Summer Business: Temps Are Hot, and Sales Are Good
This story originally appeared in Children's Bookshelf on August 3, 2006 Sign up now!
by Diane Roback, with reporting by Joy Bean, Jennifer M. Brown, Max Woertendyke
and Allia Benner -- Publishers Weekly, 8/3/2006
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The weather was also affecting sales at Whale of a Tale in Irvine, Calif. "These are unpredictable days," says owner Alex Uhl. "It's been oppressively hot in California. But overall I would say business is just fine. I wouldn't say over the top—it can always be better, but we're doing fine." Uhl says she is taking advantage of the season's more relaxed pace: "We're changing over our computer system, so it's kind of nice to do it now instead of the fall when we are a lot busier."
For Dana Harper at Brystone Children's Books, sales are up or about even with last summer. "Summers are busier for us—this is our busy time," she says. Erin Taylor, owner of Wonderland Books and Toys in Rockford, Ill., sales are "up a little bit, compared to last summer, maybe 5% to 10%."
"So far so good," says Natacha Liuzzi, children's book buyer at Book Rack and Children's Pages in Essex Junction, Vt., but for her, too, sales are "definitely not up. All around it's been hard for independent bookstores."
At the Learned Owl Book Shop in Hudson, Oh., owner Liz Murphy says sales are down, "and I am one who in 23 years hasn't had to say that." Murphy isn't panicking, though, "because I think business is down everywhere, in all markets everywhere for the most part. I just think there is too much going on with weather emergencies, gas prices, etc."
Summertime is vacation time, of course, and the travel patterns of families have a direct impact on sales. Lorna Ruby at Wellesley Booksmith in Wellesley, Mass., explains that in her store's affluent Boston suburb, "so many customers go away. Families send kids to camp, or families go on vacation. Moms who stick around, though, come to buy books to send to kids at camp." Also, she says, "Sales this year aren't as strong only because they're up against Harry Potter sales from last summer."
Harper at Brystone notices other changes in sales patterns. "95% of our customers are teachers," she says, "but in the summer we see more parents and grandparents. They have more time to relax and pick things out." Also, in summer she finds that parents tend to want more advice in making their selections.
Beth Golay, marketing manager at Watermark Books & Café, Wichita, Kans., says her store's summer business picks up as the season goes on. "We have a lot of teachers gearing up to head back to school already. Just when you think the holidays are over and it will drop, it doesn't."
"Summer is usually an active time for us for two reasons," says Sharon Hearn, owner of Children's Book World in Los Angeles. "June is usually good, because schools end up with money they need to spend by the end of the fiscal year," though Hearn says that can be hectic because the teachers all tend to come in around the same time. "And parents come in to pick up books for their kids on vacation or at camps."
As most of the booksellers in our survey mentioned, summer provides a brisk business for books on summer reading lists. Hearn says that parents "come in for specific titles [on school lists] and a lot of times they have a choice of books, so they look to our staff to fill them in and to figure out what is best for their kids. For vacation or summer activities, people browse for a while first, but then they will say, 'We have a long plane ride, and we need to keep our children occupied.' And we show them what we think can help." She adds that her store does well with books on tape: "That's a big category for plane rides or long car rides."
For some booksellers, camps provide an opportunity for repeat business. Not only do parents send their kids off to camp with books, Ruby at Wellesley Booksmith says, but they come back in to buy more books to send to camp, "because kids have already finished what they brought with them."
Paperback is the summer format of choice at Secret Garden Bookshop. McDanold says that when people travel, they tend to leave books along the way, either on purpose or accidentally, and so they prefer the price and portability of paperbacks. "There is more reluctance to buy hardcover in the summer," she notes, "unless it is the new hot series—like Peter and the Shadow Thieves. That one is displayed right up front and it is on the state [reading] list, so kids are aware of it. It's nice to have a book like that in the summer."
Ann Seaton, manager of Hicklebee's in San Jose, Calif., says her store does a lot of business with out-of-town vacationers visiting family in the area. Also, she says, "We have a summer reading program and a lot of schools require summer reading, so we see those kids and we always try to slip them something fun as well, if they have the time to do leisure reading."
Harper comments on more multiple sales during the summer months. "People come in for one book and then they can't help themselves. They say, "I only wanted to buy one book and I have a stack!"
The juggernaut that is the fantasy novel continues unabated, among the booksellers we spoke with. "Fantasy is still going really strong for us—amazingly," Liuzzi says. For Uhl, too, fantasy is "still high on the list." She says that in their displays, "We sort of mix our stuff up. We have different book tables and make 'great summer read' tables, but it's still mostly fantasy."
Picture books have picked up "a little bit" for McDanold, but the big area right now is paperback fiction for ages 7–12." For Golay at Watermark, it's middle readers and YA fiction. "We still sell a lot of picture books in hardcover," she says, "more in hardcover than in paperback. We do sell a lot of fantasy. But then we also sell stand-alone, strong fiction.
What's Selling?
Tim Huggins, owner of Newtonville Books in Newtonville, Mass., is doing well with the recently released Pirateology. "Candlewick did a great job promoting Pirateology," he says, "and it's selling well." It's also a hit for Murphy at the Learned Owl: "We already doubled our initial order, sold out and reordered."
A spring bestseller, Markus Zusak's The Book Thief, continues its popularity. Seaton at Hicklebee's says, "We're doing really well with it. I know it's a little bit older, but we picked it as our book of the year because we all loved it, and we're talking to adults about it too." Uhl at Whale of a Tale states unequivocally, "I love The Book Thief. I recommend it to every parent who walks in the store, even if they have a three-month-old." She says that parents come in with kids looking for books to take on vacation, "and I ask them if they have read it for themselves. People have come back and said, 'Oh, I loved that book, thanks!' So that's had a lot of weight over the year."
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo is a handselling favorite at Book Rack and Children's Pages. "We've all been touting it here," Liuzzi says. "I think every person in the store, whether they read children's books or not, has read it. That book has done well for us."
Ruby at Wellesley Booksmith says that she and her colleagues love Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief and have been recommending it to customers. "We say, 'Oh, you haven't read this yet? You have to read this!' "
Other strong-selling titles mentioned by booksellers include Just Listen by Sarah Dessen, the Warriors series by Erin Hunter ("it's doing very well and people are coming in for that"), Christopher Paolini's Eragon and Eldest ("word of mouth is still selling it"), the new title in D.J. MacHale's Pendragon series, The Quillan Games, and last month's Daniel Pinkwater pick, Bats at the Beach by Brian Lies.
Another favorite cited several times is Ark Angel and other titles by Anthony Horowitz. Dara La Porte, manager of the children's department at Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C., points out that "the desperate kids have already gotten Ark Angel. It's slowed down some, but certainly hasn't stopped. We've had him [in the store] twice now. He's terrific."
Golay at Watermark is doing well with the paperback edition of Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko. "Looking for Alaska [by John Green] and Dairy Queen [by Catherine Murdock] are just starting to take off now," she says. "Peter and the Shadow Thieves is doing really well and we're selling a lot of Pendragon, Artemis Fowl and Charlie Bone. All the kids are reading them and as they finish they come in for the next one. And then there are also kids that don't know what they want, and they come in for recommendations. Sometimes they come in and ask if you have anything new by Eoin Colfer or others. What I think is exciting is that they are willing to try new books by an author."
Looking ahead to fall, many retailers are eagerly anticipating the new (and final) Lemony Snicket title, due out in October. Hearn at Children's Book World says she was looking forward to Sid Fleischman's biography of Houdini, adding, "There are some nice Hanukkah books and some nice Christmas books. And some books on jazz. I've seen a couple and I liked all of them."
Though the industry continues to present a slew of challenges, Hearn says she remains optimistic for herself and for other children's booksellers, "even though I know it's still hard. We never know what's coming around the corner, but I do feel optimistic. Customers really appreciate the services that we provide."
McDanold shares Hearn's optimism. "I believe, during my lifetime at least, there will always be customers," she says. "I've been doing this for 11 years and I'd like to be doing it for 11 more."
As Uhl puts it, "There is nothing better than a child you help who has come in as an infant and has grown up and comes back and says 'Thanks to you, I love reading.' Or, 'Because of you, I did well.' It's that special reward of knowing you made a difference in someone's life. There is not a day that I don't look forward to coming to work."
