It may seem like end times for some book-sellers, but religious book publishers are all smiles

Veteran religion writer Cathleen Falsani didn’t know much about Justin Bieber when her 11-year-old son, recently adopted from Malawi, came home from school asking questions about the young superstar.

Interpreting pop culture was part of her parenting routine. But the questions ultimately led Falsani into an unexpected exploration of the 17-year-old singer’s evangelical Christian faith — and a new book. Belieber!: Fame, Faith and the Heart of Justin Bieber appears to have all the elements of a soon-to-be best-seller, with global press mentions and partnerships with Bieber fan clubs around the world, which come with a built-in potential base of 10 million devoted fans.

The book, to be released Sept. 27, is among the latest fall offerings by Nashville-based Christian publishing houses and among the inaugural releases by Worthy Publishing, a newly launched Brentwood publishing house.

The book, and Worthy, are making their debuts in the midst of good times for the $2 billion religious publishing industry, which is predominantly made up of Christian fiction, non-fiction, devotionals, religious instruction materials and Bibles. Much of it is based out of the Nashville area, although many larger publishing houses on the East and West coasts have established religious imprints of their own in recent years.

In the past 12-18 months, the religious publishing category has seen its sales jump faster than those of almost every other category of books. The book publishing industry overall has remained relatively healthy during the recession, with a nearly 6 percent annual growth rate from 2008 to 2010, according to the Association of American Publishers.

Local publishers report strong sales
Nashville-based Thomas Nelson, whose Heaven Is for Real (by Todd Burpo with Lynn Vincent) occupies the No. 1 spot on The New York Times’ nonfiction bestseller list, also has three of the top 10 best-selling religious books in the country this week. The company reported that sales are up 43 percent over last year.

Nashville-based Abingdon Press, the publishing arm of the United Methodist Church, reports “strong” sales for physical books in the first half of 2011 and “skyrocketing” sales of digital books. The company does not release specific figures.

“It’s a great time to be a Christian publisher,” said Byron Williamson, a 20-plus-year veteran of the Nashville Christian publishing industry who has published best-sellers by Newt Gingrich and Max Lucado and launched Worthy last year.