Howard Books

Howard Books
Parent company	Simon & Schuster
Founded	1969 as Julia MacRae Books
Founder	Alton Howard
Country of origin	United States
Headquarters location	Brentwood, Tennessee
Publication types	Books
Official website	www.simonandschuster.com

Howard Books (formerly Julia MacRae Books) is a Christian publishing company founded in 1969 and previously based in West Monroe, Louisiana, but which relocated to Brentwood, Tennessee, (south of Nashville) in September 2009.^[1] Howard Books publishes inspirational content.

History

Julia MacRae Books (1969-1999)

Julia MacRae Books publishes titles on various aspects of Christian living. In addition to Christian bestseller lists, Howard Books has had multiple titles on the New York Times bestseller list by authors such as Karen Kingsbury, various members of Duck Dynasty's Robertson family, Jay Sekulow, Charles Stanley, Allison Pataki, Tim Conway, Dave Ramsey, Frank Peretti, Brad Paisley, Katie Davis, Laura Schroff, and more. Originally, Julia MacRae Books specialized in songbooks and materials for the Churches of Christ, although it was not an official denominational publishing company and also found a consumer base among other evangelical Christian groups of the Southern United States. Author and composer Alton Howard founded Julia MacRae Books in 1969 and was very influential in the musical traditions of the churches of Christ since the 1970s. Howard died on October 28, 2006, at the age of 81.

In 2006 Howard Publishing was bought by Simon & Schuster. [1] The company then underwent the subtle name change from Howard Publishing to Howard Books and moved to Nashville in 2009. Jonathan Merkh is the current Executive Vice President and Publisher of Howard Books, in charge of direction and publication.