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Zondervan end-of-year report notes ‘strong sales’ Print Email
Written by Christine D. Johnson   
Monday, 09 August 2010 12:44 PM America/New_York

Zondervan posted "strong growth" in the financial year ended June 30, company officials have announced.

Citing "success on a variety of fronts," the news followed parent company HarperCollins' announcement last week of an increase in profits of $77 million in the previous 12 months.

Zondervan spokesperson Tara Powers said that the company's improvements were in part due to several fiction authors hitting the New York Times best-seller list, including Karen Kingsbury, Terri Blackstock and Tim LaHaye.

Nonfiction trade was fueled by "strong sales" of John Ortberg's The Me I Want to Be and Craig Groeschel's The Christian Atheist. "Zonderkidz saw significant growth and had numerous titles that dominated the industry best-seller lists throughout the year, Powers added.

"Our curriculum category grew by bringing on new authors such as Tim Keller, John and Stasi Eldredge, Gabe Lyons and Dallas Willard," she said. "Finally, our Bibles division saw year-over-year growth as well, due to the success of Lee Strobel's The Case for Christ Study Bible, among others.

"We are optimistic about the year ahead and look forward to introducing a number of new products and titles that we're excited about, and we think consumers will be, too."

HarperCollins credited its overall growth in large part to increased general and children's book sales, notably Going Rogue by Sarah Palin and Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.