Randy Alcorn’s Heaven in Comic Book Form
Although the title is Eternity, there’s no mistaking that when Heaven author Randy Alcorn writes about the afterlife, his view of ‘new earth’ overshadows some of our Sunday School notions of an ‘up there,’ ‘out there’ heaven. If only those ideas hadn’t been so drilled into us at an early age, right? Well, this could be the solution. Though the publisher blurb says the focus is on the story of The Rich Man and Lazarus, the comic book format could appeal to younger readers, though the $16.99 US SRP means not every kid will get to see the 120-page paperback.
The Orlando Sentinel reports:
LEESBURG — While still a small segment of the Christian publishing world, Biblically-inspired graphic novels and comics are increasing in popularity with major publishers such as Thomas Nelson and Zondervan launching entire lines to address the growing demand.
It’s the market Kingstone Comics, an imprint of Leesburg’s Kingstone Media Group, is tapping into.
With each Kingstone release, founder and CEO Art Ayris said the universality of comics becomes increasingly evident. The latest release is the graphic novel “Eternity” by writer Randy Alcorn…
…Family Christian Stores and LifeWay Christian Stores carry Kingstone Products, which are also available through top Comic apps including ComiXology, iVerse Media as well as the Kingstone Comics app on iPads and Droid devices.
The company is focused on the release of “Eternity” as well as the 12-volume Kingstone Bible project, which is expected to be the most complete graphic adaption of the Bible ever done, releasing in 2014.
“We’re producing the volumes as fast as we can — the artistry is incredible” said Ayris. “The stuff we have coming out will make peoples’ eyes pop.”
Rosemarie Dowell
Available to trade bookstores at Spring Arbor and Send the Light | 9781936164257
Store Owner Commands Robber to Leave in Jesus’ Name
Christian Book Shop Talk does not necessarily endorse this technique, and probably neither does your local police service; but I would be interested in your comments.
Word Guild Presents 2013 Awards
You know you’re in Canada when it takes 15 minutes of hunting online to find out who won the national Christian literary awards. Finally I took to Facebook and discovered the link to the story which was not at all apparent on their website. The headline was: Christian Sex Book Walks Away With Top Writing Award. And why not? Sex sells.
Mississauga, Ont. - The Word Awards, the 25th annual writing awards for Canadian writers and editors who are Christian, was a celebration of words, but also a celebration of the gifts God has given to Christian writers and editors, said Denise Rumble, Managing Director, The Word Guild.
The Word Awards, held on June 12, honoured the work of 28 writers in book and article categories for work published in 2012.
It was a book about Christian sex that walked away with a $5,000 literary award. Sheila Wray Gregoire of Belleville, Ont. won the Grace Irwin Prize for The Good Girl’s Guide to Great Sex (Zondervan), a book written for married women.
Ray Wiseman, who headed the Grace Irwin judging team, said “An intimate and often detailed guide for young women, but a must-read for all married persons and those planning marriage. Well done, Sheila, for daring to write a ‘how-to’ book that ministers to a crying need in the church.”
“Do you know how strange it is to be the Christian sex lady?” laughed Gregoire, as she accepted the award – Canada’s largest literary prize for writers who are Christian, given in honour of the late author, classics scholar and ordained minister Grace Lilian Irwin.
I don’t want to be the Grinch here but if these awards are meant to encourage Canadian writers, hasn’t someone who landed a contract with Zondervan already won a major prize? Just sayin’.
The article continues:
Winners for all awards of the gala evening were chosen from among 285 competing entries from across Canada and beyond – 146 books and 139 shorter pieces, primarily articles that ranged from longer features to book reviews. Canadian songsmith Steve Bell of Winnipeg won The Word Award for best lyrics for “Oracles” (Signpost Music).
Work published in Faith Today magazine featured prominently in the evening, with writers winning in the categories of Profile/Human Interest, (Richard Erlendson of Calgary for “The Life of Peter Penner”); Long Feature (Karen Stiller of Port Perry, Ont, for “Hemorrhaging Faith: Why They’re Leaving); and Short Feature (Bill Fledderus of Hamilton, Ont. and Karen Stiller for “Canadian Women are International Leaders”).
Several authors made repeated trips to the podium to collect awards recognizing their work. Lawrence Brice of Port Rowan, Ont., took home the top prize in the Instructional Book and Apologetics/Evangelism categories for Confident Faith: In a World That Wants to Believe (Deep River Books). Margaret Terry of Burlington, Ont., won for her book Dear Deb: A Woman With Cancer, A Friend With Secrets and the Letters That Became Their Miracle (Thomas Nelson) in both the General Market and Life Stories categories.
Echoing the experience of many who attended the event with family and friends, Jordan Hageman of Mississauga, Ont. – and winner of The Word Award for best blog series – said, “I was a closet writer for many years. I looked for like-minded people and I found The Word Guild.”
Jayne E. Self of Orangeville, Ont., who won for best book in the Novel – Suspense category for Death of a Highland Heavyweight, captured the celebratory and encouraging mood of the evening when she said, “It’s such a pleasure to be in the company of so many amazing writers.”
Many of the finalists and guests at the celebration, along with others from across Canada, are meeting from June 13-15 at the 29th annual Write! Canada conference in Guelph – Canada’s largest conference for writers who are Christian.
The Word Guild is a national association of writers and editors who are Christian. (www.thewordguild.com)
We decided to reproduce the whole article here because apart from Facebook, it was impossible to find. But if you wish to read at source, or send the link to a friend, or post it on your store website, click here.
To anyone at The Word Guild reading this: All of the original links in your story could not be preserved here because they were rejected by a filtering system at WordPress — something that has NEVER happened in six years of writing approximately 7,000 posts on four major blogs. Fixing your seriously messed up online presence should be Priority One in the post-awards month.
Website Offers Exhaustive ISBN Searching
What if the ISBN that your customer is seeking is legitimate, but the publication exists outside the book trade? Book Manager is great when an item is in the database of its member publishers, but what if it’s ancient, or foreign, or just obscure?
ISBNdb is “…a database of books providing on-line and remote research tools for individuals, book stores, librarians, scientists, etc. Taking data from hundreds of libraries across the world ISBNdb is a unique tool you won’t find anywhere else.” The db in the name is reminiscent of other db (database) sites such as the popular IMDB for movies.
This is a search tool that I guaranty will come in handy.
TD Canada Trust: A Litany of Fee Increases
Just when we were settled in to some reduced costs resulting from the closing of one of our locations, TD Canada Trust is messing around with the service plan fees charged to small business accounts. I guess there is no point in having all those bureaucrats if they don’t show their worth by re-drafting policies and increasing profits.
Our $29.95 service plan is being bundled with larger ones, and jumps to $37 on August 1st. That’s a 23.4% increase. That is, if we stay with TD. We’ve been telling anyone who will listen — on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc. — about the fee increase and are asking our fellow business owners who use community credit unions how that is working for them.
My feeling is that if I pull my business current account, other business I do with TD will follow, including personal savings accounts and family GICs as they come up for renewal. Banks are making obscene profits already and this hit on the smallest of small businesses is completely unjustified.
Our industry is in survival mode, and you have to do what you have to do to survive. Maybe TD should have reconsidered the timing on this one.
Changing Business Banking Providers
If you’ve just about used up your existing supply of cheques, then it’s just a matter of choosing a month-end target date — just a few days before the 30th or 31st — and making sure that existing cheques in the system have been issued early enough to be cleared. Then you simply redirect your POS terminal to your new account, and notify any suppliers or utilities who automatically debit your business account. Not complicated.
If a credit union isn’t an option where you live, I know that a few years ago one of the banks — CIBC or Royal — was offering small business packages where your needs are considered with greater empathy.
TD Canada Trust will certainly see this. We know that because we posted something on Twitter on Sunday — not a business day — and within minutes the bank had (a) followed me on Twitter, (b) posted a generic “let us know how we can help” message, and (c) then unfollowed me on Twitter. Apparently the customer retention people work around the clock and on weekends to do damage control. Unfortunately, they are completely powerless to fix this, nor do they care if lower tier business customers migrate elsewhere.
Related: Today at Thinking Out Loud there’s a story about a different kind of big business indifference to the little guy. An oil and gas company rips off an Amish farmer in Ohio knowing full well that the Amish don’t take people to court. Whatever happened to corporate ethics?
Books That Don’t Preach to the Choir
One of my constant rants is that so few books are written for the purpose of giving to non-Christians. It’s seasoned and even veteran Christians who shop in Christian bookstores and their online equivalent. Our needs are completely different than those of seekers and skeptics; often the very people who need our resources most but with whom we have so little contact.
So I was quite pleased to hear this morning about the blog Books for Evangelism. Maybe there are more books than I thought. While admittedly a consumer-oriented site — and an Amazon referrer that many of us would be uncomfortable giving out — you should nonetheless bookmark the page for use when customers are looking for something worthy of giving to a recent or longtime contact with whom they have been having faith conversations.
Right now there are only three months’ worth of entries, so it would be easy to sit down with staff and compare these recommendations to what you have in stock. Some of the titles are eBook only. If anyone wants to compile a list, we’ll post it here.
Visit Books for Evangelism.
Retailer to Charge Visitors a “Browsing Fee”
Although this story takes place outside of our industry, in the area where I live there were no doubt many suppertime conversations about a front-page newspaper story wherein a local merchant in downtown Cobourg, Ontario proposes to start charging a $2.00 browsing fee.
We couldn’t find a dedicated link to this story, but here’s how the first part of it appeared as accessed 6/6/13, the day it appeared at Northumberland Today:
COBOURG — Most stores that have loyalty programs rely on a card.
For Paper Lace in downtown Cobourg, the buyer rewards program involves charging admission to the store in what owner Manfred Schumann termed an exciting new concept that has big rewards for people who make purchases.
Simply put, you pay $2 to browse. But you get that back, and potentially much more, when you make a purchase.
Since April 1, Paper Lace has begun charging the $2 on a voluntary basis. As of July 2, Schumann said, it will be a firm store policy.
Though browsers who don’t buy anything don’t get their money back, Schumann said, purchasers come out ahead.
“We apply the $2 to your purchase, up to $10, so you get full value for your $2. For purchases over $10, the 20% kicks in — because $2 is 20% of $10, so that’s how we arrived at that. If it’s a $500 purchase, you get 20% off.”
Schumann sees it as a reward for regular customers’ loyalty.
“Instead of giving specials and dollars-off to people who are coming in for the first time, we reward people who shop regularly. Our average purchases are such that those customers will benefit from it. Those who come in for the first time and don’t buy anything, they don’t get any of the benefit. They have to buy something to get the benefit,” he said.
“It reverses the cycle of trying to get new customers with specials and making regular customers pay full price, which I have always found obnoxious. Why would I, as a regular customer, pay full price when a newcomer gets a deal?”
Paper Lace is a longtime giftware and greeting card store in the town. Schumann, who owns the store, ran for Mayor in the last municipal election. He always has a fresh and sometimes unique take on civic issues and retail trends.
Over dinner, my wife and I discussed the possibility of giving $2.00 to people who would come to our store. But only briefly.
The article continued:
…Schumann has found the new set-up increases traffic to the store, and says he’s getting a fantastic response.
“Everybody just loves it. We tell them about it, that this discount costs you $2, and ask if they want it. They say sure and we ring in the $2, and then we ring in their purchases one at a time with 20% off each one. The savings accumulate to the point that they are very happy.”
With a potential 20% discount, he has seen customers put back items in favour of more expensive selections and show more willingness to buy larger items
“It has increased business, which I intended it to do,” he said.
It’s not an unknown concept. Some clothing stores have been known to charge $2 for browsers to offset the growing numbers of customers who try on fashions, decide what they like, then go home and order them online.
The green flyers available at the Paper Lace cash register explain the finer points — $2 is charged per “buying group,” be that an individual or a family, for example…
In a personal exchange, Schumann shared with me, “I believe in tailor-made solutions to individual problems rather than rejigging off-the-shelf ones. This is tailor-made for us to address issues we’ve come to see as hurting our business in general.”
