Cely Vazquez, a 28-year-old artist and influencer, recently bought her first Bible and documented it in a video published on her TikTok account. Photo: Cely Vazquez
Sales of Bibles Are Booming, Fueled by First-Time Buyers and New Versions
Publishers attribute a 22% jump in Bible sales this year to rising anxiety, a search for hope, or highly focused marketing and designs
December 01, 2024
Reprinted from The Wall Street Journal
Hallelujah! Bibles are a bright spot in books this year.
Worries about the economy, conflicts abroad and uncertainty over the election pushed readers toward the publication in droves. Bible sales are up 22% in the U.S. through the end of October, compared with the same period last year, according to book tracker Circana BookScan. By contrast, total U.S. print book sales were up less than 1% in that period.
“People are experiencing anxiety themselves, or they’re worried for their children and grandchildren,” said Jeff Crosby, president of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. “It’s related to artificial intelligence, election cycles…and all of that feeds a desire for assurance that we’re going to be OK.”
Cely Vazquez, a 28-year-old artist and influencer who has appeared on the reality TV show “Love Island USA,” recently bought her first Bible—one from the “She Reads Truth” line—at Barnes & Noble.
“I’ve had Bibles that my mom gave me, but I felt I needed my own to start my own journey, that it symbolized I was starting a walk with God,” she said. “I felt something was missing. It’s a combination of where we are in the world, general anxiety and the sense that meaning and comfort can be found in the Bible.”
Bethany Martin, manager of the Faith & Life Bookstore in Newton, Kan., said she is selling to lots of first-time Bible buyers. “They’re looking for hope with the world the way it is, and the Bible is what they’re reaching for,” she said.
Faith & Life’s website offers more than 270 Bibles, including a $95 leather-bound giant-print option and a $7.99 pocket-size New Testament. Others sell graphic novel Bibles, reference Bibles in a rainbow of color options, versions intended specifically for men and teens and early readers, audiobooks, and even one bound in goatskin, priced at $83.50.
In March, President-elect Donald Trump endorsed the “God Bless the USA Bible,” which sells online for $59.99 and isn’t included in Circana BookScan figures. Oklahoma’s education department recently purchased more than 500 of those Bibles for local schools, the Tulsa World reported, referencing copies of purchase orders.
The demand for Bibles is rising despite evidence that the country is growing increasingly secularized.
The Pew Research Center found that about 28% of adults in the U.S. now consider themselves religiously unaffiliated. Yet Bible sales rose to 14.2 million in 2023 from 9.7 million in 2019, and hit 13.7 million in the first 10 months of this year. Readers are also stocking up on related titles that provide guidance, insights and context—even sets of stickers to flag particularly meaningful passages.
Sales of other holy books such as the Hebrew Bible, the Qur’an and the Bhagavad Gita are included in broader categories and aren’t broken out separately by Circana BookScan.
Publishers say the books are selling well at religious bookstores, but also on Amazon.com and at more mainstream retailers. People buy print copies to make notes in and highlight, but often supplement them with audiobooks as well.
The proliferation of new editions and innovative designs has made this a golden age of Bible publishing. The demand may be driven as much by highly focused marketing efforts as by people seeking answers to difficult questions, said J. Mark Bertrand, founder of Lectio.org, a website about Bible design.
“I’d like to say there is a craving for knowledge of scripture, but a lot of smart people are thinking about Bible marketing and catering to every whim for Bible study,” Bertrand said.
Tyndale House Publishers, a major religious publisher, offers a range of Bibles, including those specifically for young adults, said Amy Simpson, publisher of its Bible division. For instance, Tyndale has a colorful study Bible with maps and charts, and biographies of biblical figures, aimed at students.
Simpson said there seems to be a surge in engagement particularly among members of Gen Z and college students. “You have a generation that wants to find things that feel more solid,” she said.
HarperCollins Publishers, which like The Wall Street Journal is owned by News Corp, cited Bibles among a handful of particularly strong sellers in its latest earnings report. Also on the list was the memoir of Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, “Hillbilly Elegy.”
HarperCollins Christian Publishing, which describes itself as the country’s largest commercial Bible and Christian book publisher, attributes the demand to two distinct groups: the spiritually curious, who are perhaps picking up their first Bible, and those seeking a deeper sense of spirituality and expanding existing Bible collections.
Buyers are further energized by celebrities not typically known for their faith deciding to openly share it, said Mark Schoenwald, president and chief executive of the group. For instance, he pointed to NBC star Savannah Guthrie’s recent book, “Mostly What God Does: Reflections on Seeking and Finding His Love Everywhere.”
Amber Cimiotti, a 38-year-old mother of two in Henderson, Nev., attributes the increase in Bible sales in part to podcasters and Tiktokers like herself sharing easily digestible stories about Christianity.
She started to read the Bible this year after feeling unfulfilled by years of advice on self-care, staying healthy and pursuing a career. She said she also sought stability as “things just went off the rails a little too quickly” throughout society. “We’re kind of holding on to the edge of the ship, like, we’re not sure what’s happening here.”
Rev. Blaine Crawford, pastor of the Irvington Presbyterian Church in suburban Westchester, N.Y., said he is seeing renewed interest in study groups. The Bible is a “grand epic story of the great questions of life. What do we do with grief or anger, what are we here for, where is the world going? The Bible provides a counterpart in a conversation about what we’re doing at this time.”
Write to Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg at Jeffrey.Trachtenberg@wsj.com
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