Best-selling paperback

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33612, 14 August 1974, Page 14

Best-selling paperback

“Good News for Modem Man,” the modem language translation of the Bible published 13 years ago by the United Bible Societies, is now the best-selling paper back in the world, said the societies’ Indonesian consultant, Mr M. G. G. Harvey, in Christchurch yesterday. Sales had now exceeded 44 million copies. The increase reflected a world-wide trend in the sale of scripture selections and Bibles, Mr Harvey said. Sales last year of literature produced by the societies had risen from 173 items to 249. In Indonesia, sales had in-

creased from 3Jm in 1971 to 18m this year. The production target for next year was 25m. There was unlimited demand in Indonesia for the comic selection, said Mr Harvey. Comic libraries readily absorbed them, and the societies' printing press in Indonesia could not keep abreast of demand. Artists and machinery were adequate to meet the demand but there were other priorities, among them the distribution of 18m scripture selections through Christian schools (a total of 500,000 children) next year. Each child would receive 30 portions, Mr Harvey said. The Church in Indonesia

was growing very rapidly — at a rate of 10 per cent per annum. It was a major task keeping pace with its requirements. It was evangelistically active, and needed literature that could be used in evangelism. It was one of the main sources of demand. Improved marketing methods were partly responsible for the increase in sales in Indonesia, Mr Harvey said. Formerly, the societies had not attempted to promote their literature, but were merely available to churches and missions. They now actively approached groups and organisations where they thought demand might lie.