Sunday, January 07, 2007
Is Illiteracy Next?
Well, apparently (as if we needed to hear this from yet another quarter) America doesn’t read anymore. Two of the three big book chains reported bad sales for the nine-week stretch through December 30: Barnes & Noble termed it "somewhat disappointing sales for the season in a highly promotional and competitive environment," with comparable store sales slipping 0.1 percent at the superstores at $1.1 billion overall (putting them down 0.3 percent on a comp basis for the 48-week period, at $4.1 billion). BN.com sales rose 2.7 percent to $108.5 million for the holidays, but are still down 2.4 percent from a year ago for 48 weeks, at $376 million.
Sales suffered even more at Books-a-Million, down 2.1 percent, at $124.5 million for the holidays. CEO Sandra Cochran says in a press release that "(s)ales for the holiday season were below expectations as we confronted a quiet media environment and strong comparable sales in the prior year. The absence of a major movie tie-in affected both traffic and sales."
As a wordsmith, I’m obviously both disappointed and concerned. Books didn’t do well because there was no movie tie-in? Some publishers are confronting the competition from television directly: Court TV now offers a program hosted by a rotating group of mystery writers that include Michael Connelly, Lisa Scottoline, and Patricia Cornwell, in which the writers talk about the crime in question and how they would handle it in fiction. Sounds a little too close to the Judith Regan/O.J. fiasco of last December that everyone would just as soon forget.
More and more, authors need to find innovative ways to market their books, and that innovation must be part of any marketing plan that you offer a potential literary agent or publisher. As I said in n earlier blog, the mills are closing. We need to find ways to keep our craft alive.
And perhaps eventually the pendulum will swing the other way and people will begin picking up books again. That will be… way beyond the elements of style!
Jeannette Cézanne
Customline Wordware, Inc.
Sales suffered even more at Books-a-Million, down 2.1 percent, at $124.5 million for the holidays. CEO Sandra Cochran says in a press release that "(s)ales for the holiday season were below expectations as we confronted a quiet media environment and strong comparable sales in the prior year. The absence of a major movie tie-in affected both traffic and sales."
As a wordsmith, I’m obviously both disappointed and concerned. Books didn’t do well because there was no movie tie-in? Some publishers are confronting the competition from television directly: Court TV now offers a program hosted by a rotating group of mystery writers that include Michael Connelly, Lisa Scottoline, and Patricia Cornwell, in which the writers talk about the crime in question and how they would handle it in fiction. Sounds a little too close to the Judith Regan/O.J. fiasco of last December that everyone would just as soon forget.
More and more, authors need to find innovative ways to market their books, and that innovation must be part of any marketing plan that you offer a potential literary agent or publisher. As I said in n earlier blog, the mills are closing. We need to find ways to keep our craft alive.
And perhaps eventually the pendulum will swing the other way and people will begin picking up books again. That will be… way beyond the elements of style!
Jeannette Cézanne
Customline Wordware, Inc.
