O Come All Ye Shoppers
S. Maughan, C. Di Marzo &D. Roback -- 1/26/98
PW looks at a handful of holiday bestsellers
The decorations and special displays have been put away and the throngs of shoppers have thinned. Now comes the time to assess the successes of the holiday bookbuying season. Retailers and publishers alike routinely cross their fingers and hope for strong sales performances during the holiday rush-especially from seasonal titles and the fall frontlist. PW recently followed up on several books that showed sales momentum going into December 1997 and found a sack full of encouraging reports.
For most people the holiday season is a time for sharing traditions. It's not surprising, then, that shoppers consistently purchase classic children's titles for gift-giving. Demand for tried-and-true titles like The Polar Express, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Where the Sidewalk Ends, The Giving Tree and books starring such favorite characters as Madeline, Arthur, Curious George and Winnie-the-Pooh is understandably high at this time of year.
This year book buyers had plenty of Pooh to choose from. Disney Press's anthology The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh hit bookstore shelves in September and has sold 200,000 copies in more traditional outlets to date. The book had been available exclusively in Disney retail stores since spring 1997, where it racked up an additional 30,000 copies in sales. "It really came alive this fall," said Patrick Nolan, sales director for the Disney children's book group, of the anthology. At a $20 list price, a bit higher than previous Disney Press titles, Nolan said that The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh represents a new direction for the imprint. Extra care was taken with everything from page layout to the stories' read-aloud quality to jacket design, according to Nolan; "it's a high-quality package that adds real value to the family library." The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh joins the Dutton title The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh, which was published in 1996 but is still going strong, having sold more than 350,000 copies net since its release.
Disney's Nolan also cited another holiday sales success for his company, Puppies, a photography book by William Wegman that was marketed as both a children's and adult title, and has sold 170,000 copies since its publication in October. "Puppies was our first-ever New York Times bestseller [for the children's division], and sell-through for both it and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is continuing into the new year," Nolan said.
The Publicity Machine
In this age of cross-marketing, merchandising and instant books, publishers can be more timely than ever when it comes to producing titles about news events, pop culture and, of course, celebrities. And a publisher could not ask for a nicer holiday gift than to have one of the books on its list ride the wave of an ongoing media blitz. Such is the case with Bantam Doubleday Dell's paperback biography Leonardo DiCaprio: Modern Day Romeo, a title that performed very well this Christmas thanks to DiCaprio's rise to teen idol status. Modern Day Romeo was first published in February 1997 while the movie Romeo &Juliet (with DiCaprio in the lead role) was still enjoying a theatrical run that began in fall 1996. The book chugged along as DiCaprio's popularity increased and, following the release of the film Titanic (which included another plum role for DiCaprio) on December 19, the book experienced a surge in sales. Judith Haut, publicity director for BDD Books for Young Readers, reported that Modern Day Romeo reached the top spot on Ingram's bestseller list earlier this month, surpassing another popular teen title, Hanson: MMMBop to the Top. "The book was one of our quiet successes," Haut said. "It was moving steadily before, but after Titanic the book sold out and we suddenly had a bunch of reorders. Leonardo's so hot right now -- he was just on the cover of both People and Vanity Fair -- that the mania over him is really driving this book."
To keep up with the demand among young readers for all things DiCaprio, BDD will be releasing Leonardo DiCaprio: A Scrapbook in Words and Pictures on February 2. The 32-page book features minimal text and 31 photos, and will retail for $7.95. According to Haut, this title will be welcomed by a ravenous fan base. "They're going to want both books," she said. "They'll want to read about him and also have pictures of just him. It will be a real keepsake for fans." BDD will print an initial 100,000 copies and is about to go back to press for another 50,000 copies of Modern Day Romeo, which will include an updated chapter on Titanic. Also appearing this spring is Archway's Leonardo DiCaprio: A Biography by Nancy Krulik, a 128-page original paperback due out in April, with a first printing of 150,000.
A Story for Every Day
Balancing the trendy DiCaprio title on BDD's list is a much more traditional entry in the end-of-year competition. Although it may seem unusual for an oversized collection of children's stories priced at $29.95 to be a relatively easy sell, A Year Full of Stories, a British import by Georgie Adams, illustrated by Selina Young, has done quite well for its U.S. publisher, BDD. BDD Books for Young Readers publisher Craig Virden ordered an initial printing of 30,000 copies because, Haut said, "he was sold on the concept of a book with something to read every day." This concept, along with a holiday discount ($5 off the cover price if purchased before January 1), a calendar printed on the back of the jacket and an activity kit available to stores, all helped to make the title popular. There are now 40,000 copies in print with a sell-through approaching 75 percent, Haut said, adding that the company is not expecting many returns. Ingram sold through completely and reordered, and Barnes &Noble and Borders also had high sell-throughs, she reported. Although BDD d s not have immediate plans to do another reprint (they went back to press for 10,000 copies during the holiday season), Haut said the company sees the book backlisting and doing well in subsequent years.
Jen Haller, buyer for Joseph-Beth Booksellers, noted that the title was a big seller for Joseph Beth stores in Cincinnati and Lexington, Ky., and sold nicely for the Davis-Kidd stores in Tennessee, which Joseph-Beth acquired last October. Haller said that there weren't many new collections this year and that grandparents naturally gravitate toward illustrated gift collections but often want new titles because they don't know what the recipients might have. Stephanie Porter, children's manager at the Cincinnati store, said that the time-limited discount was popular with customers, who had easy access to the book because it was displayed on the store's new books table at the front of the store throughout the holidays.
A "Collectable" to Play With
These days, a new pop-up book by Robert Sabuda is eagerly anticipated by many booksellers who count the author-illustrator among their favorites to handsell. Sabuda's holiday offering for 1996, The Twelve Days of Christmas: A Pop-Up Celebration, was a hit (Sabuda visited many stores during a 10-city tour), adding to the excitement that surrounded the release of last fall's Cookie Count: A Tasty Pop-Up (Little Simon). According to Alan Smagler, v-p of sales and marketing at Simon and Schuster's children's division, the company printed 150,000 of the book and shipped just over 110,000 copies, and while the company is not planning a reprint at the moment, Smagler foresees the book doing well year-round, despite its high price point of $19.95.
Smagler's main concern, when S&S sales reps first went out with the book, was that the partial sales samples available could not convey Sabuda's "genius." Nevertheless, Smagler said, the author-illustrator's name proved to have weight with booksellers familiar with his past work. Sabuda also designed a pop-up bookmark, available when stores ordered the counter display, and that helped get the display into stores. And, "when we had finished samples to show, most accounts increased their order," Smagler reported.
Other factors contributing to the book's success were the large crossover potential into the adult market and Sabuda's first national television appearance -- on Good Morning, America, in December. Leo Landry at the Children's Bookshop in Brookline, Mass., said that the book appeared somewhat fragile to customers wanting it for a three-year-old, but was an easy handsell to adults who love pop-ups and to people buying the book for older children. The previous October, Sabuda visited the store during his tour for The Twelve Days of Christmas and sold 80 copies of his book. While Landry said an appearance would have definitely boosted sales of Cookie Count, the book was such a staff favorite that it was a natural holiday handsell.
Another Little Simon title, Snoozers: 7 Short Bedtime Stories for Lively Little Kids by Sandra Boynton, proved a holiday hit as well. By the end of December, this large-format $7.99 board book, with picture tabs to help kids choose a story, had shipped just under 90,000 copies, from a first printing of 100,000. Smagler at S&S pointed out that the huge success of Boynton's eight previous small-sized board books for Little Simon (which have a combined 3.5 million copies in print) had a lot to do with the book's popularity. "The strength of Sandra's name really helped to carry the book," he said. "It's also a great concept and a great format."
Snoozers sold well across all channels of distribution, Smagler said, stating, "It's hard to achieve a number like 90,000 in a few months if you're not in all the channels." And he predicted that sales will continue at a good clip. "Reorders have been very strong. It's going to sell all year; it's an instant backlist title. We're looking at reprint quantities now and I doubt we'll do less than 50,000." S&S also has very high hopes for Boynton's fall 1998 followup, a touch-and-feel book called Dinosaur Binky, which will retail for $9.99 with a first printing of 150,000.
Snoozers had a good showing for the Lauriat's chain, reported children's buyer Lorna Ruby. Boynton's earlier board books were "up in the top 10" of her board book bestsellers for 1997; "they've been selling really, really well for us," Ruby said. Recognition for Boynton was only one of the factors for Snoozers' success, though. "It was also the right price, the right size, the right format," she added. "And it was so cute. It was a very appealing package."
Jan Brett's legion of fans have come to expect a new fall hardcover from her each year, and she didn't let them down in 1997. Her The Hat (Putnam), which had a first printing of 210,000 copies, immediately landed on PW's bestseller list, and has been selling extremely well in all channels, according to Audrey Cusson, v-p and associate publisher, Penguin Putnam Mass Merchandise Group. While strong sales of a $18.95 hardcover are not unusual in the book trade, Cusson reported that the book was doing equally well in mass market outlets.
She gave credit to the "team effort" that g s into publicizing a new Jan Brett title. "We send her on a national book tour," Cusson said, "and well in advance we send marketing kits to bookstores, and to people in the surrounding communities [such as fans and teachers]. There's a buzz well in advance of her going out on tour. And Jan reaches out to her customer -- she has a very personal relationship with her audience." Clearly, too, a relationship that pays off in sales.
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