Who Cares What We Think About Dating?

Evidently a lot of people.

After doing some data crunching from sales numbers at Christian retail (ECPA STATS), Hungry Planet's Marriable: Taking the Desperate Out of Dating and Dateable: are you? are they? are tops in the Relationships-Dating subcategories for adults and teens respectively.

Marriable, released six months ago, is ranked #1 in sales during that period while Dateable is #1 by a 2 to 1 margin over the #2 title over the past year (it was released in 2003.)

This completely blows me away considering some of the noted authors below us on those lists. It just reinforces that the attention we pay to titling, cover design, unique interiors, and using a relevant voice all contribute to successful titles regardless of the publisher's most coveted author asset:

Platform.

To date, no Hungry Planet books or author has embarked on a non-stop speaking schedule nor do they pastor a megachurch or run a Fortune 500 company. Plain and simple, if a book meets the needs of a significant segment of the population and it's creatively packaged and communicates effectively, it sells.

Now it might not sell overnight. And its chances of hitting a NYT best-seller list are outside at best. But books that pay attention to visual details and potential disconnects with its audience will sell. And eventually, hopefully, the General Market bookseller takes notice.

Case in point: Wal-Mart is carrying Marriable for the month of February as part of their Valentine's Day merch. Kudos to the sales and distribution force at Baker Publishing Group in making this happen!

Of course, the book looks great and reads pretty well too.

Our core retailer and audience is in the Christian marketplace. But many of our books have mainstream appeal like Marriable and Dateable and that's why placement in the general market can be quite exciting from a 'tipping point' perspective.

I have to admit, it's kind of fun seeing books from other publishers that have wider mainstream distribution in our rear view mirror. At the same time, it only serves to remind me that, ultimately, if the consumer/reader isn't happy, books aren't sold no matter who the author or publisher.

We've got a few challenging titles releasing this year. Challenging in the sense of the consumer and the reader are potentially two different people and the titling and covers are not what you'd expect at Christian retail. One such title for a new teen girls' title on modesty arrived from the printer today. It's been generating a buzz with book buyers and distributors since last Fall.

I'll try and post more on our approach to publishing Sexy Girls: Hot Hot Is Too Hot? in the next day or two.