Retailers continue to await an announcement about a digital book-selling option for Christian stores, more than six months after CBA identified it as the channel's top priority.

"We are working as fast as we can. We are hoping to have a solution as fast as we can," CBA Executive Director Curtis Riskey told Christian Retailing.

A group of retail representatives was evaluating about 10 possible systems that could be adopted, which involved asking the providers how they might be adapted to create an industry-wide platform for Christian stores to offer e-books, he said.

"There are a lot of providers who can allow a store to sell digital products, but we know as an industry we need differentiation," Riskey said. "If it's simply a transaction, then we become a me-too, and there are other me-toos out there."

CBA set a digital platform as its No. 1 concern at the International Christian Retail Show last June, pulling together publisher and retailer groups to identify possible programs and then evaluate them. Since then, digital book sales have continued to rise, with a huge spike in sales of e-readers at Christmas.

Industry leaders predict Christian books will continue to find a growing audience in the mushrooming digital market—the fastest-growing sector in the publishing industry.

Read the full report in the March issue of Christian Retailing magazine.

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