last roughly 14 days. The production starts prepping in late April. The film will then be released in early May 2016.

Donald Miller’s Scary Close (Thomas Nelson), a story about knocking down old walls to create a healthy mind, a strong family and a satisfying career, has reached the No. 5 position on the latest release of the New York Times best-seller list.

Miller has produced other best-sellers, like Blue Like Jazz and A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.

The book details Miller’s life of failed relationships and painful drama. At 40, he decided to stop trying to impress people—which didn’t get him anywhere—and to simply be himself, no matter what the cost.  

Scary Close has received some strong initial reviews like these:

“I’ve read all his books. This is his best yet.” —Lucille Zimmerman, Amazon review

“I finished the book in a little over a day. I couldn’t stop reading it.” —Teacher Reader, Amazon review

“This book is different, and somewhat surprisingly, probably  my favorite.” —Cliff Miller, Amazon review

LifeWay Christian Resources and Beth Moore have enjoyed a strong partnership since 1995. LifeWay recently celebrated its 20-year relationship with the author and Bible study teacher by honoring her ministry.

“Today we are honoring Beth Moore, but more important than that we are giving glory to God for His work through this ministry,” LifeWay President and CEO Thom S. Rainer said at a special chapel celebration on Feb. 11.

“Beth Moore’s ministry has reached millions. Untold men and women have come to Christ because of her influence both directly and indirectly. She has been a stalwart for the Word of God, never compromising. And when all is said and done, the impact of Beth Moore can only be measured in eternity’s grasp. We are privileged to honor her this day.”

Rainer presented Moore with a piece of art created from tiny pieces of paper from the covers of each of her Bible studies. The artwork represents two decades' worth of work and biblical inspiration.

A little know fact is Beth Moore’s first manuscript was turned down by LifeWay, then the Baptist Sunday School Board. Fortunately, saner heads prevailed. Lee Sizemore, then a video producer at the Baptist Sunday School Board made a trip to Texas to hear this young, vivacious Bible study teacher at Houston’s First Baptist Church. The decision was made to ask for the manuscript back.

LifeWay published Moore’s first Bible study—A Woman’s Heart: God’s Dwelling Place—in 1995. Today, her studies have reached more than 21 million women worldwide. Over two decades, Moore’s ministry has extended to 17 Bible studies translated into 17 languages, along with numerous books and 166 Living Proof Live events.

During the celebration, Moore reminisced about the first study. Her husband, Keith, surprised her by taking her to the Houston LifeWay store and showing her the finished product on the shelf. “There it was, the ugliest cover I ever loved,” said Moore. “We bought every copy in the store.

“What began as a publishing relationship turned headlong and heartlong into a ministry partnership,” Moore told employees. “I’m so filled with memories and thankful for all the people who I’ve worked with over the years. I can’t thank you enough for the joy to partner with you.”

Through tears and laughter, Moore thanked her family for their support and encouragement through the years. And she thanked LifeWay for standing with her and allowing her to do the one thing she feels most called to do—teaching women how to love and live on God’s Word.

Referring to Acts 20, Moore pointed to the Apostle Paul as an example of how to live out God’s ministry calling. To fulfill our calling, she said, we must make an emotional investment, be compelled by the Spirit and be determined to finish the task.

“Our temptation is to be compelled by our culture,” Moore said. “But if you and I are compelled by culture and not by the Spirit of God, whatever we produce will have the shelf life of a head of lettuce. Only what is compelled by the Spirit will last.

“Today we’ve had the opportunity to look over our shoulders at these past 20 years. But we also look ahead because we have a task to complete.”

Moore told employees she is astonished at the breadth of discipleship material available to the body of Christ through LifeWay. Citing Paul’s words in Acts 20:20 Moore told employees, “You did not hold back anything that would be helpful, all for one reason, because Jesus said go and make disciples.

“It’s been a blast to look back on these last 20 years,” Moore said, “but now let’s go onward in the name of the living Lord Jesus Christ, who is worthy of it all; we shall not hold back.”

Carol Pipes is editor of Facts & Trends.

In case you missed it, last week the Family Christian Store chain declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This is newsworthy because Family Christian Store (FCS) is the largest Christian store chain in the country (when counting number of locations, not necessarily sales revenue), with 266 stores in 36 states.

In 2014, the chain did $230 million dollars in sales … down from $305 million in 2008.

The Details

A common misunderstanding is that this means they are going out of business. That is not the case here. This isn’t a repeat of the demise of the Borders chain in 2011. Instead the corporation is reorganizing using a Section 363 Sale process. What this means is that a new entity has been created by the owners of FCS to buy their assets and restructure their debt. This same Section 363 Sale process was used by Chrysler and GM during the financial crisis of 2009.

A newly formed subsidiary of Family Christian Ministries will be buying the assets of Family Christian Stores for $73,773,000 and assuming the property leases and other accrued operating liabilities. According to their press release they will not be closing stores nor will they be laying off staff. In other words they will try to maintain and do “business as usual.” The sales of these assets is supposed to happen within 60 days. Which is very fast. (There is an excellent interview online with two Chadbourne bankruptcy lawyers about the unique nature of a Section 363 Sale process here if you want to more details.)

The entire 150+ page Chapter 11 filing can be found online in a PDF (Family Christian Store Bankruptcy Filing link) from which I have been quoting much of the above details (A list of the top 20 unsecured creditors has also been circulating).

In the list of top creditors there are some big numbers owed to publishers. Seven million owed to Harper Collins Christian Publishing (which includes Zondervan and Thomas Nelson), 1.7 million owed to Tyndale, and around a half a million each to Baker, B&H, Crossway, Barbour, Harvest House, Send the Light Distributors, Waterbrook (Penguin Random House), Ingram/Spring Arbor Distributors, and FaithWords (Hachette). These eleven publishing-related companies are owed a total of $14,000,000. Remember that at least four of these companies publish Bibles as well as books. And most Christian stores do a healthy percentage of their “book” sales in Bibles.

Fourteen million dollars is not “chump change,” but compare that to the top creditors during the demise of Borders in 2011. Borders owed Penguin $41 million, Hachette $36 million, Simon & Schuster $33 million, Random House $33 million, and HarperCollins $25 million. Granted, there were around 1,000 Borders locations which primarily carried book inventory.

What I found interesting on the list were the non-book companies who are owed substantial money by FCS. These include gift, greeting card, and music companies. There are nine listed in the top twenty…and are owed a total of $13,000,000. In other words almost the same amount due the top 11 book/bible-related companies.

This reveals that the product mix within FCS has evolved over a number of years. They were shifting their inventory to more of a boutique format and thus book selection suffered in the breadth of titles and the depth of copies carried in-store. This is not a surprise when books, bibles, and music can be purchased online or at competitors who carry larger inventories. But the gift, cards, and jewelry are products that are not as easy to purchase online. And, thus the shift.

Before anyone comments on how this is “terrible” and “they shouldn’t be selling that junk” be aware this has been part of the product mix for a long time. I ran Christian bookstores in the 80s and early 90s. Our sales mix back then was 25% books, 15% bibles, 25% music, 20% gift products, 15% other (like church supplies and Sunday school curriculum).

In the case of Family Christian the inventory weight trended toward the non-book items over these past few years.

The Creditors

The biggest unknown in this process is whether or not the money owed to the various creditors will be paid. According to the filing there are over 2,200 total creditors (including the local municipalities in each store’s location, presumably for sales taxes owed).

There is a considerable sum (upwards of $50 million) in secured debt with two banks which will be first in line to get paid. Nearly half is from a revolving credit line which is part of a normal business operation. The balance is a term loan that financed the purchase of FCS in 2012.

What about all that money owed to publishers and other vendors? Their debt is classified as unsecured which means it could be in jeopardy of being paid. This is an area where I can only speculate, so it is best that I not speculate. Instead we will watch carefully. While you might assume that a larger publishers can absorb a financial hit, what about the little publishers and other vendors? For them losing $50,000 might be the difference in keeping their doors open. It is all a matter of scale. Absorbing a $500,000 loss can be significant for any company.

Implications for Authors

What may be a dark cloud, despite my looking for a silver lining, is if publishers are not paid, authors won’t be paid either. If a debt is unpaid, like the FCS debt, the sale is counted as if it never happened … or as if the book was returned for credit. This means a negative sale on the ledger for that author.

If your contract has not earned out you may not “feel” the impact and will only take a little longer to earn out. If your contract has earned out and you see a regular check, you may see a slight dip in revenue.

But …

Remember that FCS did not carry either breadth or depth in their book inventory. So it may be that your books were not being carried in their inventory and will not be affected. If however, you are a top-level bestselling author you may see some negative activity.

But, if you are a top-level bestselling author it is unlikely that FCS’s sales were more than small percentage of the total books sold. Or, as is the case with one of our clients, last Fall FCS placed a very large special order print run for one book (100,000 copies) and the publisher sold it to them at a very low price so they could offer it to their customers at a high discount. The concern is that the bill for this sale will not be paid because it is one of those unsecured debts and thus our client will not be paid.

Final Thoughts

Family Christian Stores may well come out of this difficult time in great shape. It is a tough time to be a retailer. We should hope and pray for a positive resolution. There are so many people involved in this process. Way beyond the 3,000 employees in this chain who are wondering if they will still have their jobs next year.

It is never good news to hear of a business in trouble. Let us try our best to keep our eyes where they belong in all this.

Steve Laube, president of The Steve Laube Agency, a full service literary agency based in Phoenix, Arizona, provided this material from his agency's daily blog post, www.stevelaube.com/blog.

The National Retail Federation released its 2015 economic forecast today, projecting retail industry sales (excluding automobiles, gas stations and restaurants) will increase 4.1%*, up from the 3.5% growth seen in 2014.

NRF also announced Thursday it expects non-store sales in 2015 to grow between 7 and 10%. The 4.1% increase would mark the biggest annual growth since 2011 when retail sales for the year increased 5.1%.

“Already facing far fewer obstacles than this time last year in terms of growth opportunities, retailers are optimistic about the potential that exists for healthy growth in retail sales and consumer engagement in 2015,” said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay. “While our outlook for the year ahead is positive, we aren’t quite out of the woods; in order to see continued momentum we need a commitment from our leaders in Washington to pass legislation that will encourage investment, create jobs and set us on the path towards sustained, long-term economic growth.”

“The economy appears to finally have gained some real traction and after a somewhat turbulent 2014, we expect to see continued gains in economic activity in the year ahead,” said NRF Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz. “While Americans are benefiting from a pickup in wages and jobs and gains in the U.S. stock market, economic slack has been reduced. We still, however, have a ways to go in order to achieve sustainable economic growth. There are a few wild cards that the retailers will need to keep an eye on, like global economic growth, energy prices and even inflation.”

Additional economic insights from the National Retail Federation include:

• A baseline outlook for growth in the economy as measured by GDP is expected to land between 2.7 and 3.2% over last year.
• Growth in the labor market should average between 220,000–230,000 new jobs per month throughout the year.
• Unemployment is expected to drop to 5% by year’s end.
• Gains in equities and housing have boosted net worth to record levels, helping consumers feel more confident about household spending.

Additionally, January retail sales released today by the National Retail Federation, which excludes automobiles, gas stations and restaurants, increased 0.2% seasonally adjusted month-to-month and 3.7% unadjusted year-over-year. Today’s results confirm holiday sales growth of 4%.

The U.S. Commerce Department said on Thursday that January retail sales decreased 0.8% over the previous month seasonally adjusted, and increased 3.3% unadjusted year-over-year.

* Retail industry sales according to NRF include most traditional retail categories including auto parts and accessories stores, non-store categories, discounters, department stores, grocery stores and specialty stores, and exclude sales at automotive dealers, gas stations and restaurants.