High hopes for new fiction: Abingdon enters Christian fiction field.(Cover story)

In these tough economic times, it's a rare publisher who's expanding. But after doing due diligence, strategic planning and careful acquiring, Abingdon Press will launch a Christian fiction line in late summer.

In recent years, the market for Christian fiction has been so successfully cultivated by a handful of evangelical Christian publishers, such as Nelson, Tyndale, Bethany House, Zondervan and Barbour, that even large, otherwise secular houses have formed their own Christian imprints. Abingdon, an imprint of United Methodist Publishing House based in Nashville, is hoping to get in on the action. In order to do so, the house is taking particular aim at reading groups, many of which are attached to churches. According to Abingdon's market research, 59% of mainline Protestant congregations have book reading groups, and 14% of Methodist congregations have fiction-only book reading groups. Abingdon novels--eight on the initial list, and 10 planned for spring 2010--are intended to appeal to both evangelical and mainline audiences.

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"All people want to hope and be inspired," says senior acquisitions editor Barbara J. Scott. "That's what I hope will find broad acceptance." Scott worked for Zondervan before being hired by Abingdon to develop its fiction. The launch has been seeded by money from the United Methodist Church, and its startup aims are deliberately modest.

"We're not …