STUDY PREDICTS SEASON OF INCREASED GIVING
A National Retail Federation survey has found that the average consumer plans to spend $671.89 this holiday season, up 3.6 percent from 2002, when consumers spent an average of $648.85. The survey says that there will also be a significant increase in the gift card sector, up 41.3 percent from last year.
Overall, NRF is projecting that holiday sales will increase 5.7 percent this year to $217.4 billion, the largest increase since 1999.
Source: National Retail Federation study
EBOOK INDUSTRY FACING TOUGH TIMES
The past few months have been volatile for the eBook industry. In June, Gemstar-TV Guide International decided to drop out of the eBook business. This was followed by PalmGear’s acquisition of Palm Digital Media, which produces eBook reading software and is an eBook supplier. BarnesandNoble.com then dropped a bombshell in September when it announced that it would no longer carry eBooks.
Despite the closures and consolidations, eBook industry insiders hold fast to the notion that the sky is the limit for eBooks, if only they ascend more slowly than once predicted. The reasoning may be based, in part, on figures showing that eBook sales have experienced significant growth, though these sales only account for a very small percentage of overall book sales. A recently released study by Open eBook Forum (OeBF), an international trade and standards organization for the eBook publishing industry, reported that over the first six months of 2003, eBook sales revenues were up by 30 percent and unit sales were up 40 percent over the same period last year. Sales are expected to top $10 million in 2003.
“We’re really seeing something emerging that has the type of sales growth that audio books had,” said OeBF executive director Nick Bogaty. “We’re starting from a small percentage and seeing good growth.”
In the current industry climate, some companies have decided to bail out of the eBook market, rather than wait for its potential to come to fruition. One such company was Gemstar-TV Guide International, which closed its eBook subsidiary in June and stopped selling its eBook reading device makers. According to Palm Digital Media director of business development Mike Seagroves, rougly 60 percent of eBooks are sold in the Palm Reader format. However, he noted that Gemstar users accounted for 20 percent of the market, a significant number of consumers that are now up for grab.
Bogaty said that BarnesandNoble.com’s announcement was more than a psychological blow to the eBook industry than anything else. “We certainly regret them leaving,” he said. “But the percentage of BarnesandNoble.com eBook sales as a percentage of the total eBook sales is small.”
Developing a new readership base may be the key to increase eBook sales. At an Open eBook Forum conference last December, Clifford Guren, group product manager of eReading, Windows Division for Microsoft, noted that the toughest part of selling eBooks is getting the consumer to try it the first time. Once they do, he contended, they develop an eBook habit.
Source: Bookweb.org
ABA and NACS MEET
American Booksellers Association senior staff met with senior staff of the National Association of College Stores at its headquarters in Oberlin, Ohio Oct. 12, to explore ways in which the two organizations can work together to the benefit of their members. Among the topics discussed were Book Sense and ways to make it more accessible to college stores; advocacy issues including sales tax issues and efforts to repeal Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act; business services programs offered by each group; educational programming and strategic planning; and industry research studies and the possibility of future joint studies.
Source: Bookselling This Week, Nov. 13, 2003.
ANNE RICE CLOSES COFFIN ON ‘VAMPIRE CHRONICLES’
Popular novelist Anne Rice, who was diagnosed with adult-onset diabetes after going into a coma, has decided to end her popular “Vampire Chronicles” series.
“I don’t think I will ever write about (vampire) Lestat again,” Rice, 62, said. “You see, Lestat really was (late husband) Stan. I gave him the same physical description, the long blond hair, the feline face.”
Stan Rice, her husband of 40 years, passed away after a fight with brain cancer. Rice has also undergone gastric surgery.
“I don’t feel that I want to write anymore from the point of view of the damned,” Rice said. “The Vampire Chronicles are at an end.”
Rice’s 25 novels have sold 136 million copies.
Source: Houston Chronicle, Nov. 5.
NEW ENGLAND TRADE SHOW DRAWS TWO THOUSAND
Nearly 1,340 booksellers attended the New England Booksellers Association trade show Oct. 24-25 at the Rhode Island Convention Center in Providence. Total attendance was 2,292, off slightly from last year.
Like the other regionals, this year’s 30th anniversary show was upbeat. Good summers at bookstores on Cape Cod and the islands and along the Maine coast contributed to the positive mood. Several suburban stores also reported an upswing in sales this summer and into the fall. Authors were highly visible at the shows, including historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, who received the President’s Award.
The unusually late date for the NEBA (it was held a month earlier last year) gave publishers a chance to showcase finished fall books.
MIAMI BOOK FAIR DRAWS 400,000 AND BOOK TV
The 20th annual Miami Book Fair drew 400,000 visitors and featured 270 English programs, 80 Spanish programs and 300 exhibitors. Fair events were also featured on CSPAN 2’s “Book TV,” which filmed more than 10 nonfiction panels.
BEA EXPLORES INTERNATIONAL GROWTH
Officials at BookExpo America announced several new programs and initiatives Oct. 28, including hiring a European-based consultant who is a former executive at the Frankfurt Book Fair, to help define and develop BEA’s presence in the international publishing community. Foremost under the initiatives undertaken is the announcement that Rudiger Wishenbart, the former press officer and director of communication of the Frankfurt fair will be retained as a consultant to advise on how to effectively market BEA to the European community, as well as explore ways in which BEA might further enhance its value to all international constituents in Europe and beyond.
Source: Bookweb Online
RETAILER SCAN: AAP, BISG TO SURVEY MASS MERCHANTS
In another step in the process of doing away with the price-point UPC bar code printed on the back of mass market paperbacks, wholesalers and distributors that service mass merchandisers will soon distribute a survey about whether they use the bar code. The findings will help the Association of American Publishers and the Book Industry Study Group to come up with recommendations in the next few months for dealing with the issue.
Source: Publishers Weekly
BOOKSTORE TRIES TO REVIVE PRICE DISCRIMINATION LAWSUIT
Carl Person, the attorney representing the Intimate Bookshop in its price discrimination lawsuit against Barnes and Noble and Borders Group, has filed a notice of appeal after judge William Pauley granted the two retailers’ request for summary judgment, in effect ending the case. Oddly, Pauley approved the defendants’ motion earlier this fall, several weeks after he had set Nov. 10 as the start of the trial.
Person has filed the complaint on behalf Wallace Kuralt, owner of Intimate, which once operated bookstores in North Carolina and Georgia because “it’s hard to take losing all that time and work” without getting the case to trial. Intimate first filed suit against the two chains in 1998.
Source: PW Daily
BAKER AND TAYLOR’S JIM ULSAMER TO RETIRE
Jim Ulsamer, who has held many management positions during a 30-year career at Baker & Taylor, will retire at the end of the year. Ulsamer, 53, is currently president of B&T’s retail division. Ulsamer has said he plans to move to Florida, where he recently bought some land.
B&T was acquired by William Stein this summer and laid off 150 people in September. A search for a successor to Ulsamer is underway.
Source: PW Daily
BORDERS HOME OFFICE LAYS OFF 12; ANN ARBOR STORE TO STRIKE
Borders Group has laid off 12 staff members at its corporate offices. Employees let go included buyers Linn Hopkins and Rick Adler, as well as Mary Deming, Tracy Bush, Lynn Lyman, Emilia Cox, Michael Sumida and Alphonso Tercero. Borders has attributed the move to “rightsizing.”
Speculation is that the layoffs may be related to Borders’ category management program. Borders has denied this, saying the layoffs can’t be correlated specifically to the program.
Source: PW Newsline
BOOKSENSE.COM UNVEILS NEW LOOK, ATTITUDE
BookSense.com has unveiled its newly redesigned hub site. The new site has been streamlined to make it easier for consumers to find their local independent bookstore’s Web site and to provide clear information regarding the Book Sense program and promotions.
Reasons given for the redesign include that the previous site’s shopping process confused customers, in that sales through the hub site were actually assigned to individual stores. Another reason given was that the former site was “getting stale.”
The hub site4 has information regarding the new Book Sense Gift Card Program that allows a consumer who has purchased a gift card, or who wishes to buy one, to find a participating independent bookstore. The site will also highlight publisher promotions, such as the current Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The Final Journey Sweepstakes.
RELIGION BOOK SALES DROPPED LAST YEAR
According to figures from the Book Industry Study Group, religion book sales fell in 2002, to $1.26 billion, after six years of growth. Unit sales have been relatively flat for the past six years, with BISG reporting that 164 million units were sold in 2002 compared to 166 millions in 1997.
Religion, however, is a complex category, with content that spans many subcategories and topics, making measuring the actual size of this publishing segment a difficult task.
Source: Publishers Weekly, Nov. 10, 2003.
CHRISTIAN BOOK SALES SLIP IN THIRD QUARTER
Christian book sales at Christian retailers fell slightly in the third quarter compared with the same period a year ago, but the retailers are looking for better fourth quarter sales, according to the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. The average Christian retailer reported a 0.7 perdent drop in average sales to $24,737 for the 250 top-selling book titles during the third quarter of 2003. In the same quarter in 2002, the average was $24,919.
The third quarter is typically slow before the holiday season. The ECPA said that third quarter results showed a year-to-date dollar volume increase of 6.8 percent. The Bible category continued to show an increase over 2002.
Source: PW Daily
TYNDALE HOUSE TO TIE IN TO GIBSON’s ‘PASSION’
Christian publisher Tyndale House has announced it will release an official tie-in containing photo images from Mel Gibson’s upcoming film “The Passion of Christ” along with accompanying Gospel passages, with a forward from Gibson himself.
Both the movie and the book are slated for release February 25. The movie, which depicts the last 12 hours of Christ’s life, was screened at the Christian Booksellers Association in July.
Source: PW Newsline