Some booksellers claim it's too early for holiday shopping, but for others the festivities have already begun.
Food for Thought Books Collective in Amherst, Mass., is expecting a sizeable crowd the first Saturday in December. A group of retailers band together and place an ad in the local newspaper, said Mitch Gaslin, and customers who bring the ad to participating stores receive 20% off one item.
Turnrow Book Co. in Greenwood, Miss., held its holiday open house on November 7. After a signing at the store with William Dunlap, a party was held at a nearby hotel. Turnrow owner Jamie Kornegay expects the Mississippi artist's book, Dunlap, to be a popular choice for gift-giving, along with other regional titles. Books promoted by author appearances--which garner coverage in local publications and word of mouth among Greenwood's residents--are proving to be strong contenders for holiday sales, among them Food Network star Paula Deen's Paula Deen Celebrates! and Janice Cooke Newman's historical fiction novel about Mary Todd Lincoln, Mary. Upcoming events at Turnrow include a signing with John Grisham, whose first nonfiction book is The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town, at the end of the month, and another with Richard Ford, whose latest novel is The Lay of the Land, in December.
Customers at the Bookworm in Omaha, Neb., are coming into the store with copies of the Midwest Booksellers Association holiday catalogue. "They bring it in," said Ellen Scott, "and they've got items circled." Scott, who manages the store's children's department, sees some standouts for the younger set: Edward Bloor's YA novel London Calling; Geraldine McCaughrean's Peter Pan in Scarlet, the authorized sequel to J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan; and the picture books Fancy Nancy and I'm a Duck!. The impending movie version of Charlotte's Web has reignited interest in the classic book, noted Scott, and Madeleine's Christmas is benefiting from a production based on the story being staged at a local children's theater.
Booksellers at Books, Inc., in San Francisco, expect fiction titles to fly off the shelves, from Michael Crichton's Next (on sale November 28) to Thomas Harris' Hannibal Rising (on sale December 5). Senior buyer Barry Rossnick cites new novels from area residents Isabel Allende (Inés of My Soul) and Dave Eggers (What Is the What) as other likely customer favorites.
Eclectic is the adjective general manager Kerry Slattery used to describe the holiday buying habits of the customers at another California retailer, Skylight Books in Los Angeles. Buyer Charles Hauther added, "For the most part what is successful for us is having a good general selection of books that customers might not be able to find in a more mainstream store." This year's holiday standouts include The Story of Hollywood: An Illustrated History by Gregory Paul Williams, Gay L.A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics, and Lipstick Lesbians by Lillian Faderman and Stuart Timmons, Wall of Piece by graffiti artist Banksy, and Gonzo, a limited edition visual biography of Hunter S. Thompson from AMMO Books. As for fiction titles, Slattery and Hauther expect Thomas Pynchon's Against the Day and Janet Fitch's Paint It Black--which is set in the store's Los Feliz neighborhood--to do well. Continuum Press' music-themed 33 1/3 series is proving popular with Skylight's clientele. Each book is devoted to a different album by a famous artist. The books (displayed on a spinner rack) are about the size of a standard greeting card, making them ideal, Hauther noted, for stocking stuffers.
"Thanksgiving is about as early as it gets," said Dick Hermans of Oblong Books & Music in Millerton, N.Y., "and that usually translates into positive things." His top picks for the holiday season include what he deemed two "no-brainers" with similar-sounding titles--Bill Bryson's The Thunderbolt Kid and Erik Larson's Thunderstruck. Hermans is curious to see if the frenzy associated with the mid-term elections will continue to translate into sales in the coming weeks. Sideline items the store has done well with are tins of mints from the Unemployed Philosophers Guild--National Embarrassmints, Impeachmints, and Indictmints--and they're perfect stocking stuffers, noted Hermans.
Vicki Erwin at Main Street Books in St. Charles, Mo., expects political books to remain on an upswing during the holidays. "I don't feel politics is a particularly strong category for us," said Erwin, and yet the store is selling books across the political spectrum, from the humor book Bad President to Bill O'Reilly's Culture Warrior to Senator Barack Obama's The Audacity of Hope. A significant number of Main Street Books customers, noted Erwin, are making preliminary shopping lists, "coming in and writing things down." Water for Elephants is the store's seasonal pick, she said, "and we think we're going to do very well with it." Sara Gruen's novel is featured in the store's ad in a local St. Charles publication.
Erwin is looking ahead and has created two programs to draw customers back to the store in the New Year. In the first, customers receive a percentage of their purchases in "blue dollars" to spend at Main Street Books in January. The second is a "year-long coupon book," which entitles customers to a discount on a particular category of books each month throughout the year, such as diet and health in January and romance in February. "We're hoping to take advantage of our Christmas traffic," said Erwin, "to bring business in after the first of the year."--Shannon McKenna
Food for Thought Books Collective in Amherst, Mass., is expecting a sizeable crowd the first Saturday in December. A group of retailers band together and place an ad in the local newspaper, said Mitch Gaslin, and customers who bring the ad to participating stores receive 20% off one item.
Turnrow Book Co. in Greenwood, Miss., held its holiday open house on November 7. After a signing at the store with William Dunlap, a party was held at a nearby hotel. Turnrow owner Jamie Kornegay expects the Mississippi artist's book, Dunlap, to be a popular choice for gift-giving, along with other regional titles. Books promoted by author appearances--which garner coverage in local publications and word of mouth among Greenwood's residents--are proving to be strong contenders for holiday sales, among them Food Network star Paula Deen's Paula Deen Celebrates! and Janice Cooke Newman's historical fiction novel about Mary Todd Lincoln, Mary. Upcoming events at Turnrow include a signing with John Grisham, whose first nonfiction book is The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town, at the end of the month, and another with Richard Ford, whose latest novel is The Lay of the Land, in December.
Customers at the Bookworm in Omaha, Neb., are coming into the store with copies of the Midwest Booksellers Association holiday catalogue. "They bring it in," said Ellen Scott, "and they've got items circled." Scott, who manages the store's children's department, sees some standouts for the younger set: Edward Bloor's YA novel London Calling; Geraldine McCaughrean's Peter Pan in Scarlet, the authorized sequel to J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan; and the picture books Fancy Nancy and I'm a Duck!. The impending movie version of Charlotte's Web has reignited interest in the classic book, noted Scott, and Madeleine's Christmas is benefiting from a production based on the story being staged at a local children's theater.
Booksellers at Books, Inc., in San Francisco, expect fiction titles to fly off the shelves, from Michael Crichton's Next (on sale November 28) to Thomas Harris' Hannibal Rising (on sale December 5). Senior buyer Barry Rossnick cites new novels from area residents Isabel Allende (Inés of My Soul) and Dave Eggers (What Is the What) as other likely customer favorites.
Eclectic is the adjective general manager Kerry Slattery used to describe the holiday buying habits of the customers at another California retailer, Skylight Books in Los Angeles. Buyer Charles Hauther added, "For the most part what is successful for us is having a good general selection of books that customers might not be able to find in a more mainstream store." This year's holiday standouts include The Story of Hollywood: An Illustrated History by Gregory Paul Williams, Gay L.A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics, and Lipstick Lesbians by Lillian Faderman and Stuart Timmons, Wall of Piece by graffiti artist Banksy, and Gonzo, a limited edition visual biography of Hunter S. Thompson from AMMO Books. As for fiction titles, Slattery and Hauther expect Thomas Pynchon's Against the Day and Janet Fitch's Paint It Black--which is set in the store's Los Feliz neighborhood--to do well. Continuum Press' music-themed 33 1/3 series is proving popular with Skylight's clientele. Each book is devoted to a different album by a famous artist. The books (displayed on a spinner rack) are about the size of a standard greeting card, making them ideal, Hauther noted, for stocking stuffers.
"Thanksgiving is about as early as it gets," said Dick Hermans of Oblong Books & Music in Millerton, N.Y., "and that usually translates into positive things." His top picks for the holiday season include what he deemed two "no-brainers" with similar-sounding titles--Bill Bryson's The Thunderbolt Kid and Erik Larson's Thunderstruck. Hermans is curious to see if the frenzy associated with the mid-term elections will continue to translate into sales in the coming weeks. Sideline items the store has done well with are tins of mints from the Unemployed Philosophers Guild--National Embarrassmints, Impeachmints, and Indictmints--and they're perfect stocking stuffers, noted Hermans.
Vicki Erwin at Main Street Books in St. Charles, Mo., expects political books to remain on an upswing during the holidays. "I don't feel politics is a particularly strong category for us," said Erwin, and yet the store is selling books across the political spectrum, from the humor book Bad President to Bill O'Reilly's Culture Warrior to Senator Barack Obama's The Audacity of Hope. A significant number of Main Street Books customers, noted Erwin, are making preliminary shopping lists, "coming in and writing things down." Water for Elephants is the store's seasonal pick, she said, "and we think we're going to do very well with it." Sara Gruen's novel is featured in the store's ad in a local St. Charles publication.
Erwin is looking ahead and has created two programs to draw customers back to the store in the New Year. In the first, customers receive a percentage of their purchases in "blue dollars" to spend at Main Street Books in January. The second is a "year-long coupon book," which entitles customers to a discount on a particular category of books each month throughout the year, such as diet and health in January and romance in February. "We're hoping to take advantage of our Christmas traffic," said Erwin, "to bring business in after the first of the year."--Shannon McKenna