What's that hot new category for kids? Religious books
Despite struggle in other genres, religious books aimed at children have seen an impressive and steady increase in sales over the past decade.
Weston Williams
MAY 11, 2017 —With fierce competition from the bright colors and colorful imagery of electronic media, publishers have their work cut out for them when it comes to selling their tomes to younger readers. Anyone who interacts with younger readers on a regular basis knows that short attention spans and restless wandering are simply part of the package – and entertaining children often means turning away from reading material and towards more immediately distracting video or music-based diversions.
That's why it may come as a surprise that at least one genre of children's books has been trending upward over the past few years: religious titles aimed at kids. Sales of religiously-themed board books, storybook Bibles, and devotionals for children, have all been doing remarkably well over the last few years, especially considering some of the struggles of other genres of traditional print media aimed at young readers.
A study from NPD BookScan (formerly Nielsen Book, until it was sold by Nielson earlier this year) found that children's religion book sales jumped 22 percent between 2013 and 2016. And it doesn't seem to be a short-term fluke, either: The study also found that the genre's book sales had a compound annual growth rate of 4 percent in the children's market for over a decade, based on data collected between 2004 and 2015.
The trend has not gone unnoticed by publishers. Since the new research hit the market, many religious printing companies have begun taking steps to meet the new demand with ads, new children's titles, and other programs to serve the growing market.
https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2017/0511/What-s-that-hot-new-category-for-kids-Religious-books
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