Over at From Where I Sit, the blog of Thomas Nelson CEO Michael Hyatt, the head cheese has provided a top ten list of trade publishers and Christian publishers based on TNP’s own proprietary amalgamation of sales databases.  Long recognized #1 in market share for Christian publishers, it’s no surprise TNP tops that list according to their internal calculations.  

What did surprise Hyatt was that their assumed position amongst trade publishers was incorrect.  They have proclaimed themselves the ninth largest trade publisher in the past, however Hyatt’s new Jumbodatatron 3000 number cruncher has spit out a much better result: sixth among all trade publishers.  The data he’s reporting only represents sales through retail channels; no international, ministry, live events (like Women of Faith, I’m assuming) or other non-traditional channels. 

Oh and he sets a goal of becoming a top three trade publisher by 2012 (not to be confused with 2112 from Rush.)  Is there a better drummer than Neil Peart?  But I digress and do not want to lure you into devil music.  I love big picture goals that are aggressive.  Our company, Hungry Planet, sold over 500,000 books in just three years of operation with over ten titles hitting a bestseller list.  And we have aggressive growth goals as well, but I’ll have to think about whether to post on that.  Our goals would probably tip off too many to where we’re heading as a company (not that we really know.) *wink*

One thing I didn’t realize was how close Zondervan is in the #2 spot trailing TNP by only 1%.  One would assume that if Z was pulled out of Harper Collins numbers on the trade list, they’d land at #7 right behind TNP.  But that’s me just spitballing without knowing if we’re talking apples to apples.  Though we don’t have an exclusive partnership agreement with any publisher, all of Hungry Planet’s books have so far been published with Baker, #4 on Hyatt’s list with 4.5% market share and behind TNP, Z, and Tyndale.  Nipping at Baker’s heels is B&H (Broadman and Holman) at an even 4%.  Nowhere to be seen in the top ten: Waterbrook.  Though, their parent’s (Random House) newly adopted sister Multnomah comes in at #6.

Make sure you visit his blog to get it from the source (not the horse,) but here are the lists for those not clicking through: