Barbour Publishing has announced that its fiction titles currently hold half of the spots available on the October Christian fiction best-seller list from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA).

“Barbour is thrilled with these achievements and appreciates the hard work of all its authors,” a company statement said.

Apple has announced that customers can start making payments with the touch of a finger starting Monday, Oct. 20, when its new Apple Pay service becomes available in the U.S.

The company said that Apple Pay offers “an easy, secure and private way to pay” using the Touch ID fingerprint sensor on iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in stores and through apps. Users of the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 will be able to use Touch ID on their devices for Apple Pay within apps. The new service is enabled by a free software update to iOS 8.

Bookmasters has signed new distribution agreements with three Christian publishing groups, the Christian Board of Publication/Chalice Press, Somersault Group and Generations with Vision.

“We are thrilled to welcome these publishers into the Bookmasters family,” said Ken Fultz, general manager at Bookmasters. “While each publisher specializes in their own unique content, the quality of each publisher’s work stands on its own and complements the work of Bookmasters’ growing group of exceptional publishers.”

Retail sales dropped by 0.3% to $442.7 billion in September, following a 0.6% rise in August, according to U.S. Commerce Department figures. The uptick in August was the largest gain in four months.

Consumers may have spent more during the early U.S. Labor Day holiday, which could explain the up-down nature of spending in August and September.

Lower prices at the gas pump now add to consumers’ disposable income, which may benefit retailers.

Nearly 20 representatives from more than a dozen companies were given a preview of the 2015 International Christian Retail Show (ICRS) in September at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. The show will be held June 28-July 1.

CBA will institute programming changes at this year’s ICRS, beginning with a general session Sunday afternoon before worship services and the Sunday evening concert. Monday and Tuesday general sessions and training will have exclusive hours, and exclusive exhibit-floor hours have been designed around those sessions. The Monday kickoff session begins at 8 a.m. with a keynote presentation followed by breakout sessions before the exhibit floor opens at 10 a.m.

Thom S. Rainer’s I Am a Church Member (B&H Books) continues to top the CBA best-sellers list more than a year after the book’s release. His follow-up book, also from B&H, Autopsy of a Deceased Church, has made a strong impact as well since its release this summer, reaching as high as No. 2 on the CBA Top 50.

I Am a Church Member was recognized as Best of the Best in The Leader’s Outer Life category for Leadership Journal’s 2013 book awards.

David C Cook Chief Publishing Officer Dan Rich will retire from the publishing industry at the end of May 2015.

Rich, who has been at David C Cook for the last eight years, has spent 40 years in Christian publishing. He served as founding publisher at NavPress; president and founding publisher at WaterBrook Press; president and publisher at Questar (later Multnomah Publishers); senior vice president at Word Publishing; senior vice president of development and communications at the Navigators; and vice president at Thomas Nelson Publishers.