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Media Mentions
As a recognized expert on religion, spirituality, self-help and mind-body spirit publishing, Lynn Garrett is often interviewed by national media outlets.
 USA Today
More Americans’ spiritual growth nurtured within
By G. Jeffrey MacDonald
[Some] make a spiritual practice of crafts and handiwork such as knitting and quilting, says Lynn Garrett, religion editor of Publishers Weekly, who notes that books about the spirituality of crafts are steady sellers.
"We live in such a noisy culture, such a culture of distraction," Garrett says. "One of the benefits of all these practices—prayer, meditation, even crafting—is to focus attention and create some quiet mental space. People are really hungry for that.” —Jan. 16, 2008
 Christianity Today
Looking for the Next Big Thing: A Christian publishing update
By Bob Smietana
...Discerning exactly what's happening in publishing is tricky….sales figures for books are a mystery…. "There is no objective way to [comprehensively] track sales data in the book publishing industry," Lynn Garrett, religion editor of Publishers Weekly, told CT. "The only way you can get sales data is from the publishers themselves—so you kind of have to believe what they tell you."
In recent years, Christian publishing has enjoyed a string of Godzilla-sized hits…the Left Behind series….The Prayer of Jabez…The Purpose-Driven Life. While these books have been a boon to publishers and retailers, they skew the market, says Garrett.
"In the Christian market, everybody is looking for the next Purpose-Driven Life," she says. "Sales of Christian books were down slightly last year because there was no huge blockbuster." —June 2007
 The Los Angeles Times
Left behind? Not this book series
By Josh Getlin and K. Connie Kang
….The [Left Behind] series has also been a wake-up call for the normally secular-minded, New York-based book business. Before the Left Behind novels came along, said Lynn Garrett, religious books editor for Publishers Weekly, "I don’t think people in this business had a clue that the potential Christian market was so large." —April 3, 2007
USA Today
Does Maya calendar predict 2012 apocalypse?
By G. Jeffrey MacDonald
….The buildup to 2012 echoes the excitement and fear expressed on the eve of the new millennium, popularly known as Y2K, though on a smaller scale, says Lynn Garrett, senior religion editor at Publishers Weekly. She says publishers seem to be courting readers who believe humanity is creating its own ecological disasters and desperately needs ancient indigenous wisdom.
"The convergence I see here is the apocalyptic expectations, if you will, along with the fact that the environment is in the front of many people’s minds these days," Garrett says. "Part of the appeal of these earth religions is that notion that we need to reconnect with the Earth in order to save ourselves." —March 27, 2007
 Time
Rewriting the Gospels: Behind the Jesus tomb fight: a more speculative style of scholarship
By David Van Biema
….The Jesus Family Tomb by Simcha Jacobovici and Charles Pellegrino…challenges the bodily Resurrection and Assumption of Christ and adds a very holy matrimony….
….[T]here is what Publishers Weekly senior religion editor Lynn Garrett calls the Da Vinci Code effect. "Speculative histories were out there before Dan Brown wrote," says Garrett. “But they didn’t make the bestseller lists and their authors didn't go on The Daily Show." Or receive a million-dollar paycheck, as was rumored in a recent case.
But Garrett cautions that "it's not simply following the dollar. Writing popularly, I think they feel freer." Scholars are not working more speculatively because Dan Brown made money. His success allows them to write profitably from their adventurous hearts. —March 12, 2007
 Christian Science Monitor
Christians ready to refute ‘Da Vinci Code’ movie
By Jane Lampman
….The novel is first and foremost a fantastical murder mystery, an intriguing page turner that grabs even those wholly opposed to its thesis. It catches people’s imagination, many say, because it involves a conspiracy.
"Americans love a conspiracy theory," says Lynn Garrett, religion editor at Publishers Weekly. "It also tapped into people's disillusionment with the Catholic Church following the sex abuse scandals."
….Yet people agree, too, that the novel appeals because it offers a different way of seeing Christian tradition, particularly issues of patriarchy and women in the early church. This appeal has helped spur new subcategories in the publishing business, Ms. Garrett says, with each season bringing new books on Mary Magdalene and what’s now called "alternative Christianity." —March 22, 2006
 Chicago Tribune
'Narnia' inspires a boom in Lewis books
By Mark I. Pinsky
…."There are 45 or 50 books trying to ride the coattails of ['The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'] movie opening," says Lynn Garrett, religion editor of Publishers Weekly. “In sheer numbers, that is unmatched.”
….A former atheist, Lewis smoked, drank and, according to a definitive biography, had an unconventional sex life. And even though he did not believe in biblical inerrancy, Christianity Today once dubbed him the evangelicals' "patron saint."
"Evangelicals are hanging on to Lewis as one of their own for dear life," says Publishers Weekly's Garrett. "It's not just a marketing ploy—it's a signal for them that they are in the mainstream." —Dec. 9, 2005
 U.S. News & World Report
Nearer My God to Thee: Their distinctive faith aside, evangelicals are acting more and more like the rest of us
By Jeffery L. Sheler
….The Left Behind books have all reached the top of the New York Times bestseller list and have sold more than 42 million copies worldwide—a publishing feat surpassed only by the Harry Potter series—but they aren’t the only evangelical blockbusters…. "It's one of the most profound changes in American publishing in the past decade," says Lynn Garrett, religion editor at Publishers Weekly. "They've broken out of the Christian ghetto and into the mainstream." —May 3, 2004
 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Seeking answers through books:
Bookstores and printing presses rush to keep up with demand for everything from the QURAN to the Bible to anything that can make sense of, bring comfort to or add insight into the tragic events of Sept. 11
By Teresa F. Lindeman
…Religious publishing houses, in particular, are unlikely to pull back, said Lynn Garrett, religion editor for Publishers Weekly magazine. "They’re not shy about saying, here, this is a tragic event. People have needs. We want to serve those needs."
In some cases, that might call for the technique known in the industry as crashing a book. That speeds up a release originally scheduled for, say, April, and now pushed to November. Another industry term refers to “instant” books, a description that might apply to the tributes to the World Trade Center already coming out.
"In publishing, timing is all," said Garrett. —Oct. 8, 2001
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