Thomas Nelson remains the top Christian book publisher in terms of revenue, and its evangelical market share grew from 29.3% to 32.6% in 2009, according to the Nashville-based publisher's market share reports of the top 10 U.S. book publishers.

On a recent blog entry, Thomas Nelson CEO Michael Hyatt revealed data from the company's two top 10 lists of leading trade and Christian publishers. Based on revenues for the 12 months ending Dec. 31, the lists were created from a proprietary database developed by Nelson and derived from various point-of-sale (P.O.S.) systems from multiple sales channels.

Random House remains the No. 1 trade publisher, growing its market share from 15.9% to 17.5%. Pearson, which includes Penguin Group (USA), was the second leading trade publisher, although its market share was relatively flat-from 11% to 11.3%. Hachette Book Group USA moved up from No. 5 to No. 3, largely due to the success of the "Twilight" series.

"Thomas Nelson maintained its position at No. 7, but our market share (among trade publishers) dropped," Hyatt wrote on his blog. "Frankly, the entire Christian category didn't perform well, as evidenced by the fact that we actually gained share in the Christian segment. Tyndale House Publishers fell off the list completely."

In terms of the top Christian publishers, the top four remained the same, although Zondervan and Tyndale both lost market share, while Baker Publishing Group sales remained flat. Propelled by The Love Dare--by Fireproof movie-making brothers Stephen and Alex Kendrick--B&H Publishing Group climbed from No. 7 to No. 5, while FaithWords dropped from No. 7 to No. 10.

"All in all, the last two years have been tough," said Hyatt, noting that it's been almost two years since he shared a summary of the data. "I think the Christian segment in particular has suffered for lack of a blockbuster title to drive people to our category. When you have mega-bestsellers like The Prayer of Jabez, the ‘Left Behind' series, The Purpose Driven Life and Your Best Life Now, all publishers benefit because it gets people in the stores. We haven't really seen anything comparable for 18 months.

"But publishing is kind of like the weather," Hyatt added. "Christian publishing, especially, has gone through a dry spell. But this will eventually change. While I never want to presume on the future, if history is any guide, we are overdue for some rain."

Click here for the charts of the leading trade and Christian publishers.

Meanwhile, Nelson has launched a program that seeks to mobilize bloggers to share reviews of the company's latest products. "BookSneeze was inspired by Seth Godin's New York Times best-seller Unleashing the Idea Virus," said Hyatt. "Great books are contagious. We believe the best way to market them is to infect ‘sneezers'-or in this case, bloggers-who will in turn infect others with the message."

Bloggers can register at http://www.booksneeze.com. In exchange for committing to read the book, writing a 200-plus word review and posting it on a blog, Amazon.com or another consumer Web site, bloggers will receive free copies of select Nelson titles.

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