Captures 30% of Market : New International Version of Bible a Big Seller

Bibles are big business.

And in the Bible business these days, some of the biggest action is in the NIV Bible--the New International Version--by Zondervan Bible Publishers of Grand Rapids, Mich.

Zondervan published the NIV nearly 10 years ago and publishing house officials say the translation is beginning to replace the 376-year-old King James Version as the No. 1 selling version of the Bible.

It has, according to Zondervan officials, some 30% of the booming Bible market.

“The NIV has set its remarkable record because of an increasing groundswell of support in many denominations and through word of mouth of users,” according to one spokesman for the publishing house.

Just two years ago, Zondervan began publishing a “study” version of the NIV put together by the scholars who did the modern translation. Publishing house officials said the study version has already gone to 1 million copies off the press.

That’s not bad for a book that costs between $33 and $100.

According to Zondervan publicist Lois Daniel, the only other hard-cover books to approach that standard in 1986 were comedian Bill Cosby’s “Fatherhood” and Kitty Kelley’s biography of Frank Sinatra.

The NIV study Bible seeks to unite a readable translation that retains some of the style of the revered King James version with conservative scholarship that appeals to the vast evangelical community.

The NIV comes near the end of a boom in Bible translations and paraphrases that has been going on for the last 20 years. Some scholars compare it to the Reformation era of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, which culminated in the 1611 translation of the King James version.

According to Zondervan, the NIV has been officially approved or is widely used in some 22 denominations, ranging from Assemblies of God to the Episcopal Church.

And one reason for that, according to company officials and marketing specialists, is that the publishing house is using a “niche market” approach to selling -- picking certain segments of the market, like the conservative Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, as special marketing targets.

As an example of the NIV’s conservative cast, the study notes on the first five books of the Bible--the Pentateuch, as it is known--continue to affirm their authorship by Moses. Most biblical scholars believe the books are compilations from a number of different sources.

Underscoring the marketing battle of the Bibles--as distinct from the theological wars waged over authorship, meaning and translation--Zondervan has undertaken a new strategy to make the NIV everyone’s favorite Bible.

The company has been in production for about a year on a film on the translation of the NIV.

Called “The Living History of the NIV,” Zondervan expects the film, to be completed in time for the 10th anniversary of the publication, to be the first of several films about the Bible.

“We thought it would be interesting to have many, many people talk about a translation, each from his own point of view,” said Carol DeChant, a spokesman for the company.