The Word on
Christian Shows
FROM PUBLISHING
TRENDS (FEBRUARY 2005)
Pity
the itinerant evangelical publisher: Just as the Evangelical
Christian Publishers Association’s (ECPA)
annual regional trade shows are winding down, the Christian
Booksellers Association’s (CBA)
winter conference in Nashville gears up (Feb. 1-3).
But business
was off this year at the two shows for which figures
are available, according to ECPA’s David
Bird, despite a reduction in the number of
shows from last year’s total of six to this year’s
five (with Orlando out of the mix because of a lack
of retailer support). Still, as Bird emphasizes, at
the EPCA, “the emphasis is on small” —
with retailers offered reimbursements on their mileage,
and even free hotel rooms, if they attend enough presentations
and order from a minimum number of publishers. Only
ECPA members are invited to exhibit and all exhibitors
(roughly 55, mostly publishers and distributors) are
required to attend all five shows, of which the Hershey,
Pa., show is the largest, with 127 retailers attending.
This is in marked contrast to the CBA show, which attracts
thousands of attendees and approximately 300 exhibitors,
including endless tchotchke purveyors, music labels
and clothing manufacturers with names like Christian
Closet and Angel Toes. Still,
there are close ties between the two organizations,
including the recently named President and CEO of ECPA,
Mark Kuyper, who came from the CBA
where he headed business development and marketing.
This year’s
CBA will be focusing more than ever on the nuts and
bolts, with “supply chain” and “category
management” the hot topics, and a presentation
on “Restoring Trust” that refers to the
relationship between retailer and supplier — apparently
as much an issue in religious publishing as it is in
the rest of the industry.
For those who
didn’t make it to the regional shows, and won’t
make it to Nashville, there’s more to come: July
10-14 is CBA International, in Denver; meanwhile, if
traditional religion is where you want to be, you’ll
have to split your time between the Chicago exurb of
St. Charles, Illinois, where the Religious Book Trade
Exhibit (RBTE) meets June 1-3, and
the annual BookExpo (June 2-5), which
this year has abandoned Chicago for New York.
©2005
Publishing Trends
