Christian Fiction Sales booming - So to Speak

The International Christian Retail Show, which for many years was called CBA International, is going on in Denver as we speak, or read, as the case may be. The industry news is often predictable and sometimes manufactured, bu this little tidbit jumped out at me, this AM.

Christian Fiction Sales Booming- Sort Of
Posted by admin on Jul 14, 2009


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This week many from the Christian publishing industry are gathered in Denver, Colorado for the International Christian Retail Show. The convention includes great networking opportunities and educational opportunities through seminars. A recent seminar looked at Christian fiction sales which have exploded over the last three decades.

Christian fiction was born as a genre in 1979 with Janette Oke’s book Love Comes Softly. From 1980 to 2000 fiction sales quadrupled to $4 billion in Christian bookstores. Pretty soon mainstream retailers like Wal-mart and Barnes and Noble realized they needed to start carrying Christian fiction. So who’s buying all of these Christian fiction books?

* 72% of Christian fiction is purchased by women

* 41% of those buying Christian fiction make less than 35,000 a year

* Active Christians purchase 53% of the titles

While the Christian fiction marketplace is booming it still only makes up 5% of the overall fiction market. And while online sales are growing, in-store buying is still the preferred method with 61% buying in stores and 27% buying online.

Personal recommendations are a big factor when buyers are deciding which books to buy Seventeen percent of people buy books based on online sources including book reviews, online advertisements, email from the retailer or based on the author’s website.