Bookstore Sales Lose Ground in August
August bookstore sales failed to equal last year's unusually strong performance. August 2002 sales were down 4.4 percent from August 2001.
Bookstore sales for the period failed to keep up with overall retail sales. Overall retail sales of $321 billion for August 2002 were 5.2 percent higher than the $305 billion realized in August of 2001.
August is the seventh month in a row in which bookstore sales failed to keep pace with overall retail.
2001-2002 RETAIL SALES for BOOKSTORES (unadjusted)
"'I'm Rose Pardue, of Rosemont,' Rose had introduced herself as a girl. It had been her open sesame all over the Black Belt of Alabama. She fixed her once-famous eyes on the girl by her bed." So begins the first story of Mary Ward Brown's new collection, It Wasn't All Dancing and Other Stories, published by the University of Alabama Press (UAP) as part of its Deep South Book series.