Even before September 11, the slowing economy made many booksellers and others in the industry nervous about the Christmas season. After the attacks, of course, it seemed that a stunned nation might stop buying much of anything, including books, for the rest of the year.
But many independent booksellers reacted quickly and improvised, offering events and finding titles that met the needs of customers wanting to know more about Islam, Afghanistan, the Middle East, terrorism and U.S. foreign policy; wanting to deal with grief and loss; wanting to remember the World Trade Center—and wanting to escape.
Indie booksellers contacted by PW in recent days reported a range of experiences. Sales at some stores have dropped substantially, but others have seen sales rise. Surprisingly, many are optimistic about the holiday season.
Ups and Downs
Donna Urey, owner of White Birch Books, North Conway, N.H., had the best results of any bookseller PW spoke with. Sales in October rose 7%—8%, which is all the more remarkable considering that last October's sales rose 20%. September as a whole was down "a little." The store has sold "a lot of books you'd expect"—current events titles—as well some "escapist" fiction. Urey speculated that White Birch has been helped by an increase in tourism on the part of people from Boston and New York City who want to "get out into nature" and get away from it all.
At the University Bookstore in Seattle, sales are down but are "not disastrous," according to Mark Mouser, general book manager. During October, business began to rebound, in part because of the store's involvement with a weekly series of lectures, run by the university's Jackson School of International Studies, which has drawn "thousands" and was created after September 11 to discuss topics such as Islam, the Taliban and global terror. The bookstore sells related books at the lectures and has distributed reading lists. The store is also selling videos of the lectures.
"There's a real thirst for knowledge to learn about events, to learn what caused them and where we're going," Mouser told PW.
At Quail Ridge in Raleigh, N.C., sales in September were down "only" 4%, but in October fell 20%. Owner Nancy Olson attributed the drop to "the trauma of events." Quail Ridge has never had comparable-sales drops during other economically difficult times, she emphasized.
Similarly, sales at Lemuria Bookstore, Jackson, Miss., slumped 11% in October, even though sales during the last three weeks of September were up 9%. Owner John Evans said people continue to read, "but we're not having as many big purchases."
Lemuria has combined books on Islam, the Taliban, terrorism, special forces and germ warfare in a special display. "As the war goes on, people will want to figure out what and who we're fighting," Evans continued. "I don't think the news media has helped us understand these issues."
As at many other stores, travel book sales are down, Evans added. However, the economy and war aren't "affecting other sections. If there are good books by your favorite writers, people are going to want to read them."
At Book Passage, Corte Madera, Calif., "certain kinds of sales are not happening," including travel books, but "serious history is selling very well," according to co-owner Elaine Petrocelli.
Book Passage's strong events schedule was severely disrupted. Altogether, 18 authors have cancelled appearances since September 11, which was "disastrous" because each event usually draws 200—300 customers. Because some people weren't aware of the cancellations, the store has tried to offer something else to customers who showed up. For a Sebastian Junger cancellation, for example, Book Passage was able to show a tape of him in a National Geographic special that hadn't aired yet.
Because of anthrax fears, the local post office informed Book Passage that its most recent newsletter would take a month to be distributed locally. As a result, the store printed 100,000 copies, rather than the usual 40,000, and distributed them in local newspapers. It has also promoted the fact that the complete newsletter is available on the store's Web site (www.bookpassage.com).
Mitch Brown, manager of Kramerbooks & Afterwords, Washington, D.C., reported that sales are "fine, not strong." Foot traffic is down slightly, but this has not resulted in lower sales. The store is insulated somewhat because many of its customers work in nearby think tanks. "Most of our customers are not spending their own money," Brown said.
The mood in the store is the same as always, he continued: "It's irreverent, loud, messy." Travel book sales are down but most other categories are doing well, including current events. "Fiction still sells," he noted, since "people need to escape." The only kind of title related to the tragedy Kramerbooks & Afterwords has not stocked is anything about the World Trade Center. "My gut tells me that's mostly of interest in New York," Brown said. "We're not getting requests for them."
Two New York City stores have seen sales suffer from a lack of tourists. At the Gotham Book Mart, the low number of overseas visitors "has definitely taken a toll," owner Andreas Brown told PW. As a result, Gotham is "stirring the pot" in its mail-order business.
Customers are slowly returning to the store, Brown noted. "It's warming up a lot, but who knows? If we have another wave of violence, it'll regress to the way it was before."
Likewise, St. Mark's Bookshop has been hurt because of a lack of tourist traffic, said owner Robert Contant. In particular, the store misses "academics from abroad who would ship books home."
Still, sales at St. Mark's were up 1.5% in October. "Although it doesn't seem like much, we feel we're lucky," Contant commented. Among the top sellers are the usual current events titles, as well as critical theory and poetry titles, graphic arts and design and some Web design titles. "Even though the dot-com business has disappeared," said Contant, "the guys who still work in the industry come in and buy whatever is new on their corporate accounts."
Contant noted that Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire by Chalmers Johnson (Owl) is the "most problematic" hot title to get. "It keeps coming in and out of stock." Conversely, Yale University Press "should win an award for keeping [Ahmed Rashid's Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia] in stores," he said. "They've been great."
Contant noted, too, that the first 10 days in September were "the strongest in the store's history, up 25% from the previous year." Much of this he attributed to the closing of two Posman stores, Rizzoli and the book section in Tower Records. With the loss of the Borders store in the World Trade Center, "the only big stores left in lower Manhattan are two B&N superstores, St. Mark's and Shakespeare & Co. We've become kind of an island."
Christmas Cheer?
Lemuria's John Evans predicted "a tremendous holiday season. It's going to be outstanding." He said the store was looking forward to "a lot of good books to work with," including John Grisham's Skipping Christmas (Doubleday); Jimmy Carter's Christmas in Plains: Memories (S&S); Lawrence Block's new Scudder mystery, Hope to Die (S&S); Greg Iles's Dead Sleep (Putnam); Curtis Wilkie's Dixie: A Personal Odyssey Through Historic Events That Shaped the Modern South (Scribner) and more.
Mouser at the University Bookstore said he is "hopeful about the holidays. I'd like to think books will fair much better than other retail products during a time when people are looking more inward and toward home."
The Gotham Book Mart is planning to push some holiday events "more than we normally would," Andreas Brown said. The store is promoting Edward Gorey titles (it has almost 4,000 in stock) and putting on an exhibit/ show, The Unknown Edward Gorey. "All you can do is try to get a little creative," he explained. "We put the nose to the grindstone."
Book Passage's Petrocelli said that, "depending on what happens next," the holiday season "is going to be fine." Considering consumers' shopping choices, "I'd be more likely to buy a book than a cashmere sweater," she said. "It's just more appropriate."
