The Run-up to Christmas: A Bookseller Survey

This story originally appeared in Children's Bookshelf on November 30, 2006 Sign up now!

by Joy Bean, Max Woertendyke and Diane Roback, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 11/30/2006

With the holiday season upon us, Bookshelf spoke with independent booksellers across the country to find out if their holiday rush has begun, given the early arrival of Thanksgiving. We also asked them to tell us which titles they are especially excited about selling this season. A big thank you to all the booksellers who took the time to talk to us during this busy time.

Copperfield's, Sebastopol, Calif.

For children's book buyer Marci Johnson, the holiday selling season has definitely begun. The displays went up the day after Thanksgiving and she says, "We're extremely busy. My numbers are higher than in the past."

Specific titles she thinks will do well this season are Lemony Snicket's The End, Octavian Nothing, Twilight and New Moon. "New Moon was in People, as something to buy for the holidays," she says. "And we had Stephenie Meyer in one of our smaller stores for her first book." She also predicts Flotsam will sell well, as well as On the Night You Were Born. "It's a very nice book but I didn't think it was going to do as well as it has." She's successfully handselling The Floating Island, which she calls "an excellent read. I think it has classic potential. It's just very fun and funny as well."

Johnson predicts a strong holiday season for her store. "I think everyone is ready to move on into a positive zone in their lives," she says. "I think people should enjoy their families, read to their families, havea wonderful time with each other."

Anderson's Bookshop, Naperville, Ill.

Christmas business has been "pretty good so far," says Erin Keables, children's backlist buyer. "It's about on par with last year. People have a little less money to spend so they are becoming more discriminating in what they spend."

Current strong sellers at Anderson's include The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane—"that's a gorgeous one"; American Born Chinese—"we've been selling it like crazy and we're so sad that's it's out of stock"; and Toys Go Out—"people come in and we say 'you've got to have this book.' "

Keables has several holiday favorites, such as A Christmas Carol, illustrated by P.J. Lynch; and Through the Animal's Eyes. Other backlist staples: Olive, the Other Reindeer, The Polar Express, "anything by Robert Sabuda," Christmas Day in the Morning and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.

Handselling is a big part of their business, Keables says. "We interact with everyone who walks through the door. A lot of people walk in with huge lists for moms, dads, kids, grandparents. That tends to be the mainstay—just general good books."

R.J. Julia Booksellers, Madison, Conn.

"There are really a lot of great picture books for kids this winter," says R.J. Julia's Debby Brook. "I'm smitten with Winter Is the Warmest Season and we love The Snow Globe Family. Also, The Story of Holly and Ivy is one of my all-time favorite books from childhood, so I'll be handselling that one."

Brook predicts they'll sell a lot of copies of Twilight and New Moon. "We've done pretty well already with An Abundance of Katherines and Endymion Spring," she says. "For under 12s, That Girl Lucy Moon has done well and Clementine has really seemed to hit on that feisty little girl spirit. I'm also thinking that [nonfiction] books like Pick Me Up and Go! are going to be big."

For Brook, the Dave Barry/Ridley Pearson Peter Pan books are still going strong. Other novels that are doing well but flying "a little below the radar" are You Know Ingo by Helen Dunmore, St. Iggy by K.L. Going and Leonardo's Shadow by Christopher Grey. "We have booksellers who love them and handsell them, so that makes a difference."

As far as holiday favorites, Brook says they always sell Tomie dePaola's books, and stock "every Eric Carle," along with Jan Brett's The Mitten and Gingerbread Baby. She's also had a few surprises. "Today I've had three or four customers asking for Dickens's A Christmas Carol. I don't know what has made everyone so nostalgic, but we have copies."

Books Etc., Falmouth, Me.

Donna Gerardo, children's book buyer, assembled her holiday display as soon as the books started arriving in October, but she's only just now moving the display to the front of the store. So far, her bestselling holiday title is Tomie dePaola's Christmas Remembered. Of course classics from years past are also doing well, including The Polar Express, Olive, the Other Reindeer and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever—"because that is one of my favorite titles," she says. "I read it to people who are waiting in line."

Titles she is handselling include Barbara Cooney's The Story of Holly & Ivy and The American Story by Jennifer Armstrong, illustrated by Roger Roth. "It's selling really well," she says. "I sold a complete dump of them. It's a beautiful book."

Customers are asking for Toys Go Out by name, Gerardo says, but she's a bit surprised that no one has asked for any of the New York Times Best Illustrated books yet. "People who come in asking for books by name are looking for the next title in a series, like Warriors and Gossip Girl."

Aladdin's Lamp Children's Books and Other Treasures, Arlington, Va.

For children's manager Alina Gawlik, the holiday rush has not yet begun. "I find that during the holidays I do less [business], because everyone tends to go to big shopping centers," she says. But she's been emailing coupons to her mailing list and is expecting a big weekend because of that, plus December is usually her big month. And her holiday display never goes up until after Thanksgiving, which she says customers thank her for.

Gawlik says her big sellers are what the newspapers advertise. "I'm not a seller who tries to push big books. The minute a book gets onto the bestseller list, it sells for 40% cheaper at the big stores, so I don't really try to sell bestsellers," she says. "I'm a former children's librarian and I have never believed in the bestsellers. Books are being sold a lot because they are pushed by advertisers and publishers—they're not necessarily the best."

Some of the holiday titles she enjoys selling are Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory, The Night Before Christmas and The Twelve Days of Christmas. "I get a lot of different editions with different and great illustrators," she says. Also doing well in her store: Fancy Nancy, Eloise in Hollywood and Christmas Remembered.

As for the holiday season outlook, Gawlik says her store is trending a bit downward. "I think the Internet is affecting us more and more," she says. "If I don't have a book, they won't order from me—they'll go online."

Blue Willow Bookshop, Houston, Tex.

For owner Valerie Koehler, October was "pretty spectacular," thanks to several in-store and off-site events, and she's anticipating an increase in demand for some of the titles highlighted in her newsletter, which has just gone out. Koehler mentions Little One, We Knew You'd Come and A Creature Was Stirring as two titles she has high hopes for. "There have been some great ones to pick from, much better than last year," she says.

Other titles she's excited about selling are the new Tree of Avalon novel, because the store recently hosted author T.A. Barron. "It always helps with authors touring through. The staff gets excited and gets behind the book," she says. Toys Go Out is another favorite for Koehler, who says, "This is a nice stand-alone for a younger reading level." She also likes When Santa Fell to Earth by Cornelia Funke, "because not everyone is three years old. For [those older readers] we are just looking for a great story that they will like."

The title she says she's most excited to sell right now is Steven Caney's Ultimate Building Book. "I think this one is totally awesome. It's for boys, for grown-up boys, anyone who loves to build things. I think it's awesomely cool."

As for predicting how the rest of the holiday selling season will be, Koehler expects it to be very good. "We've been working hard to market ourselves to some new audiences, geographically," she says. "We have really worked hard to increase our exposure in the community and I think we are beginning to reap the benefit of that. We are working that personal angle, that community angle, that friendly 'welcome you, make you feel good that you are buying the right gifts' feeling. I think if we just keep doing that we won't have any trouble."

Cover to Cover, Columbus, Ohio

Owner Sally Oddi says her store keeps a year-round holiday section, though it triples in size around this time of year. "Many families have a tradition of adding to their collection every year, and they always look at the holiday stuff," she says.

A wide range of frontlist titles are selling strongly. "In picture books we're doing well with Blue 2, and the Snowman pop-up. I'm handselling the stuff I like and the staff have their favorites, like Fairest and Mommy? Fancy Nancy is holding up surprisingly well. John, Paul, George, and Ben and I'm Dirty! are doing really well. Also Will Moses's new Night Before Christmas and the Magic Tree House Christmas one. In fiction, The Wright 3, Octavian Nothing and The Book Thief—that one's been out for a while, but it's still doing really well."

A new holiday favorite for Oddi is Tomie dePaola's Christmas Remembered. "It's a nice one to share in a family, especially one with children of different ages, where it could kindle something in each of their memories." And a longtime favorite is Silver Packages. "On October 1 we started getting calls asking for four or five copies of it," she said.

Backlist is a key component of the season at Cover to Cover. "It's the season for that too—people having their first grandchild want the book they had for their child. So backlist is really good for us around this time."

Oddi is optimistic about how her Christmas season will be this year. "We distributed 11,000 of the ABC children's catalogue and we are getting good response," she says. "I'm not expecting double digits up from last year but I'm hoping a few points. I think there is still anxiety in consumers, especially regarding economics. I just hope they still value books."

The Children's Bookstore, Baltimore, Md.

"People are definitely starting to shop for the holidays," says owner JoAnn Fruchtman. Her store provides a lot of personal recommendations, so she was hesitant to name specific books that are selling well. As far as holiday titles, "There are always the families that buy one new Christmas book every year," she says, "so it's nice to have something to give them." For Hanukkah, she adds, "they don't really care about the story—they are just looking for books that we can help them choose that are appropriate for the child they are shopping for."

This time of year, "of course," they sell a lot of picture books. But Fruchtman says she has been disappointed in picture books in general over the last few years. "I think what happened is a lot of the publishing houses decided that the novel was the thing, so there has been a lot of emphasis on novels. I think they are producing too many and a lot of them are not good. I think they should be more selective. [I've spent] 20 years in business and more is not better, it really isn't."

At her store, the fantasy category continues to be strong. "We sell a lot of fantasy novels," she says. "We sell a lot, in general, of hardback novels. It's because there really aren't other places who know what to carry. So people come to us because we actually read them."

And Skippyjon Jones is a big favorite at the store. "We think Judy Schachner is great," Fruchtman says. "They're picture books with fun art, and the range of appeal is quite large."

Laurel Bookstore, Oakland, Calif.

Owner Luan Strauss says that for her small store, the holiday rush has begun. While all of her holiday books aren't out on display yet, the cards are out and the windows have been decorated. "We definitely had an uptick in sales over the past two weeks and we've pulled out the holiday wrap for Christmas and Hanukkah," she says.

The titles she's expecting to sell well this season are Steven Caney's Ultimate Building Book, Dragon's Eye and Operation Typhoon Shore, "because we loved the first book [Operation Red Jericho] and it will be easy to sell this one." She's looking forward to handselling Merriam Webster's Visual Dictionary ("it's a stunning family gift") and The Child's Anthology of Poetry ("we like things the whole family can like"). Backlist favorites include Hanukkah Shmanukkah and Through the Animal's Eyes. "We sell Chris Wormell really well," she says. "Customers really love his stuff."

Holiday titles don't sell particularly well at Laurel Bookstore. "Last year, 1% of our holiday sales were holiday-themed titles," Strauss says. "We expect this to go up this year, but no more than 3%, if Halloween and Easter are any basis for comparison. People love to see the holiday books, but they don't always want to buy them."

However, she does predict a strong holiday season. "Of course, I always do in November," she says. "We're up a little bit over last year even with the Harry Potter dip, so we're really trying to hang onto that and make sure that everyone knows we're here."

The Dolphin Bookshop, Port Washington, N.Y.

For buyer Robin Ryan, the holiday rush hasn't really begun yet. "We don't have the room to put the holiday stuff out early," she says. "This coming Saturday is probably going to be the big Saturday. Because Hanukkah starts the night of the 15th and a lot of families do both Hanukkah and Christmas, by the end of this weekend, people are going to feel ready to shop. It's the calm before the storm. Basically, we're skewing on track with last year."

When asked which titles she's excited about selling, Ryan says, "There isn't a big book for kids yet this season, and I don't see one coming. There are too many issue books, too many 'hard reality' books. We don't have an aunt or an uncle or a grandparent who wants to give a book about a drunk-driving accident."

What she is recommending to customers: Edward Tulane, and for the younger set, Pinkalicious, Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road? and Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree. One title she hopes will be brought back in print is Harvey Slumfenburger's Christmas Present. "Candlewick should even put one of those canvas covers on it, to make it a collector's edition," she says. "That has become a classic under their own nose and they don't even know it."

A major issue Ryan is grappling with is competition from Scholastic Book Fairs. "Some of the schools around here do three or four sales a year. It's very painful," she says. "We used to have a lot of author events, but it doesn't pay to have them come because people say, 'We have a book fair, I'll just buy it there.' So we have a problem making recommendations because they'll make a note and buy it at a fair. It certainly has affected our business."

To combat the effects of the book fairs, Dolphin Bookshop now sells a number of non-book items. "We are a full toy store, as well as a card store," Ryan says. "The toys and books help each other. We even sell food here. If we didn't, we wouldn't be here anymore."