By Andy Butcher,  Christian Retailing Editor

So, here’s something to do while you wait (drum fingers, drum fingers) for an announcement about the industry-wide platform intended to give Christian stores a way of securing a slice of the digital book pie: Go buy an e-reader.

This will likely not be a popular idea out in some parts of our retailing community, where there are folks for whom names like Kindle and Nook are muttered with the same degree of distaste once reserved for Wal-Mart.

But, with a nod to Swiss theologian Karl Barth, who advocated Christians do life with the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other, let me suggest that Christian retailers need to do business with their P.O.S. printout in one hand and an e-reader in the other.

In much the same way that Wal-Mart has become accepted as just another (even if regrettable) fact of life—and some Christian stores have actually come to welcome the mega-merchant, wild as that may seem—the digital book is here to stay. So we might as well all start getting used to it.

Times are tough for many stores, but it seems to me that there isn’t one out there that can afford not to invest $100 or so in some type of e-reader. You may not like them for any number of reasons, but you can’t simply ignore them. Well, not if you want to stay in business long-term. 

Feel free to prefer the tactile experience of a “real” book and maintain that reading on a screen isn’t the same immersive experience as your turn-the-page paper copy. Worry, even, about the long-term implications for reasoning and reflection of digital publishing (which sometimes seems to think the actual words are less important than all the cool stuff you can click to).

Just be sure to use one of those devices so that you understand their appeal (at least to others)—and their limitations—and can better position yourself to adjust business in the light of their existence.

And while you are doing that, take some time to think about what the growth of the e-book market may mean, not just in overall print sales (and how you are going to make up that revenue elsewhere), but also for different categories.

"Christian retailers need to do business with their P.O.S. printout in one hand and an e-reader in the other.”

Take fiction. Lovers of novels are often ravenous readers, especially if they are enthusiasts for a particular author or genre. Just look at how well Thomas Nelson’s $5 fiction promotion has gone, for instance. For fiction buyers, the  opportunity to spend less on non-print editions may be seriously appealing, so how can you strengthen your store in their minds? Do you host or support reading groups?

Then there is backlist. This has long been touted as a strength of Christian retail, and publishers have defended general market sales by pointing out that purchases there can push shoppers to Christian stores in search of older titles. But now some publishers are giving away free e-backlist (I think I just invented a word) titles or  offering them really cheap.

Admittedly, the number of titles available like this is proportionally small, but what might the trend mean for consumers’ perceptions of backlist’s value? The category isn’t going away—STL Distribution North America believes in it strongly enough to have invested more than $1 million in equipping its center with a new print-on-demand facility that will soon be offering overnight shipment—but it is going to change.

Reference is a whole other area. Search features in digital titles are an attractive option, but some serious Bible teachers and students still like to pore over the actual paper. Of course, they can buy them online, so how can you connect more closely with local pastors and others in church leadership?

And finally, spare a thought for publishers who are wrestling with their own e-book questions. It’s not all high-fives and hallelujahs for them either.

Certainly, they are glad to have another avenue through which to sell their books, but it’s not all a slam-dunk. They get less for the copies they sell, and while some production costs are down, obviously, many houses are having to invest large amount of time and money into developing and managing new systems.

Then there is the subtle but significant impact on marketing from e-book sales as they lose secondary advertising. Consider: Fellow public-transportation passengers or Starbucks sitters now see the plain back of your Kindle or Nook, not the cover of the latest Karen Kingsbury you are reading.

But change is here, so the question is how to deal with it. When Wal-Mart led the general market inroads into Christian books, music and videos a few years ago, some in our community just bemoaned the threat. 

Others went to check out what was there to see how they needed to adjust their shelves and look for ways they could compete. Counter-intuitively, CBA even invited a former Wal-Mart senior executive to offer advice at a winter show. Now, I sometimes hear of Christian stores talking of having Wal-Mart as a near-neighbor as one of their strengths because it means there is a lot of traffic.

In the same way, the digital conversation needs to become not how we can ignore e-books and keep our customers from finding out about them, but how to find the good and the potential. And that has to start with knowing a bit more about what we’re facing.