Steve Laube, president of Enclave Publishing, has hired Thomas Umstattd as its sales and marketing director. Known as Marcher Lord Press under previous ownership, Enclave is now owned by literary agent Steve Laube and publishes science fiction and fantasy for the Christian market.

“Thomas will bring another level of excitement and expertise into our publishing efforts,” Laube said. “I have long been a fan of his unique abilities. I could not be more pleased that he has joined us.”

Christian Retailing is soliciting information on January-February releases, including Easter products of all kinds, DVDs and music.

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International rights still a ‘very active sales channel’ for U.S. publishers

// GERMANY

Frankfurt Book Fair, the largest trade show in publishing in all of Europe, was a productive show this year for the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) Christian Collective. ECPA represents a number of Christian publishers at Frankfurt each year.

Several service companies participated in the collective this year: Fred Rudy & Associates, Goodwill Rights and Riggins International Rights Services. A few publishers went to the fair for the first time—Whitaker House, Guideposts and Harrison House.

Cindy Riggins, president of Riggins International, sees Frankfurt as a “can’t miss” show. This year, Riggins represented 15 clients—AMG Publishers and B&H Publishing Group among them—and announced the signing of two new clients at the show, Christian Art and Christian Media Publishing, both of South Africa.

“Business was very good,” Riggins said of Frankfurt. “We did see a little bit of decrease in the number of publishers that we met with. I think we had a total of about 33 appointments, down maybe 5%.”

Jim Elwell, director of international publishing at Tyndale House Publishers, also had a good experience at the fair.

“Frankfurt is always an extraordinary event for us in the publishing year,” Elwell said. “Our schedule was jammed for all of our staff. As usual, there are many opportunities that we are busy following up and expect will turn into great business and ministry. This year’s show was upbeat, busy and productive.”

Marilyn Gordon, director of rights and contracts at Baker Publishing Group, also had a positive show.

“We met with 65 publishing houses from over 25 different countries,” Gordon said. “The face-to-face meetings, information gleaned on publishing activities in different countries and the friendships we develop are all an important part of business at Frankfurt.

Gordon also reported that sales of evangelical e-books in non-English-speaking countries was “lagging far behind” U.S. e-book sales. —Johnson

// GLOBAL

Craig Featherstone to lead publishing group’s global efforts

B&H Publishing Group is expanding its international focus with the launch of B&H Global. Announced in the fall, the expansion comes after the company was named Publisher of the Year at the Spanish Evangelical Publishers Association (SEPA) Awards during Expolit earlier in the year.

B&H President Selma Wilson has appointed Craig Featherstone to lead a new, dedicated division to better reach the world with biblical resources. Featherstone brings more than 20 years of experience and leadership in Christian publishing. As senior vice president of sales, Featherstone has led B&H to expand to 27 market channels, 70 countries, licenses in multiple languages and rapid growth in digital content.

“For years I have been blessed at B&H to work with a team from all over the world,” he said. “God has given us a passion to take the gospel to the world. A team of ours recently returned from India where we shared over 200,000 Bibles in the country and met with dozens of pastors who were asking for help. It is an incredible privilege to see the face of someone receiving a Bible for the first time. We want to see more faces.”

Wilson sees this move as a significant call.

“I am excited about Craig Featherstone leading our team,” she said. “He has a heart for reaching the world that is unmatched. We are moving with a greater sense of urgency than before. The gap between what we have as Christians in the West and what people have in the rest of the world demands a response. One of my daughters and her family are church planters in Thailand, so my heart is near and dear to support the growth of the church worldwide.”

Featherstone added: “People at B&H are serious about the gospel and God’s call to us through Psalm 46:10, ‘Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!’ We were made for this and are committed to biblical solutions from here to the ends of the earth.”

LifeWay President Thom Rainer said he is grateful for LifeWay’s international focus.

“I am thankful for all of the teams associated with LifeWay as we are focused on not only the church in America but of the world,” Rainer said. “Our LifeWay vision is to provide ‘Biblical Solutions for Life,’ and our hope through this initiative is to provide the same care and content for those internationally as we do domestically. Our LifeWay employees are regularly in countries around the world on mission trips to spread the good news of Jesus Christ.” —Johnson

Company grows international presence in assuming majority ownership of Brazil publishing entity

// BRAZIL

HarperCollins Christian Publishing (HCCP) announced in early October its acquisition of majority ownership of Thomas Nelson Brasil (TNB) from joint-venture partner Ediouro Group. HCCP, TNB and Ediouro will continue to work closely together.

The TNB acquisition directly aligns with HCCP’s strategic plan to grow its international presence to support its English-speaking authors who have a global platform while at the same time continuing to publish local voices and content relevant to Brazilian readers.

TNB was formed in 2006 as a partnership between Thomas Nelson Publishers and Ediouro. Brazil has been one of the fastest-growing evangelical countries in the world, and Thomas Nelson used its publishing brand and Ediouro’s infrastructure to introduce its U.S. authors to a Brazilian audience. As the brand gained recognition among Brazilian evangelicals, publishing indigenous authors became a focus for TNB. In 2012, TNB published one of Brazil’s top-selling books, Casamento Blinddado (The Bulletproof Marriage) by Renato and Cristiane Cardoso, with 1.8 million copies sold to date.

When Thomas Nelson was acquired by HarperCollins Publishers in 2012, TNB became part of HCCP, which includes the Zondervan Group, Bible Gateway, HarperCollins Mexico and Olive Tree. Today, approximately half of TNB’s business is generated by Brazilian Christian authors.

“TNB gives us an international presence that helps fulfill our company mission to inspire the world with content that honors God,” said Mark Schoenwald, president and CEO of HCCP. “In 2013, we offered more than 200 titles from U.S. authors in our Brazilian catalog, which is a testament to their global platforms and messages. Additionally, we are thankful that the TNB team has been fortunate enough to publish strong evangelical voices like Ludmila Ferber, as well as new authors like Renato and Cristiane Cardoso, which is validating the TNB name within Brazilian culture.”

Tod Shuttleworth, senior vice president of international publishing, will oversee the TNB business for HCCP. Antonio Araujo will continue as general manager in Brazil for TNB and will report to Shuttleworth, with Omar Souza as publisher.

“Twenty-five percent of Brazil’s 200 million people are evangelical Christians,” said Shuttleworth. “Our partnership with Ediouro, a distinguished trade-book publisher in Brazil for more than 70 years, has been invaluable in reaching this audience. They have helped place TNB books in well-established distribution channels and provided a strong infrastructure that complements the HCCP business and Thomas Nelson publishing brand.”

TNB has continued to partner with major churches and denominations as well as local authors, and in 2013 entered the Bible-publishing market. With this new focus, TNB became the second-largest evangelical publisher in Brazil, increasing its revenue by 57% last year.

“Thomas Nelson and now HarperCollins has been a wonderful partner to Ediouro Group,” said Jorge Carneiro, president of Ediouro. “We feel honored by our continued partnership with HarperCollins, its confidence in our team, and its investment in the future of the Brazilian editorial market.”

TNB will continue to focus on Christian titles, growing its indigenous author base and publishing Bibles and HCCP titles that best resonate with the country’s evangelical population.­ —Johnson

The WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group has announced the retirement of its president and publisher, Steve Cobb, after 18 years with the company. Alex Field, who was most recently vice president and publisher for David C Cook, will join WaterBrook Multnomah in the same capacity starting Dec. 1.

In a letter to Crown employees, Tina Constable, senior vice president and publisher, Christian publishing, at Crown Publishing Group—of which WaterBrook Multnomah is a part—reflected on this time of transition as “a transformative moment in the life of the Crown Publishing Group’s religious publishing program.”

// UNITED KINGDOM

Despite challenging climates—financial and meteorological—for churches and charities across Britain, many turned up “willing to buy” at the recent Christian Resources Exhibition (CRE) North in Manchester, England.

Nearly 2,500 exhibitors, buyers and guests—including no fewer than three Anglican bishops—converged on Event City, the second-largest exhibition space outside of London, for the show Oct. 8-9.

“The Christian marketplace had had its tough times,” event organizer Bill Allen told Christian Retailing. “But here were serious people coming to buy.”

Allen added that attendance was “totally on a par with what we would’ve expected.”

People were determined to sample “the ideal church show”—as CRE is affectionately known—even as rainstorms lashed parts of the country and a main route, the M6 motorway, was closed in both directions for a time.

Undeterred, visitors attended CRE’s three major art displays, took in seminars and walked around the 210 stands occupied by almost 190 exhibitors. On show was everything from biblically themed “holy” socks to the highly unusual bicycle hearse.

Among those attending CRE for the first time was singer-songwriter Lara Martin. She led morning devotions for exhibitors and lunchtime worship concerts for visitors.

“I was really blessed to see CRE was coming up north,” said Martin, who lives in neighboring Yorkshire. “It was great to see so many familiar faces. There were people running organizations in the Christian world—and they were on my doorstep.”

She pointed out what seems to be a north-south divide in England.

“Especially with music tours or preaching tours, the south is quite saturated with events,” Martin explained.

But CRE appears to be helping to bridge that gap with its regional shows.

Martin is known for such worship songs as “The Voice Of Hope” and “Divine Exchange.” A number of her compositions have been recorded by other artists, including Sonicflood, Michelle Tumes, Christine Dente and Susan Ashton.

In between sessions at CRE, the singer met delegates who were armed with shopping lists for their churches. They’d planned which stands to visit and found exactly what they wanted—including children’s ministry resources.

Martin believes CRE is “a real gift to the church,” bringing “a personal touch” to a market that’s increasingly found online.

Another first-timer at CRE North was comedian Tony Vino, who helped keep visitors entertained.

“I’m not exactly an exhibit,” Vino said with a laugh. “I was just performing!”

Lancashire-born, the comedian did a showcase set and emceed from the Spotlight stage. He previewed the seminar program, which tackled issues from reaching fathers to “web evangelism.”

Vino tours the comedy circuit as well as churches. He is a favorite at festivals like Greenbelt, New Wine and Spring Harvest and says he has a “special heart for men’s ministry.” He is also chaplain at Strangeways Prison and at the YMCA gym in Manchester.

He thought that holding CRE in Manchester offered a display of church life in the region.

“The church is strong in the north,” he said. “There are lots of exciting projects.”

Vino observed that Manchester is home to The Message and Redeeming Our Communities—just two Christian initiatives that have been transforming parts of the U.K.

“CRE is more effective when it becomes regional,” he added.

As the CRE organizer, Allen doesn’t believe CRE is more effective in the regions, but he does think it is reaching new audiences in places like Manchester, Birmingham and Exeter.

After three decades of steady growth, CRE will hold its international show at London’s Excel for the first time next year, May 19-22. Previously the event was at Sandown Park, south of the capital.

“We felt it was time to bring the international show into the center of London,” Allen said. —Clive Price