“You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You’re deeply rooted in him. You’re well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you’ve been taught. School’s out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving.” Colossians 2:6-7 (The Message) (@themessage)
Happy Thanksgiving!
The Wall Street Journal reports, “News Corp. (@NWScorp), owner of HarperCollinsPublishers (@HarperCollins), has expressed interest to CBS Corporation about acquiring its Simon & Schuster (@simonschuster) book business, according to people familiar with the talks....They caution that a deal isn’t imminent.”
For book publishing, an industry dominated by a half-dozen big companies, consolidation is viewed in part as a way to weather the transition to digital media. Combining forces can allow publishers to gain more heft in negotiating terms with retailers, including Amazon.com Inc., industry executives say.
A combination of HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster could create the second-largest publisher in the US market. Random House and Penguin have a combined 28% to 30% of the market, while HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster together account for 18% to 20% of it, according to Albert N. Greco Institute for Publishing Research Inc.
In the following video (recorded Nov. 8), CBS President and CEO Leslie Moonves discussed whether there was a price tag on Simon & Schuster:
Also see paidContent’s coverage.
HarperCollins’ Christian publishing division consists of Thomas Nelson (@ThomasNelson) and Zondervan (@zondervan); it also has the religion imprint HarperOne (@HarperOne). Simon & Schuster’s faith-based publishing imprint is Howard Books (@Howard_Books).
See our previous blogposts, “HarperCollins Forms New Christian Publishing Division,” “HarperCollins Christian Publishing Announces New Leadership Team," and "Random House, Penguin Agree to Merge.”
Follow Somersault (@smrsault) to navigate the fast-changing book publishing landscape.
Learn about online marketing with SomersaultSocial.
Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.
Be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Publishers tab.
Every November, the annual meetings of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) (@AARWeb) and Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) (@SBLsite) (#sblaar & #aarsbl12) are held, affectionately known as the “alphabet” AAR/SBL convention. This year it’s taking place at McCormick Place (@McCormick_Place) in Chicago. Somersault (@smrsault) was there over the weekend, meeting with friends and making new ones among the vast number of publishers exhibiting their considerable frontlist and backlist academic, textbook, and reference titles.
Religion scholar and author Martin Marty writes about AAR/SBL in his column, Sightings:
The Program Book for the gatherings is 496 pages long. You read that right. When I mention that “a number of thousand scholars of religion” are meeting, my friends of secular ethos orientation gasp: they can picture restaurateurs, gun-sellers, and auto-dealers convening in such numbers. But “religion” scholars in abundance? Can this be true?
It is. It takes the cavernous, soul-less halls of McCormick Place and eighteen hotels to accommodate these North American religionists, while graduate students, “old friends,” and others bunk with acquaintances around the city. What these do tends to be invisible to off-campus populations and much is even ignorable on the campuses in which they thrive. The word is out that religious practice is declining in North America, that attendance at and support for religious ventures has been having harder times. But you wouldn’t know that from observing the conventioneers or opening the Program Book. They do not draw notice as do medics in the American Medical Association, and their religion and sacred rites are not experienced as intense as are those of the acolytes of the American Rifle Association or the National Football League, but there they are.
One sights astonishing variety here. The SBL “Sections” include “Cognitive Linguistics in Biblical Interpretation,” “Disputed Paulines,” “Asian and Asian-American Hermeneutics,” etc. and the AAR fosters groups on “Animals and Religion,” “Evangelical Studies,” “Queer Studies in Religion,” “Quran,” and scores upon scores more. Related Scholarly Organizations cluster alongside AAR and SBL, among them “Colloquium on Violence and Religion,” “International Bonhoeffer Society,” “Karl Barth” and “Reinhold Niebuhr” societies alongside “La Communidad of Hispanic Scholars,” and, again, many, many more. There are stars and shapers as well as promising graduate students and tenure-track newcomers to the fields.
Publishers Weekly's (@PublishersWkly) article, "The Digital Revolution in Religion Publishing Brings Business, Technical Issues," highlights the difficulties facing publishers serving the academic market:
Maintaining sanity in this arena can be challenging at times. Example: books rich in maps, art, and ancient language characters need formatting across various platforms and require new digital permissions for every image. On the reader side, it can be maddening in class when one person's page 50 is someone else's page 47 or 53. And note taking on a screen is still in primitive stages.
Contact Somersault to help you publish and market your print and digital resources to the academic market.
Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.
And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.
The above Infographic and chart are by The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life (@pewforum). See the corresponding article, “Faith on the Hill: The Religious Composition of the 113th Congress.”
Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you analyze research information and understand the changing marketplace.
Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.
And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.
The management team of Family Christian (@FCstores), the nation's largest Christian retail chain with 280 stores in 36 states, has partnered with a group of Atlanta-based Christian businessmen to acquire the company from its private equity owners. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Under the new ownership, Family Christian's pledge is to contribute 100% of its profits to Christian causes and, specifically, ministries serving widows and orphans both in the USA and abroad. Family Christian has always been committed to providing resources for the Christian community, but the new ownership structure will allow the organization to not only equip Christians in their daily walk, but to increase the organization's impact by providing substantial financial support to faith-based causes.
Additionally, Family Christian president and CEO, Cliff Bartow, told Publishers Weekly the company has decided to drop its own e-reader – the edifi, launched in June – “because the technology is moving so rapidly, and this is not our core competency.” Instead, Family will work with Kobo (@kobo), carrying four of their color devices and three of their black-and-white devices for the Christmas season. “We definitely believe in the future of ebooks,” Bartow said. (Also see PW’s earlier article, “Family Christian Chain Launches E-Reader.”)
As for the future of brick and mortar, Bartow said, “We believe our stores are a viable concept. Today customers want to be served through multiple channels. Look at Apple--they do business online but their physical stores are also important. Our customers want the store experience. They want a place they can come for inspiration and interaction with our staff.”
Also see Christianity Today’s coverage.
Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you navigate the fast-changing environment of today's book publishing world.
Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.
And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.
A new study, Hispanic America: Faith, Values & Priorities, reveals Hispanic-Americans’ attitudes about faith, family, and societal issues and gives insights into how their views will impact the political, social and economic climate in the US.
The study, conducted by Barna Group (@barnagroup) in partnership with American Bible Society (@americanbible), the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (@nhclc), and OneHope (@FollowOneHope), finds that:
· 7 out of 10 Hispanic-Americans (69%) think public schools should teach the values found in the Bible
· 54% identify themselves first as Hispanic or Latino before American, Catholic or Christian
· Hispanic-Americans are "very concerned" about school dropout rates (58%), immigration (53%), unemployment (57%), healthcare (54%) and housing (52%)
· 42% say the Bible influences their views of political and social issues; however, four out of 10 Hispanics (43%) read the Bible less than once a year
· Hispanics believe the number one way they contribute to American society is through their commitment to family
· 78% say the traditional family is the main building block of a healthy community
· When faced with a moral or ethical choice, approximately one-fourth (22%) of those surveyed make choices based on principles or standards they believe in say they should do; those standards were most commonly defined by their parents or the Bible
· 97% of those surveyed indicated they are proud of their Hispanic heritage
By 2050, it’s predicted there will be no ethnic or racial majority in the US and Hispanics are projected to make up 25% to 30% of the population. Thus, Barna Group says, the impact of beliefs and behaviors of Hispanic-Americans is becoming increasingly significant.
Coinciding with the release of the report, Barna Group announced the creation of its Hispanic division.
In related news, Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) magazine is preparing to launch its publication in Spanish, titled Cristianismo Hoy, with the March/April 2013 issue.
Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you analyze research information and understand the changing marketplace.
Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.
And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.
ZondervanAcademic / Koinonia Blog (@ZonderAcademic), along with 49 other publishers/exhibitors, is at the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society this week in Milwaukee, WI. While there, it’s live streaming all plenary speakers, including Calvin Beisner, Russell Moore, Richard Bauckham, and Douglas Moo, and a panel discussion on Friday at 11:10 am EST.
And beginning this weekend in Chicago, IL, the annual gatherings are taking place of the Institute for Biblical Research, the Society of Biblical Literature (@SBLsite), and the American Academy of Religion (@AARWeb) — Somersault will be there.
Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you publish and market your print and digital resources to the academic market.
Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.
And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.
LifeWay Christian Resources (@LifeWay) has launched a new ebookstore and a new mobile ebook reader.
The LifeWay Reader app is now available as a free download from the Apple App Store for iPhone and iPad and from Google Play for Android devices. LifeWay's new app allows users to build a personal library from a growing list of ebooks and resources from the same Christian publishers found in LifeWay Christian Stores and at LifeWay.com. The LifeWay.com ebookstore currently offers more than 8,000 titles.
The LifeWay Reader app comes with a free pre-loaded copy of the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB). Other free content also is available online.
LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention (@SBCLife), established in Nashville, TN, in 1891, is one of the world's largest providers of Christian products and services, including Bibles, church literature, books, music, audio and video recordings, church supplies, and Internet services through LifeWay.com. The company also owns and operates 160 LifeWay Christian Stores across the US, as well as one of the largest Christian conference centers in the country.
Read our previous blogposts:
· "Family Christian Stores Now Selling Its Own Tablet"
· "Parable, Mardel Latest to Launch Ebook Sales; Ebooks Now at 500+ Christian Stores"
· “Ganxy Offers an 'Easier Way to Sell & Market Ebooks'”
· “How Ebook Buyers Discover Books”
· “Sites That Facilitate Book Discovery”
Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically plan your book’s disoverability.
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.
Leonard Sweet (@lensweet) and Frank Viola (@FrankViola) have co-authored the new book, Jesus: A Theography. It “reclaims the entire Bible as a gripping narrative about Jesus Christ.”
Virtually every other “Jesus biography” begins with the nativity account in Bethlehem. In this groundbreaking book, Sweet and Viola begin before time, in the Triune God, and tell the complete interconnected story of Jesus from Genesis to Revelation.
Jesus: A Theography is the first book ever written to combine historical Jesus studies with biblical theology, crafting together one breath-taking saga that tells the Jesus story in both Old and New Testaments. This flagship book demonstrates clearly that every bit of Scripture is part of the same stunning drama, what the authors refer to as the theography of Jesus Christ.
Read the Introduction (pdf).
Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you publish and market your content.
Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.
And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.
Louis McBride, author of the blog Baker Book House Church Connection, writes, ”If you’re like me, the elections can be exhausting; so I welcome [UPWORD 2012] to offer something to help us keep things in perspective. Give a visit to the site and sign up today.”
UPWORD 2012 (http://SeeGodsWordinAction.com/UPWORD2012) (#UPWORD2012) is a campaign during the US presidential election season that reminds us God is in control. Get a Bible verse paired with stunning, original nature photographs delivered to your email inbox. Also get free downloads of the New Testament, screensavers and wallpaper, a blogger badge, a YouTube video of the verses, and a mobile app when you visit http://SeeGodsWordinAction.com/UPWORD2012. This ends Nov. 9, so sign up today. Tell your friends and share on your social sites. See the announcing news release.