I have to confess, I didn't actually read through the PW article I posted a link to concerning who actually sold CBA's Spring Arbor to Ingram . . . but boy I should have. LOL
Here's a telling quote from the article:
Knapp told PW, "We think we can become the company that Spring Arbor used to be. We will reposition and reengineer Riverside from a niche, regional distributor to a full-line, full-service Christian distributor. No one's doing that anymore."
Become the company Spring Arbor used to be. Really? You mean make it denominationally discriminative once more? Well congratulations Mr. Knapp! You did it . . . at least according to the response I got from Spring Arbor in regards to having them provide me with a list of ALL their authors new releases including those authors who aren't CBA approved. According to that response from Ingram's Spring Arbor NO book that isn't CBA approved is a Spring Arbor title. Nine years later and you seem to have done exactly what you set out to do. Impressive.
No one has ever tried to "reposition and reengineer a niche market to look like something other than a niche market except CBA. Kudos on that too.
Love this:
He[Knapp] added, "We'll double the title base beyond what Appalachian and Anchor offer, shorten delivery times and do it without a multiwarehouse national network." Asked how, Knapp declined to give details.
Don't get me started on folks who "decline to give details."
Fiction continues to be the hot category, even independent of the Left Behind juggernaut. Last year the first Christy Awards for excellence in Christian fiction were established by a consortium of publishers--including Bethany House, Baker Book House, Broadman & Holman, Multnomah, Thomas Nelson, Tyndale House, Zondervan and others.
Left Behind juggernaut. A series that has non-CBA Christian readers running for cover when they hear another installment is out. Of course you get that kind of response when you attempt to feed niche market writing to the general market. Best to call it niche CBA work so folks will know before hand that they don't want to read it.
Made a comment to someone last night that it's sad that a denominationally discriminative award can operate and not have to say that the books up for an award are only from fee-paying CBA affiliated publishers. Sad INDEED! All the publishers listed above are CBA affiliated publishers.
The 95-store Lifeway chain is conducting a controlled study of the effectiveness of merchandising fiction by subcategory.
LOL Yeah. Right. They don't carry anything unless it comes through a CBA publisher. Well, not until the book sells enough to get their attention then they'll wave their magic wand and BAM you're in. And that's even IF you have Spring Arbor approval.
A new branding campaign was announced by Tyndale House, which has brought all its children's product together in one catalogue. Tyndale has also partnered with Dorling Kindersley in a new line of children's books that will carry both publishers' names and be sold into CBA by Tyndale and into ABA accounts by DK.
Why does this remind me of Pinky and the Brain? So CBA affiliated and denominationally discriminative Tyndale House will now get their denominationally discriminative work listed in ABA catalogue's because they joined forces with non-CBA affiliated Dorling Kindersley. They wouldn't have to do this if Spring Arbor weren't CBA affiliated . . . as they once were . . . then claimed they weren't but now are again . . . but they just don't say so.
Look for my book soon on the Spring Arbor and CBA's plans to "take over the world!" LOL No really. I'm writing a book. ;)
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