Christian retailers dismayed by the rise in popularity of e-books were given reasons to find some hope in the trend, in the first Food-for-Thought presentation on key industry issues at The Gathering 2010.

They heard that the Symtio program launched by Zondervan in 2008 to give stores a toehold in the digital world has turned out to have an unexpected bonus-a boost in audiobook sales.

Joe Questel, vice president of business development for Symtio, told how the service--selling in-store cards that give people codes to download content for reading or listening--was helping meet the "pent-up demand" for audio editions of books that had previously not taken off in the Christian market the way they had in the general market.

That had been in part because of the price differential--with audio volumes costing as much as $15 more than the print version--which in turn had discouraged Christian publishers from releasing other books than their major titles in audio.

Susan Chipman, manager of the resource center at Granger Community Church in Granger, Ind., and Jeff Baker, manager of the Vineyard Columbus Bookstore in Columbus, Ohio, both told how they had introduced Symtio in their stores and sold more audiobooks than e-books to date.

Questel said that research had found that audio book users went through an average of 16 titles a year, while readers averaged only five, he said. In addition, it had been found that 59% of Kindle owners were age 40 to 70--the main demographic of Christian store shoppers--he added.

Digital publishing was "not a 20- or 30-something phenomenon," he said. "These are people that have disposable income."

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