What Bibles Are People Really Buying?
08/29/2006 20:24 Filed in: Faith & Reason
DISCLAIMER: Well, this entry seemed like a good idea at the time, but my conclusions are flawed. I have had a number of folks contact me both in the comments and via private email with explanations for the vast differences in Amazon's currently bestselling Bibles and those found in lists elsewhere.
Here's what I now know thanks to a knowledgeable, but (for your purposes) unnamed source:
• Contrary to my speculation below, CBA stores as a whole do indeed outsell Amazon by a healthy margin (I just thought everyone bought from Amazon like me).
• Bibles with the apocrypha sell better on Amazon because they can't be as easily bought in physical stores, especially CBA stores.
• Contrary to one of my conclusions below, the NRSV is not quite as healthy as perhaps I thought after initially looking at Amazon's results. Evidently, it is just easier to obtain through Amazon than other sources. Unfortunately, many editions of the NRSV have gone out of print and its use as a translation is on the decline.
• I was at least correct on one count--study Bibles do indeed outsell text Bibles. Surely this is a change in practice from a generation ago.
I could easily just remove this post, but regardless of the error in some of my conclusions and speculations, the information by itself is still fairly interesting. Plus, I don't mind admitting when I err.
Therefore, I am leaving the post as is. Enjoy.
There are five separate Bible bestseller lists in this blog entry. Only the last one may have any real significance.
What BIbles are people buying these days? This is a difficult question to answer because as far as I know Bible publishers don't report their sales figures to one central source that keeps track of such things.
Zondervan may be the only Bible publisher I know to release it's own list of top-selling Bibles. Here's the list as it stands today:
Zondervan Top Sellers
1. NIV Life Application Study Bible
2. NIV Audio Bible Dramatized CD
3. NIV Study Bible
4. NIV Teen Study Bible
5. NIV Adventure Bible, Revised
6. NIV Student Bible
7. TNIV True Identity
8. TNIV Pocket Bible
9. NIV/The Message® Parallel Bible
10. NIV Thinline Reference Bible
Zondervan's list is interesting, but we still don't know how its sales compare with other Bible publishers.
There's always the CBA bestseller lists, but as I've suggested before, these figures aren't overly representative of all BIbles sold. They leave out secular stores like Borders and Barnes & Noble. They leave out a number of Catholic and Jewish sources. And certainly, the most significant numbers that are left out are those of Amazon.com. The CBA numbers end up looking surprisingly Evangelical because they don't really adequately measure non-Evangelical sources which for the most part are non CBA stores.
Look for example at some of the CBA's recent best sellers for August (which actually means for July):
Specialty Bibles (whatever that is)
1. Cornerstone Reference Bible (KJV)
2. NIV Thinline Bible (NIV)
3. Spanish Reina Valera 1960 Outreach Edition (RVR)
4. Men's Devotional Bible (NIV)
5. Women's Devotional Bible (NIV)
Study Bibles
1. The NIV Study Bible (NIV)
2. Life Application Study Bible (NIV)
3. Archaeological Study Bible (NIV)
4. KJV Study Bible (supersaver ed.) (KJV)
5. Life Application Study Bible (KJV)
Young Adult/Children's Bibles
1. The Adventure Bible (NIV)
2. The Student Bible (NIV)
3. The Teen Study Bible (NIV)
4. True Images (NIV)
5. The Adventure Bible for Young Readers (NIrV)
Okay, I wanted to list these above for sake of contrast with another source for determining bestselling Bibles: Amazon.com. I really wish I knew how Amazon's sales numbers compare with those of the CBA. My guess (and it's only a guess) is that Amazon by itself sells more Bibles than all CBA stores combined, but I have no way of proving that--it's just a hunch.
Here's what I did. At Amazon.com's home page, I did a simple search for "Bible." Once the results were shown, I narrowed my selection by clicking on "Books" on the left. Then I narrowed my results further by clicking on the "Religion and Spirituality" link. Finally, I narrowed them one step further by clicking on the link that said "Bibles and Other Sacred Texts" (I could have narrowed one category further by clicking on "Bible," but I didn't want to eliminate the category "Torah"). The very last step is to change the "Sort by" drop down to "Bestselling."
Now I had my results. Although there were still quite a few non-Bible hits, it didn't take much effort to wade through to see what Bibles people were actually buying off of Amazon.com. The results may surprise you. I was certainly surprised by some of them.
AMAZON.COM'S CURRENT TOP SELLING BIBLES
1. The New Oxford Annotated Bible, NRSV with the Apocrypha, Third Edition (ISBN 019528478X)
2. The Catholic Youth Bible, NAB (ISBN: 088489794X)
3. The Archaeological Study Bible, NIV (ISBN: 031092605X)
4. Fireside Catholic Bibles: School and Church Edition, NAB (ISBN: 1556654901)
5. The Harper Collins Study Bible, NRSV with Apocrypha (ISBN: 0060655275)
6. The Message Remix (ISBN: 1576834344)
7. The New Interpreter's Study Bible, NRSV with Apocrypha (ISBN: 0687278325)
8. The Jewish Study Bible featuring the JPS TANAKH Translation (ISBN 0195297512)
9. Life Application Study Bible, NIV (ISBN: 0842348921)
10. Zondervan NIV Study Bible, Personal Size (ISBN: 0310923077)
In my opinion, the above list may be a more accurate list than anything else out there. Further, it's a very fluid list and could change at any moment as people make actual purchases. There are a number of interesting observations I could make about the above list.
First, note the stark predominance of study Bibles over text Bibles. The Message/Remix is a text Bible, and I'm not certain about the Fireside Catholic Bible, although I would presume the latter would include the NAB notes.
Second in spite of reports to the contrary, and in confirmation with my own findings when I posted on top blogged translations, the NRSV is far from dead. In fact, it's very well alive. Three of the top 10 are NRSV and if I had gone further, to the top 20, there would be even more listed including the Renovaré Spiritual Formations Bible.
Third, although the Jewish population makes up less than 5% of the population, I was very intrigued to see The Jewish Study BIble come in at #8, ahead of both the NIV Application Study Bible and the NIV Study Bible. If you're curious, the BHS came in at #13. Don't let anyone tell you that Judaism is not alive in well when it comes to study of the Scriptures.
Fourth, despite the fact that all of these Bibles will find some use outside their target audience, the selection essentially breaks down to 40% Evangelical and 60% non-Evangelical. Don't let anyone tell you that only Evangelicals are reading their Bibles. Here's a different way of looking at it: NRSV 30%, NIV 30%, NAB 20%, The Message 10%, and JPS 10%.
Sixth, 50% of the Bibles above include the Apocrypha. Evidently the debate over the limits of the Canon are not quite yet over.
Seventh, notice the absence of a number of newer translations including the NLT, ESV, HCSB, and TNIV.
Finally, just because something is on a bestseller list, doesn't mean that it's a quality selection. Look at any of the books on today's fiction or nonfiction bestsellers list and that becomes evident. However, if I had begun to list what I thought was a "popular" representation of Bibles being sold today, my list would have looked very different from the one above. Certainly, someone might say, "Well just because people are buying Bibles, doesn't mean they are reading them." Well, that's true. But if people were just buying Bibles to have in their homes or to carry to church and not really to read, I would have expected a lot of thinline Bibles and pocket and purse Bibles. With minor exception, the Bibles listed above are meant for serious study.
Surprising indeed.
Here's what I now know thanks to a knowledgeable, but (for your purposes) unnamed source:
• Contrary to my speculation below, CBA stores as a whole do indeed outsell Amazon by a healthy margin (I just thought everyone bought from Amazon like me).
• Bibles with the apocrypha sell better on Amazon because they can't be as easily bought in physical stores, especially CBA stores.
• Contrary to one of my conclusions below, the NRSV is not quite as healthy as perhaps I thought after initially looking at Amazon's results. Evidently, it is just easier to obtain through Amazon than other sources. Unfortunately, many editions of the NRSV have gone out of print and its use as a translation is on the decline.
• I was at least correct on one count--study Bibles do indeed outsell text Bibles. Surely this is a change in practice from a generation ago.
I could easily just remove this post, but regardless of the error in some of my conclusions and speculations, the information by itself is still fairly interesting. Plus, I don't mind admitting when I err.
Therefore, I am leaving the post as is. Enjoy.
There are five separate Bible bestseller lists in this blog entry. Only the last one may have any real significance.
What BIbles are people buying these days? This is a difficult question to answer because as far as I know Bible publishers don't report their sales figures to one central source that keeps track of such things.
Zondervan may be the only Bible publisher I know to release it's own list of top-selling Bibles. Here's the list as it stands today:
Zondervan Top Sellers
1. NIV Life Application Study Bible
2. NIV Audio Bible Dramatized CD
3. NIV Study Bible
4. NIV Teen Study Bible
5. NIV Adventure Bible, Revised
6. NIV Student Bible
7. TNIV True Identity
8. TNIV Pocket Bible
9. NIV/The Message® Parallel Bible
10. NIV Thinline Reference Bible
Zondervan's list is interesting, but we still don't know how its sales compare with other Bible publishers.
There's always the CBA bestseller lists, but as I've suggested before, these figures aren't overly representative of all BIbles sold. They leave out secular stores like Borders and Barnes & Noble. They leave out a number of Catholic and Jewish sources. And certainly, the most significant numbers that are left out are those of Amazon.com. The CBA numbers end up looking surprisingly Evangelical because they don't really adequately measure non-Evangelical sources which for the most part are non CBA stores.
Look for example at some of the CBA's recent best sellers for August (which actually means for July):
Specialty Bibles (whatever that is)
1. Cornerstone Reference Bible (KJV)
2. NIV Thinline Bible (NIV)
3. Spanish Reina Valera 1960 Outreach Edition (RVR)
4. Men's Devotional Bible (NIV)
5. Women's Devotional Bible (NIV)
Study Bibles
1. The NIV Study Bible (NIV)
2. Life Application Study Bible (NIV)
3. Archaeological Study Bible (NIV)
4. KJV Study Bible (supersaver ed.) (KJV)
5. Life Application Study Bible (KJV)
Young Adult/Children's Bibles
1. The Adventure Bible (NIV)
2. The Student Bible (NIV)
3. The Teen Study Bible (NIV)
4. True Images (NIV)
5. The Adventure Bible for Young Readers (NIrV)
Okay, I wanted to list these above for sake of contrast with another source for determining bestselling Bibles: Amazon.com. I really wish I knew how Amazon's sales numbers compare with those of the CBA. My guess (and it's only a guess) is that Amazon by itself sells more Bibles than all CBA stores combined, but I have no way of proving that--it's just a hunch.
Here's what I did. At Amazon.com's home page, I did a simple search for "Bible." Once the results were shown, I narrowed my selection by clicking on "Books" on the left. Then I narrowed my results further by clicking on the "Religion and Spirituality" link. Finally, I narrowed them one step further by clicking on the link that said "Bibles and Other Sacred Texts" (I could have narrowed one category further by clicking on "Bible," but I didn't want to eliminate the category "Torah"). The very last step is to change the "Sort by" drop down to "Bestselling."
Now I had my results. Although there were still quite a few non-Bible hits, it didn't take much effort to wade through to see what Bibles people were actually buying off of Amazon.com. The results may surprise you. I was certainly surprised by some of them.
AMAZON.COM'S CURRENT TOP SELLING BIBLES
1. The New Oxford Annotated Bible, NRSV with the Apocrypha, Third Edition (ISBN 019528478X)
2. The Catholic Youth Bible, NAB (ISBN: 088489794X)
3. The Archaeological Study Bible, NIV (ISBN: 031092605X)
4. Fireside Catholic Bibles: School and Church Edition, NAB (ISBN: 1556654901)
5. The Harper Collins Study Bible, NRSV with Apocrypha (ISBN: 0060655275)
6. The Message Remix (ISBN: 1576834344)
7. The New Interpreter's Study Bible, NRSV with Apocrypha (ISBN: 0687278325)
8. The Jewish Study Bible featuring the JPS TANAKH Translation (ISBN 0195297512)
9. Life Application Study Bible, NIV (ISBN: 0842348921)
10. Zondervan NIV Study Bible, Personal Size (ISBN: 0310923077)
In my opinion, the above list may be a more accurate list than anything else out there. Further, it's a very fluid list and could change at any moment as people make actual purchases. There are a number of interesting observations I could make about the above list.
First, note the stark predominance of study Bibles over text Bibles. The Message/Remix is a text Bible, and I'm not certain about the Fireside Catholic Bible, although I would presume the latter would include the NAB notes.
Second in spite of reports to the contrary, and in confirmation with my own findings when I posted on top blogged translations, the NRSV is far from dead. In fact, it's very well alive. Three of the top 10 are NRSV and if I had gone further, to the top 20, there would be even more listed including the Renovaré Spiritual Formations Bible.
Third, although the Jewish population makes up less than 5% of the population, I was very intrigued to see The Jewish Study BIble come in at #8, ahead of both the NIV Application Study Bible and the NIV Study Bible. If you're curious, the BHS came in at #13. Don't let anyone tell you that Judaism is not alive in well when it comes to study of the Scriptures.
Fourth, despite the fact that all of these Bibles will find some use outside their target audience, the selection essentially breaks down to 40% Evangelical and 60% non-Evangelical. Don't let anyone tell you that only Evangelicals are reading their Bibles. Here's a different way of looking at it: NRSV 30%, NIV 30%, NAB 20%, The Message 10%, and JPS 10%.
Sixth, 50% of the Bibles above include the Apocrypha. Evidently the debate over the limits of the Canon are not quite yet over.
Seventh, notice the absence of a number of newer translations including the NLT, ESV, HCSB, and TNIV.
Finally, just because something is on a bestseller list, doesn't mean that it's a quality selection. Look at any of the books on today's fiction or nonfiction bestsellers list and that becomes evident. However, if I had begun to list what I thought was a "popular" representation of Bibles being sold today, my list would have looked very different from the one above. Certainly, someone might say, "Well just because people are buying Bibles, doesn't mean they are reading them." Well, that's true. But if people were just buying Bibles to have in their homes or to carry to church and not really to read, I would have expected a lot of thinline Bibles and pocket and purse Bibles. With minor exception, the Bibles listed above are meant for serious study.
Surprising indeed.