Industry News

By Carl Lennertz

November/December 76 Picks just out:

The flyers are still on press, but will be mailing soon, and here is a reminder about the November/December Top Ten picks already out:

Approximately 1,000 booksellers, publishers, and authors gathered at the Philadelphia Marriott on Sunday and Monday, October 13 - 14, for the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association (NAIBA) Fall Trade Show. Included in this figure were owners and staff from 123 stores. "We had a number of stores coming for the first time, and some stores coming back after a brief hiatus," explained NAIBA Executive Director Eileen Dengler.

The Mountains and Plains Booksellers Association (MPBA) 2002 Trade Show was held at the Marriott Denver Tech Center in Denver, from September 19 - 22. This year's show incorporated some scheduling and format changes, which were received well by attendees, said Lisa Knudsen, executive director for MPBA. Overall, the show was "excellent," she said. "I was happy with the turnout of booksellers, and exhibitors were pleased with traffic. It was a vigorous trade show."

The American Booksellers Association Board of Directors held its fall meeting in Washington, D.C., from October 8-10. In addition to discussing a range of association-related issues, the Board also presented a gift of books for the White House Library to First Lady Laura Bush on October 9. (For full story, click here.) While in Washington, some members of the Board also helped staff the ABA exhibit at the second annual National Book Festival, which was held on October 12.

Both the American Booksellers Association and the Book Sense program, including BookSense.com, receive prominent mention in an article published in the October 21, 2002, and current online issue of Time magazine. The article, "Plucky Little Competitors," by Daren Fonda, details how independent stores in several industries -- including bookstores, the pet business, coffee shops, and hardware stores -- are prospering, "sometimes literally in the shadow of popular national chains."

August bookstore sales failed to equal last year's unusually strong performance. August 2002 sales were down 4.4 percent from August 2001.

Bookstore sales for the period failed to keep up with overall retail sales. Overall retail sales of $321 billion for August 2002 were 5.2 percent higher than the $305 billion realized in August of 2001.

August is the seventh month in a row in which bookstore sales failed to keep pace with overall retail.

When bookseller Sarah Nixon talks, the words come quickly, and the voice is upbeat and confident. It's easy to imagine that parents and young readers find such a buoyant tone reassuring as they browse the children's section of the Wellesley Booksmith in Wellesley, Massachusetts. In a recent telephone conversation, a questioner found himself racing to keep pace with Nixon as he scribbled notes.

A recently launched bookstore-based book club has fashioned a notable coalition of bookstore, local writers, and an area arts newspaper. The result has built in-store traffic, spurred sales, and helped increase customer awareness.

Each month, the altReader book club, which was created by the Durham, North Carolina-based The Regulator Bookshop and is co-sponsored by a local alternative newspaper, The Independent Weekly, taps a different local author to pick his or her favorite book and to lead an evening discussion devoted to that book.

On Wednesday, October 9, the American Booksellers Association presented over 260 books to the White House Library, continuing a tradition that began during the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The 2002 Northern California Independent Booksellers Association (NCIBA) Trade Show was held at the Oakland Convention Center in Oakland, California, from October 4 - 6. Hut Landon, executive director for NCIBA, told BTW that the mood at this year's show was upbeat, and, overall, there was a slight increase in attendance -- even on Sunday, when the Giants, A's, and 49ers were all vying for Bay Area attention.

From September 27 - 29, the New England Booksellers Association (NEBA) returned to Providence, Rhode Island, for its fall trade show, and a combination of stimulating panels, notable author events, a productive trade floor, and a convivial city made for a memorable bookselling weekend.

In the face of a challenge from the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) and other national free expression organizations, the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) has dropped its demand that two student groups -- one a collective that runs a bookstore -- pull links from their Web sites. The university had called for Groundwork Books and the Che Café Collective to make the changes to the Web sites because the links allegedly violated the USA Patriot Act.

Below is a list of the most significant recent changes to the ABA Book Buyer's Handbook online.

Booksellers are strongly encouraged to alert ABA of changing terms and special offers that come to their attention. Publishers are asked to inform ABA immediately of any changes to terms and of all special offers available to booksellers.

Based on the last eight weeks of sales from over 350 independent bookstores across America.

Thanks to all the stores that report, the new expanded electronic reporting options, and the software our team here has built to sort and slice a ton of data according to BISAC categories, this is the latest of many subject category lists to run in BTW each week. These are intended as inventory checking tools for booksellers, alerts to publishers as to what's selling, and lists that the media can run.