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In Publishers Weekly (@PublishersWkly), Lynn Garrett (@LynniGarrett) reports that Zondervan (@Zondervan), a division of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, is launching Blink, a new YA imprint, with titles debuting this fall.

Chriscynethia Floyd, vp of marketing for Zondervan, said the imprint is designed for the general trade, not the Christian market: “These would be no different from other YA titles published by HarperCollins. They are for anyone, regardless of faith.” She added, “These will be hopeful books. We won’t go as dark [as some other YA novels], but we will touch on very real issues” while striving for a “positive balance and approach” and “[representing] morals and ethical standards.” Five to six titles per year are planned

Read this in full.

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The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (@ChristianBkExpo) has selected 36 finalists in 7 categories for the 2013 Christian Book Awards, honoring Christian publishing’s best books and Bible releases of the year. Each category is comprised of 5 finalists except for Inspiration, which has 6 due to a tie.

One title from each category will be honored as the year’s Christian Book Award winner. ECPA’s highest honor, the 2013 Christian Book of the Year, will be bestowed upon one title from all nominees. 2013 Christian Book Award winners will be named at ECPA’s 2013 Awards Banquet at 6 pm, Mon., Apr. 29, 2013, during the ECPA Leadership Summit at World Outreach Church (WOC) in Nashville, Tenn.

The Christian Book Awards, established in 1978 as the Gold Medallion Book Awards by ECPA, recognize the highest quality in Christian books. Based on excellence in content, literary quality, design, and impact, the Christian Book Awards are the oldest and among the most prestigious in the religious publishing industry. Christian Book Award finalists and winners receive recognition and support throughout multiple retail and media outlets.

See the full list of finalists.

Also see our previous blogpost “Christian Publishing’s 2012 Best Book Covers.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.

Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. Or download our blog as an ebook to your ereader (http://goo.gl/3nTtN). 

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And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.

He is risen! He is risen, indeed!

The Crowing with Thorns

The Denial of St. Peter

Howard Hendricks, who taught at Dallas Theological Seminary (@DallasSeminary) for more than 60 years, died today at age 88, leaving behind a legacy of Bible lessons and Christian leaders across generations.

Read the Christianity Today article in full.

Hendricks authored 18 books and preached around the world in more than 80 countries. Through his teaching he influenced many Christian leaders; several count him as their mentor, including Chuck Swindoll, Tony Evans, Joseph Stowell and David Jeremiah.

See the article, The Life of Howard G. “Prof” Hendricks, in Profiles.

See the tribute website by Dallas Theological Seminary.

See the news release from the Billy Graham Training Center at The Cove.

See books by Howard Hendricks.

This is Ash Wednesday, marking the beginning of Lent; the season of penance, reflection, and fasting, preparing us for Christ’s Resurrection on Easter Sunday.

The book The 10-Second Rule (@The10secondrule) (#T10SR) by Clare De Graaf (@ClareDeGraaf), has just been released by Simon & Schuster (Howard Books). Somersault helped Clare self-publish the book prior to Simon & Schuster taking it on.

Clare explains the book’s origin this way:

Years ago I noticed that during the course of my day I’d have these impressions to do something I was reasonably certain Jesus wanted me to do. It could be an impression to either do something good for someone or a warning about a sin I was about to commit. It might be to stop for a car broken down on the highway, speak to a co-worker about Jesus, or simply turn off my computer before I ended up at a site where no Christian should go.

Almost simultaneously I would sense another voice whispering to me. “You don’t have time to do that – helping that person could get messy – you can’t afford to help them right now – it’s okay, one more time won’t kill you – send it, you’ve been wronged!”

If I listened to this other voice and thought about it long enough, the moment for obedience would pass, often to my relief. It finally dawned on me that by procrastinating, I was unintentionally teaching myself the habit of disobedience. Why is that?

Read this in full.

Congratulations, Clare!

Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. Or download our blog as an ebook to your ereader (http://goo.gl/3nTtN). 

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.

The above chart is from the Barna (@barnagroup) article, “Most Americans are Concerned About Restrictions in Religious Freedom.”

Also see the Baptist Press (@baptistpress) article, “Stanford opens ‘religious liberty clinic.’”

And see our previous blogpost, "Study: Religiously Active People More Likely to Engage in Civic Life."

Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. Or download our blog as an ebook to your ereader (http://goo.gl/3nTtN). 

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.

A new release from Barna Group (@barnagroup) (@davidkinnaman) ranks the most and least “Bible-minded” cities by looking at how people in those cities view the Bible.

The report, part of Barna:Cities, is based on 42,855 interviews conducted nationwide and the analysis of Bible trends was commissioned by American Bible Society (@americanbible). Individuals who report reading the Bible in a typical week and who strongly assert the Bible is accurate in the principles it teaches are considered to be Bible-minded. This definition captures action and attitude — those who both engage and esteem the Christian scriptures. The rankings thus reflect an overall openness or resistance to the Bible in the country’s largest markets.

The top ranking cities, where at least half of the population qualifies as Bible-minded, are all Southern:

·         Knoxville, TN (52% of the population are Bible-minded)

·         Shreveport, LA (52%)

·         Chattanooga, TN (52%)

·         Birmingham, AL (50%)

·         Jackson, MS (50%).

The least Bible-oriented markets:

·         Providence, RI (9%)

·         Albany, NY (10%)

·         Burlington, VT (16%)

·         Portland, ME (16%)

·         Hartford, CT (16%)

·         Boston, MA (16%)

Read this in full.

Also see our previous blogposts “Clear Majority of Americans Own A Bible,” “Infographic: Books of the Bible,” and “Christian Publishing and ‘Living the Experience of Scripture’”

In another Barna:Cities study, the US megachurch audience is measured, with the result being that only about 1 in 10 (10%) self-identified Christians attend a church with at least 1,000 attenders. Barna says, “While megachurches are a much-discussed trend, the vast majority of American Christians attend smaller churches.”

Cities with the highest concentration of megachurch attenders:

·         Las Vegas, NV (29% of all Christians who live in the region attend a megachurch)

·         Baton Rouge, LA (27%)

·         Tampa-St. Petersburg, FL (21%)

·         Dallas-Fort Worth, TX (19%)

·         Houston, TX (19%)

Cities with the lowest concentration of megachurch attenders:

·         Salt Lake City, UT (1%)

·         Toledo, OH (1%)

·         Madison, WI (1%)

Read this in full.

Also see our blogposts, "Mississippi Is Most Religious USA State" and "Study: Religiously Active People More Likely to Engage in Civic Life."

Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. 

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.