Hope is a hot topic these days. From economics to political integrity, from international relations to family life, people need encouragement. Gift books continue to serve well in this area, but the graduation season offers a particularly effective time in which to affect the hearts, dreams and futures of the new generations coming up.
Bear in mind that an estimated 3.5 high school students and 3.7 million college students—associate, bachelor and post grad combined—will graduate before the end of this month. That is a lot of opportunity to provide meaningful gifts for shoppers looking to affirm and celebrate the graduates in their lives.
Here’s my list of the ABCs not to miss:

A. Consistent, visible placement: One of the difficulties of this season is that it is not clearly focused on a day. Rather, it’s a season that starts right after Easter and can extend into June. Grouping the titles in a heavy traffic area is key, but the trick is keeping them available throughout the two-month window so that, even through other promotions, regular customers know where to look when their time to buy comes.

B. Clear, invitational messaging: Inspiring the next generation—especially when they are close to us—is a worthy goal, so create messaging to draw customers into the buying experience by igniting the desire to be important in the future of those we care about. Communicating that our graduates are our future and encouraging your customers that the inspiration found in the graduation books can impact that will be key.

C. Creative package pricing: Although prices are always a concern in this economy, try creatively packaging books since often people are buying for multiple graduates. And everyone has people on their list that maybe they wouldn’t normally buy for, but could if invited into the purchase with a great deal on quantities or some other creative up-sell.

D. Classical thinking: Gift books for the season don’t have to have “graduation” in the title. Classics like Hannah Hurnard’s Hinds′ Feet on High Places or J. Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest readily come to mind as popular choices, while our ″God’s Promises″ line—including our God’s Promises for Graduates 2010—has sold more than 6 million copies.

Eric Mullett is marketing director for gift books and backlist at Thomas Nelson.

A multiple Dove Award winner, including for Male Vocalist of the Year and Song of the Year, Brandon Heath releases his third album, Leaving Eden, Jan. 18 on Reunion Records.

Was having written the Pop/Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year for 2009 (“Give Me Your Eyes”) added pressure when it came to the next recording?

A little bit. I remember the first day going in to write for the new record, I wrote with Jason Ingram, the guy that I wrote “Give Me Your Eyes” with. There was pressure for both of us, I think, because we have a big song (and) it kind of feels like everyone is just expecting you to write another one. And for me, I hate writing under pressure. So we sat down in a studio and prayed and thought, well, whatever the message is on this next song should be simple. We don’t need to embellish anything, let’s just tell the truth.

Few lines in a store have the potential to impact the lives of thousands of children in the community for the kingdom of Christ like Sunday school. It is the primary program in the church that builds a solid spiritual foundation week after week, all year long.

Many Christian stores carry Sunday school curriculum or related resource product—with varying degrees of success. Economic pressures have forced staff and inventory reductions, which consequently reduce the impact of this important category. In spite of these factors, Sunday school is  too critical a category for a store to neglect.

Here are three tips to grow Sunday school business:

Latest project: Unplanned: The Dramatic True Story of a Former Planned Parenthood Leader’s Eye-Opening Journey Across the Life Line, co-authored with Cindy Lambert (Focus on the Family/SaltRiver/Tyndale House Publishers).

Resides in: Bryan, Texas.

What changed you from pro-choice to pro-life? There were a couple things. One was I started to see how the organization was really driven by money. ... The last year I was there we were struggling financially and so I was there to help the women and to help serve them, but I started to see really they were just dollar signs to this organization. What really was the turning point was actually seeing an ultrasound-guided abortion procedure on the ultrasound screen and seeing a child fighting for its life in the womb and ultimately losing that battle.

And you were participating in that abortion? That’s right. I was holding the ultrasound probe on the women’s abdomen during the actual abortion procedure. 

But that’s not something you normally did? No, actually using ultrasound guidance during an abortion procedure was not something we normally did in our facility.

You were the director of a Planned Parenthood clinic. How did you start working there? I started out as a volunteer. I was in college and didn’t know much about Planned Parenthood, kind of got roped in to the mission. They told me they were there to help women, help under-served women, help women who didn’t have insurance and healthcare on their own and that they were really there to help provide preventative care to women and to help reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies and therefore reduce the number of abortions. … I was raised pro-life and knew that being pro-life meant that my family was against abortion. The way it was described to me made sense and as someone who hasn’t really discussed the ins and outs of abortion with my family in detail, I was pretty easy to hook.

You now volunteer with Coalition for Life. What is that like? I go and pray outside the clinic where I used to work regularly. I do work with 40 Days for Life campaign.

How would you advise retailers in selling this book? This is really a book that shows the power of God’s redemption. As someone who has not only been party to thousands of abortions as an abortion clinic director, but who has also had two abortions herself, this is a book that can really relate to people who have struggled with these issues

Compassion International employee Dan Woolley made a near-fatal move when he switched hotels in Haiti last January. With Jennifer Schuchmann, Woolley tells the story of his rescue after being trapped for 65 hours when the earth shook Jan. 12, 2010, in Unshaken: Rising From the Ruins of Haiti’s Hotel Montana (978-0-310-33097-4, $22.99, Zondervan).

It was only Woolley’s second day in the country, which he was visiting with a colleague to record stories of Compassion’s work, when 230,000 people were killed in the 7.0 earthquake. He had planned to stay in a different hotel, but was forced to move when his hotel reservation was switched. The relief agency worker suffered serious head and leg injuries when the quake struck—and suffered the loss of a colleague, who was killed instantly. 

With two young boys at home—and wife Christy prone to depression—Woolley did everything he could to survive, treating his injuries with the help of a first-aid iPhone app and employing survival techniques he had learned from watching Bear Grylls’ Man vs. Wild.

Best-selling author and pastor considers the ’70 times seven’ question

TITLE: Unconditional?

AUTHOR: Brian Zahnd

PUBLISHER: Charisma House (Strang Book Group)

ISBN: 978-1-616-38025-0

PRICE: $19.99

RELEASE DATE: Jan. 4

QUOTABLE: "Forgiveness is not justifying what has happened. It is not necessarily even forgetting...but forgiveness is simply saying I am going to abandon the cycle of revenge." -Zahnd

Starting with the horror of the Holocaust, best-selling author and pastor Brian Zahnd’s·Unconditional? The Call of Jesus to Radical Forgiveness·explores the meaning and scope of forgiveness in a troubled world.

“If Christianity isn’t about forgiveness, it’s about nothing at all,” writes Zahnd, founder and senior pastor of Word of Life Church in St. Joseph, Mo.