Industry News

On Tuesday, January 20, Oprah announced that the next title to be read by Oprah's Book Club is HarperPerennial's One Hundred Years of Solitude by Nobel Prize-winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

After five consecutive months of gains, retail sales at bookstores turned downward in November. Preliminary data released by the Bureau of the Census shows November 2003 sales at bookstores of $1,041 million, down 2.9 percent from $1,072 million in November 2002.

Despite soft sales in November, 2003 year-to-date sales for bookstores are 2.5 percent better than for the first 11 months of 2002.

Overall retail sales of $316 billion for November 2003 were 5.0 percent ahead of the $301 billion for November of 2002.

Hardcover History, the partnership of Book Sense and The History Channel promoting programming and reading combinations, will return in March with a great new look. The series, which emphasizes why history matters, breathes life into significant subjects both past and present.

In early January, ABA launched a petition campaign to gather signatures of bookstore customers who support amending Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, which stripped away protections for customer privacy. The goal is to garner at least one million signatures.

"We are very pleased by the enthusiastic response that has greeted the launch of our petition campaign," said ABA COO Oren Teicher. "We hope all members of ABA will seriously consider participating."

At the urgings of the Salt Lake Vest Pocket Business Coalition [VPBC] -- an independent business alliance with approximately 200 members -- Salt Lake County recently agreed to fund a comprehensive study on the economic impact of locally owned businesses in the Salt Lake metropolitan area. The Salt Lake County Council has committed $30,000 in 2004 for the study, which will be conducted by the University of Utah's School of Business. The school will work directly with the county council.

The American Booksellers Association kicked off its 2004 Booksellers Forum schedule on Friday, January 9, in Tampa, Florida, with a gathering of booksellers from the Southeast Booksellers Association region. The forum, at the Hillsborough County Public Library, was the first of 16 scheduled over the next four months in various locations around the country. (For a complete forum schedule, click here.)

ABA has announced that it is in the process of updating the Bookstore Source Guide, a comprehensive listing of over 1,100 nonbook vendors. It is expected that the Guide will be back online at BookWeb.org in early March with a new name, more categories, and a user-friendly design.

Booksellers at ABA member bookstores are voting to choose the best Book Sense 76 titles of the past five years and, in the process, are entering a contest to win the grand prize of five nights' accommodations and admission to BookExpo America for the next five years or one of four first place prizes to be announced. Participation is open to owners and employees of all ABA member bookstores.

This season's second ABA Booksellers Forum held in conjunction with the Southeast Booksellers Association will take place on Wednesday, January 28, at McIntyre's Fine Books at Fearrington Village in Pittsboro, North Carolina (near Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill). Representing ABA at the forum will be CEO Avin Mark Domnitz and COO Oren Teicher.

In this letter to booksellers, ABA President Ann Christophersen talks about the association's plans to mark the fifth birthday of Book Sense, including a special project to select the best Book Sense 76 titles published during the past five years, a new look for the 76 lists, and changes in White Box mailing procedures.

January 5, 2004

Dear Fellow Booksellers,

Happy New Year!

As part of this year's celebrations of Book Sense at Five, ABA is asking booksellers to help select the best Book Sense 76 titles published during the past five years. Participation is open to all employees of ABA member bookstores, and all participants in the selection process will be entered into a Bookseller Contest with prizes for five booksellers. The grand prize will be free admission and housing at BookExpo America for the next five years.

On Tuesday, January 6, six independent booksellers, the Great Lakes Booksellers Association (GLBA), and the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) joined publishers and magazine distributors in filing a lawsuit to challenge the constitutionality of a new Michigan law that makes it illegal to allow a minor access to any material that is "harmful to minors."

A number of independent booksellers across the country reported sales gains this holiday season, reversing last year's trend. In areas of the country where unemployment rates remain high, holiday sales were down slightly from the previous year, but better than booksellers' expectations.

While booksellers and librarians have taken a leading, and crucial, role in efforts to restore the protections for customer privacy that were eliminated by the USA Patriot Act, ABA now wants bookstores to call on customers to lend a hand to the cause, too -- literally.

ABA's Booksellers Advisory Council (BAC) will be meeting with representatives of the ABA Board and senior staff in Miami, Florida, on Sunday and Monday, January 11 - 12, to offer the association guidance on a number of issues important to independent booksellers. The BAC is composed of 25 members and represents a broad cross-section of views from within the community of independent booksellers.