by Timothy Beal
The most successful Biblezines include multiple versions, with new ones coming out every season or so. Over the past several years, Nelson has produced more than a dozen versions of its best-selling Revolve, each with a different theme and selection of Scriptures. Revolve Devos, for example, is a collection of scriptural devotionals (devos being a clever play on “devotional” and “diva,” which, by the way, is Latin for goddess). Like magazines, Biblezines tend to have short shelf lives. Planned obsolescence, biblical style.
Each Biblezine is a market-specific combination of text boxes, short articles, graphic hooks, ads for other Nelson products, and selections of biblical literature. The cover of the first installment of Refuel, for example, is deep burnt orange with an edgy sketch of an ancient battle scene. Cover lines promise to reveal “How Unstoppable Warriors Got So Awesome,” “70 Ways To Live Out RADICAL FAITH,” “HOW TO IMPRESS THE GIRLS!” “TONS MORE RANDOM COOL STUFF LISTS,” and “All New Extras: MONEY, FOOD, SPORTS.” The biblical selections included focus on ancient Israel’s conquest of Canaan (Joshua and Judges), the story of Ruth (which comes after Judges in the Christian Bible), and the rise and fall of the Israelite and Judean monarchies (the books of Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah). As in other Biblezines, these scriptural texts within the magazine’s pages are typeset in a much more traditional, old-style bookish font, which makes them look much more Bible-ish, if also more boring.
Cover and page from the Thomas Nelson Biblezine Refuel, marketed to teen boys. The biblical text is literally overwhelmed by bold, colorful callout boxes and features, most of which have little or nothing to do with the biblical context. Note the “extra” about “How to Grill the Perfect Steak” next to the story of the death of King Saul in 1 Samuel 31.
On every page, the plain biblical text is overwhelmed by bold and colorful callouts, special columns, and other extras laid out in catchy fonts and colors. Whereas most of the biblical literature is about real, bloody battles, including some of the most explicitly described violence in Scripture, these value-adding extras speak of metaphorical battles: how to “guard your heart” when dating, how to resist peer pressure to drink, use drugs, or have sex (and how to deal with embarrassment as a Christian who doesn’t do those things); how to maintain eye contact with a girl when talking with her; how to do your own laundry and dishes; and how to promote a creationist viewpoint to your biology teacher and classmates.
It’s hard to imagine that many teen boys are reading the biblical text in this Biblezine. In contrast to the colorful, jump-off-the-page text boxes about highly relevant topics of teenage life, the bland, colorless biblical text quickly recedes into the background. The content of those biblical books, moreover, isn’t exactly easy reading. Much of it concerns territorial boundaries and monarchical chronologies. To be sure, there are some fascinating stories here, including some of the all-time greatest femmes fatales, like Jael, the non-Israelite woman who becomes an Israelite heroine after tucking the fugitive army commander Sisera into bed and then driving a peg through his head. But those stories are buried. There are no “Guard Your Heart” features anywhere near Jael.
Felt Needs
Thomas Nelson has been conducting extensive research into the “felt needs” of Bible buyers. As Wayne Hastings, vice president of the company’s Bible division, says, “Buying is an emotional decision. It seems no matter how much ‘logical’ work we do, when it comes to the final decision, we’re emotional.” The aim of Nelson’s Felt Needs Bible Merchandising System is to respond to “consumer definitions” of the Bible, that is, what buyers themselves feel they’re looking for when they walk into a store or go online to buy a Bible. The research has identified three especially common felt needs, which often overlap: first, to find a gift Bible for someone else, usually a member of the buyer’s own family (this is the most common need, shared by more than 60 percent of shoppers); second, to gain a deeper and more thorough knowledge of the Bible (whether in oneself or in the one to whom the Bible is being given); and third, “readability,” that is, a felt need for special features that will increase the chances that a Bible will actually be read. Readability includes everything from an accessible translation and notes, to callouts and text boxes, to size, color, and formatting.
Biblezines speak to all three of these felt needs. The most popular ones are designed for teens and young adults but are usually purchased as gifts by older customers—parents, grandparents, and youth ministers, for example. Biblezines promise to be exceptionally readable, as easy to carry and peruse as that most readable of all popular literary forms, the magazine. As such they speak to the felt need for more and deeper biblical literacy as well.
The Refuel Biblezine for teen boys is a great example. Along with lots of advice on dating, sex, and manners, there’s a feature on “How to Grill the Perfect Steak.” Why? What does that have to do with the Bible? It’s part of a total package of practical advice meant to address what many teenage boys are really looking for, what they feel they need to know: how to become a successful man. What more iconic image of American masculinity is there than the holy trinity of a guy, a steak, and a barbecue grill? In another era, it might have been about how to build a fire, dig a well, or shoot and dress out a deer. But today, it’s definitely how to grill a steak. Refuel gets that.
When I was in ninth grade, a friend I admired for his confidence with girls gave me a magazine-sized paperback book called Man in Demand, a practical manual for teenage boys on how to become a good, successful Christian man in a secular world. Loaded with cartoons and special features, the book included a wide range of practical advice on everything from preventing acne, choosing a hairstyle that works well with your head shape, and avoiding wearing horizontal stripes, to asking a girl out on a date, impressing her parents with your conversation skills, and discreetly removing gristle from your teeth at the dinner table. I read every word many times. A faithful “man in demand” was exactly what I wanted to become, and I was hungry for practical advice. That was my felt need. This book didn’t claim to be the Bible per se, but it did claim that its advice was biblically based, and it often spiced its pages with brief biblical quotations. And I devoted myself to it as though it were Scripture—Man in Demand’s Bible, if you will.
I confess my religious devotion to Man in Demand because I don’t want to pretend condescension about the felt need that Biblezines like Refuel speak to. I remember feeling it very powerfully. I think my ninth-grade son feels it now. And I have to admit that I myself want it for him, in some sense. I don’t care if his haircut matches his head shape or his steaks are perfectly seared, and I don’t want him to think that creationism is a viable alternative to evolutionary biology, or that homosexuality is sinful. But I do want him to look people in the eye, clean up after himself, and grow up to be a responsible, happy, self-confident, loving, honest man who cares about justice and the needs of other people.
Given our culture’s iconic ideal of the Bible as the answer book to all of life’s important questions, it’s not surprising that many teens and parents would expect it to address these felt needs directly, practically, and authoritatively. Man in Demand spoke to this expectation by claiming to be biblically based, supplementing its advice with occasional passages from the Bible. Refuel takes the next big step, integrating the practical advice on becoming a man into the Bible itself. The effect is that these “supplements” become quite literally biblical.
On first glance, customer reviews seem to indicate that Nelson’s Biblezines are successfully fulfilling the felt needs of Bible consumers. Gifters are happy. “I know some folks will be put off by the contemporary wrap of this easy to use tool,” one mother said about Becoming, “but I am so glad to have it! I gave copies to my daughters and plan on giving out more, especially to those who won’t open a ‘real’ bible.” “I intend to buy the teen versions for my two nieces,” said another repeat customer, “and I am sure friends will be finding copies of this Bible wrapped in birt
hday paper over the coming months.”
Recipients of Biblezine gifts also seem satisfied. “I received this Bible as a gift because I was struggling with my daily Bible reading,” one reader of Becoming explains, “and my friend felt I needed encouragement. I had to say from the moment I received it I haven’t been able to put it down.” And a parent who bought Explore for her twelve-year-old son for Christmas exclaimed that she and her husband have “actually ‘caught’ him with it under the covers when we come to tuck him in at night!”
But what are these Biblezine readers actually reading? What is so readable? Not, it appears, the biblical texts themselves. One reader of Becoming exclaims, “This has been my favorite magazine of all times! Love to sit by the pool and get spiritually refreshed with some fun facts and trivia!” A reader of Refuel especially likes that “it has a whole bunch of reviews. It reviews books, movies, and music!” Another praises Real because “the format appealed to my ADD daemon.” The twelve-year-old boy’s mother mentions only that “on every page there are ‘cool’ and interesting facts and other sidebars,” and the reader who got Becoming as a gift says, ”The articles are informative and show me how to apply God’s word to my daily life . . . The quizzes are fun and really just entertain you which is good.” She concludes, “I can’t wait for the next one to come out.”
Why does she want to buy the next one? Because what Biblezine customers are finding so “readable” is not the biblical literature therein but the value-adding extras—those fun facts and trivia, informative articles and entertaining quizzes, pop culture reviews, and interesting sidebars, all presented in an attention-deficit-friendly format. At the same time, that other felt need, to read the Bible more, feels like it’s being satisfied. It’s similar to what the food industry does with fruit: processing apples and pears into sweeter and more colorful roll-ups, punches, sauces, and squirtable foams that I buy for my kids’ lunches after passing the produce section as though it were for display only. Because the product says “fruit,” I feel like I’m feeding them healthful food, and they feel that way too. Similarly, when I’m reading a Biblezine, I feel like I’m reading the Bible, like I’m getting my daily dose of the Bible. After all, what I’m reading is included in a Bible, of sorts. The person who gave it to me identified it as such, and so does the book’s title, sort of. And honestly, these various extras seem more “biblical” than the biblical text itself. That is, they speak to me more directly, even personally, in my own terms, about things that matter most to me. That’s what the Bible is supposed to do, right?
Values Added
In fact, no one needs to buy a Bible. Free ones abound. Ancient biblical texts have no copyright, and many translations, including the King James Version, are in the public domain, part of free culture. They are very cheap to produce in book form, and essentially free to publish online. Any church I know, moreover, would happily give a Bible to anyone who asks for one or even looks potentially interested. And just about every time you spend a night in a hotel, there’s a Bible in your nightstand that you’re free to take home, courtesy of the Gideons International. The Gideons say they place more than 63 million free Bibles and New Testaments in hotels and other human traffic lanes around the world every year. That’s 120 free Bibles per minute. And they’re not the only ones handing them out. Throw a rock and you’re as likely as not to hit a free Bible or someone who wants to give you one.
How do you monetize Bibles when so many are freely available? The challenge is to keep reinventing the Bible in new got-to-have, value-added forms. Which is what Bible publishers are doing. In 2005 there were 6,134 different Bibles published, which was over 600 more than were published in 2004.
In some cases, adding value is simply a matter of packaging. Although the fully armored Metal Bible from Tyndale House boasts “the hippest exterior ever!” for example, its insides are the same as one of its publishers’ standard editions, available in many other formats. Likewise, Tyndale’s handbag/Bible combination (the bag has an outside pocket made to fit the Bible perfectly); also The Waterproof Bible (Bardin & Marsee) and Immerse (Thomas Nelson), popular with outdoor enthusiasts, troops overseas, and tub soakers; and Nelson’s Duct Tape Bible, which offers that extremely well-read look. Like the fashion jeans industry, the fashion Bible industry understands that many customers prefer products that look like old favorites right off the shelf. Oh and yes, of course, Bibles are available in a number of denim washes.
In most cases, however, adding value goes well beyond innovative packaging and physical format. We’ve already begun to see this with Biblezines, which do much more than simply graft the Bible onto another popular media format. They literally drown out the biblical text under a cacophony of loud and colorful added content, “extra,” “supplemental” material that is very clearly meant to be the center of the reader’s attention. In true magazine fashion, all this added content distracts from serious, sustained reading. It’s the biblical text that becomes supplemental. Yet as we’ve seen, readers often feel that they’re finally reading the Bible. They’ve finally satisfied that felt need for greater readability.
At the heart of all felt needs is the longing for the iconic Bible, the literal Word of God between two covers. Bible publishers are not selling Bibles. What they’re selling is that iconic idea of the Bible. Their value-added biblical content promises to provide answers to questions, solutions to problems, and speaks in no uncertain terms about God’s plan for your life and how to live it. Adding value to the Bible almost always means adding “biblical” values that are either missing or really hard to find in the Bible itself but that provide that feeling of Bibleness so many seek.
Finding Your Niche
A niche-marketed Bible promises to speak directly and personally to its target reader. It understands his interests and questions, and claims to address them in familiar terms. The niche may be sports-related. The Golfer’s Bible, for example, includes meditative photos of golf courses and reflections on passages by golf tour chaplains. Or it may appeal to people preoccupied with a big upcoming event. The Bride’s Bible includes notes and articles that relate biblical passages to issues of marriage and family. Or it may address readers associated with a particular group or program. The Life Recovery Bible, the Celebrate Recovery Bible, and Serenity are Bibles with notes and meditations that relate biblical passages to eight- or twelve-step programs. There are also Bibles for specific ethnic groups of women and men. Popular titles for African Americans include Aspire: The New Women of Color Study Bible: For Strength and Inspiration from Zondervan, and the Men of Color Study Bible and The Strength and Honor Bible for Young Men of Color from World. In fact, market research indicates that African Americans own more Bibles per household than the general population and read their Bibles more often.
Another winner for publishers is to combine Scripture with one of their celebrity Christian authors. Thomas Nelson has been particularly successful in these ventures, with titles like Holy Bible, Woman Thou Art Loosed! Edition, featuring the renowned African American author and preacher T. D. Jakes, and Max Lucado’s The Devotional Bible: Experiencing the Heart of Jesus, which comes in a variety of sizes and formats, all including extensive notes, short articles, and devotional excerpts from Lucado, whose inspirational books have sold well over 40 million copies. Another from Nelson, favored by many conservatives and fundamentalists, is the MacArthur Study Bible, replete with detailed notes from the well-known conservative intellectual preacher, author, and radio personality John MacArthur. With each of these Christian celebrity Bibles, we see a compounding of value: the Bible adds value to the author even as the author adds value to the Bible.
Clearly, many Bible niches are gendered, suggesting that the Bible speaks differently to men than to women. Every Man’s Bible, for example, which is the foundation piece for a series of best-selling books, boasts of having more than three hundred text boxes and one-page perspective essays on a range of manly topics, “hard-hitting instructions from t
he Bible on work, sex, competition, time management, and much more.” For the man’s man who doesn’t have time to mess with gray areas (no pun intended), this Bible promises “real answers, real fast . . . No more second guessing what God really means.” Inserted at the beginning of each book of the Bible is a feature titled “What’s the Point?” in which a short answer is given to satisfy every man’s need to get to the point, fast. What’s the point of Leviticus? “God pays attention to detail.” Of the Song of Songs? “The love of a good woman is worth cultivating.” Of Zephaniah? “Actions lead to consequences.” Of the Gospel of Luke? “Jesus cares about the individual.” Of Revelation? “In the end, the Great One wins.”
Inserted in each biblical book are brief articles that clarify what God says in the Bible about how to be a godly man in this world—one-page moral lessons on male biblical characters titled “Someone You Should Know,” for example, and half-page displays titled “Men, Women, & God.” The one-pager on Samson in the book of Judges begins, “The National Football League has a message for ambitious coaches: Do you want to win? Then you first have to master yourself.” It goes on to describe Samson as a man whose potential was ruined because he couldn’t control his lust, greed, and anger, ultimately making him vulnerable to the seductions of a bad woman, Delilah. It concludes with “THE POINT: No man wins without controlling his own passions.” Thus a very complex story with a complex character is boiled down to a lesson on how to win through self-control, especially around women like Delilah. On the next page, a “Men, Women, & God” feature called “A Treacherous Woman” continues with this theme. It warns, “We just can’t believe that the gorgeous object of our affection would ever succumb to selfishness . . . Lust is a powerful force, and believe it or not, many women—and men, too—are skilled in the art of manipulation.” One must wonder whether the inclusion of “and men, too” was something of an editorial afterthought. After all, the piece is clearly an exhortation to men to avoid the perils of being sexually manipulated by women, not vice versa.
