InterVarsity Press Launches 3 New Imprints
Westmont, IL – InterVarsity Press launches three new imprints beginning January 2, 2006. The new imprints are part of a strategic branding plan that represents InterVaristy Press’ commitment to continue to publish a breadth of thoughtful books as well as create room for ambitious company growth initiatives and publishing program clarity.
The three imprints are IVP Books, IVP Connect and IVP Academic. A celebration party will help launch the imprints in the new InterVarsity Press booth at Advance 2006 in Nashville on January 24.
Over the decades, InterVarsity Press has built up its academic, Bible study and trade books. In fact, InterVarsity Press publishes about 90 books a year, representing approximately 35 academic and reference works, 20 Bible study and curriculum products and 35 general books. Jeff Crosby, director of sales and marketing, says the breadth of InterVarsity Press’ publishing initiatives and changes in the marketplace led to the new brands and imprint strategy.
Crosby also believes, InterVarsity Press is held as a highly reputable publishing house and has been throughout its history, but the breadth and volume of what we publish, from high level academic works to basic introductory works, now calls for more definition. We believe the three imprints will allow us to leverage the strengths of each of these publishing focuses in ways that help us realize the ambitious growth plans we have established.
Andy LePeau, editorial director of InterVarsity Press, says, “The brand strategy is an opportunity for us to affirm who we are as a publisher. We are merely focusing on what we do best, and hope that authors, bookstore owners and readers will see that even more clearly now.”
The IVP Books imprint carries a tagline of “Read. Think. Live.” The books in this line seek to be deeply biblical and profoundly practical. The books will also keep InterVarsity Press’ thoughtful book heritage. Book topics include apologetics, evangelism, discipleship, multi-ethnicity, family, church and mission and will expand its inclusion of new topics of interest such as Islam, love and sex, ethics and more. Beginning in 2006, the IVP Books line will contain sub-imprints to highlight books on topics that will be strong growth areas.
One of the new subimprints is Formatio, which focuses on spiritual formation books. The new books to launch in this line will appear at Advance 2006 such as The Deeper Journey by M. Robert Mulholland Jr., Resting Place by Jane Rubietta and Sacred Rythms by Ruth Haley Barton.
The second sub-imprint ready to be announced is Veritas Forum Books, a series of books that will reflect the organizational partnership between IVP and The Veritas Forum, an organization that seeks to provide a place on campus where college students can discuss the tough questions of life and Christian faith. In 1992 the first Veritas Forum was held at Harvard University, organized by Kelly Monroe Kullberg, editor of Finding God at Harvard. A follow-up release, Finding God Beyond Harvard, will be published in fall 2006 with InterVarsity Press as the first book in the Veritas sub-imprint.
The second new line is IVP Connect, with a tagline “Exploring Faith. Shaping Lives.” This new imprint seeks to include resources that offer discovery experiences for groups and individuals. The LifeGuide bible study series that has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide will continue to be the flagship series for this line. However, this line will also include other bible study and small group resources. At Advance 2006, Bill Donahue, author of In the Company of Jesus will also be sharing one of his new bible studies, Authentic Leader in the Jesus 101 series. InterVarsity Press is currently expanding this imprint to include multimedia curriculum, such as the Emerging Culture: An Interactive Curriculum, edited by Jimmy Long, which was awarded the ECPA Gold Medallion in 2005 for best Christian education resource.
The third line is IVP Academic, whose tagline is “Evangelically Rooted. Critically Engaged.” The mission of IVP Academic is to provide the global university with the very best of evangelical scholarship through books that start, shape, synthesize and summarize academic dialog. Over the past fifteen years IVP has been expanding its horizons in academic and reference book publishing. These texts are an ever-increasing variety of academic disciplines including New Testament and Old Testament studies, theology, ethics, philosophy, history, science, psychology and more. IVP Academic will continue to produce reference works that include the award winning “Black” Dictionary series on the Old and New Testaments and the landmark Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. IVP Academic is and will be evangelical in heritage, biblical in allegiance, classical in orthodoxy and ecumenical in spirit. The announcement of the formation of this line occurred at several academic conferences this fall. One of the bestselling books at these shows was the new Dictionary of the Old Testament: Historical Books edited by Bill T. Arnold and H.G. M. Williamson.
The three imprints, IVP Books, IVP Connect and IVP Academic will be under the corporate identity of InterVarsity Press and help the company serve those in the university, the church and the world. Bob Fryling, Publisher of InterVarsity Press says, The branding is already proven to be a success as authors, sales reps and buyers who have been privy to our new imprint strategy, have expressed great enthusiasm for this visually attractive way to communicate both the unity of the quality and the breadth of diversity of books published by InterVarsity Press. We fully expect there will be a much greater industry awareness and interest in all that IVP publishes that will also result in increased sales. As a “leading publisher of thoughtful Christian books” we want all book buyers to be better able to effectively choose what is most valuable to them from IVP. Making this connection easier for them is success for us.