GUIDEPOSTS NO LONGER SELLING TO RETAIL STORES

Guideposts will no longer sell fiction or nonfiction into retail stores. However, Ideals Publications, its faith-based children’s publishing program in Nashville, will continue to sell exclusively to the trade. The Guideposts trade books program, which is mainly nonfiction and some fiction, will be discontinued. Guideposts will continue to publish nonfiction and fiction, but it will only be sold direct-to-consumer. The company will support its fall titles already sold in to stores, “but from spring ’14 going forward, we will be discontinuing the trade retail channel for most Guideposts Books and all of Summerside Press,” David Morris, vice president and editorial director of the books and inspirational media division of Guideposts, told Christian Retailing. Guideposts fall nonfiction includes A Search for Purple Cows: A True Story of Hope, an inspirational memoir by Susan Call, and The Song of Annie Mosesby Robin Donica Wolaver of The Annie Moses Band. “I really want to see that book succeed for her,” Morris said of Wolaver’s book, which the company promoted at the International Christian Retail Show this year. The fiction program under Summerside Press, which Guideposts acquired in 2010, will be dissolved. At one time, Summerside Press was both a fiction and nonfiction imprint and became known for its strong “Love Finds You” series. “We bought Ellie Claire/Summerside Press in 2010 and then sold off the Ellie Claire portion of that and the nonfiction titles under Summerside Press,” Morris said, referring to the 2012 sale to Worthy Publishing. But, with changes in the economy, Guideposts reconsidered and chose to discontinue its trade fiction. “The line was more defined by its ‘Love Finds You’ series, which is more of a lower-priced, mass-market model, and it’s not something that is quite as viable going forward, especially with the challenges of marketing to the mass, which most publishers are indeed facing these days with the high discounts and high returns.” Guideposts will continue its “pretty robust” direct-to-consumer program with annual devotionals like Daily Guideposts and Mornings With Jesus, series fiction and “licensed and original one-offs that we market throughout the year to our house file,” said Morris, who has been with the company for 16 years.

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