New Orleans Booksellers' Christmas Rally

by Bob Summer, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 12/19/2005

Although New Orleans' population remains far below pre-storm levels, for the most part the Big Easy's independently owned bookstores are having a surprisingly busy holiday selling season. At the New Orleans Gulf South Booksellers Association's recent Christmas party, said Octavia Books owner Tom Lowenburg, "it was notable that all of the local independents are back with a presence in the city."

With the exception of Michelle Lewis' two Afro American Book Stop stores, all the stores are located in the higher ground of the Garden District and French Quarter that escaped the worst of the flooding. Even Lewis, who lost one of her stores, reopened for business in a room at Mary Price Dunbar's Beaucoup Books with inventory salvaged from her other, partially-damaged store. "I thought it was important to come back, even at a reduced level, for my customers who have returned or hopefully soon will be returning," she said.

Joseph DeSalvo at Faulkner House Books, an oasis for new and rare books in the French Quarter, is hoping for the return of tourists too."About 80% of our sales come from visitors," he said, "so our business won't pick back up to what it was before Katrina until tourism comes back." Nonetheless his sales are being kept alive by phone and e-mail orders from previous out-of-town customers who want to support him. New customers are also finding him through Shop for New Orleans, a locally founded Web site that opened soon after Thanksgiving.

According to shopforneworleans.com's home page, the site's purpose is "to help New Orleans rebuild itself."In addition to Faulkner House Books, the sites "books" category includes links to the sites of Beaucoup Books, Pelican Publishing, Garden District Bookshop, Maple Street Bookshop, and Octavia Books. While no one can quantify how much the site has helped, Garden District owner Britton Trice has seen a spike in Web and phone orders from out-of-towners. "Pat Conroy was among the first to call me after Katrina," Trice noted, "and so far he's ordered 20-25 books."

As for what's selling, there's a brisk demand at each store for books about New Orleans and coastal Louisiana.Melvin Rodrique and Jyl Benson's Galatoire's Cookbook (Clarkson Potter) is a Christmas bestseller everywhere. But the hottest book in town by far is Tom Piazza's Why New Orleans Matters (see Three Answers for a Piazza Q&A).