WaterBrook and Multnomah announce the promotion of Andrew Stoddard to the newly created position of Lead Acquisitions Editor, WaterBrook and Multnomah, effective immediately, continuing to report to Laura Barker, Vice President and Editorial Director.

Barker states:

“In the three years since Andrew joined our editorial team, he has built an incredibly positive reputation within the industry, demonstrating a keen eye for promising acquisitions while helping to shape vague ideas into truly marketable concepts.  Over the past year, Andrew has acquired new works for us from rising voices such as Carey Nieuwhof, Aaron Niequist, and Tyler Reagin, and has edited numerous titles from prominent authors, including There Is More by Brian Houston; Whisper by Mark Batterson; The Last Arrow by Erwin McManus; and Open to the Spirit by Scot McKnight, to name only a few.

“Authors, agents, and colleagues deeply appreciate Andrew’s careful cultivation of relationships as much as they value his thoughtful curation of content. His new role with our company will focus those skills on an increased level of acquisitions, identifying and pursuing authors and projects that will build on the established strengths of our publishing program at WaterBrook and Multnomah.”

WESTMONT, IL—After nineteen years as director of production and fulfillment for InterVarsity Press, Anne Gerth will be retiring on December 8, 2017.

Jeff Crosby, IVP’s publisher, said, “Gerth came to IVP in 1998 and has played significant roles in IVP’s growth over the years. She pioneered our work with print-on-demand technology, in partnership with Lightning Source, Incorporated. She also provided a great deal of training and development work for IVP staff. We are grateful for the impact she has left on the work of IVP and on us as her friends and colleagues.”

Gerth said, “What a privilege and honor it has been to serve Christ through my work at InterVarsity Press. Retiring after nineteen years feels bittersweet, but I leave here knowing my work will continue in the very capable hands of Terumi Echols. I’m thrilled that Terumi will be taking on the operations and fulfillment area I leave behind.”

Gerth’s work will be picked up by Ben McCoy, IVP’s current production manager and managing editor, and by Echols, who has been hired as director of finance and fulfillment operations, a combination of two roles vacated by retirement over the past fifteen months. Echols’ background includes more than twenty years of accounting and tax experience for small to midsized businesses and nineteen years with Christianity Today where her last position was executive vice president and publisher. In her role with IVP she will oversee the finance department, customer contact center, distribution center, and general services.

Crosby said, “Terumi comes to us as a seasoned senior leader whose direct reports I called spoke of her ‘investment in individuals and teams’ and whose supervisors I called spoke of her as a ‘person with tremendous capacity, adaptability, and commitment to excellence.’ Terumi’s experience in publishing and her commitment to our mission made her stand out from the other candidates.”

Echols said, “I am humbled by the Christ-centered focus and dedication of the people who work at InterVarsity Press. It is my hope to apply my accounting and publishing experience and communication skills to support the continued strength and health of InterVarsity’s ministry.”

Founded in 1947 as an extension of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, InterVarsity Press serves those in the university, the church and the world by publishing thoughtful Christian books that equip and encourage people to follow Jesus as Savior and Lord in all of life. For more information, visit ivpress.com.

Contact:  Krista Clayton | 630.734.4013 | kclayton@ivpress.com

Daily engagement with God’s Word continues to soar

(Nashville, TN) Dec. 7, 2017 — Thomas Nelson and Zondervan announced today that more than five million combined Bible Plans from Thomas Nelson and Zondervan have been completed through the YouVersion Bible App. In just over three years, the two publishing groups, who are both a part of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, have created more than 150 scriptural and devotional Bible Plans with an average of 7,000 being completed per day.

International speaker and author, Darrow, encourages women to reclaim true and lasting beauty through God’s love and His design for our lives in THE OTHER SIDE OF BEAUTY

November 7, 2017 (Nashville, TN) – A former contestant on America’s Next Top Model, Leah Darrow experienced what most young women experience: the pressure to be physically perfect. She presumed being thin and beautiful meant being happy too—and that if she reached a certain level of success, she would receive the kind of love and validation she’d always craved. She followed this train of thought all the way to New York City, where she hoped to make her mark as a model—but the road was painful, disillusioning, and ultimately destructive.

The Other Side of Beauty (Thomas Nelson, ISBN 978-0718090661), set to release on November 21, 2017, is a unique and compelling look into the world of manufactured beauty. As Leah faced the truth—that the modeling world left her cold, empty, objectified, and unfulfilled—she gave it up in favor of God’s design for her.

As she dismantles the lies that keep women captive to ever-shifting definitions of secular beauty, she reminds them that their ultimate dream—to be validated and loved for who they are—can only be found in the arms of a merciful, unconditionally loving Savior. Darrow explores what true, everlasting beauty is—the kind that reflects God’s perfect glory and the inherent dignity in his unique, lovingly crafted children.

In The Other Side of Beauty, Darrow explains the tragedy of the pursuit of beauty today, “We look to the world for answers, for help, to be validated, to be told we are good, beautiful, and worthy. But instead, we develop a sense of inadequacy that we believe can only be cured by a product, a look, or a lifestyle.” While the desire for beauty isn’t a bad thing, Darrow reminds us to find beauty in ways beyond the superficial, including:

• Choosing true friends who challenge us and keep us accountable
• Living a life of simplicity instead of excess
• Being generous with our gifts, including our time
• Embracing pain and difficulty with grace, reminding us that suffering can be beautiful

“If we dare to call ourselves a Christian,” Darrow urges, “every detail of our life should be a reflection of this truth.” The way we look and the way we dress are simply a shell, but true beauty is found in the pursuit of holiness. As Christians, we’re called to live a beautiful life and reminding ourselves to offer our lives to Him allows us to embrace the beauty and love that is in perfect community with God.

Darrow reminds women that they are the guardians of beauty in today’s world. As the targets of countless advertisements, she believes “it should be us who reclaim beauty and remind the world that we are more than a collection of parts, that beauty is beyond the physical, and our value, worth, and identity are not based on any ideas created by a marketing agency but on the word of the Almighty.”

While Darrow’s journey highlights the flaws in society’s depiction of beauty, her book offers ways for women to live out the beauty they are called to embrace, including how to:

• Appreciate your own uniqueness
• Stop comparing yourself to others
• Learn to forgive your own past mistakes
• Protect yourself from outside triggers, including social media trends like ‘fitspo’
• Accept Christ’s love and healing in your life

Instead of falling prey to the unrealistic expectations of our society, Darrow encourages women to be proactive. Faith requires action, and she reminds women that, “We cannot expect different results from our lives if we do nothing to change them. If we want a better life, then something has to change.”

For more information, visit www.TheOtherSideofBeauty.com.

Leah Darrow, a former model and contestant on Cycle 3 of America’s Next Top Model, has a driving passion to inspire women to do something beautiful with their lives. She is an international speaker, writer, and host of the Do Something Beautiful podcast. She is a wife to a US Army Green Beret and mom to three marvelous, crazy little kids, and together they live in St. Louis, Missouri. Follow Leah as she helps readers live truly beautiful lives that ultimately point to God on her website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Thomas Nelson is one of the world’s leading publishers and providers of Christian content, and has been offering readers quality inspirational product for more than 200 years. As part of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc., the Nelson publishing group provides multiple formats of award-winning Bibles, books, gift books, cookbooks, curriculum and digital content, with distribution of its products in more than 100 countries. Thomas Nelson is headquartered in Nashville, TN. For additional information visit www.thomasnelson.com.

MEDIA CONTACT:  Morgan Canclini-Mitchell  morgan@twopr.com  817-944-1071

Nashville, Tennessee (December 1, 2017)–B&H Publishing Group is proud to announce that two of our titles received the 2017 Top Shelf Book Cover Awards: the She Reads Truth Bible and The Lost Sermons of C.H. Spurgeon Volume 1 Collector’s Edition. The Top Shelf Book Cover Awards are presented by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) and recognize outstanding book cover design in the Christian publishing industry.

Eighteen titles were recognized at ECPA’s annual PubU conference on November 6; a complete list of winners can be found here.

“B&H is honored to win these two awards for our cover art, and I am so grateful for the good work that has gone into these designs,” said Trevin Wax, Holman Bibles publisher. “We hope the compelling designs draw people into the life-changing words found in these great resources.”

The She Reads Truth Bible is edited by Raechel Myers and Amanda Bible Williams from She Reads Truth^™. Since its release in April 2017, the She Reads Truth Bible has held a spot on the ECPA bestseller list every month. One of the first Bibles to publish exclusively in the Christian Standard Bible translation, the She Reads Truth Bible sold more than 100,000 copies in its first six months of sales.

ECPA also recognized B&H for its cover design of the introductory title in a nine-volume series, The Lost Sermons of C.H. Spurgeon.

“Our design team was given photographic reference of 11 time-worn Victorian-era journals containing early sermons by Charles Spurgeon,” said Jade Novak, product designer for B&H. “We commissioned an artisan to recreate the marbled paper cover patterns and we worked with Cromwell Leather Group to match leather colors to the original series’ spines.”

B&H released other Spurgeon-related resources this year, including the CSB Spurgeon Study Bible and Steal Away Home: Unlikely Friends on the Passage to Freedom. B&H also hosted its first-ever Charles Spurgeon Conference in England this past summer.

“This certainly has been the year of Charles Spurgeon for LifeWay and we are incredibly grateful for the response to these beautiful, undiscovered sermons,” said Jim Baird, B&H Academic publisher.

B&H Publishing Group, an imprint of LifeWay Christian Resources, is a team of mission-minded people with a passion for taking God’s Word to the world. Because we believe Every Word Matters^® we seek to provide intentional, Bible-centered content that positively impacts the hearts and minds of people, inspiring them to build a lifelong relationship with Jesus Christ. Among our print and digital releases for the trade, church, and academic markets, titles include The New York Times No. 1 bestsellers The Love Dare and The Vow, No. 1 CBA bestseller I Am a Church Member as well as the newly-revised Christian Standard Bible (CSB) version.

Media Contact: Jenaye White  Jenaye.White@BHPublishingGroup.com  615-251-2964  www.bhpublishinggroup.com

(Phoenix, AZ)  Steve Laube, president of The Steve Laube Agency, has announced the acquisition of the Leslie H. Stobbe Literary Agency.

Les Stobbe has been a part of the Christian publishing industry for 62 years, starting as an editor and book buyer, then publisher, book coach, ghostwriter, and the last 25 as a literary agent. Les has been awarded five Lifetime Achievement Awards by writers’ conferences in the U.S. and Canada. This sale will allow him to focus his future efforts on becoming available as a non-fiction ghostwriter, writing coach and title development specialist. He said, “I have the utmost respect for my brother in Christ, Steve Laube. I’ve known him for almost 30 years. His agency’s oversight will guarantee that my clients will have top level representation for years to come.”

Steve Laube said, “I’m always looking for ways to increase the services our agency provides to current and potential clients. By adding more than 75 authors to our agency, we can create more synergy with our publishing partners and maximize clients’ sales. We look forward to working with these exceptional authors to develop and guide their publishing efforts and extend their reach in multiple markets. This purchase moves us further to fulfill our mission to help change the world, word by word.”

Laube referred to Les Stobbe as “one of the great icons of our industry,” adding that “his legacy to authors and publishing has had far-reaching impact.”

Founded in 2004, The Steve Laube Agency has secured publishing contracts for over 1,500 new books. These include bestselling titles from authors like Lisa Bergren, Nancy Pearcey, Lynette Eason, Susan May Warren, William Lane Craig, A.W. Tozer, Elizabeth Camden, Mary Hunt, Kim Vogel Sawyer, Hugh Ross, Ronie Kendig, Susie Larson, Deborah Raney, Chris Hudson, Roseanna White, and Stephen M. Miller.