BTW News Briefs

Small Business Saturday Extended

The American Express national promotion of locally owned small businesses, Small Business Saturday, has been extended to New Year’s Eve. Amex OPEN, the company’s small business unit, joined with advocacy groups and public and private organizations, including Facebook, Yelp, and the 3/50 Project, to declare the Saturday after Thanksgiving as Small Business Saturday^SM.

The campaign, which heavily advertised the value of small business, offers AmEx customers a $25 statement credit on a purchase of $25 or more at a locally owned small business.

More information, including merchant offer terms, are available on the AmEx website.

BookExpo America to Stay in New York

This week, on The Bean, the blog of Book Expo America, Event Director Steve Rosato wrote: “With the possible exception of 2016, it appears we will be able to lock up dates at [New York’s Javits Convention Center] for either the week prior to, or the week after, Memorial Day through 2017, which has historically worked for BEA. All of our key strategy points and measurable performance indexes make New York the ideal location for BEA. That includes proximity for buying groups, ease for international participation and media.”

BEA will remain midweek – on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday; however, one difference next year is that all BEA Book and Author events will be breakfasts.

AAP Reports October Book Sales

On December 8, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) announced that publishers’ book sales for the month of October were $721 million, a decrease of 0.9 percent compared to October 2009. Year-to-date sales were up by 3.4 percent.

In the children’s book category, Hardcover Children’s/YA sales showed an increase of 13.9 percent over October of last year, with sales of $100 million; however, year-to-date sales decreased by 11.1 percent. Children’s/YA Paperback sales were down by 3.3 percent in October, with sales totaling $50.9 million; sales fell 6.5 percent for the year to date.

The Adult Hardcover category was down 6.5 percent in October, with sales of $242.9 million; sales for the year-to-date were down by 7.7 percent. Adult Paperback sales decreased 11.8 percent for the month ($115 million), but year-to-date sales were even with last year. Adult Mass Market sales decreased 1.1 percent for October, with sales totaling $60.2 million; sales were down by 14.3 percent year to date.

E-book sales of $40.7 million reflected a 112.4 percent increase over October 2009.  January - October 2010 year-to-date e-book sales reached $345.3 million, up 171.3 percent compared to the same period in 2009.