PW: Bookselling Shorts

Subterranean Stops Distribution
With all eight publishers represented by Subterranean Company, Monr , Ore., close to completing negotiations for new homes, co-owner Craig Broadley confirmed rumors that Subterranean will close its distribution business as of December 31. V/Search has already switched to S.C.B. Distributors, Gardena, Calif., which will also distribute Amok Books and Dedalus Ltd. starting January 1, 2001. At the turn of the year, Consortium Book Sales, St. Paul, Minn., will take over inventory and sales for Creation and City Lights, from which Subterranean originally broke off.

"There isn't really a place for a small distributor," said Broadley of the decision to cease distributing books after more than two decades. "Since we started in 1977, things have changed so much. In the early years, we made a living selling to independent stores and college stores. Now all the college stores are owned by Barnes & Noble and Follett, and there aren't many independents any more."

Subterranean's winery, however, will not be affected by the decision. "We're not retiring," explained Broadley, who spends his weekends working at the company's 17-year-old vineyard, which specializes in pinot noir. "We're just running one business."

Consortium president Randall Beek told PW, "Obviously, we're ecstatic to have those publishers join us. I've known Craig for a number of years. He did a great job at SubCo, and I'm sorry he's shutting down."
--Judith Rosen

Mysterious New Identity
It was no mystery to fans in Los Angeles: the Mysterious Bookstore on Beverly Boulevard has reappeared with a new alias.

Sheldon McArthur, manager of the store for its entire 11-year history, has teamed up with a small group of investors, including several mystery writers, to purchase the store from Otto Penzler, and has changed the name of the store to the Mystery Bookstore. It remains in the same location. Penzler, a New York resident, decided earlier in the year to divest himself of the West Coast branch of his Mysterious Bookstore in New York City, in order to pursue his newly established publishing house.

In early April, McArthur was faced with the decision to close his store or investigate new scenarios.

Located for the last 11 years on Beverly Boulevard at La Cienega, the 11,000-sq.-ft. store is crammed with the published works of a huge number of mystery authors. New, used rare and out-of-print books are counted in the store's 30,000-plus volumes. Inventory and location was not the problem for the store, but walk-in traffic was. McArthur told PW, "When the store opened, mail-order was only 10% of the business, and now it is 60% or 70%. The obvious answer was to launch a Web site that catered to this far-flung audience, and that is exactly what we have done. The site, www.mystery-bookstore.com, was launched a few weeks ago, and already it's doing well. I feel that an online presence is now a key to making it as an independent specialty store."

Sales for the newly renamed store were given a giant boost at April's Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, when the store hosted 80 different mystery writers signing books at its tent; it was one of the festival's most popular sites. "Donald Westlake and other high-profile authors helped us sell as many books in two days as we normally do in a month." McArthur said. "Plus, we were able to add 1,000 new names to our mailing list." Mystery Bookstore reports it is off to a great start, thanks to the support of the community, especially the Southern California chapter of Mystery Writers of America.
--Barbara R ther

Lectorum Marks 40 Years of Service

Manhattan's Lectorum bookstore has resided in the same location for four decades.

Marking its 40th anniversary, Lectorum Publications has grown from a small Spanish-language bookstore to its present offerings as a small publisher and as the largest U.S. distributor of Spanish-language titles. Lectorum distributes more than 25,000 adult and children Spanish titles from more than 500 domestic and foreign publishers to schools, libraries, universities, bookstores and other specialized markets throughout the U.S. While the bookstore and distribution company handle both adult and children's titles, the publishing company publishes only children's books.
In the mid-1970s, Lectorum president Teresa Mlawer joined her husband, William Mlawer, founder of Lectorum, to help run the company. She previously held managerial positions in international sales at Macmillan, Simon & Schuster and Regents Publishing. She expanded Lectorum's focus to include children's books, and 10 years ago, she started Lectorum Publications to publish Spanish-language translations of popular English-language children's books.

At first, Lectorum bought rights cautiously, looking for "books with good track records," as Mlawer put it. Since then, Lectorum has published Spanish-language editions of the Franklin book series and the Arthur series, as well as individual titles such as Green Eggs and Ham, The Lorax, The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, Stone Soup and Sylvester and the Magic Pebble. Now, Lectorum--which publishes 10 titles annually--is expanding into original publishing, focusing on books by Hispanic authors.

Lectorum was purchased by Scholastic in 1996, a fortuitous fit for Mlawer who had been a Spanish-language consultant to Scholastic's bilingual classroom and magazine publishing program. Barbara Marcus, president of Scholastic Children's Book Group, told PW that Mlawer "has continued to advise us; she's introduced us to the many Spanish publishers she buys from, and we use her expertise on our proprietary Spanish book club." She noted that "Teresa will be able to interact very well with the new Grolier acquisition."

The Lectorum bookstore has always been at 137 West 14 Street, in a 100-year-old, four-story building that formerly housed a Spanish bank. Originally, the store occupied 10,000 square feet with two floors open to the public. Presently, one floor is open to the public, with 3,000 square feet of retail space plus a basement. Editorial offices and the warehouse are at a separate location, although Mlawer anticipates that when the current lease expires, the offices will relocate to Scholastic space and the warehouse will probably move to New Jersey.

Although she declined to provide figures, Mlawer told PW, "In spite of Proposition 227 [which eliminated bilingual education in California], we are a profitable company." However, she pointed out, the proposition has hurt Spanish-language publishers. "Before Proposition 227, our growth was 15%-20% per month, but that has changed."

Lectorum's fall 2000 list includes Spanish editions of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Arthur's Thanksgiving, Arthur's Birthday, Amelia Bedelia and Franklin's Baby.
--Diane Patrick

East West Bookshop Expands in All Directions

Part of East West's success is due to its affiliation with the Ananda spiritual movement.

Benefiting from the ever-expanding Seattle population interested in "conscious living" products, the 11-year-old East West Bookshop of Seattle has recently doubled its retail space to 6,600 square feet, while remaining in the Seattle University neighborhood. The store was one of the country's first New Age book stores
According to co-manager Norman Snitkin, sales are already up 34% over last year's average. "I think the increase is due to several things about the new site. We have a large comfortable room for author appearances and signings, which have become very popular. We also carry a larger inventory of lifestyle items like clothing, jewelry, yoga supplies, candles and so on. Music and videos have a large section as well. Currently, more than 60% of the store's revenue comes from nonbook items, though management still views books as central to their purpose."

"We carry books related to almost all spiritual traditions, as well as trends in modern psychology. We pick our books by hand," said Susan McGinnis, the store's founder. Snitkin attributes their success in part to experience: "In many ways, the key to book buying is knowing what not to buy."

Another element may be contributing to the store's success. The business is a nonprofit corporation affiliated with the Ananda spiritual movement. Most employees are students of Ananda, and operate their store with the idea serving the community, not just making a profit. "Everyone here gets paid about the same, and there is little turnover or labor problems because of that. It is more like a community of equals," adds Snitkin.

Extending the idea of community, the store will try to make its author reading room available to other neighborhood and community groups when it isn't being used. With its Western marketing savvy and Eastern service principles, the East West Bookshop may have the real New Age model for success.
--Barbara R ther
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