Thomas Nelson Publishers CEO Michael Hyatt (pictured, via) has published a list of the 100 Bestselling Christian Books of 2010. We’ve included the top five books below, follow this link to see the complete list.

Hyatt created the list by using his company’s sales database that monitors “various point-of-sale systems from multiple sales channels.” According to the publisher, the list focuses mainly on “sales through traditional bookstores, both general market and Christian specialty stores.” The top five bestselling books are listed below. Link via Publishers Lunch.

1. Sarah Young Jesus Calling (Thomas Nelson)
2. William P. Young The Shack (Hachette)
3. Francis Chan Crazy Love (David C. Cook)
4. Gary Chapman The Five Love Languages (Moody)
5. Dave Ramsey The Total Money Makeover (Thomas Nelson)

Today a group of investors led by Kohlberg & Company acquired a majority of Christian publisher Thomas Nelson’s stock–a move that will resolve most of the publisher’s long term debt.

The publisher also announced some changes in the board of directors, adding Open Road CEO Jane Friedman and “senior executives of Kohlberg & Company” to the board. In addition, Thomas Nelson CEO Michael Hyatt has been named chairman of the board of directors.

Kohlberg & Company partner Chris Anderson had this statement: “Thomas Nelson remains the clear leader in the Christian publishing world and is poised for growth in this new era. Mike and his team have done an excellent job managing the company through the challenges of the recession and we stand behind them as we enter the future.”

After a low turnout in this publishing recession, the Christian Book Expo was canceled for next year.

According to Publishers Weekly, the sponsoring organization–the board of Evangelical Christian Publishers Association–has canceled the show until it can recover from the inaugural expo’s losses this year. Recently, organizer and Thomas Nelson CEO Michael Hyatt pondered why 1,500 readers arrived when organizers were expecting between 15,000 and 20,000 people.

Here’s more from ECPA CEO Mark Kuyper, from the article: “We want to clean up the debt before we consider future options.”

Publishers of all stripes pondered last weekend’s Christian Book Expo, trying to figure out why only 1,500 readers arrived when organizers were expecting between 15,000 and 20,000 people. Organizer and Thomas Nelson CEO Michael Hyatt just published a thoughtful essay about the event.

His post analyzed five “mistakes” that organizers made, helping other publishers avoid the same fate. The problems included bad location choices, low marketing budgets, and bad timing, but Hyatt ultimately wondered if the event could succeed during a recession.

Here’s an excerpt: “We shouldn’t have charged for the event. I don’t know how we would have made the business model work, but the truth is, it didn’t work any way. Again, as Chip pointed out, people aren’t going to pay for the privilege of being able to buy books. Not in today’s environment.”

While most of the publishing industry was getting ready for the penultimate early weekend of the summer, Free Press announced that it had signed a deal with Olympic swimming sensation Michael Phelps to publish Built to Succeed, a memoir offering “the secrets of his success and… his approach to training, competition, and winning,” according to the announcement in Publishers Marketplace.

Considering this deal, and the news from across the Atlantic about possible book deals for British medalists, another potentially attractive possibility presented itself: What about a memoir by American marathoner Ryan Hall?

Hall had already gotten significant attention from the media, including Peter Hessler‘s New Yorker profile and Michael Perry‘s Runner’s World cover story. Enough of the runner’s personality comes through in both articles to suggest that he could tell his own story in an equally compelling manner if he chose to do so, and his pre-Olympic blog offers further evidence. The more you learn about Hall’s strong Christian faith and his participation in Team World Vision, an organization that helps poverty-stricken communities raise themselves to self-sustainability, it’s easy to see him writing a book that combines the best elements of Tony Dungy‘s Quiet Strength and John Woods‘s Leaving Microsoft to Change the World. Hall’s home page already had the perfect title, one with extra poignancy following his tenth-place finish: More Precious Than Gold. If you want to understand how powerful this story could be, watch the following video.

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