Brenda Smotherman joined the Thomas Nelson, Inc. Bible Group in September 2006 as Publicist. She handles the day-to-day activities of garnering media exposure for Bible Group titles (Bibles, Reference, and Curriculum), maintaining and developing communication efforts within the Bible Group and other internal Thomas Nelson, Inc. channels, writing magazine articles, coordinating and scripting events, as well as assisting in the product marketing and development processes. In the short time that she has been with the company, she has garnered press such as the cover of the entertainment section of the Los Angeles Times and Entertainment Weekly mention placement for The Word of Promise, secured exposure for several Bible selections and assisted the news team with Bible Group interviews on “CBS News Sunday Morning.”
Prior to her time at Thomas Nelson, Inc. Brenda had worked over 10 years in the Christian music industry. Brenda is newly married and resides in Smyrna, TN.
Contact Information:
P.O. Box 141000
Nashville, TN 37214
ph: 615.902.2231
fax: 615.902.1903
e: bsmotherman@thomasnelson.com
Monday, November 3, 2008
The Voice™ New Testament Release Launches The Voice™ Translation that Engages Today’s Culture in Biblical Narrative
(Nashville, Tenn) – This week, Thomas Nelson, Inc.’s Bible Group has officially launched a new Bible translation, The Voice™, with the release of The Voice™ New Testament. This is the first completely new Bible translation available to readers in several years.
The Voice™ translation captures the different writing styles of the New Testament authors, revealing their unique voices to readers instead of homogenizing the text. About 40 different authors are believed to have been inspired by God to write the Scriptures. The Voice™ is distinctive in that it retains the perspective, the voice, of the human writers. Most English translations attempt to even out the styles of the different authors in sentence structure and vocabulary. Instead, The Voice™ distinguishes the uniqueness of each author. The heart of the project is retelling the story of the Bible in a form as fluid as modern literary works while remaining true to the original Greek and Hebrew manuscripts. READ MORE »
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Star-Studded The Word Of Promise™ Wins Top Gold Honors In Audio
(Nashville, Tenn.) Thomas Nelson, Inc. is pleased to announce that The Word of Promise™ New Testament Audio Bible has been honored with three Gold Millennium Awards. The project received the top prize in the spring 2008 competition’s audio categories for “Direction,” “Sound,” and “Best Use of Music.” The Millennium Awards recognize outstanding creativity, skill, craft, and talent in audio, television/film/video/commercials, print, advertising, Web design, and radio. The Millennium Awards competition received over 1,204 entries that were judged by award-winning professionals in the communications industry on creativity, design, innovation, presentation, and technical merit. READ MORE »
Monday, July 14, 2008
Dramatic Audio Bible Takes Home Top Prize From ECPA
(Nashville, Tenn.) Thomas Nelson, Inc. is pleased to announce that The Word of Promise™ New Testament Audio Bible has been awarded “Christian Book of the Year” by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association’s (ECPA) 2008 Christian Book Awards. Wayne Hastings, Senior Vice President and Group Publisher for Thomas Nelson, Inc.’s Bible Group, accepted the award at a celebration ceremony Sunday night during the International Christian Retail Show (ICRS) in Orlando, Fla.
The “Christian Book of the Year” award recognizes excellence and impact in Christian publishing. This prestigious honor is based on quality and excellence as judged by the Christian Book Award finalists, while including a sales component to represent the impact of the book on consumers. Out of 230 entries from 35 Christian publishers, The Word of Promise™ New Testament Audio Bible was chosen from the 32 top-scoring Christian Book Award finalists that represent the highest quality and greatest impact for 2008. READ MORE »
Friday, July 11, 2008
Felt-Need Categories To Transmit To Bookstore Manager and IBID/IRT Users
(Nashville, Tenn.) Thomas Nelson, Inc.’s Bible Group has announced that they are partnering with the management groups for the Bookstore Manager and IBID/IRT inventory systems, to provide their users with updated content on Felt Needs categorization for Bible products produced by all publishing houses. They have developed a database of products using data available through PubTracks for titles, BISAC codes, and publishing houses and have assigned each title to a felt need category. The publisher anticipates that retailers who utilize the point-of-sale systems will be receiving their transmission in late-July/early-August.
Retail partners utilizing the Felt Needs Bible Merchandising System who don’t subscribe to either of the inventory systems will be mailed an update for use in their stores. Also, to ensure that the information is kept current for all retailers, Thomas Nelson plans to provide these updates twice a year.
The Bookstore Manager and IBID/IRT system updates are just another step in the publisher’s efforts to assist retail partners in addressing the needs of their customers using need-based merchandising. The overall goal of the publisher-neutral Felt Needs Bible Merchandising System developed by Thomas Nelson is to help simplify the shopping experience by enabling consumers to quickly find a Bible, using simple color-coded need-based signage and a clearly-defined shopping guide categorized by customer need. In addition to an easier purchasing experience for consumers, the new merchandising system also allows for greater flexibility in cross merchandising opportunities for stores and doesn’t require a change in inventory. The system officially launched in early 2007, and continues to positively impact overall Bible sales.
“In the last two quarters of 2007, when we implemented the Felt Needs Bible Merchandising System, our Bible sales increased 17% over the same period in 2006,” noted Ken Summerlin of Crossroads Books & Gifts in Mobile, AL. The Felt-Needs Bible Merchandising system continues to push our improvement in Bible sales, as so far in 2008 our Bible sales are up 12.5%.”
Contact: Brenda Smotherman
Publicist
tel: (615) 902-2231
fax: (615) 902-1132
email: bsmotherman@thomasnelson.com
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
World’s Largest Christian Publisher Continues To Address Environmental Needs of Customers
(Nashville, TN) Thomas Nelson, Inc. has announced that its Bible group is in the beginning stages of discontinuing the use of synthetic covers on their Bible products. Although the transition will begin immediately, due to production schedules, some products releasing in the coming months may still include these materials. Customers can expect to find significant eco-friendly Bible offerings in stores come early 2009. The move marks Thomas Nelson as the first Bible publisher to announce a complete transition to environmentally conscious Bible bindings and practices.
“As a publisher of Bibles for over 200 years, Thomas Nelson has always striven to bring Scripture into people’s lives while also addressing their evolving needs and concerns. We’re happy to be leading the way in providing environmentally friendly Bibles in keeping with the concerns of today’s consumers,” commented Wayne Hastings, Senior Vice President and Group Publisher for Thomas Nelson’s Bible Group. “In moving away from oil-based covers we’re not only honoring our customers’ needs, but we’re also honoring our Godly calling to be good stewards of the things He has given to us.” READ MORE »
The Voice™ New Testament Release Launches The Voice™ Translation that Engages Today’s Culture in Biblical Narrative
Feedburner