Just saw this on Publisher’s Weekly. It was announced yesterday. That’s right. Thomas Nelson will no longer attend the primary CBA tradeshow, ICRS. I’m not sure whether this means they are leaving the Christian Booksellers Association, or just no longer attending the tradeshow.
Update: Michael Hyatt weighed in on this in the comments. They aren’t leaving the CBA, just no longer attending ICRS. He pointed people to a Q&A about this specific issue on his blog.
At any rate, you need to know this stuff. So keep reading and be sure to click through to the articles as well.
Don’t be too quick to let the prickles of righteous indignation rise about Nelson. You might think, “A Christian publisher dropping out of the Christian Booksellers Association?!” Once you understand that they aren’t really leaving CBA, you still might ask, “So the Christian publisher still isn’t attending the Christian Booksellers Tradeshow?!”
Wait a minute. Nelson is dropping the secular tradeshow as well. Apparently, they won’t be at Book Expo America either. And Hyatt has some strong words about these tradeshows. This from PW:
As for BEA, Hyatt said, “My guess is that 95% of the people walking around are other publishers, authors and agents. As one of my colleagues said, we’re all getting dressed up for each other. So I don’t think it really helps us build our profile in the general market. The best thing we can do for that is publish books that hit the bestseller lists.â€
But don’t take PW’s word for it. Check out Hyatt’s blog post from this morning, “A Change in our Tradeshow Strategy,” where some big name authors like Ted Dekker are already adding their two cents in the comment section. Dekker calls the move “smart” but the continues to say,
ICRS is the one time of the year that I get to climb out of my captivity to words and images and see faces. Real people. Retailers. It has been fuel to my writing soul and critical to my wife’s engagement in my career.
The older I get, the more I realize that our journey is our destination in so many ways. Although hiding in a dungeon, taking head trips through imaginary worlds, stewarding the mysteries of God through story is immensely satisfying on one level, on a human level it drains us mere mortals. We need relationship that extends beyond emails and contracts and manuscripts.
In his response to Dekker, Hyatt himself says Thomas Nelson expects writers will still find this kind of positive facetime at the new Christian Book Expo. (Check out the CBE blog and the list of folks leading CBE.) Since it’s in Dallas in 2009, I’m kind of excited about the change actually…
After you read the PW article and Hyatt’s blog, read the Christianity Today article from last week, How to Save the Christian Bookstore. Cindy Crosby writes,
…it can be tough to sell books. Jim Seybert, an Arroyo Grande, California–based consultant, says that 41 of 100 people he surveyed for Christian Retailing reported frequenting Christian retail stores less often in 2007 than in 2006. The most common reason given was more convenient online buying, followed by pricing and selection issues.
I’m the one emphasizing the phrase “online buying” there. But you get the picture. Big changes coming.
What do you make of all this?
UPDATE 4-21:Â Hyatt’s shares his post tradeshow vision at Open House. And PW weighs in with two more articles Nelson Open House a Hit and After Nelson’s Pullout, Publishers Ponder BEA.
Related articles by Zemanta
- Thomas Nelson Cuts Staff By 10 Percent (mediabistro.com)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=d407c08d-2967-4275-80d2-58403e1e3d53)
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I don’t think they’re leaving the CBA; it’s core to their sales. They’re re-evaluating whether it’s fiscally wise to continue to go to trade shows.
Hi. I’m the CEO of Thomas Nelson. Mary is correct. We are not leaving CBA. Even though it is the trade association for Christian retailers, we have a supplier membership. It is twice as big as the next largest channel.
We are the only publisher in America who has hosted its own conference, “Open House” for the sole purpose of making the best Christian retailers better. We paid all of their expenses. We tried to give without expecting anything in return. We had no show room. We didn’t ask for orders. We simply tried to inspire and educate, believing that if we invested in these retailers it would be good for them, good for the channel, and good for us.
You may want to take a look at the Q & A I did about our decision. You can find it here: http://www.michaelhyatt.com/fromwhereisit/tradeshow.htm
Mary, I guess I was too subtle. I’m more poet than journalist. Anyway, I changed the title to emphasize that it was supposed to be a question–the answer to which is no. And I changed a few other things in the post to–adding a second hypothetical question.
Michael, thanks for dropping by–especially in clarifying what it means to have a supplier’s membership. Sorry if I was less than clear. In my excitement to post about this, I rushed it. I have a lot of respect for what you all are doing at Nelson, from getting rid of imprints last year to this decision.
Geez, sounds like Ted Dekker needs to get out more.
Kevin, you make me laugh. On the other hand, as someone who spends 2 hours writing alone each morning, I can imagine that a full-time writing career would be awfully lonesome.
Marcus,
Interesting.
Hey, I have a pic of L.L.’s hands over on my blog from Saturday’s post, and about our time together.
Ted Gossard’s last blog post..prayer for the week
The issue IMO has never been is Thomas Nelson leaving CBA. As their top Bible/book seller, they ARE CBA. Why would they break an affiliation whose readers made them what they are?
I just wish CBA affiliated publishers would go back to calling the work they produce CBA Christian Fiction instead of trying to win readers from a market their restrictions and guidelines prevent them from appealing to.
They don't represent all that Christian readers want to read. That has been their defining difference. But it's also why their affiliated Christian bookstores are doing so poorly. Their market isn't big enough to support all the fiction they're throwing at them. The guidelines and restrictions, put in place to protect their core market readers, keep their work from appealing to the general market of Christian readers for the most part.
I therefore find it interesting when Thomas Nelson and all the other CBA and ECPA affiliated publishers speak of selling to the secular market. I'm not sure I understand what that means. :O
________________________________________
Sue, that's a really interesting idea that the CBA market doesn't have the demand for the volume of fiction currently being published by the CBA presses. I like Nelson a lot. As I do many of the presses. My favorites being IVP and NavPress. I also like Paraclete and Eardmans. At any rate, Andy Crouch has got me thinking that the days of parallel culture may be drawing to an end.
Still, I wish I were going to Dallas for the book fair in two weeks.
________________________________________
". . .that's a really interesting idea that the CBA market doesn't have the demand for the volume of fiction currently being published by the CBA presses."
Well, I wish I could say it was my idea but it wasn't. It's the reson being given for affiliated publishers pulling their targeted fiction out of affiliated Christian bookstores and placing it in un-affiliated stores or rather, the bigger booksellers. And they're not placing these books it in the Christian section where they clearly belong but rather on the shelves with mainstream books. :O
How confusing is that?
If you like work produced by Nelson, NavPress Eerdman and Praclete and all the other CBA/ECPA publishers, then it's a shame you can't go to CBE. However, if the fiction affiliated houses put out is not your cup of tea, there really won't be much to miss.
And I'm not sure I'd call CBA or ECPA a parallel market. I see them as a niche market of the much larger general market. Sort of like Harlequinn is a niche market to the broader general romance market.
Huh. You leave good comments, Sue. As an aspiring fiction writer, I'm encouraged by the idea of CBA or ECPA fiction appearing alongside secular fiction. In my mind, that gets it out the christian ghetto. But it does put more burden on the consumers to find the new books from their favorite press. But then, the press's website should be a good point of contact for those folks.
________________________________________
I'm interested in the fact that some of you allude to Christian fic fans looking for their favorite publishers. In my experience, they tend to look for their favorite authors. But most Christian authors would like to see their books spine-out our face-out in the mainstream aisle, alpha by author–salt and light.