A mild winter in many parts of the country coupled with a six-year low in unemployment and significantly lower gas prices combined for a strong holiday season at most independent bookstores and up sales for the year. Or as Steve Bercu, CEO of BookPeople in Austin, puts it, “People are just back into books. There was just tons and tons of stuff getting sold.”
Based on PW’s informal survey of more than two dozen stores, many easily beat the National Retail Federation’s prediction of a 4.1% increase during November and December. Beth Black, co-owner of the Bookworm in Omaha, Neb., which moved to an upscale shopping center in October, described the Christmas season as “terrific. Our holiday sales were up nicely over last year, up 20%.” Long-time bookseller Shirley Mullin, owner of 29-year-old Kids Ink in Indianapolis described it as “the best holiday season we’ve ever had.”
For many stores, the effects of the recession are starting to be erased. Year-over-year sales at Bookworks in Albuquerque were up 9.1%, according to co-owner Danielle Foster, despite a slow fourth quarter. Vicky Titcomb, manager of Titcomb’s Bookshop in East Sandwich, Mass., says the store posted its best sales since it opened in 1969, up 4.6% over last year through Christmas. WORD in Brooklyn also beat its previous years, up over 5% in 2014, as did BookPeople—for the fifth year in a row—up 8%.
Some stores did close, but a number continue to make the transition to new ownership like 30-year-old Magic Tree in Oak Park, Ill., which will sign a contract soon with a new owner. Others are on more solid footing. “Business is finally on the upswing,” said Asha Sanaker, general manager of Buffalo Street Books in Ithaca, N.Y., which moved to co-op ownership in 2011. A remodel in 2013 and a new awning and paint last summer helped it break even for the first time in years.
The Shop Local message continues to resonate with shoppers. “Although I still hear a lot of talk about Amazon Prime,” says Steven Salardino, manager of Skylight Books in Los Angeles, “it seems that our community realizes what they are contributing to when purchasing a book from Skylight. Book buyers may use Amazon for other things, but are finding that the experience of a bookstore is a worthy expense.”
The absence of a big commercial seller didn’t seem to have any ill effects. “No breakout book but there was good sales of a variety of great titles,” says Cathy Langer, lead buyer at the Tattered Cover in Denver. Her store, like many across the country, ran out of Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See, in her case the Sunday before Christmas. “We could have sold many more those last few days,” she says, “but at that point people chose other books or bought gift cards.”
Copies of Héctor Tobar’s Deep Down Dark, about the Chilean mine disaster, also ran out. Danielle Foster, co-owner of Bookworks in Albuquerque, says that she could have sold “a ton.” She had close to 30 special orders and didn’t receive her shipment until Christmas Day. Unlike the Doerr, she wasn’t able to restock at Costco.
Other frequently mentioned titles included Amy Poehler’s Yes, Please, Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, Phil Klay’s Redeployment, Haruki Murakami’s Strange Library, Roxane Gay’s Bad Feminist, and Ina Garten’s Make It Ahead. At Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe in Washington, D.C., the lack of a must-have title meant that good sales for paperbacks,” says head buyer Jake Cumsky-Whitlock. Among the books customers grabbed were: Chimamanda Ngoze Adichie’s Americanah, Daniel James Brown’s The Boys in the Boat, and Lauren Hillenbrand’s Unbroken.
Regional titles were also strong. “Local authors impact local business,” says Anna Miner, co-owner of Morgan Hill Bookstore in New London, N.H. “We sold more copies of Donald Hall’s Essays After 80 in three-and-a half weeks [before Christmas], than we sold of The Goldfinch since it was published,” Miner says. Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh sold close to 500 copies of Growing Up with Raleigh, conversations with former mayor Smedes York.
With no must-have YA in children’s, one middle grade and one picture book stood out: Jeff Kinney’s The Long Haul and B.J. Novak’s The Book With No Pictures. Shannon Hale’s The Princess in Black and Minecraft and Frozen books were among the other frequently mentioned top sellers.
Overall booksellers were satisfied with 2014. “It was a great year for books,” says Kramerbooks’s Cumsky-Whitlock. “A positive year for change. I hope 2015 is the same.”
