‘Heaven Is for Real’ Tops 1 Million E-books Sold

Thomas Nelson has sold more than 1 million e-books of Heaven Is for Real—the first of the publisher’s titles to reach that sales mark. Few e-books have reached that milestone, but now the November 2010 release by Todd Burpo with Lynn Vincent joins such titles as The Help and Water for Elephants, titles that had the marketing support of a major motion picture.

Observing that it’s a “rare milestone” even for a print book to sell 1 million copies, Matt Baugher, senior vice president and publisher at Thomas Nelson, said: “To have a book pass that milestone in the digital space alone is both an honor for Thomas Nelson and a sign of our expanding industry. It shows that an amazing story and strong word-of-mouth can still move millions of books, regardless of the chosen format.”

For the week of April 8, Heaven Is for Real will be listed as the No. 1 Paperback Nonfiction title on the New York Times list, its 58th week in the top spot and a record for Thomas Nelson. The book has also reached No. 1 on other lists, including USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, National Public Radio, CBA and the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association.

Along with the other related products Thomas Nelson has published, the company will release a devotional reader, Heaven Changes Everything: Living Every Day With Eternity in Mind, in October.

In other e-book news, Tyndale House Publishers has seen Growing Up Amish, a memoir by Ira Wagler, reach No. 1 on the Wall Street Journal’s Nonfiction E-Books list for the week ending March 25.

The book, which is also a New York Times best-seller, first debuted on the Wall Street Journal list at No. 7 for the week ending March 11, and climbed to No. 3 one week later before moving to the top spot on the list.

Originally released in softcover in July 2011, Growing Up Amish is the story of one man’s quest to discover who he is and where he belongs. Wagler left the Amish settlement of Bloomfield, Iowa, at age 17 and left the Amish church altogether at 26.