Tina Constable, senior vice president and publisher of Crown Christian Publishing Group, has announced that Image Books, Crown’s Catholic imprint, will cease acquiring new titles.

“After careful review, we have decided to focus our resources and creative energies to continue to maintain and nurture the deep Image backlist, which includes a wealth of books by leading and classic thought leaders,” Constable said in a statement. “We have made the difficult business decision to no longer acquire additional new titles for the Image Books publishing program.”

Constable said Image will continue to publish “with full enthusiasm and support” all Image books under contract. Senior Editor Gary Jansen will maintain his existing editorial duties, but will also now acquire titles for Convergent Books, another division of the Crown family.

The position of associate editor at Image, held by Amanda O’Connor, will be eliminated and Katie Moore, publicist for Image Books, will continue until the end of 2015 to excute the publicity campaigns for Image’s remaining books under contract.

Convergent, under the editorial guise of Executive Editor Dave Kopp, will now publish general-market nonfiction titles from diverse Christian perspectives that help readers thrive as they integrate their faith into daith life. Its core publishign categories include inspirational memoir and self-help, Christian faith and practice, pop culture, relationships, social issues, humor, sports and celebrity.

With her position being eliminated, Carie Freimuth, the vice president/associate pubilsher of WaterBrook Multnomah, Convergent and Image Books, will leave the company in April to pursue other opportunities. Freimuth is a nine-year veteran at Crown.

“We would like to express our deepest respect and appreciation to Carie for her many significant contributions as well as our gratitude for her dedicated service to the Crown Publishing Group,” Constable said.

The move makes at least short-term sense. While books by top evangelical Christian authors routinely have robust sales in frontlist, such out-of-the-gate blockbusters are rare for Catholic books. Yet books by beloved Catholic authors like Henri Nouwen, Ronald Rolheiser, and Scott Hahn, while they might perform modestly in their first few years on the market, often go on to sell millions of copies and remain reader favorites for decades.

Bottom of Form

The change is the latest ripple at Crown's religion group in the wake of the retirement in March of Steve Cobb, president and publisher of WaterBrook Multnomah, the Christian publishing division that includes WaterBrook Press and Multnomah Publishing, along with Image and the two-year-old Convergent Books imprint. When Cobb’s retirement was announced last November, Alex Field was appointed publisher of WaterBrook Multnomah, reporting to Constable. Dave Kopp became executive editor over Convergent Books, which publishes more progressive Christian titles and had been controversial among many evangelicals. Convergent moved editorial operations from Colorado Springs to Crown’s New York offices in January.

Constable also stated the company would “publish with full enthusiasm and support all Image books under contract, with senior editor Gary Jansen maintaining his existing editorial duties for all forthcoming Image titles, in addition to now acquiring titles for Convergent Books.” The changes result in the departure in April of Carie Freimuth, v-p, associate publisher, WaterBrook Multnomah, Convergent, and Image Books.

Field also announced a series of promotions and a new hire at WaterBrook Multnomah. Laura Barker has been promoted to v-p, editorial director of WaterBrook Multnomah, reporting to Field; she had been editorial director. Ginia Hairston joins the company on April 6 as v-p, director of marketing, also reporting to Field. Most recently at David C. Cook, Hairston had been with WaterBrook Multnomah from 1997 to 2008.

Also on PW

Since the establishment last fall of new publishing leadership for WaterBrook Multnomah and of clearly defined and distinct editorial missions for each of the faith-based imprints within the Crown Publishing Group, we have continued to actively develop the long-term growth strategy for our religious publishing program.

Under the energizing leadership of Alex Field, Vice President, Publisher, WaterBrook Multnomah, both of our Colorado Springs–based imprints are now fully focused on their core areas of strength and expertise.

WaterBrook’s mission is to create and publish content that both intensifies and satisfies readers’ elemental hunger for a deeper relationship with God; it seeks books for an evangelical Christian that draw on experiential learning, story, self-help, and inspiration to help readers flourish in their faith. 

Multnomah is committed to advancing the mission of the church in proclaiming and living the gospel around the world. It looks for life-changing, culture-defining messages from a conservative Christian perspective that challenge and inspire readers to their fullest potential.

The mandate for Convergent Books, now based in New York under the editorial leadership of Executive Editor Dave Kopp, is to publish exceptional general-market nonfiction titles from diverse Christian perspectives that help readers thrive as they integrate their faith into daily life; its core publishing categories include inspirational memoir and self-help, Christian faith and practice, pop culture, relationships, social issues, humor, sports, and celebrity.

In conjunction with our ongoing analysis of the overall Christian market, we examined our Catholic-interest publishing imprint, Image Books, and its strategic role in our religious publishing portfolio. After careful review, we have decided to focus our resources and creative energies to continue to maintain and nurture the deep Image backlist, which includes a wealth of books by leading and classic Catholic thought leaders. We will also publish with full enthusiasm and support all Image books under contract, with Senior Editor Gary Jansen maintaining his existing editorial duties for all forthcoming Image titles, in addition to now acquiring titles for Convergent Books. However, we have made the difficult business decision to no longer acquire additional new titles for the Image Books publishing program, which we will discontinue as a frontlist imprint.

The position of Associate Editor with Image, held by Amanda O’Connor, will be eliminated. Amanda will continue to work with Gary over the next months to edit Image titles that are currently in the pipeline. Katie Moore, Publicist for Image Books, will continue at the company through the end of the year to execute the publicity campaigns for our remaining books under contract.

Regretfully, as a result both of the recent separation of Convergent’s publishing operations from WaterBrook Multnomah, and of the decision to not actively acquire additional frontlist titles for Image Books, the position of Vice President, Associate Publisher, WaterBrook Multnomah, Convergent, and Image Books, has been eliminated, and I am sorry to announce that Carie Freimuth will be leaving the company next month. For more than nine years, Carie has played an instrumental role in directing sales, marketing, and publicity efforts across our Colorado-based religious publishing programs as well as for Image Books, bringing exceptional passion, commitment, and energy to bear in support of countless successful publications. We would like to express our deepest respect and appreciation to Carie for her many significant contributions to WaterBrook Multnomah, Image, and Convergent, as well as our gratitude for her dedicated service to the Crown Publishing Group.

With this simplified and tightly focused structure now in place, we are poised for significant growth in the evolving Christian publishing arena, which remains a core focus of the Crown Publishing Group. Thank you for your support and your collaboration.

• Prev
• Next