Given last week's closing of Northeast regional wholesaler BookStream, coupled with layoffs at wholesaling giant Baker & Taylor earlier in the fall, no aspect of the book business dependent on bricks-and-mortar retailers seems to be immune from the dropoff in sales. Even specialty wholesalers servicing nontraditional book outlets are finding it difficult to maneuver in today's economy.

At Integral Yoga Distributors in Buckingham, Va., which does 90% of its business with health food stores and the remaining 10% with yoga centers, business went downhill in November and December, according to manager Ganesh MacIsaac. The wholesaler, an offshoot of the yoga organization founded in the mid-'60s by Sri Swami Satchidananda, has a 6,000-title inventory of books on health, yoga and spirituality. During the first half of January, MacIsaac said, he has begun to see an uptick as stores restock after the holidays. “Probably it's a little better selling into natural food stores than bookstores,” MacIsaac noted. “People have to eat.” And with the high cost of health insurance, he added, “people turn to our books because they're trying to find some answers without going to the doctor. The question is, do people feel they need to have a book rather than get it off the Internet?”

“Like the rest of the world, business could be better,” said Michael Van Meter, director of purchasing for 54-year-old Royal Publications in Denver, Colo., which sells to health food stores, craft shops and sporting goods stores under the imprints Nutri-Books, How 2 Books for Quilting and Inter-Sports. December is traditionally a slow time in Royal's primary markets, he said, and this year was no exception. In addition to dealing with seasonal fluctuations in sales, Van Meter said, the company is now competing with publishers selling direct. However, one thing hasn't changed: Phyllis Balch's Prescription for Nutritional Healing (Avery) continues to be among Nutri-Books' top five sellers, more than 20 years after publication.

Fulfilling sales to consumers is one way Alim Thompson, president and CEO of New Leaf Distributing Company in Lithia Springs, Ga., hopes to improve the performance of his company, which specializes in mind, body and spirit titles. After a November and December that he characterized as “terrible,” Thompson is now testing New Leaf's Consumer Direct fulfillment program for online retailers, scheduled to roll out next month. Under the program, New Leaf will drop-ship packages directly to consumers; stores will pay a handling fee on top of their normal discount.

“You've got to go where the books are selling,” said Thompson, adding, “we're certainly not going to go down without a fight.” That fight has also meant the addition of a national accounts program begun last year in which New Leaf sells mind, body and spirit titles non-exclusively to all its major accounts. And it's also meant the introduction of a monthly Specials program in November, to acknowledge that retailers need more margin. This month, for example, New Leaf is offering about 1,000 Penguin/Putnam titles at 10% off wholesale.

In addition, New Leaf has begun putting together book packages to appeal to the gift and spa markets, as well as yoga studios. “With a store where books are just 5% of their business, you have to be very efficient,” said Thompson, who plans to ask existing staff to handle telemarketing for the new products. “Everybody's aware we've all got to step up and push through,” he said. That holds true for Thompson—he recently laid off the company's director of operations and has taken on those responsibilities.

At Midwestern European Publications in Skokie, Ill., and its sister company, Schoenhof's Foreign Books in Cambridge, Mass.—which both distribute foreign-language titles to the trade and educational markets—Daniel Eastman, director of sales and marketing, is seeing the same trends. “Trade literature is suffering,” Eastman said, while MEP and Schoenhof's sales to college stores and the k—12 market is steady or even up slightly. That's not enough to allay Eastman's concerns about what's ahead. “Say I'm cautiously optimistic,” said Eastman. “It's impossible not to be anxious for 2009. No matter how well you are prepared, it's too unpredictable.”