Stores should enlist Christian fiction fans to help grow the category, by offering them discounts or coupons to review or recommend good books, and tap into social media networks to maximize sales in what was identified as one of Christian retailing's richest veins.

Launched 30 years ago with the publication of Janette Oke's Love Comes Softly-still a best-seller-Christian fiction is now entering its "golden age," with a wide range of genres and great potential for more sales in Christian stores, said Rebeca Seitz, fiction author and owner of Glass Road Public Relations.

She teamed with consumer research specialist Kelly Gallagher, vice president of publisher services for R.R. Bowker, to present findings from recent surveys for Know Thy Customer: Going Deeper in Our Understanding, a special presentation in the Town Center seminar focused on fiction.

"Active Christians"-those with strong beliefs and involvement in a local church-made 53% of all fiction purchases at Christian retail stores, but only 17% of the novels they bought from all sources were Christian, attendees heard. The rest were general adult fiction titles-pointing to a great opportunity for Christian stores to recommend more Christian fiction to their core buyers, Seitz said.

Stores needed to do more than stock best-selling fiction, though, because their core fiction readers would likely go elsewhere to buy other books once they had read all that was available, she added. Seitz also suggested stores shelve by genre rather than author name, which made it more difficult for shoppers to find similar writers, she said.

Linda Epley, co-owner of The Lighthouse Christian Bookstore in Dickson, Tenn., appreciated the session. Having recently increased her store's fiction section, "I wanted to know more," she said, and plans to establish a Facebook account for her store as a result of what she had heard, to help promote the category.

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