Industry News

The 15-day period of record-breaking rainfall that hit Southern California triggering flooding and mudslides caused some minor damage and mixed sales results for booksellers in the region who responded to Southern California Booksellers Association Executive Director Jennifer Bigelow's request for a status report.

NRF Finds Holiday Sales Increased 5.7 Percent

This August, Cody's Books is opening in San Francisco, across the bay from the store's other locations on Telegraph Avenue and Fourth Street in Berkeley. The 21,000-square-foot space, a former Planet Hollywood, is in the busy Union Square district. Cody's owner Andy Ross told BTW that although he had no intentions of expanding, when he visited the site at the landlord's request, he "immediately knew it was a great space and a great location. After 15 minutes, I decided it would work. I believe it's the greatest location in California."

On January 10, Holtzbrinck Publishers trade book companies announced that beginning in November 2005 all trade book shipments from its Gordonsville, Virginia, VHPS warehouse will be shipped free freight. "Our customers have been asking for this, and our volume has reached a point where it is now possible to make this change," said Alison Lazarus, president, sales division, for Holtzbrinck. "We believe it will help us remain competitive and allow us to have more consistent marketplace distribution for our titles."

ABA member booksellers can now cast their votes for the 2005 Book Sense Book of the Year awards via an online ballot. All employees of member bookstores are eligible to vote in the streamlined balloting process announced last week.

Registration is now open for Paz & Associates' full-week intensive workshop for new and prospective booksellers to be held from Monday, March 14, to Friday, March 18, on Amelia Island, near Jacksonville, Florida.

Based upon reports from independent booksellers across the country who recently spoke to Bookselling This Week, there didn't seem to be one particular trend when it came to this year's holiday shopping season. Sales results varied from region to region, and from bookseller to bookseller. While many experienced significant sales increases over last year, some reported that sales remained flat, while other not-so-fortunate booksellers noted that holiday sales dropped drastically in 2004.

The American Booksellers Association has launched a new, streamlined balloting process for the 2005 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards. In a break from the past, the initial round of voting to choose five finalists in each category has been eliminated, and voting is now open to all booksellers from every regular member bookstore.

To help booksellers make the most of the July 16, 2005, publication of J.K.

ABA member booksellers who have pre-registered for the Hotel ABA - NYC at BookExpo America (BEA) 2005 must send arrival and departure dates and credit card information to Travel Tech (BEA's travel company) by January 31 to ensure their reservations. Otherwise, pre-reservations will be canceled on February 1.

Bloomsbury Buys Walker

On Wednesday, December 22, British publisher Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, announced that it had agreed to buy Walker Publishing Co. Inc., an independent publisher of adult nonfiction and children's books, as reported by the Associated Press. The deal, which Bloomsbury hopes will consolidate its position in the U.S. publishing market, is valued at $6.5 million, the AP article noted.

Bookselling This Week will be taking a holiday next week. There will be no issue on Thursday, December 30; however, we will be publishing the Book Sense Bestseller List, which will be e-mailed to booksellers as usual on Tuesday, December 28, and posted to BookWeb.org by Wednesday afternoon. We would like to remind booksellers that it is crucial to keep reporting to the lists at this busiest time of year.

The hot topic of media coverage of the 2005 holiday shopping season continues to be gift cards. They have been described as the "hottest gift of the season," "riskless," the "shopper's saving grace," "the easiest present to get through airport security," and "more glamorous than cash."

Booksellers around the country offering Book Sense Gift Cards are reporting record sales now, and are confident that increased sales will result when the cards are redeemed after the holidays.

As announced by ABA in October, after December 31, 2004, the association will no longer sell Book Sense Paper Gift Certificates to stores. Orders for gift certificates to meet bookstores' post-holiday needs may be placed until then by calling (800) 637-0037, ext. 1292 or 1293.