General retailers reported "robust gains in virtually every category of merchandise and every type of store" in March, according to the New York Times. Thomson Reuters estimated sales at stores open at least a year rose 9.1%, and Retail Metrics said same-store sales jumped 8.7%. In both cases, these were the best monthly gains since the companies started tracking such sales in 2000.

"This really seems to herald the end of the consumer spending slowdown," Bill Dreher of Deutsche Bank Securities told the Times. "Consumers across the entire spectrum are spending. It's department stores, it's discount stores, warehouse clubs--it's in all subcategories in retailing, which is new."

There were some caveats to the good news: Easter fell in April this year but was in March last year, which helped this year's March numbers somewhat; dollar sales are still below the record sales of 2006 and 2007; and comparisons are with March 2009, when sales were down 5%.

Still, there was much good news, including a greater percentage of sales at full price. Ken Perkins of Retail Metrics said in a report, "Consumers are generally feeling better about their plight and are finally making discretionary purchases."

Among same-store sales results: Kohl's rose 22.5%; Nordstrom was up 16.8%; TJX gained 12%; the Gap was up 11%; Macy's rose 10.8%; BJ's Wholesale Club rose 10.6%; Target climbed 10.3%; and Costco was up 10%.

Tracey Weber has joined Barnes & Noble as executive v-p, textbooks and digital education, at B&N.com. She was formerly at Travelocity, where she held several positions, most recently president, North America. Earlier she was co-founder and COO of SITE59.com, which was bought by Travelocity, and was a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group and Ernst & Young.

In a statement, B&N CEO William Lynch said, "In a very competitive market, Tracey led Travelocity to become one of the world's leading travel websites and we believe her track record for building and growing business will help Barnes & Noble leverage its existing advantages in selling textbooks online and in the emerging digital education market. Industry experts expect the digital education arena to explode over the next few years and we believe Tracey's experience will enable us to harness the resources we have through Barnes & Noble College Bookstores on over 600 of the best colleges and universities campuses in the country."

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Motoko Rich, who has reported on publishing and book news for the past four years at the New York Times, is shifting to the business section, according to an internal Times memo posted on Talking Biz News. Before joining the Times in 2003, she worked at the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times.

If tradition holds, a new publishing reporter will be named from another section of the Times--and move on to a different post in a few years.

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Apple plans to offer iPad's electronic bookstore on its iPhone and iPod Touch. Yesterday, "the company gave a sneak peek at a number of new features that will be included in the next version of its mobile smart phone software, iPhone OS. The software will allow users to buy electronic books from Apple, read them on their iPhone or iPod touch, and keep them synchronized with books they're reading on their iPad," Forbes reported.

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Bloomberg BusinessWeek predicted that the iPad "may force Japan's $21 billion book market to reshape pricing in the industry by historic proportions" in a country where publishers set retail prices and prevent discounting.

E-book sales are four times those in the U.S., but are mostly of comics on mobile phones. Devices like the iPad may "allow authors to cut out the publishers as middlemen," a Daiwa Securities Group analyst said. At the least, the iPad may change publishers' arrangements with authors and distributors.

In a briefing earlier this week, communications minister Kazuhiro Haraguchi and members of the Electronic Book Publishers Association of Japan compared the iPad with the "black ships," Commodore Matthew Perry's four Navy steam ships whose appearance in Japan in 1853 helped push Japan to open its ports to trade.

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The Easthampton Star reported on the Montauk Book Store, Montauk, N.Y., which has been opened by Perry Haberman, former owner of the Madison Avenue Book Shop in New York City and president of the Montauk Library, and his wife, Cristina.

The Habermans bought Barnacle Books last year and renovated the space. "I wanted to open a solid little bookshop," he told the paper. "Because of my involvement with the library, I know Montauk wants and needs a bookshop."

Besides general, children's, diet, gardening and cooking titles, the store has rotating displays of local artists' work and readings.

The Montauk Book Store is located at 37A the Plaza, Montauk, N.Y. 11954; 631-668-4599.

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Bradley's Books, the Pittsburgh, Pa., area bookseller, is expanding into three mall stores formerly occupied by Borders Express stores, giving the retailer seven stores, the Pittsburgh Tribune reported.

Marvelously named owner Mike Paper told the Tribune: "Our competitive advantage lies in the fact we deal with primarily bargain books. Overstocks, remainders, close-outs, things we can find at deep discounts. In today's environment, it's especially valuable to offer consumers value." The stores also carry some new books.

Depending on location, some of the Bradley's stores emphasize African-American, spiritual and religious titles, while all stores do well with sports and history, Paper said.

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Three smart booksellers offer tips on writing effective shelf talkers in this week's Bookselling This Week. Among other points, Joe Drabyak of Chester County Book & Music Company, West Chester, Pa., said, "Being both a sports fan and a dedicated bookseller, I use what I tend to think of as an 'ESPN' approach in creating my shelf talkers. Each should be Erudite, Succinct, Personable, and Noteworthy."

Carol Schneck of Schuler Books, Okemos, Mich., commented: "Handwritten is definitely best. It makes it obvious that a real person cared enough about this book to draw it to your attention."

And Suzanna Hermans of Oblong Books & Music, Rhinebeck, N.Y., said, "In an idea lifted from BookPeople in Austin, shelf talkers in the fiction section are at eye level, so every book at eye level is a face out staff pick. We've been doing it for just over a year, and sales of these books are phenomenal."

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Book trailer of the day: Wild Horse Annie and the Last of the Mustangs by David Cruise and Alison Griffiths (Scribner).

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Silly book trailer of the day: 50,000,000 Pearls Fans Can't Be Wrong: A Pearls Before Swine Collection by Stephan Pastis (Andrews McMeel).

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ESPN's Mike and Mike in the Morning radio show broadcast Thursday from Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Pittsburgh, Pa., where Messrs. Greenberg and Golic were promoting their new book, Mike & Mike's Rules for Sports and Life (ESPN Books).

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Bad economic times in the Czech Republic have spelled trouble for booksellers and "many bookstore owners are finding that coffee, alcohol and tobacco bring in more cash than the latest tomes," according to the Prague Post, which also noted that bookshops catering to English-language readers and tourists have been particularly hard hit by a decline in tourism.

"Our faithful customers are still buying books, but we're missing the customers coming in from the street and the tourists who would be willing to spend money," said Miro Peraica, owner of the Big Ben and Anagram bookshops.

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At Houghton Mifflin Harcourt:

Carla Gray has been promoted to director of adult marketing. She was formerly associate director of marketing.
Candace Finn has been promoted to subsidiary rights manager, handling all children's rights. She was formerly sub rights associate.
Emer Flounders has been promoted to publicist.

 

Have a tale about love and automobiles? Debra Galant has launched a contest on Facebook to promote her upcoming novel, Cars from a Marriage (St. Martin's, April 27). People are sharing true stories of romance, revenge, road trips and more for a chance to win an iPod Nano.

The winner will be "determined totally subjectively," according to the contest rules. One of Galant's favorite stories so far is from a scorned wife who piled mud on the driver's seat of her philandering spouse's beloved BMW--and then had to clean it up because her own car wouldn't start and she had to borrow his.

The idea for a contest came about while Galant was speaking with David Henry Sterry for a new edition of his book Putting Your Passion into Print. After the interview, "I turned the tables and asked him to give me some marketing advice," Galant said. Sterry suggested a contest, which Galant is promoting primarily through Facebook. So far more than 50 people have touted it on their own pages and posted a link to the "Cars from a Marriage" contest page. There is also an ad on Facebook and on Galant's blog at www.Baristanet.com, as well as a feature on the home page of her own website. This past weekend, she handed out cards featuring the book and contest at the New York International Auto Show in Manhattan.

Galant has her own real-life auto tale to tell. Inspiration for Cars from a Marriage came during a couples counseling session. Throughout the years, her father had given her and her husband used luxury cars when he was ready to upgrade. Despite being offered a hand-me-down Mercedes, Galant's husband decided that this time he wanted to select his own car instead (which he did, a Subaru). "As we discussed this, we realized that our whole marriage could be told through car stories," said Galant. "That became the motif and structure for the book."

The Cars from a Marriage contest is open until April 27. Click here to read the entries.--Shannon McKenna Schmidt

 

The winners of 2010 Indies Choice Book of the Year winners, sponsored by the American Booksellers Association, are:

Adult Fiction: Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese (Knopf)
Adult Nonfiction: The Lost City of Z by David Grann (Doubleday)
Adult Debut: The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam)
Young Adult: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic)
Middle Reader: When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (Wendy Lamb Books)
New Picture Book: The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney (Little, Brown)

Kate DiCamillo won Most Engaging Author "both for being an in-store star and for having a strong sense of the importance of indie booksellers to their local communities."

In addition, three books were voted into the Indies Choice Book Awards Picture Book Hall of Fame:

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst and Ray Cruz (Atheneum)
Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans (Viking)
The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson (Viking)

For honor award winners, click here.

All winners will be invited to the Celebration of Bookselling luncheon on Wednesday, May 26, at the Javits Center during BookExpo America.

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The Bram Stoker Awards, which recognize superior achievement in horror writing and are sponsored by the Horror Writers Association, have gone to:

Novel: Audrey's Door by Sarah Langan (Harper)
First Novel: Damnable by Hank Schwaeble (Jove)
Long Fiction: The Lucid Dreaming by Lisa Morton (Bad Moon Books)
Short Fiction: "In the Porches of My Ears" by Norman Prentiss (Postscripts #18)
Anthology: He Is Legend, edited by Christopher Conlon (Gauntlet Press)
Collection: A Taste of Tenderloin by Gene O'Neill (Apex Book Company)
Nonfiction: Writers Workshop of Horror by Michael Knost (Woodland Press)
Poetry: Chimeric Machines by Lucy A. Snyder (Creative Guy Publishing)

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Nominations for the 2010 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, sponsored by Comic-Con International, have been made in 29 categories and may be found here. Winners will be announced at a gala banquet at Comic-Con on Friday, July 23, in San Diego, Calif.

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China Miéville's The City and the City was honored with the British Science Fiction Association award for best novel at the 61st Eastercon convention, Odyssey 2010. Other award winners were The Beloved Time of Their Lives by Ian Watson and Roberto Quaglia (best short fiction) and Mutant Popcorn by Nick Lowe (best nonfiction). The best artwork prize went to the cover of Desolation Road by Stephen Martiniere.

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Finalists for the 2010 Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa include Nigerian Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani for her debut novel, I Do Not Come to You By Chance; Wale Okediran, a former president of the Association of Nigerian Authors; and South African Kopano Matlwa for Tenants of the House and Coconut, 234NEXT reported. The winner will be announced April 30.

 

The Name of the Nearest River: Stories by Alex Taylor (Sarabande Books, $15.95 trade paper, 9781932511802/1932511806, April 2010)

Opening lines of a book we want to read:

It was a solid week of looking before we finally found Ronald Pugh.

Me and Granville, my good friend, were sitting in my kitchen playing no limit hold 'em with a couple of other guys when the news about Ronald's disappearance came over the scanner. He'd gotten drunk and fallen off the Big Slee Dam into the Gasping River. He'd been fishing for carp, and now they were dragging the bottom and shoals for him, and it was some pretty sad news for everybody if you want to know the truth. Most of us shook our heads and folded out of the game, but Granville got hot as light bulbs. He jumped up from the table cussing. He said it wouldn't do, Ronald falling off the dam, and that it was just like him to go and do something that awful while he was busy playing poker. He said he wanted to go looking for Ronald. He said there was a score to settle.

Myself, I couldn't see how it mattered all that much. The river had wiped the slate clean. It's got a way of doing that fairly often, I've noticed.--Selected by Marilyn Dahl

Diane Meier is the author of The New American Wedding and president of the marketing firm Meier. Her career spans writing, design and public speaking. Her first novel has just been published by Henry Holt: The Season of Second Chances (March 2010). Meier lives in New York City and Litchfield, Conn. Visit her website at dianemeier.com.

On your nightstand now:

I always read a number of books at once. And I rarely carry books between New York City and Connecticut--they wait for me in each spot, like friends I will visit at home. Currently I'm reading Venetia Kelly's Traveling Show--the latest novel from my husband, Frank Delaney--a brilliant, fast, funny, satirical look at the politics of love and money in 1932 Ireland; Hilma Wolitzer's Summer Reading, a small, engaging book about a summer reading group and three women whose lives are opened and expanded because of books (a chamber piece, maybe--but a chamber piece by Mozart); Nicky Haslam's Redeeming Features, a dishy memoir filled with great notes on the culture of the 1960s and behind-the-scenes accounts of people I've been interested in forever; Zach Mason's Lost Books of the Odyssey, a witty, playful, smart reworking of the classic Homeric myth, as Odysseus reinvents his own story; Amanda Vail's brilliant and graceful biography of Jerome Robbins, Somewhere, full of psychological insight and unexpected forgiveness.

Favorite book when you were a child:

Aged seven and under: I realized in looking at this list that the illustrations were as important to me as the text or the story. Winnie the Pooh, The House at Pooh Corner, When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six. Eloise, of course; I often had parfaits and hot chocolate at the Plaza, and I thought that we might catch a glimpse of her one day, but it never happened. Through the gift of a German neighbor, I received the scary but wickedly compelling Strewwelpeter, which flummoxed my mild-mannered parents. And, above all, I loved my grandfather's Beardsley-illustrated edition of Oscar Wilde's Salome; I colored in only one picture.

Seven and Older: Any number of volumes of the short stories of John O'Hara. At 11, I turned in a book report on O'Hara's Ten North Frederick, which the teacher refused to accept, claiming that the book was far too adult in content for a child. I was then forced to create another book report on Black Beauty. I was, and remain, more than annoyed at that teacher.

Your top five authors:

John O'Hara for short stories, Henry James's earlier work, Edith Wharton, Truman Capote and Frank Delaney for--everything. But only five??? That's impossible! Please make room for Sara Pritchard, author of Crackpots.

Book you've faked reading:

I've never hidden my abandoning Proust (or Joyce), but I do remember a high school book report with the grade of an A- appended to a note that said, "Imagine the grade if you'd read the book!"

Book you're an evangelist for:

Sontag and Kael: Opposites Attract Me by Craig Selilgman. Okay, I'm willing to admit that this isn't the book I'd put in everyone's Christmas stocking. But it's right up there as one of my favorite books--ever. It's a book primarily about opinion and two women whose lives were deliberately and specifically charged with challenging and championing positions, within the ephemeral and subjective nature of ideas. Craig Seligman writes wonderfully, with a high degree of personal insight and self-revelation, though never to the detriment of his subjects. One comes away appreciating both Sontag and Kael, as I always have--as I always will--but appreciating the sweetness and generosity of Seligman even more.

Book you've bought for the cover:

Helmut Newton's White Women.

Book that changed your life:

Dorothy Rogers's My Favorite Things. I poured over its rather rigid sense of appropriateness. And then, 40 years later, it informed the design of my book The New American Wedding--Ritual and Style in a Changing Culture.

Favorite line from a book:

"Why don't you rinse your blond child's hair in dead champagne to keep it gold, as they do in France?"--From Diana Vreeland by Eleanor Dwight.

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, of course, because there is no way to go back now and read it again, as a teenager.

 
There is no horror greater than the horror of childhood, where we must learn the rules that help us survive in the world. Never take candy from a stranger, don't touch that, look both ways. Childhood is one long lesson in how not to get hurt. While you're learning that lesson, the world seems a dangerous place, full of misunderstood meaning and menace.

If you look at the literature of childhood, from the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm to the wizard world of Harry Potter, you find a massively confusing world of adult rules, deception and mendacity. Child heroes stumble through this darkness, virtue and purity their only tools of defense against the big, bad world of adulthood. Sometimes this world is Wonderland. Sometimes it is a gingerbread house. Once it was a chocolate factory. In Douglas Clegg's newest book he calls this world Neverland.

Neverland is a dark fantasy, a horror novel, about childhood. On a small island off the coast of Georgia, the Jackson family's summer retreat is a haunted swampland of cursed legacies and lurking evils. The adult Jacksons spend their days in a bourbon-soaked haze, bickering and taking refuge from the heat. The children (Beau, Nonie, Missy and Sumter) spend their days playing games and being bored until they discover Neverland, the name they give a dilapidated shack on the family property. The first lines of the story tell us more than we would like to know about this particular playhouse:

You see, Lucy lives in Neverland. And Lucy can do things, bad things. It is Sumter who most clearly hears Lucy's voice, though it is his cousin Beau who tells us the story. While the adults in the story teeter around drunkenly unaware, the children are waging a battle. Like childhood itself, it is a battle where the rules are unknown and the damage is unfathomable. A final showdown between Beau and Sumter will determine the boundaries of Neverland once and for all. This particular summer on the island will change everything and the borderland between child and adult will be breached forever. One can only imagine what the Jackson children will write for their back-to-school essays about "What I did on my summer vacation." One thing is for certain: it will not be suitable for children.--Michael Wells

Shelf Talker: Neverland is a mix of Southern Gothic, horror and coming-of-age story--a chilling adult bedtime story for those not afraid of the dark.

Janet Geddis plans to open Avid Bookshop later this year in Athens, Ga.

That, my friends, is a simple declarative sentence that encompasses almost unimaginable layers of vision and revision, planning and adaptation. I first wrote about Janet last fall after meeting her at the SIBA trade show (Shelf Awareness, October 2, 2009) and thought it would be fun to see how the quest is evolving.

"Since I first met you at SIBA, things have definitely been on the upswing," Janet said in a recent interview. "It's funny to think I considered myself as someone super-involved with the community then--now I am so much more active."

She has ramped up her involvement with community-based events and a Buy Local Athens initiative, for which she serves as secretary. Janet also created an Avid Bookshop Facebook fan page that has already attracted nearly 600 fans, and "in mid-March, I hosted my first-ever Avid-related book club: launched by way of the We Are Athens Facebook page."

There is a threefold purpose to hosting book groups pre-opening, she explained: "I am too impatient to wait, I want to meet more folks interested in community and reading, and I want to get all of these 'firsts' out of the way so that I'll be a slightly seasoned veteran by the time the storefront opens. Once we have a fully functioning bookstore, I'll have plenty to be nervous about." This pre-opening strategy also includes bookselling online through Biblio.com.

Janet credits assistance from numerous colleagues in the book trade for her progress thus far and noted in particular her gratitude for being awarded an Emerging Leaders scholarship to this year's ABA Winter Institute. "I connected with many booksellers and industry professionals, including Mitchell Kaplan of Books & Books and Richard Howorth of Square Books, both of whom were kind enough to sit down and chat with me for a couple of minutes we managed to steal between sessions. For the last couple of years, I've heard seasoned booksellers say that Winter Institute is especially helpful for making personal connections. This was certainly true for me. I got to spend more time with some folks I'd met at previous book events."

Among these colleagues are Anne and Laura DeVault, who will soon open Over the Moon Bookstore and Artisan Gallery, Crozet, Va. "I'd made an immediate connection with the sisters when we met in September," Janet recalled, "but it was at Wi5 that we hatched some grand plans for working together. Just last week I cashed in some SkyMiles so that I can fly to Virginia to help them open their store in May."

Janet said the biggest lesson she has learned thus far "is to follow my gut. There are some people I've met who immediately strike me as genuine, thoughtful, and helpful--I've trusted my instincts and have ended up getting to know some of the most well-connected, kind people in Georgia and the book world. On the other hand, I've met a limited number of people with whom I just don't connect; I've been approached with business ideas that don't quite mesh with my vision, no matter how tempting the proposal. I've learned to really listen to myself and, following this rule, I haven't had any major regrets."

It will come as no surprise that money has proven to be the biggest challenge, but Janet said she has found numerous "creative, strange ways to make some money and spread the word about Avid Bookshop." In February, she held her "first-ever photography show with the mission to raise funds for the store's website--we reached our goal during the opening-night reception." She has also launched a fundraising campaign and established an IndieGoGo.com fundraising page.

"Local businesses, artists and writers have contributed things to act as part of the 'VIP perks' packages I'm offering for various donation levels," Janet added. "And indie publishing company Two Dollar Radio is donating a dedicated percentage of their website book sales directly to Avid this month."

She is also contending for a $50,000 grant from the Pepsi Refresh Project. "I've reached out to several bookstores, friends, and community organizations to ask them to vote each and every day. We're steadily climbing in the rankings, too."

Avid Bookshop is "still on target for opening in late 2010, and I'm really pleased with the way I've taken my time to get to know the business since hatching this idea a couple of years ago," Janet said. "For a while there, I was growing quite impatient, but now I have a more Zen-like approach. I'll keep plowing ahead, working hours each day on my plans. This way I'll stay on target and am confident that good things will continue to happen."--Robert Gray (column archives available at Fresh Eyes Now)