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Deseret Book's Strong Season Makes Publishers Weekly
NEW YORK, NEW YORK -- The strong Fall season at Deseret Book, the
book publisher and retail bookstore chain owned by The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, caught the attention of Publishers
Weekly, a book publishing trade magazine. In a story published in its
weekly Religion Bookline update, reporter Jana Riess interviewed
Sheri Dew, executive vice-president of publishing for Deseret Book's
Shadow Mountain imprint, about the publisher's four best selling
titles for the Fall, including President Hinckley's "Stand a Little
Taller," which has sold about 360,000 copies. The same issue of
Religion Bookline also gave short reviews of four titles published by
mainstream and religious publishers on Mormonism.
The success of "Stand a Little Taller" has been seen throughout the
market for LDS products, and Religion Bookline noted that its sales
work out to about 3,000 copies a day since its debut in late
September. "Stand a Little Taller" is a small gift book containing
thoughts from LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley for each day of
the year. Dew told PW that this is Deseret Book's first real
'devotional' book -- providing readers with daily inspirational help.
She says that the book is just the right combination for its
audience, "Its bite-sized, with a very attractive design and a daily
Scripture verse. It's a perfect combination of the author, the format
and the content, plus a low price point."
According to Dew, three other Deseret Book titles are also selling
very strongly. Gerald Lund's novel "Come unto Me," and Sheri Dew's
own "memoir-cum-spirituality book" (as PW calls it) have both sold
more than 100,000 copies, while Dean Hughes' Hearts of the Children
series has reached about 65,000 copies. The coffee-table book
"Beloved Savior," featuring the artwork of Simon Dewey, has sold
50,000 copies. [See below for links to more information about these
titles.]
All this adds to a very successful season for the publisher, making
the publisher's decision earlier this month to layoff 14 from its
headquarters staff less understandable. Those cuts included
reductions in the company's marketing and public relations staff,
traditionally areas that helped increase sales. But Dew told PW that
she "cannot remember a season where we have sold this kind of
volume," and added, "I think the market is growing, and that our
marketing is
getting stronger and more creative."
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the same issue of PW's Religion Bookline,
four new books about Mormonism from mainstream and non-LDS religious
publishers are given short PW-style informative reviews. Former LDS
Bishop W. F. Walker Johanson has written what may be the most
favorable of the four, "What is Mormonism All About? Answers to the
150 Most Commonly Asked Questions about The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints." Published by St. Martin's Press, the book tries
to give non-Mormons an accessible, friendly way to find out about LDS
beliefs. PW says "Sometimes his view is too narrowly LDS (such as
when he asserts that other churches claim that "miracles are a thing
of the past"), but readers looking for the Mormon perspective will
find it clearly and competently presented here."
PW calls Carol Avery Forseth's "Gentile Girl: Living with the
Latter-day Saints" a "refreshingly balanced memoir." Forseth, a
Baptist, spent two years as an undergraduate at BYU in the 1970s and
says that her experience made her a better Protestant. PW adds, "It
is clear that she believes LDS doctrine to be wrong (and she includes
three short appendices to hammer that point home), but she also
presents the individual Mormons who figure into her narrative as
three-dimensional people, not caricatures."
Probably the hardest of the four books for Mormons to accept is "One
Nation Under Gods: A History of the Mormon Church" by Richard Abanes,
who has previously attacked the New Age movement, the occult and
Harry Potter. This "heated diatribe" is simply an "agenda-driven
expose" says PW. "Abanes's tirade is virtually indistinguishable from
the anti-Mormon literature of the past, except that he seems
convinced he is revealing "new" information to readers who have been
dangerously ignorant of the horrifying dark side of, say, the Osmond
family."
In marked contrast, Mormon apologists and doctrinal scholars may find
the final volume worthwhile, from PW's description. "The New Mormon
Challenge: Responding to the Latest Defenses of a Fast-Growing
Movement" is, says PW, "One of the most theologically sophisticated
evangelical critiques of Mormonism ever to appear in print." Taking
an evangelical viewpoint, the essays in this 544-page volume take on
specific points of LDS theology, practice and history in a tone that
is "critical, but not unfair or overly strident."
Source:
Deseret Standing Tall After Stunning Fall Season
Publishers Weekly Religion Bookline 29Jan02 A3
By Jana Riess
Looking at the Mormons: Four Reviews
Publishers Weekly Religion Bookline 29Jan02 A3
See also:
Deseret Book Lays-off 14 From Headquarters Staff
Mormon News 5Jan02 B3
By Kent Larsen
More about "Stand a Little Taller" by Gordon B. Hinckley at Amazon.com
More about "Come Unto Me" by Gerald N. Lund at Amazon.com
More about "No Doubt About It" by Sheri Dew at Amazon.com
More about "Hearts of the Children: The Writing on the Wall" by Dean Hughes at Amazon.com
More about "Beloved Savior: Images from the Life of Christ" by Simon Dewey at Amazon.com
More about "What Is Mormonism All About: Answers to the 150 Most Commonly Asked Questions About the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" by W. F. Walker Johanson at Amazon.com
More about "One Nation Under Gods: A History of the Mormon Church" by Richard Abanes at Amazon.com
More about "The New Mormon Challenge: Responding to the Latest Defenses of a Fast-Growing Movement" Edited by Francis Beckwith, Carl Mosser, and Paul Owen at Amazon.com
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