If the Nineteen Seventies were dubbed in Christian circles as “the bookstore revolution,” the primary 20 years of the twenty first century may be more aptly known as the bookstore roller-coaster. Thousands of Christian bookstores closed across the US, including mainstay chains like Family Christian. Meanwhile, Christian publishers were acquired by secular giants. And everyone gave up huge profits to Amazon.
The beginnings of Christian publishing in North America are intimately connected to its settler history — the first Bible ever printed within the Colonies was a translation into Massachusett, an Algonquian language, to share it with Indigenous Americans. In subsequent years, evangelism tracts — inexpensive, easily copied and distributed pamphlets — proliferated.
Today, Christian publishing is an $820 million industry that’s in serious flux because the American religious landscape — and the publishing industry writ large — experience massive disruptions. The trajectory of US Christian publishing is complex and defined not only by interconnected trends in religiosity and culture, but by the economy, technology, fads and, in fact, book readership (46% of Americans read no books in 2023 — double the 2022 figure).
What do these trends mean for smaller, denominational presses, and what challenges do they anticipate in the approaching years?
The available data regarding sales within the Christian publishing sector is fragmentary. Beth Lewis, the manager director of PCPA (Protestant Church-owned Publishers Association), agreed. “There are global sales data trackers, resembling the Association of American Publishers, who often publish general data for categories of book sales, resembling ‘religion,'” said Lewis. “But they’re only capturing data from physical and online bookstores, not direct sales to consumers via a publisher’s website. The numbers of sold Bibles, Sunday school curricula, quarterly subscription devotionals and music often eclipse book sales. These resources are continuously sold directly by publishers to churches.”
Shrinking churches means the marketplace for Christian print resources diminishes, too.
Brad Lyons, president and publisher at Chalice Press, a Disciples of Christ denominational press, appeared very somber in regards to the outlook of mainline Christian publishing. “The industry as an entire is under siege,” he said, citing Amazon’s aggressive sales strategies in addition to the decline of mainline Protestantism and the expansion of evangelical publishing. During the last five years, there have been bumps in sales, nonetheless; anti-racist resources began selling through the racial justice protests after the murder of George Floyd; also, faith resources for young children and families were an enormous success in 2020. Titles that help Christian readers reckon with current affairs are in demand.
David M Hetherington, vice chairman of Books International, a book success company (printing, storing, packing, shipping books to customers) that serves mainline Protestant, evangelical, Catholic and Jewish publishers, also addressed the query of Amazon’s dominance. “It’s the 800-pound gorilla within the room; it is a force to be reckoned with,” Hetherington said.
Amazon and other large online sellers “require deep discounts from publishers, eroding publishers’ and authors’ revenue,” explained Lewis.
Jeff Crosby, CEO of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, said in an interview that greater than 50% of the publishing and sales of Christian books happens “under a single corporate entity” (which was named by the article writer as Amazon). This poses an obvious risk to the viability of the industry, as one distribution channel deeply impacts the funds of the industry.
But there’s more. The decline of Christian brick-and-mortar bookstores means it’s harder to sell religious books, as secular chain bookstores give them a much smaller “footprint” on the ground. “Selling them is tougher than it’s ever been,” said Hetherington.
Global affairs also affect book sales, he identified, citing “staggering” cost increases for publishers who manufacture in China or India. First, the pandemic caused the prices to skyrocket; then, probably the most recent unrest within the Middle East and ensuing attacks on business vessels mean costs have increased again; shipments have to be rerouted around Africa to succeed in Europe and the United States.
Brian Flagler and Craig Gipson from Flagler Law Group, a legal firm that advises Christian publishers and other Christian entities on contracts and copyrights, also listed distribution and provide chain problems as major challenges for Christian publishing. They also noted the rise of artificial intelligence. At the 2024 annual meeting of PCPA in St. Louis, AI was certainly one of the fundamental themes.
“We’re following the opinions from the US Copyright Office to advise our clients on rights: If you create a book cover using AI platform, are you able to own the rights? When is it appropriate to make use of AI to create study guides? And what form of tasks are we comfortable with AI doing for us to make us more efficient, but without form of violating any form of ethical responsibility to readers? New things within the AI field are popping up almost each day that ought to be considered,” Gipson said.
The diversity of the writer base can also be a priority, said Lyons. “We’re not where we wish to be yet. I feel we’ve probably a bigger number of ladies authors than most Christian publishers, but I would love to have more authors from the Asian and Hispanic communities.”
The answer to a number of the challenges that Christian publishing is facing lies in developing recent business models, and an important one, based on Hetherington, is constructing a robust community with its constituency, especially online. “That way, they’ll construct a community, that they’ll own that community, that they’ll cultivate that community, they usually usually are not relegating that community to Amazon.”
This understanding is shared by many publishing houses. Cheryl Price, the publisher at Judson Press, talked about other facets of community-building she intends to place in place. “We’re going to have a Judson Press book club. We’re going to have writing workshops for aspiring authors, and we’ll publish writing tips about our recent website. We’re also working on constructing a digital visual library of authors who will share details about themselves and their books.”
Christian publishers understand they need community, too. PCPA members meet often to debate strategies and solutions to problems all of them face. Lewis said PCPA is an unusual body, because political differences are left on the door. “Leaning more conservative or liberal, all presses must take care of issues with sales, distribution and marketing,” she said. “PCPA is a spot where a publisher can ask an issue on the forum, and everybody no matter their political stance rushes to assist. It is pretty unusual given what we’re observing in public life today.”
© Religion News Service
