From the Worldwide Faith News archives www.wfn.org
Bible Sales Are Sluggish this Year
From
PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org
Date
20 Nov 1996 23:03:35
19-November-1996
96455 Bible Sales Are Sluggish this Year
by Religion News Service
NEW YORK CITY--The Bible, that perennial best-seller, is having a sluggish
year, with some chains sending unsold copies of the Good Book back to
publishers.
The $200 million market for Bibles is flat, the "New York Times"
reported.
Last summer, the Family Bookstore chain returned to publishers more
than $200,000 worth of unsold King James versions. Three new Bible
translations introduced this year have not improved the sales picture.
In June, traditionally a time when fancy volumes are given to college
graduates and newlyweds, Bible sales fell sharply to $3.7 million, a 48
percent decrease compared to the same period last year. Sales increased
some in July, but remained down 9 percent for the year.
"I've never seen a time in which well-positioned and well-financed and
well-done translations have entered the market with such horrible results,"
said Hargis Thomas, sales and marketing director at Oxford University
Press, one of the smaller Bible publishers. "I think that we've about
reached the saturation point."
Some Christian booksellers and Bible publishers attribute the flat
market to a glut of products. Several hundred versions of the Bible range
from holy books for runners to study volumes for teenagers and devotionals
for couples and mothers.
Thomas Nelson Inc., the largest publicly held Bible publisher,
reported a loss of almost $1.4 million in its fiscal first quarter that
ended in June. The company said a drop of more than 6 percent in Bible
revenue from the same period a year earlier was due to reduced sales and
high returns from some Christian and general bookstore chains.
The publishers and booksellers in this market hope sales will pick up
during the Christmas season or with a release of a new translation. But
even Bill Anderson, president of the Christian Booksellers Association, has
doubts.
"I'm not sure that customers are holding off," he said of the
possibility that customers are waiting for a new translation before opening
their wallets. "It's not like the release of a new Mustang."
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