Holiday Audio-book Sales Up
Trudi M. Rosenblum -- 2/7/00
"Greatest Generation," Harry Potter, Morrie and old-time radio shows spur gift-giving
Bookstores and audio-only retailers reported solid audiobook sales for the 1999 holiday season. Single-digit percentage growth was common in same-store audio sales over the 1998 season.
Waldenbooks and Borders both reported "strong sales," although they did not give figures. "We had a good Christmas, and January was fantastic," said Borders audio buyer Larry Mallach. Bookears in Atlanta reported a high single-digit percentage increase over the 1998 holiday season, as did Davis-Kidd. At Barnes & Noble, holiday audio sales were "pretty much the same as in 1998," said Debra Williams, director of corporate communications. But at Dutton's in Los Angeles, audiobook sales were slightly down.
At Amazon.com, audiobooks editor Rob McDonald said audio sales were up over the previous holiday season, but did not give figures. Amazon's sales were helped, he said, by the recent addition of a link to "other editions": when customers click on a title, they can also see the other available editions of that title: hardcover, paperback, abridged cassette, unabridged cassette, CD. "The link is very visible and has helped new people discover audiobooks," McDonald said.
Some audio-only retailers said they did especially well this year. At the Earful of Books chain, based in Austin, Tex., same-store sales were up 12% for the month of December, according to owner Paul Rush. "There was a lot of enthusiasm among customers," Rush said. "CDs sold particularly well, as did unabridged titles."
Jimmy Belson, owner of Jimmy B's Audiobooks in Hawthorne, Calif., said, "The 1999 holiday season was the best holiday season we've ever had, and 1999 sales reflect the best year we have had since we began in business back in 1989. Completed sales and preorders for 2000 titles clearly indicate a robust year, exceeding 1999."
At the Talking Book World chain, based in Southfield, Mich., chain co-founder Richard Simtob said, "Some of our stores had double digit increases, others had the same sales as last year. Overall, we saw about 10% same-store growth."
Sales growth was especially welcome since few, if any, hot titles were released in December. Instead, year-old titles like Tom Brokaw's The Greatest Generation (Random House) and Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie (Brilliance) showed surprisingly robust sales. Morrie was helped by the TV movie version, starring Jack Lemmon, that was shown in December. "The bestseller list wasn't fresh going into the holiday season; there weren't a lot of new things to work with," said Suzanne Simkin, owner of Bookears in Atlanta. "But we had a lot of strong things to sell if you were buying a gift for someone who isn't already a huge audio fan. We sold a lot of gift packs of Greatest Generation and Greatest Generation Speaks, and a lot of people also bought The Greatest Generation Speaks unabridged. Peter Jennings's The Century [BDD Audio] is another older title, but we sold a ton of them--and when you sell a $75 retail item, it d s a lot for your business."
Sales of the two Harry Potter audiobooks from Listening Library continued to boom,stores said. But one unexpected hit was Radio Spirits' The 60 Greatest Old-Time Radio Shows of the 20th Century, selected and introduced by Walter Cronkite. "The Cronkite radio shows were a surprise," said Waldenbooks' audio buyer, David Lamere. "That did phenomenally well, even though the price point was high."
"It's great to see something from a small house, Radio Spirits, take off like that," said Amazon'sRob McDonald.
Other strong holiday audiobook sellers included Michael Crichton's Timeline (Random House), Frank McCourt's 'Tis (Simon & Schuster), David Balducci's Saving Faith (Time Warner), Tim F. Lahaye's Left Behind series (Tyndale House) and Stephen King's audio -original, Blood and Smoke (Simon & Schuster).
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