Publishing British Bibles since 1698
The Society For Promoting Christian Knowledge, SPCK, was founded in 1698 and is one of the oldest Christian publishers. While some aspects of our mission have changed over the centuries, from sending missionaries (eighteenth century), founding schools (nineteenth century) and running bookshops (twentieth century), publishing Christian books has always been part of our work. Most of the greatest anglophone Christian writers have published with SPCK or our subsidiary IVP (Inter-Varsity Press), including Christina Rosetti, Eric Liddell, C. S. Lewis, John Stott, Tom Wright, Sister Wendy Beckett, Timothy Keller and Rowan Williams.
Bibles have always been a big part of SPCK’s history. There were many successes, including bringing the first printing press to Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon) and publishing the first Bible in a Hindi script. But our historical Bible publishing may be best remembered for our failure to have a Welsh edition available, which resulted in Mary Jones’ famous walk and the founding by William Wilberforce and others of the British and Foreign Bible Society.
We are now undergoing a renaissance in Bible publishing at SPCK. British publishers often find it difficult to commission new typesettings of the Bible, because the UK market is very small in comparison to many international markets, and publishing rights in serious translations can be difficult to acquire. Nevertheless, we have been delighted to create our own editions of the Anglicized NRSV and NLT Bibles, and also a new Bible Speaks Today NIV Study Bible, as well as the Bible For Everyone translated by Tom Wright and John Goldingay.
Our partnership with 2K (and with Crossway and HarperCollins) on the ESV Bible is the next stage in our development as a Bible publisher, and is very exciting.
The standard edition of the ESV-CE Bible has an amazing flame illustration created with beautiful gliding doves, this calm and organic line has been brilliantly illustrated by Jon Fox.
The typographic lockup for the ESV-CE has been designed using Avant Garde Gothic, this will be used across all our lovely Bibles to give them a clear brand look which feels both contemporary and sophisticated. Art director was Mark Read.
The trim size is 156 × 234 mm. The interior is designed and typeset by 2K/DENMARK. Bible text is set with Milo Serif 9,5/9 point and headings are set with Milo.
We have secured the exclusive rights to be the UK publisher of the new ESV Catholic Edition (ESV-CE) translation. The market for Catholic Bibles in the UK is very confused at present, and the ESV-CE will bring clarity with a new translation philosophy. While literal in the authoritative tradition of its predecessors, the King James Bible and the RSV, the ESV-CE is based on the latest scholarship including detailed work by Catholic scholars. We briefed 2K to create a new typesetting that brought these elements of clarity, authority and modernity while retaining a Catholic feel, and we are delighted with the results. We will be publishing over ten editions of the ESV-CE in February 2021.
We have also worked with 2K on a very innovative ESV based product for the evangelical market, the ESV Search The Scriptures Bible. This is essentially a mash-up between the highly trusted ESV translation, and the much loved Search The Scriptures which is a three-year Bible reading plan with daily questions which has sold over 100,000 copies. Our brief for 2K was to create a design that made both the Bible text and the Search The Scriptures material both highly readable and clearly differentiated, and again we are delighted with the results. The IVP imprint will bring this Bible out in Spring 2021.
Looking further forward, the need for separate anglicized editions continues to arouse much debate. In the publishing industry as a whole, it is becoming increasingly difficult to justify separate publishing deals in the UK and the US as the world becomes more globalised and the rise of digital contributes to increasingly fuzzy boundaries between the markets. Teachers and church leaders are very keen on the need for anglicized Bibles, but many people in the pews are more relaxed and will prefer to choose from a wide range of Bibles from across the pond rather than a small range of Anglicized editions. At SPCK, our approach is to use our unique attributes – our reach into the UK market and our wide range of reference copyrights – so that we can make a clear argument for the benefit of Anglicized editions that we can sell in the UK and, with our partners, around the world.
Data from the UK suggests Bible sales have been robust in recent years. The economies of scale for publishers have become harder as print costs have increased, but the demand for digital Bibles (including SPCK’s NRSV Audio Bible For Everyone App) seems to complement rather than replace the demand for print editions. Long may this continue!
Sam Richardson started his publishing career on the graduate scheme at HarperCollins, where he subsequently worked as a Digital Editor and as Editorial Director overseeing the religion list. Sam then moved to Hodder & Stoughton where he was Publisher overseeing consumer learning products ranging from business books to the Chambers Dictionary. Sam was appointed Chief Executive of SPCK in 2014 and, since then, SPCK has doubled its income to become the UK’s leading Christian Publisher. Sam won Young Publisher of the Year at the Independent Publishing Awards in 2016, and SPCK has won the award for Specialist Consumer Publisher of the Year at the Independent Publishing Awards for the last two years. Sam and his wife Sarah have three boys, and in his spare time Sam runs Marathons and plays and coaches football.
