Christian Book Expo: My Take

Mike,

I appreciate your candor in not trying to sugar-coat the results and being willing to consider some of the factors (in hindsight) that contributed to the lack of success of the event. I'm a member of one of the largest churches in the Dallas area and to my knowledge not one bit of information was ever passed on to our congregation. Did our staff know and ignore it? I doubt it. Lack of publicity was one of the major problems in my view. Was any effort made to enlist the help of the authors in the area (there are quite a few of us) in publicizing CBE? If so, it didn't reach me or most of my colleagues.

I do hope ECPA can pick themselves up, dust themselves off, take a long look at what needs to be done to make this work, and try again next year.

Has no one considered the obvious? The fixation by the 'Christian Right' on gay marriage, so-called Intelligent Design, constant money-raising, and internal theological disputes has left much of your audience alienated.

Who would be interested in attending an event so divisive, so smug, and so contrary to American precepts of tolerance? I daresay that the wildly popular writings of Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris are having an effect as well. To say nothing of the father-son disputes at ORU and the Crystal Cathedral, church pedophile scandals, and 'faith-healing' exposés…

As long as your 'leaders' include such bullies and crackpots as James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Benny Hinn, the exposed charlatan Peter Popoff, Earl Pauk, Ted Haggard, Creflo Dollar and the rest, few and fewer decent people will be interested in your message. No wonder.

Just back from vacation and catching up on some reading…it seems I've made it in time to land amongst the angry folks.
In all of the comments I've read through I'm still missing an important definition:
Who is the target market for the event?
The event seems to have been targeted at: publishers, retailers, homeschoolers, christian schoolers, church attenders, and perhaps christian readers in general. In that last category alone you'd have a vast chasm between the needs, wants, desires of a 65 year old grandmother and a 21 year old college student…and the answer "we have something for everyone" typically means "you have very little that applies to me"…especially if I have to pay to attend and then sort out which bits, if any, really do apply to me.
Even at large events where there are different "tracks" those that do not apply to me are non-entities. They are pure cost with no return because I don't care about them. The more tracks then, or the more audience segments, the larger you have to have in each "successful" track to make up for the ones that don't draw.

Even as I was reading your daily posts, Michael, I still thought it was an industry trade show you were talking about. Reading through this post and the various comments that follow I still can't figure out if this was anything I might have been enticed to attend, no matter where or when it was held or what it was called, or how it was valuated by pastors.
I would have asked myself, as a potential attendee, a standard marketing question: What problem does this solve for me or value does it provide for me?
But then again, I may not have been the audience you were hoping for.

This almost sounds like it was planned as "a cool thing for the industry" that had some chance of being successful as a marketing tool in and of itself.
So again it makes me wonder..who was the intended customer?

While the logistics of this event failed it is in the philosophy of this event that was it’s true demise. The Christian products industry is deeply fractured. Groups have decided to host their own shows instead of pulling together. If CBA, MUNCE, Strang, GMA and ECPA actually could work together a successful show might be possible, but until that happens all you are getting is a bunch of failed shows that is deeply hurting the market. With much due respect Mr. Hyatt it is also very concerning to me that some publishers had such a large presence at this failed event yet have pulled out of ICRS where your buyers are actually attending. To the stores and buyers this is a rather insulting. I am open to proactive solutions, but it doesn’t take a genius to recognize this show was D.O.A (Dead on Arrival) even before the recession. Failed philosophy = Failed event.

Thanks for your comments. This show was intended to be a CONSUMER show. All the others you mentioned are TRADE shows. If this were intended to be a trade show, then I agree: we don't need another one. The fact that it was perceived as such, is probably why it did, in fact, fail.

We pulled out of ICRS because we do not believe that trade shows are a cost-effective way of connecting with retailers. Instead, we spend a ton of money each year to actually call on 95% of these accounts either face-to-face or via the phone.

Trade shows are fine for small publishers who don't have sales forces or for small retailers who don't do enough sales volume to warrant the visit of publisher reps. But this cost is shouldered by the big publishers who, frankly, don't need the added expense.

In my view, we don't need more events where we are talking to each other (i.e., TRADE shows). However, we still need an event that raises CONSUMER awareness to the incredible products that are being produced by Christian publishers.

That is why I said the philosophy failed– it was direct to consumer. But I firmly believe you help consumer awareness by working with the industry at large. You also raise consumer awareness by assisting those on the frontlines who have relationships with their consumers not by bypassing the them and going direct to consumers in the form of a book EXPO ( modern name for book fair). Let's call a spade a spade- publishers need/want a bigger margin and thinking direct to consumer is more profitable than going through stores. The money spent on this event would have been better used if the publishers had used coop advertising and partnered with stores or authors in several markets rather than hosting a book fair in one market already saturated with Christian products.

I think Thomas Nelson is on the right track by downplaying its presence at ICRS. ICRS, in my experience, has behaved as a moribund, exclusionary show that goes out of its way to roadblock rather than invite participation by exhibitors. I think CBA is stuck in a 20th century mentality, when the industry is experiencing sea changes not unlike those that dislocated monks and scrolls when Gutenberg introduced movable type. Indie booksellers now have only eight percent of the overall $32 billion book retail market. Christian booksellers have a small slice of the indie market. As for diagnosing the reason for low attendance by consumers in Dallas, I'm still waiting for information that will help me in writing an article about the show for the Southern Review of Books, of which I am the editor.

I was there – I walked around the empty show floor and watched well known amazing authors sitting uncomfortably as only a few people waited in line to get a book signed. I was there- and I was embarrased for our industry.

Although the retailer got 100%… ( although 100% profits probably didn't even cover their employees parking) it still was a publisher to vendor show.

I mean no disrespect- I just care about our very fragmented industry which is tanking and making poor decisions.

Were you there? Where are you getting your information?

Actually, we didn't sell directly to consumers. We worked with a Christian retailer. They had their registers and their staff in our booth. They took 100% of the retail sales. We sold them our product at our normal trade discounts. Nearly all of the other publishers did the same thing.

This was my assumption…especially when you have what used to be CBA Expo around the same time just a handful of years ago.

Hi, I was there too. One idea that might be entertained is to break it up into regions and smaller venues. More authors would be available then since they could drive over. And finally no entrance fee! Let people choose from a menu and pay for what the workshops and events that are above and beyond the floor. And authors, I gave away books. I viewed this as an opportunity to get new readers.
Well, I'm late in commenting, but thanks for the insightful analysis, Mike.
Lyn Cote

I would loved to have attend a Christian Book Fair – but I don’t think I would have been prepared to pay. Have you though about a virtual fair? I have noticed quite a few of these recently and that would make it accessible to more people – plus reduce costs.

I just stumbled across your article after searching google for a 2012 date. I came to this event, flew from Hilo,HI to attend. I agree with the entire article. As a consumer, I loved hearing from my favorite authors, meeting new ones, the night service/worship was fantastic, and after it was all said and done, I had to ship 29 books back to Hawaii!
I would love to see this type of event offered again. One thing not mentioned in your article is the slow death of the printed material at the hands of the digital media. More and more people I know are going to Kindles, Kobos, etc…so maybe marketing it in a way that peaks their interest would be helpful.
Thanks for the write up!