Spurred by hot new releases, audio sales picked up in February for many retailers.

"February is showing a lot of increase and a lot of promise," said Suzanne Simkin, owner of Bookears in Atlanta. "If you look at this February's titles verses last year's, it's very exciting. We've got the new Grisham, which is a great shot in the arm, plus First Counsel and Michael Connelly's new one, A Darkness More Than Night [both Time Warner], who's starting to get a really big following on audio. The new Oprah pick, Joyce Carol Oates's We Were the Mulvaney's [HighBridge], is new on audio, so that will do great, too. Plus, almost the entire bestseller list is available unabridged and on CD. So it's been really good."

The current surge in audio sales can only get stronger, with heavy hitters including Stephen King's Dreamcatcher (S&S) in March and Sue Grafton's P Is for Peril (Random House) due in June.

The upswing is a relief after a disappointing holiday season, which saw flat audio sales at most chains and independents (although a few audio-only stores did well). With no huge hits, the holiday season was not dominated by any one title; a wide breadth of titles sold over the fourth quarter.

Same-store holiday sales were flat at Waldenbooks, "solid" at Borders and up just "a little" according to Barnes & Noble spokeswoman Debra Williams. Waldenbooks audio buyer David Lamere blamed the economy: "People shopped later and were more frugal [in 2000] than [the previous] year," he said.

Audio-only stores had mixed results for the holidays. At Bookears in Atlanta, "It was tough," said Simkin. "Part of the problem was that nothing great was out; any big titles were coming out later. The economy made it tough, the price of gas made it tough, as did the weather—we had a snowstorm that shut us down for two days. The presidential election killed us, too; people turned off the audiobooks and turned on the radio. It was just a culmination of things."

There were some bright spots, however. Amazon audio editor Rob McDonald said sales were "strong, better than last year." Talking Book World's same-store sales were up about 15% for the holiday, said president Richard Simtob. Jimmy B's in Hawthorne, Calif., experienced an impressive 50% increase in holiday business, said owner Jimmy Belson.

Audio Editions' catalogue sales were "up some, not spectacularly, for the holidays," said CEO Grady Hesters. "We had a steady increase in business, similar to the previous year."

But "the real story was the breadth of product being sold," noted Hesters. Tom Clancy's The Bear and the Dragon (Random House) sold well at most outlets, as did Garrison Keillor's Pretty Good Joke Tape (HighBridge). Some stores did well with Harry Potter in December; others didn't, finding that their customers had done all their Potter shopping last summer. The Left Behind series was hot at Talking Book World and Bookears. Waldenbooks' surprise bestseller was the original version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Random House) on CD: "For the month of December, we sold more of that than Clancy," said Lamere. Amazon's McDonald found that "New Age and spiritual titles are really strong. The Four Agreements [Amber-Allen], Unleashing Your Psychic Potential [Hay House] and all the angel guides—that's a substantial trend for us."

Barnes & Noble spokeswoman Debra Williams added, "Since we expanded our audio New Releases section and faced the titles out, we've noticed that titles have a longer shelf life. Also, some titles have unexpectedly bounced up into the top 15." Surprise bestsellers at B&N include Beowulf and the Edgar Allan Poe Audio Collection (Harper Audio).