Since this is the time of year when struggling stores tend to close and several well-known stores are shutting their doors, it's easy to have the impression that indies are collapsing. Bookselling This Week provides some nice perspective on the issue. During 2006, according to ABA figures, some 94 stores opened, up from the 90 new stores that appeared in 2005. (The story includes a list of the 94.)

In other good news, BTW surveyed independent booksellers about the holiday season and found that the latter part of 2006 "shone brightly" for most of them.

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Deborah Sloan, formerly director of marketing, promotion, advertising and publicity for Candlewick Press, Abbeville Press and Trafalgar Square, has created Deborah Sloan and Company, a marketing and promotion firm for books and their creators that aims to increase clients' visibility and increase book sales. It will work with authors, illustrators, publishers and booksellers.

Sloan will offer the services of "creative professionals in publishing, marketing, copywriting and design."

For more information, go to www.deborahsloanandcompany.com.
 

The AMS bankruptcy continues to cause a great amount of angst among Publishers Group West client publishers, many of whom are supportive of PGW but loathe AMS, the distributor's owner since 2002. For these publishers, whose sales are primariy through the distributor, the effects are more painful than for suppliers of wholesaler AMS, who are taking major hits but aren't losing most of four months of total income and aren't unsure about the legal status of most of their own books.

PGW has had some positive news for its publishers. Yesterday the distributor indicated that key accounts, including Amazon, Ingram, Barnes & Noble, Baker & Taylor, Bookazine, Books-A-Million, Borders, Costco and "myriad indies," have expressed their support and will "treat their ordering and return patterns as business as usual."

In addition, PGW president Rich Freese wrote to publishers saying that the AMS bankruptcy court had approved payments to publishers for books that shipped or will ship on or after December 29. Checks for gross sales for the first week after December 29 should go out next Monday. PGW will send checks on a weekly basis for the time being.

One PGW publisher who spoke at length with Shelf Awareness noted that his company is paid monthly for net sales four months earlier so that he would have expected a check this week for September sales. That money as well as income for the rest of 2006 could be tied up in bankruptcy court for some time--and may disappear altogether.

Today a group of PGW publishers is consulting with a lawyer to explore forming a special class of creditors to represent their interests.

Ironically PGW had an excellent 2006. Unit sales rose 3% to 11.2 million. Gross sales grew 2.2% to $187.3 million. Net sales were up 5.5% to $138.6 million. Returns dropped 6.1% to slightly under 26%.

With a tone of disbelief, the publisher with whom we spoke noted that "last Thursday, PGW was having its best year ever. Now it's teetering on the edge. To their credit, the people at PGW are doing everything they can to get money to us. They understand how desperate we are and are horrified by what's been done." He added that "many publishers say they've never been happier with PGW. Since Rich Freese has been here [he joined the company in 2003], it's been incredible."

The publisher said that he and many others believe PGW was blindsided by the bankruptcy filing, and they don't understand why the financial problems at AMS have continued for more than three years. "AMS repeatedly has blamed accountants, blamed lawyers and blamed everyone but itself for the problems," he said, adding that he sensed the bankruptcy filing was recommended by "lawyers who might know AMS's business but did not know PGW's."

Sales during the holiday period at both Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million were below expectations.

At B&N, sales during the nine weeks between October 29 and December 30 were $1.1 billion, up 2.6%, but sales at stores open at least a year were down 0.1%, lower than the company's prediction of a "flat to low single digit increase." By contrast, sales at B&N.com during the same period were up 2.7% to $108.5 million.

In a statement, CEO Steve Riggio called the results "somewhat disappointing" and cited "a highly promotional and competitive environment."

Yesterday Sun Trust Robinson Humphrey downgraded B&N to "neutral" from "buy."

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At BAM, sales during the same nine-week period rose 0.7% to $124.5 million, but sales at stores open at least a year dropped 2.1%.

Sandra B. Cochran, president and CEO, said that sales were below expectations because of "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. A strong lineup in fiction performed well but could not offset the performance of the media-related titles in fiscal 2006."

Bestsellers for this season included John Grisham's The Innocent Man, Bill O'Reilly's Culture Warrior, Paula Deen's Celebrations and Barack Obama's The Audacity of Hope.

Interweave Press, the Loveland, Colo., publisher owned by Aspire Media that specializes in craft books, magazines, interactive media, broadcast programming and events, has expanded the franchise, both in terms of media and content--moving both into TV and quilting and paper crafts. The company has bought the PBS program Needle Arts Studio from Shay Pendray and bought Quilting Arts and Cloth Paper Scissors magazines from Quilting Arts. The company now has 13 magazines and plans to create a book program around the two new magazines. Needle Arts Studio is aired on PBS in 157 markets, usually on Saturday, and began in 1996.

Linda Stark, Interweave's v-p and publisher, books, told Shelf Awareness that the deals will help the company "build a community step by step, taking the traditional media of books and magazines and the Internet and TV" to create a model like America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Illustrated.

And if that wasn't enough, yesterday Interweave launched a new home page.

 

This morning on the Early Show, Arthur Agatston, M.D., offers advice from The South Beach Heart Program: The 4-Step Plan that Can Save Your Life (Rodale, $25.95, 9781594864193).

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This morning on the Today Show: Mireille Guiliano, author of French Women for All Seasons: A Year of Secrets, Recipes, and Pleasure (Knopf, $24.95, 9780307265234).

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Today on Good Morning America: Kristin Armstrong, ex-wife of cyclist Lance and author of Happily Ever After: Walking with Peace and Courage through a Year of Divorce (FaithWords, $16.99, 9780446579896).

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Today on the Oprah Winfrey Show: Cesar Millan, author of Cesar's Way: The Natural, Everyday Guide to Understanding and Correcting Common Dog Problems (Harmony, $14.95, 9780307337337).  

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Today on the Martha Stewart Show, Kathy Freston offers advice from The One: Finding Soul Mate Love and Making It Last (Miramax, $23.95, 9781401352431).

Also on the Martha Stewart Show: Lucinda Scala Quinn, author of Lucinda's Authentic Jamaican Kitchen (Wiley, $17.95, 9780471749356).

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Tonight ABC's 20/20 interviews Jack Halpern, famous for his new book, Fame Junkies: The Hidden Truth Behind America's Favorite Addiction (Houghton Mifflin, $23, 9780618453696). He will also be interviewed on FOX & Friends tomorrow morning.

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Tonight on the Charlie Rose Show: Calvin Trillin, author of About Alice (Random House, $14.95, 9781400066155), which is now out in paperback.

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Saturday on the Early Show: Sally Schneider, author of The Improvisational Cook (Morrow Cookbooks, $34.95, 9780060731649).

Pennie Clark Ianniciello, Costco's book buyer, has made You Suck: A Love Story by Christopher Moore (Morrow, $21.95, 9780060590291), out this week, her book pick of the month. In the January Costco Connection, which goes to many of the warehouse club's members, she wrote about the humorist: "This year I have resolved to laugh more. The best way I can think to go about that is by reading anything I can get my hands on by author Christopher Moore. . . . I've been a fan of Moore's for years and try not to read his writing in public--so people won't look at me as if I'm crazy while I laugh until my sides hurt. While the book picks up where 1995's Bloodsucking Friends leaves off, You Suck is a side-splitting romp that stands on its own."

The following titles appear next Tuesday, January 9:

Exile by Richard North Patterson (Holt, $26, 9780805079470). Patterson's latest legal thriller has an international backdrop: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Web of Evil by J.A. Jance (Touchstone, $25.95, 9781416537076). In her second outing, blogger and former Los Angeles news anchor Ali Reynolds investigates the death of her estranged husband.

Plum Lovin' by Janet Evanovich (St. Martin's, $16.95, 9780312306342). Mayhem and matchmaking for Stephanie Plum.

Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra (HarperCollins, $27.95, 9780061130359). The much-hyped crime novel set in Mumbai, seven years in the making.

And Baby Makes Three: The Six-Step Plan for Preserving Marital Intimacy and Rekindling Romance after Baby Arrives by John M. Gottman, Ph.D., and Julie Schwartz Gottman, Ph.D. (Crown, $24.95, 9781400097371). Advice on surviving the transition from duo to trio, based on a 13-year study, from the authors of 10 Lessons to Transform Your Marriage.

Prime Green: Remembering the Sixties by Robert Stone (Ecco, $25.95, 9780060198169). Novelist Stone's memoir recalls America's most turbulent, whimsical decade.

Out in paperback on Tuesday, January 9:

Arthur & George by Julian Barnes (Vintage, $14.95, 9781400097036). This "cracking good yarn" (New York Times Book Review) is a fictional take on the life of Sherlock Holmes' creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

The following were the bestselling titles at member bookstores of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance during the week ended Sunday, December 31, as reported to Book Sense:

Hardcover Fiction

1. Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier (Random House, $26.95, 9780375509322)
2. Nature Girl by Carl Hiaasen (Knopf, $25.95, 9780307262998)
3. For One More Day by Mitch Albom (Hyperion, $21.95, 9781401303273)
4. Next by Michael Crichton (HarperCollins, $27.95, 9780060872984)
5. True Evil by Greg Iles (Scribner, $25.95, 9780743292498)
6. Dear John by Nicholas Sparks (Warner, $24.99, 9780446528054)
7. Cross by James Patterson (Little, Brown, $27.99, 9780316159791)
8. Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris (Delacorte, $27.95, 9780385339414)
9. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (Algonquin, $23.95, 9781565124998)
10. The Lay of the Land by Richard Ford (Knopf, $26.95, 9780679454687)
11. The Road by Cormac McCarthy (Knopf, $24, 9780307265432)
12. Treasure of Khan by Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler (Putnam, $27.95, 9780399153693)
13. The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory (Touchstone, $25.95, 9780743272506)
14. What Came Before He Shot Her by Elizabeth A. George (HarperCollins, $26.95, 9780060545628)
15. The Machiavelli Covenant by Allan Folsom (Forge, $25.95, 9780765313058)

Hardcover Nonfiction

1. The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama (Crown, $25, 9780307237699)
2. The Innocent Man by John Grisham (Doubleday, $28.95, 9780385517232)
3. The Intellectual Devotional by David S. Kidder and Noah D. Oppenheim (Rodale, $22.50, 9781594865138)
4. I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron (Knopf, $19.95, 9780307264558)
5. The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins (Houghton Mifflin, $27, 9780618680009)
6. You: On a Diet by Michael F. Roizen, M.D., and Mehmet C. Oz, M.D. (Free Press, $25, 9780743292542)
7. Joy of Cooking (75th Anniversary Edition) by Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker and Ethan Becker (Scribner, $30, 9780743246262)
8. Marley & Me by John Grogan (Morrow, $21.95, 9780060817084)
9. Palestine by Jimmy Carter (S&S, $27, 9780743285025)
10. Barefoot Contessa at Home by Ina Garten (Clarkson Potter, $35, 9781400054343)
11. Thunderstruck by Erik Larson (Crown, $25.95, 9781400080663)
12. Cesar's Way by Cesar Millan and Melissa Jo Peltier (Harmony, $24.95, 9780307337337)
13. Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook by Martha Stewart (Clarkson Potter, $45, 9780517577004)
14. The Best Life Diet by Bob Greene (S&S, $26, 9781416540663)
15. Saving Graces by Elizabeth Edwards (Broadway, $24.95, 9780767925372)

Trade Paperback Fiction

1. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards (Penguin, $14, 9780143037149)
2. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (Random House, $13.95, 9780812968064)
3. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (Grove, $14, 9780802142818)
4. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead, $14, 9781594480003)
5. March by Geraldine Brooks (Penguin, $14, 9780143036661)
6. Case Histories by Kate Atkinson (Back Bay, $13.95, 9780316010702)
7. Wicked by Gregory Maguire (Regan Books, $16, 9780060987107)
8. The History of Love by Nicole Krauss (Norton, $13.95, 9780393328622)
9. Snow by Orhan Pamuk (Vintage, $14.95, 9780375706868)
10. Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos (Plume, $14, 9780452287891)
11. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Penguin, $15, 9780143034902)
12. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (HarperSanFrancisco, $13.95, 9780061122415)
13. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult (Washington Square, $14, 9780743454537)
14. The Lighthouse by P.D. James (Vintage, $13.95, 9780307275738)
15. The Widow of the South by Robert Hicks (Warner, $14.99, 9780446697439)

Trade Paperback Nonfiction

1. The Iraq Study Group Report (Vintage, $10.95, 9780307386564)
2. The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2007 (World Almanac, $12.99, 9780886879952)
3. Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama (Three Rivers, $14.95, 9781400082773)
4. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (Vintage, $14.95, 9780375725609)
5. The Pursuit of Happyness by Chris Gardner (Amistad, $14.95, 9780060744878)
6. Bad President by R.D. Rosen, Harry Prichett, Rob Battles and James Friedman (Workman, $8.95, 9780761146209)
7. Bad Cat by Jim Edgar (Workman, $9.95, 9780761136194)
8. An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore (Rodale, $21.95, 9781594865671)
9. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (Scribner, $14, 9780743247542)
10. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell (Back Bay, $14.95, 9780316346627)
11. 1491 by Charles C. Mann (Vintage, $14.95, 9781400032051)
12. The Old Farmer's Almanac (Old Farmer's Almanac, $6.95, 9781571983909)
13. The Wal-Mart Effect by Charles Fishman (Penguin, $15, 9780143038788)
14. Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond (Norton, $16.95, 9780393317558)
15. America (The Book) by Jon Stewart and the Daily Show Staff (Warner, $15.99, 9780446691864)

Mass Market

1. The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury (Signet, $9.99, 9780451219954)
2. S Is for Silence by Sue Grafton (Berkley, $7.99, 9780425212691)
3. Turning Angel by Greg Iles (Pocket, $9.99, 9780743454162)
4. The Hunt Club by John Lescroart (Signet, $9.99, 9780451220103)
5. The Cat Who Dropped a Bombshell by Lilian Jackson Braun (Jove, $7.99, 9780515142419)
6. Sweetwater Creek by Anne Rivers Siddons (HarperCollins, $9.99, 9780060837013)
7. The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, Fourth Edition (Merriam-Webster, $7.50, 9780877799290)
8. The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly (Warner, $7.99, 9780446616454)
9. Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs (St. Martin's, $7.99, 9780312938857)
10. The Camel Club by David Baldacci (Warner, $7.99, 9780446615624)

Children's Titles

1. Eragon by Christopher Paolini (Laurel-Leaf, $6.99, 9780440238485)
2. The End (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 13) by Lemony Snicket, illustrated by Brett Helquist (HarperCollins, $12.99, 9780064410168)
3. Eldest (Limited Edition) by Christopher Paolini (Knopf, $24, 9780375840609)
4. Pirateology by Captain William Lubber (Candlewick, $19.99, 9780763631437)
5. Fancy Nancy by Jane O'Connor, illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser (HarperCollins, $16.99, 9780060542092)
6. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (children's movie tie-in) by C.S. Lewis (HarperCollins, $7.99, 9780060765460)
7. Christmas by Robert Sabuda (Orchard, $12.99, 9780439845687)
8. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (Megan Tingley, $8.99, 9780316015844)
9. Eragon by Christopher Paolini (Knopf, $10.95, 9780375840548)
10. The Snowmen by Caralyn Buehner and Mark Buehner (Dial, $21.99, 9780803731806)
11. Sunset (Warriors, The New Prophecy Series #6) by Erin W. Hunter (HarperCollins, $16.99, 9780060827694)
12. How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss (Random House, $14, 9780394800790)
13. Point Blank by Anthony Horowitz (Puffin, $7.99, 9780142406120)
14. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer (Megan Tingley, $17.99, 9780316160193)
15. Season of the Sandstorms (Magic Tree House Series #34) by Mary Pope Osborne (Random House, $4.99, 9780375830327)

[Many thanks to Book Sense and SIBA!]