Founder Joyce Hart began her career in 1978, selling Christian books at Whitaker House Publishing. She was a secretary to the vice president and the editorial department. She worked for Whitaker for eleven years, the last three of which she was the Vice President of Marketing. Her specialty was Special Markets, selling to chain bookstores, ministries, book clubs, catalogs, and rackjobbers.

She founded Hartline Marketing in 1990 and represented several small companies, including New Leaf Press and Victory House Publishing, handling special markets for both for many years. Hartline Literary Agency, a division of Hartline Marketing, was founded in 1992. Joyce has cultivated strong relationships with every major CBA publishing house and has outstanding long-term relationships with key editors in these sought-after houses.

We’ve had an interesting February. I hope that by the time this column is out the snow will all be gone, all two and a half feet of it. To me March marks the beginning of spring and gives me hope that winter will soon be over.

Robert (Bob) Hawkins Sr., founder of Harvest House Publishing, passed away on February 9, 2010. He was eighty-seven years old. Bob is one of the pioneers in the Christian bookselling industry. Even though he gave the reigns to the company he started in 1974 to his son Bob Hawkins Jr. in 1991, he continued to be instrumental in bringing quality authors to Harvest House. He will be greatly missed in CBA. It is our privilege to work with Harvest House. We love to work with their editors and marketing people. We appreciate their efforts on behalf of our authors.

News from the CBA Newsletter:

Moody Publishers and Crossway Books signed an ESV (English Standard Version) license agreement for the Ryrie Study Bible, and are planning a February 2011 release.

The Ryrie Study Bible was first published by Moody in 1978 and expanded in 1995. It’s currently offered in three Bible translations: New International Version, New American Standard, and the King James Version. More than 2.5 million Ryrie Study Bibles have been sold.

I’ve been reading articles on the Internet concerning e-books. What are e-books going to do to traditional print publishing? I don’t think any of us knows for sure. I hear a lot of doom and gloom predictions; however, it is my feeling and hope that we’ll always have books that we can hold in our hands. Maybe the print publishing industry will become smaller. I certainly hope it doesn’t get much smaller; I like it the way it is. Many of the younger generations read only on a screen of some kind: Kindle, Sony Reader, Nook by Barnes & Noble, Samsung E6 and E101, and of course the new iPad by Apple.

In addition to these are a whole bunch more that the average consumer has not heard about. Several readers were introduced at the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. Many will begin shipping by spring. A couple functions that are making these newer ones more desirable are touch screens and more color. DigiTimes estimates that over 9.3 million eReaders will be sold in 2010, up

from 3.82 million in 2009.These readers are here to stay, and the sales of e-books is increasing. To read about the future of the Kindle, go to http://.www.huffingtonpost.com/stephanie-vaughn-hapke.

We work with the publishers that we have relationships with to get our authors’ books in an electronic form for these electronic readers. We’re seeing increases in e-book sales on current royalty statements.

Another controversial topic is the price of e-books. Some publishers are upset with Amazon, who has been selling e-books for $9.99 for a year or more. With the introduction of the iPad, some mainline publishers have been able to convince Apple to offer e-books for $12.99 to $14.99, and Amazon has been convinced to do the same; however, consumers are complaining and threatening to quit buying e-books, saying they can go to their beloved libraries.

Here is an interesting article from the ECPA’s newsletter, Rush to Press:

AAP and Other Parties to the Agreement Respond to Justice Department’s Google Books Settlement Filing

AAP, the Author’s Guild, and Google issued the following statement in response to the Justice Department’s filing with the Court on Thursday, February 4: “The Department of Justice’s filing recognizes the progress made with the revised settlement, and it once again reinforces the value the agreement can provide in unlocking access to millions of books in the U.S. We look forward to Judge Chin’s review of the statement of interest from the Department and the comments from the many supporters who have filed submissions with the court in the last months. If approved by the court, the settlement will significantly expand online access to works through Google Books, while giving authors and publishers new ways to distribute their works.”

May God bless each one of you. Those of us who live in the northeast are looking forward to spring. Maybe March will be warm this year. We can always hope.

In His service,
Joyce Hart