Passio, an imprint of Charisma House Book Group, publisher of the Modern English Version (MEV), has announced the addition of the translation to the YouVersion Bible app.

Founded in 2008 by Life Church.tv, YouVersion has become the world’s most popular Bible program for mobile devices, having been downloaded more than 140 million times to date. The user-friendly app is available at no cost for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and many other operating systems.

Group Publishing announced a decision to continue to sell its dated curriculum products through retail channels—a reversal of an earlier decision to sell direct to consumers. Group’s decision to continue curriculum sales through the Christian retail channel came after weeks of one-on-one conversations with retailers across the country.

“We were both humbled and heartened by the many retailers who expressed the importance of sales of Group curriculum in their stores,” said Thom Schultz, CEO and president of Group Publishing.

On the heels of receiving her first Gospel Music Association Dove Award for Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year with Overcomer (Sparrow Records/Capitol Christian Distribution), GRAMMY winner Mandisa was surprised by her record company, publisher and management backstage at a show with a plaque commemorating the RIAA Gold  Certification of her digital single “Good Morning.”

Featuring a rap cameo by TobyMac, “Good Morning” has been performed on ABC's Good Morning America and used in promos by the No. 1 morning show as well as by New York City's local ABC affiliate, WABC. The song has been adopted by various morning radio programs as their theme song across the country as well.

The art and science of book design was celebrated Tuesday, Oct. 21 with the announcement of the best designs of the year produced by Christian publishers. The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) presented the Top Shelf Book Cover Awards among the industry’s design elite during a PUBu session at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois.

“The Top Shelf program highlights book design excellence, intelligence and beauty, and we are grateful to all who participated in the program with their quality entries,” announced ECPA President and CEO Mark Kuyper. “We also thank Faceout Studio, Color House Graphics and the 2014 judges for hundreds of volunteer hours that drove this program.”

Simon & Schuster and Amazon have reached a multi-year agreement for the sale in the U.S. of print and digital books. The deal, which goes into effect Jan. 1, reportedly came after a months-long process.

“We are very happy with this agreement, as it allows us to grow our business with Simon & Schuster and help their authors reach an ever-wider audience,” the Amazon books team posted online Oct. 20. “Importantly, the agreement specifically creates a financial incentive for Simon & Schuster to deliver lower prices for readers.”

New York Times best-selling author Stephen Mansfield is receiving major media attention for his book The Miracle of the Kurds, published in print by Worthy Publishing and as an audiobook by Oasis Audio. The book has been featured on media outlets such as FOX & Friends, Hannity and The 700 Club.

Narrated by the author, The Miracle of the Kurds tells a story of hope reborn in Northern Iraq. Oasis Audio describes the book as an account of “the stories of people who have fashioned one of the greatest economic and cultural resurrections in human history.”

Casting Crowns, Newsboys and Hillsong United have been nominated for the 2014 American Music Awards (AMA). Fans can vote through Twitter or through the show’s website (AMAvote.com) for one of the three groups in the Favorite Artist—Contemporary Inspirational category among many other categories.

For Casting Crowns, the nomination is the band’s sixth in its career, while the band has won two. The group’s current release, Thrive, hit No. 1 on the Billboard Contemporary Christian Albums Chart and No. 6 on the Billboard Top 200 Chart.