Following a tumultuous year for Christian publishing and retailing, and responding to the success of the first day of prayer at the end of 2009, a second day of prayer has been announced. The date set is the 26th March, with hopes that Churches will also join in on the following Sunday, the 28th. Retailer Joy McIlroy, who spearheaded the the first day is also behind this new initiative. In a letter sent out to members of the Facebook group Christian Authors, Booksellers and Publishers Joy writes:
Hopefully word is beginning to spread through the far reaches of our industry that we are planning another day of prayer, similar to the one we did last September (can you believe it was that long ago?!).
I think it would be an understatement to say that things have somewhat changed since that time, and it has been interesting to see how our prayers have been answered.
Therefore, it seemed an opportune moment to set aside time once again to gather around the country in prayer. An opportunity to respond to the developments pre- and post-Christmas, and also to look ahead to the events organised by Christian Resources Together and cover them in prayer.
We are hoping to do it slightly differently this time, mainly because of the positive response we received from church leaders and those who support their local shops. So here are the all important dates….
FRIDAY 26th MARCH – for those within the trade
SUNDAY 28th MARCH – for churches to join us
What to do next?
Consider if you could open up a space for those in your locality to meet. Last time there were those who weren’t able to meet with others and prayed on their own, in the knowledge that they were spiritually joining with others. But those of us who were able to meet together it was a really special time so I want to encourage you to seek ways to do this.
Begin to talk to your local ministers, and supporters about joining you on the Friday or taking some time in their Sunday morning services to remember us.
The retail industry blog run by Phil Groome, Christian Bookshop Blog, is acting as a focal for this event with regular updates.
See also: Christian Bookshop Blog and Christian Marketplace
Tagged as:
Books,
Christian bookshops,
Prayer,
Publishing,
Recession
So here we are at the end of January. No one could have predicted this time last year that such a seismic change would be about to hit the UK Christian book trade. The changes to date are beginning to feel like a long running saga with multiple episodes!
Biblica USA started the merry-go-round when they put IBS-STL UK into administration due to well-publicised financial difficulties. The sale of this business at Christmas introduced a number of new (and potentially powerful) players into the marketplace; STL Distribution now owned by John Ritchie Ltd, Authentic Publishing (including Paternoster Press) moving to Koorong of Australia and Authentic Music subsumed into Kingsway Communications. The jury is out on what a Koorong owned publishing house will look like but it’s an interesting move; one worth watching closely.
The 40-strong Wesley Owen Bookshop chain has effectively been emasculated and broken up. Koorong have possibly taken the strongest of the shops and will bring their own ethos quickly to bear, not only on the shops but also for the first time on the UK as a whole. My view is that this could turn out to be the biggest impact on the trade of this whole sorry tale. CLC have increased their own portfolio of shops and at the same time introduced a potentially divisive two-tier remuneration policy into their group. This change of direction could turn out to be as difficult to manage as the incorporating of the shops into their existing roster.
However, the biggest unknown is just how the Nationwide Christian Trust will fare in taking on up to 19 of the 26 shops still left out in the cold. I wish them well and am all for ensuring that as many Christian shops stay visible (and viable) on the High Street as possible but it’s a ‘big ask’ for them. I truly hope that the groundswell of goodwill being generated in the trade at present towards them will translate quickly into success on the ground. A couple (or perhaps) more of the remaining shops will move into local ownership and some could close for good. I guess that the outcome is far better than we could have imagined and at the very least we are not witnessing the complete demise of the chain as we did in the case of SPCK Retail.
The announcements and changes keep on coming. Today the latest being that Kingsway Communications are taking their own distribution back to Eastbourne from Carlisle; not that unexpected in the circumstances. I’m not sure that too many publishers will want to put themselves back into a situation where they are so dependent on a third party in the same way ever again – but we’ll see. I suspect that the new Ritchie owned STL Distribution will ‘stick to the knitting’ and do what STL always did best – the wholesaling of the widest range of product as possible as fast as possible to as many accounts as possible.
The trade is now far more fractured than it’s been for many years. It will be fascinating to see how this all pans out and where the various players will be in a year’s time. More seismic shifts anyone?
Eddie Olliffe, currently Charity Manager at CWR, was previously Managing Director of Wesley Owen and STL Distribution.
Tagged as:
Books,
Christian bookshops,
consumerism,
Internet,
Publishing,
Recession
