Thomas Nelson fiction imprint WestBow Press is to launch a major initiative it says “will benefit both the retailer and consumer” by releasing its top titles in mass-size editions.

The move is “a way to better serve retailers, our authors and ultimately the readers who prefer this size and price point,” said Senior Vice President and Publisher Allen Arnold. “These are not a replacement to our current trade paper novels, but an additional format to offer at the right stage in a product life cycle.”

First offerings in the new format, to be released in March, will be The Visitation by Frank Peretti, Three by Ted Dekker, A Time to Dance by Karen Kingsbury, Wrapped in Rain by Charles Martin, What a Girl Wants by Kristin Billerbeck and The Lazarus Trap by Davis Bunn.

The initiative is being introduced in all retail channels, with a Christian retail promotion allowing customers who spend $25 on fiction from any publishing house to receive a WestBow mass-market title for free.

“Our plan is to move several hundred thousand units of mass-market editions over the course of the first year,” Arnold said. “This program will benefit the industry as a whole and place WestBow on the map as the major player in the mass market."

Six additional titles will follow in December.