By Michelle Martin
Staff writer

“Practical spirituality” has led the charge in a growing market for spirituality books, said Kelly Hughes of DeChant-Hughes & Associates Inc.

The marketing firm specializes in getting national media coverage of books and authors who work in the religion, spirituality and family life areas, and has represented more than 150 publishing clients since Carol DeChant founded it in 1974.

Hughes, who joined the Chicago-based company in 1984, has led it since DeChant’s retirement last year.

“The position of books on spirituality, religion and family matters in the marketplace is very strong,” Hughes said in an interview before the Religious Booksellers Trade Exhibit May 28-30 in St. Charles, Ill. “Over the past few years, there’s been a noticeable increase.”

Hughes works with Catholic, evangelical and mainline Protestant publishers, along with general publishers trying to promote spirituality or religiously themed books. She noticed the upturn several years ago, as the major national bookstore chains began devoting more space to the genre.

“The chains have really complete collections on religion and spirituality, and a lot of books that fit that genre are in other areas, too, like memoirs,” she said. “It’s a category of books people are always hungry for, and I think that hunger increases at difficult times.”

Such times were upon the United States even before Sept. 11 because of the economic downturn, Hughes said.

“Now and for the last year or two, I see a lot more titles on practical spirituality—how you live your faith,” she said.

That crosses over both into spiritual memoirs and books about saints, because people want to know about other people’s faith journeys, Hughes said. Books on Christian mystics also have been popular lately.

“These are spiritual role models,” she said. “They differ from us in that they were so open to God in their lives.”

Marketing spiritual books to the media is the same as marketing any other book, Hughes said.

“What’s important is to give the media a good story,” she said. “You have to find what in that book is going to make a good story for their readers, listeners or viewers. … Even if a reporter is not personally religious, most are aware that their audience is.”

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