ECPA Bestseller List Explained: How the Christian Book Chart Works

The ECPA bestseller list is the main sales chart for Christian books in the United States. Each month the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) takes the previous month's point-of-sale data from Circana BookScan, keeps only books from ECPA member publishers, and ranks them: a Top 50 plus separate lists for fiction, nonfiction, children's books, Bibles, Spanish titles and more. It measures copies sold to readers at reporting retailers, not copies printed, shipped or given away.

The October 2026 lists, covering September sales, were released on October 13, 2026. Two new arrivals led the Top 50: The Elijah Mandate by Amir Tsarfati and Tolik Piflaks, and Lysa TerKeurst's Making Peace With What I Can't Control. Below is how the chart is built, what it leaves out, and how to read a "bestseller" claim on a Christian book.

Who makes the ECPA list

ECPA is a trade association of Christian publishers. It does not count sales itself. The numbers come from Circana BookScan (formerly NPD BookScan), the sales-tracking service that much of the US book trade uses. ECPA's job is to filter that data down to its own members' books and publish the rankings.

That filter matters. A Christian book from a publisher that is not an ECPA member will not appear, however well it sells. And a book from a member publisher can appear even if most shops would not shelve it in a Christian section, because membership, not subject, is the test.

How the ranking is built, step by step

ECPA describes its method in four steps:

1. Receive the previous month's BookScan data. The October list reflects September sales, so the chart always runs about a month behind.
2. Keep only ECPA member publishers. Everything else is removed before ranking.
3. Rank the Top 50. This headline list includes adult nonfiction, fiction and adult coloring books. It leaves out children's books, Bibles and books priced under $6, which have their own lists.
4. Rank the category lists. Top 25 lists cover nonfiction, fiction, juvenile, young adult, books under $6, Bibles, Bibles under $10, new releases, Spanish titles, Spanish juvenile, Spanish under $6, Spanish Bibles and Spanish Bibles under $10. A separate Top 10 ranks Bible translations by adding up sales of complete Bibles in each translation.

Because Bibles have their own chart, a study Bible that outsells every book in a month still will not top the Top 50. When you see a devotional or novel at No. 1, it is No. 1 among non-Bible adult titles from member publishers.

Where the sales data comes from

BookScan collects point-of-sale data each week from a panel of reporting retailers. The current list published with ECPA's methodology includes Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Walmart, Target, Costco, Sam's Club, Christianbook.com, Bookshop.org, Mardel and Deseret Book, among many others. Independent Christian stores are added through a partnership with The Parable Group, and those sales are partially weighted.

Some big names have dropped out over the years, and that changes what the chart can see. The same retailer list notes that Lifeway's stores stopped reporting in 2019, when the chain closed its shops, and Lifeway.com stopped reporting in mid-2024. Family Christian, once a major Christian bookstore chain, stopped in 2017. If a book sells mostly through a channel that does not report, the ECPA chart will undercount it.

What about book-signing and event sales?

Christian authors often sell many books at conferences, church events and tours. For years those sales were left out. ECPA now says Circana has a procedure that lets qualifying event sales count, but only if the publisher notifies Circana at least 30 days ahead, the books are sold through an approved reporting retailer, and the sales are reported in the week of the event. Books bought in bulk by an author or church and then resold do not count, because that would double-count copies. Even when the rules are followed, Circana can exclude questionable data, and in a short review window doubtful sales usually stay out.

What the ECPA list does not measure

• Bulk and church orders outside reporting stores. Copies a church buys straight from a publisher for a sermon series or small groups are a big part of Christian publishing, and they generally do not show up in point-of-sale data.
• All-time totals. The list is monthly. A book's lifetime sales come from publisher announcements, not from ECPA rankings. Our list of the best-selling Christian books of all time explains where those big lifetime numbers come from.
• Non-member publishers. Strong-selling Christian books from publishers outside ECPA are invisible on this chart.
• Exact copy counts. ECPA publishes rank positions, not sales figures, because the underlying numbers belong to Circana.

That last point is also why we do not reprint the full lists here. ECPA states that the lists contain Circana's proprietary information and should not be copied to other websites without Circana's written consent. The official place to read them is ECPA's consumer site, ReadGoodBooks.com, with older months archived on ChristianBookExpo.com.

ECPA list vs. the New York Times and Amazon

Christian books are often promoted with more than one "bestseller" label. They measure different things:

• ECPA bestseller list: monthly, ECPA member publishers only, ranked from Circana BookScan point-of-sale data. Best for comparing Christian titles with each other.
• The New York Times best sellers: weekly and open to all publishers. The Times says its rankings reflect unit sales reported confidentially by vendors, and it does not publish its full list of sources. A Christian title on the Times list is competing with every genre at once.
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: based only on Amazon's own sales and updated hourly. A book can be "No. 1 in a category" on Amazon for a few hours after a launch or a promotion. That is a real signal of momentum, but it is not a chart position in the usual sense.

A book described as a "Christian bestseller" without naming a list usually means it reached the ECPA chart. "National bestseller" or "New York Times bestseller" are stronger general-market claims. The pattern is the same in music, where the Billboard Hot Christian Songs chart mixes several data sources, and in film, where box office rankings depend on which grosses are counted.

How to read a Christian bestseller claim

1. Ask which list. ECPA, the New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly and Amazon all use different data and time frames.
2. Check the month or week. "ECPA bestseller" can mean one month on the Top 50 or years on the chart. Some titles stay for a long time: on the October 2026 lists, Sarah Young's 2004 devotional Jesus Calling was still in the nonfiction hardcover top five.
3. Look at the category. No. 1 on the Spanish, children's or under-$6 list is real, but it is a smaller pool than the Top 50.
4. Separate sales from awards. Sales lists count buyers. Awards are judged by panels.

ECPA's awards are separate from the sales chart

ECPA also runs the Christian Book Award, presented since 1978 to the year's best Christian books across nonfiction categories plus an overall Christian Book of the Year, and the Christy Award for Christian fiction, which announced its 2026 finalists in nine categories on September 11, 2026. Entries for the next Christian Book Awards, for titles published between October 2025 and October 2026, closed at the end of September. A book can win an award without ever reaching the bestseller list, and many top sellers never win. If you follow faith-based awards in music too, see our guide to gospel and Christian music awards.

Frequently asked questions

How often is the ECPA bestseller list updated?

Monthly. Each list covers the previous calendar month's sales and is usually released around the middle of the following month. The October 2026 lists came out on October 13, 2026.

Does the ECPA list include Bibles?

Not in the Top 50. Bibles have their own Top 25 lists, including a list for Bibles under $10 and Spanish Bibles, and a Top 10 that ranks Bible translations by combined sales of complete Bibles.

Why is a popular Christian book missing from the ECPA list?

Usually for one of three reasons: its publisher is not an ECPA member, most copies were sold through channels that do not report to BookScan (such as direct church orders or non-qualifying event sales), or it sold well over a long period without having one strong month.

Where can I see the full ECPA bestseller list?

On ReadGoodBooks.com, ECPA's reader-facing site, which shows the current Top 50 and category lists. Past months are archived on ChristianBookExpo.com.

More rankings and chart explainers are on the ChristianRanks blog.

Sources: ECPA, Bestseller Reporting (methodology, proprietary-data notice and event-sales rules); ChristianBookExpo.com, ECPA bestseller methodology and Circana BookScan reporting retailers; ECPA, Industry News (October 2026 lists released October 13, 2026; Christy Award 2026 finalists, September 11, 2026); ReadGoodBooks.com, Top 50 Bestsellers, October 2026; ECPA, Christian Book Award submission information; Christian Book Award. Checked October 27, 2026.