Cook Partners

New issue of Cook Partners: Cost-Cutting

In tough times, every publisher wants to find ways to reduce expenses, increase revenue, and maximize profits. This March/April 2009 issue of Cook Partners looks at ways to cut costs in publishing, improve cash flow, and cope with the intangible costs of ministry. Also, read about Christian publishing and ministries in Kenya, Ethiopia, Albania, and Bolivia and enjoy a meditation on Luther's legacy from a writer in the Philippines. You will also find articles on the translator's joy of authorship and on customer service.

Recognition for Cook

On Saturday, March 21, the 2009 Christy Award nominees were announced at the Christian Book Expo in Dallas.  Publisher David C Cook received three nominations across two categories from the award dedicated to recognizing excellence in Christian fiction by contemporary authors.  The winners of The Christy Award will be announced at the International Christian Retail Show in Denver, CO, in July.

David C Cook received Christy Award nominations for three of its novels: Zora and Nicky: A Novel in Black and White, by Claudia Mair Burney; Blue Hole Back Home, by Joy Jordan-Lake; and Safe at Home, by Richard Doster.

Puerto Rico: Christian Distributor Reaches Secular Market

Christian Retailing interviews Ricky Feliciano of Pura Vida Books:

"We are the biggest Christian distributor in Puerto Rico," said Feliciano, who started Pura Vida in 2002, although the company nearly went bankrupt in 2004. Though there are two other Christian distributors in Puerto Rico, "I don't consider them as my competition. I consider the secular distributors as my competition," he said. "We found out that non-Christians buy Christian books. The secular market is hungry for Christian books."

Strang Grupo Hispano Director Lydia Morales said Casa Creación's sales have grown 364% since 2005, including 47% during 2007-2008 ...

"We are amazed of the growth that Pura Vida has shown in the last four years with our products," she said. "Ricky has been able to penetrate the secular market in Puerto Rico and almost quadruple our sales."

Google/Sony versus Amazon/Kindle

From The Times:

Google has joined forces with Sony to take on the staid world of book publishing. The internet giant aims to make up to 7m books that it has scanned from the world’s libraries available for customers to download onto an electronic reading device, known as an e-reader.

The move has not only shaken traditional book publishers, but is a body- blow to Amazon, the online book retailer, which had hoped to corner the market for electronic books with its state-of-the-art e-reader, the Kindle 2.

Under the terms of a deal signed earlier this month, Google will offer an initial 500,000 digitised books as free downloads through Sony’s online book store. By contrast, Amazon — previously the market leader in digital book distribution — currently offers 250,000 titles. The books can then be read on Sony’s PRS-700, a hand-held device that can store about 350 titles, and allows readers to turn the digital page in a way that looks similar to a conventional book. Prior to the deal with Google, Sony was offering less than half the number of books as Amazon.

Read the rest of the article here.

Argentina: Certeza Organizes Successful Fair

Distribuidora Certeza, part of Certeza Argentina, organized its second annual Christian book fair earlier the month, says Cristianos.com. The program, held at a Buenos Aires hotel, attracted more than 150 booksellers and distributors in the region and featured many Christian publishing houses. Among them: Certeza Argentina, of course, but also Unilit, Vida, Clie, B&H, Tyndale, CLC Colombia, Portavoz, Casa Creación and many others.

Open Source Bibles?

On the Better Bibles blog:

What we’ve seen in the last century is publishers becoming the key players in Bible distribution in the developed world. We are at an interesting transition period in which Bible Societies are fading, Bible publishers are being snatched up by secular publishers, and an open source movement is afoot that is redefining the concept of “The Bible.” What is The Bible? Is it that book on your shelf? Or the software on your computer?

... The rebel in me wants to say, “Let’s storm the gates! God wrote the book! How dare you copyright it!” But I’m hesitant to make so bold a claim since I’m not sure that “crowd-sourcing” and “open source” are going to fill the gap if Bible Societies and publishers go under.

Read more here.

Sri Lanka: Catholic Writers Meet

Catholic writers met earlier this month in a workshop designed to encourage "budding scribes," says The Union of Catholic Asian News, adding that

"Book publishing is a big challenge for writers in our country because of financial problems," commented Thilini Priyangika Disanayake, 20, from Moragoda in Colombo archdiocese.

Even so, 

Thousands of Christian books are currently in print in Sri Lanka on subjects including Christian history, catechism, liturgy and social issues. These are in addition to Christian newspapers and magazines published in the country's three languages.

 

Singapore: "Tracts Are Like Da Vinci Code"

From The Straits Times:

A woman on trial for distributing seditious evangelical tracts yesterday said she saw no difference between the materials she had distributed and other widely available books, including bestseller The Da Vinci Code.

... Linking extracts of The Little Bride [a Chick tract] with one of them, God Is Not Great, Chan said that both publications criticised Islam.

'It's not just the fact that the two publications have the same criticism of the religion, but anyone who reads these two books would not know that such criticisms are not allowed in Singapore,' Chan said.

Read more here.

Asking for Feedback, Again

Publishers Weekly reported,

Stacks of unsold books and glum publishers stood for three days inside the cavernous Dallas Convention Center this past weekend at the Christian Book Expo, a first-of-its-kind event designed to connect publishers and authors directly with readers in the evangelical Christian market. Only problem was there were few readers to connect with, despite the show’s location in Dallas, the buckle of the Bible Belt and a top market for Christian publishers. The show, sponsored by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, attracted 1,500 consumer attendees; it had hoped for 15,000-20,000.

Now Michael Hyatt, Thomas Nelson CEO and chair of ECPA's executive committee reflects on the event, asking "What do you think it would take to make an event like this a success? Should we move forward?" Read more and comment here.

Asking for Feedback

Michael Miller, executive publisher at NavPress, writes:

Needless to say, those who live and work in the publishing business are facing a time of unprecedented change. A virtual economic tsunami is sweeping across Wall Street and the business world, destroying everything that is not built on solid business and financial support.

Publishers (whether they will admit it or not) all around the world are gathering like NavPress leadership to discuss our options. What is the future of our business? How are our publishing partners doing? Have we found the new solution to our business model? How much cash reserve do we have? Will we have to cut our operating costs? On and on we go. I sit in these meetings myself and unfortunately ask many of these questions to my leadership team. Lots of hand wringing, worries, and fears.

He then asks for feedback from readers. Read the rest of the entry and responses here.