Bibles, other religious book sales high in January

NEW YORK — Preparation for war may have boosted sales of Bibles and other religious books in America, the Financial Times reported.

U.S. publishers collected almost $15 million in religious book revenues in January.

“Is this a result of the war? … A fear of the unknown? Could be,” said Mark Rice, a spokesman for Zondervan, a leading Bible publisher. Revenues from the company’s Bible sales in January were 10 percent higher than the year before — and the earlier sales had been influenced by the Sept. 11 attacks.

In other religious book sales developments, Publishers Weekly’s Religion Bookline reported that religion titles continued to fare well in 2002, though they did not top the magazine’s annual fiction or nonfiction lists as they did in 2001.

“The Remnant,” the 10th book in the “Left Behind” series, ranked third among all fiction titles, with sales of more than 1.8 million. The top 15 nonfiction titles included five books released by evangelical Christian publishers, with each selling more than 600,000 copies.