Religious Publishing in the U.S.

The world of religion has competition at many margins. The most recent post on this blog was about how religious activities compete with other activities for people's time. This post is about a recent opinion piece at Religion News Service about competition in the religious publishing industry in the U.S. The author is Anna Piela, an American Baptist Church minister and scholar.

As the article explains, religious publishing has a long history in the U.S. The first Bible printed in the U.S. was actually a translation into a Native American language in 1663! Christian publishing grew tremendously in the latter part of the 20th century, and even though it has declined in recent decades, it is still an $820 million/year industry.

Religious books are published by large publishing companies but also--and this is what makes religious publishing unique--by religious denominations themselves. Denominational publishing houses print religious materials for religious instruction, music, and other topics and, depending on the denomination, provide for free or sell them to congregations or to church members directly. Having printed materials is vital for religious groups because they are a key tool in the promotion of religious teachings among children and youth and for proselytizing.

But it seems that the rise of Amazon has brought new challenges for the publishing industry. For example, Amazon has made it more difficult for brick-and-mortar bookstores to succeed. That reduces opportunities for religious groups to advertise and promote their books, not just because secular bookstores with a little space for religious book have closed but also because many religiously-themed bookstores have also closed.

Read the article to see other challenges faced by religious publishers identified by the author.

Religious publishers will need to find ways to adapt so that they can stay competitive, but do not doubt that they will. Religious groups in a competitive setting like the U.S. have always needed to adapt to stay competitive, so that is not new.