So-So Holiday Sales

The 2005 holiday season delivered a few surprises, but as predicted by booksellers large and small, no big book emerged as a runaway bestseller. The broad range of strong-selling titles, however, was enough to allow most booksellers interviewed by PW to at least meet expectations, and in some cases exceed projections. "We had a great Christmas," said Margaret Maupin, buyer for the Tattered Cover in Denver, while Karen Wilson, owner of Page & Palette in Fairhope, Ala., called Christmas "fabulous," noting sales were ahead by more than 10%. Other independents were satisfied with more modest gains. Nicola Rooney, owner of Nicola's Bookstore in Ann Arbor, Mich., said sales were up 1%, a figure she was happy with, given that sales had been slightly down for most of the year. Dana Brigham, manager of Brookline Booksmith in Massachusetts, also said sales were a bit ahead over the holidays, following a generally flat year.

Of the two major chains that reported holiday results, Barnes & Noble hit expectations, with sales for its flagship superstores up 5.2%, to $1.1 billion, in the nine-week holiday period. Same-store sales were up 2.6%. Sales at Barnes& Noble.com increased 1% in the period, to $106.1 million, while sales at Dalton fell 18.4%, to $41.3 million, due to store closings. Comp-store sales at Dalton increased 3%. Books-A-Million did better than expected, with holiday sales rising 8.9%, to $123.9 million. Comparable-store sales for the period increased 4.1%, with books and gifts performing the strongest. Online sales exceeded budget.

A number of regional booksellers had their sales impacted by local issues. The New York City transit strike had a dramatic impact on sales at St. Mark's Bookshop, with sales off by at least 15% each day of the three-day walkout, said owner Robert Content. "When the strike was over, it gave people about a day and half to do Christmas shopping, and I think most people shopped online," Content said.

On the Gulf Coast, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina led to depressed sales at Lemuria Books in Jackson, Miss., in the fall, but business picked up in November and December, said owner John Evans. "With such a good December, I feel like our Katrina problems are finally behind us," Evans said. In New England, several booksellers expressed concern about the tight holiday shopping season. Nonesuch Books & Cards, with stores in South Portland and Saco, Maine, had flat holiday sales, despite losing lots of business to two Friday snowstorms, said Jonathan Platt, co-owner. "The thing we're noticing is that the intense retailing period is shortening. It's scary with the weather in the Northeast."

It didn't matter in what part of the country a store was located when it came to getting hold of the two sleeper hits of the holidays. Customers looking for either The Silver Spoon (Phaidon Press), the English-language version of Italy's culinary bible Il Cucchino d'argentino, and Misquoting Jesus (Harper San Francisco), scholar Bart Ehrman's revisionist take on the writing of the Bible, often came up empty. Now both publishers are dealing with the best kind of problem—finding a way to meet demand.

Despite an initial worldwide printing of 200,000 and the house's belief that its cookbook would be a strong seller, demand for The Silver Spoon far exceeded Phaidon's expectations. "While we were optimistic about [the book], we might have been a little too conservative," said managing director Chris North. After the cookbook's first printing promptly sold out, the house scrambled to get it back into stores before Christmas. North said that the second printing did restock most stores in time, but he acknowledged that there were probably still "a lot of disappointed consumers who couldn't find a copy." After a "very big" third printing, Phaidon is making plans for a fourth run. "We're hearing from every retailer that this is a book which will continue to sell well into the winter, spring and even next Christmas," North said.

Harper San Francisco v-p and deputy publisher Mark Tauber echoed many of North's sentiments about his house's smaller, but no less pleasantly surprising, hit. Misquoting Jesus had an initial run of 23,000 copies, and demand prompted three more printings, bringing the number to 85,000. "We knew [this book] could break out, but we expected it to have a much slower build," Tauber said. The first signs that the book might be a hit came after the author appeared twice on NPR—the December 8 Diane Rehm Show and the December 13 Fresh Air—and Harper went back to press immediately. Now, with most accounts restocked, Tauber said he thinks Misquoting Jesus will maintain its strong sales through May when, fortuitously, the screen adaptation of another book with its own controversial take on the Bible hits screens: The Da Vinci Code.

Barnes & Noble Adult Holiday Bestsellers

Borders's Children's Holiday Bestsellers