About Bookselling

Each new season brings changes in hemlines, baby names, and books being published … and shoplifted. Many New England booksellers are finding that blockbuster bestsellers are very high on the lists of books most stolen from independent stores. The problem of shoplifting is a constant one for retailers, but some New England Booksellers Association (NEBA) members have recently noticed changes in the quantity and types of books stolen from their stores.

Few marketing experts would argue with the notion that all businesses, regardless of size, should have a presence on the Internet. However, an issue that does cause debate among Internet experts is exactly how to turn a Web site into a profit center. On May 29, at BookExpo America in Los Angeles, BookSense.com Director Len Vlahos tackled this key question with the help of panelist Luanne Kreutzer of St. Helens Bookshop in St. Helens, Oregon.

Kim Dickie, the new owner of Hobbit Hall Children's Bookstore in Roswell, Georgia, sees plenty of room for growth in an arena small booksellers have largely left to others -- school book fairs. When Dickie took over the reins of the 12-year-old bookstore from Anne Ginkle in March 2003, the school book fair division was a growing component of the store.

In late April, it was announced that Howard Frank Mosher's The True Account: A Novel of the Lewis & Clark & Kinneson Expeditions (Houghton, $24, 0618197214, June) was a Top Ten selection of the May/June Book Sense 76. Jean Matthews, of Chapter One Book Store, Hamilton, Montana, wrote about the novel, "Full of flamboyant characters and outrageous deeds, The True Account honors Cervantes and Twain in spirit and style, minting a fresh folk hero from the vein that produced Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill."

As part of its continuing coverage of succession planning issues, Bookselling This Week spoke to six bookstore owners who recently and successfully purchased independent bookstores. Last week, BTW covered "Succession II," a session from BookExpo America moderated by Ivan Barkhorn, a consultant to ABA on strategic matters, and provided a link to Barkhorn's PowerPoint presentation.

In late February, Rubin Venture Consulting rolled out a new online software product, Above the Treeline, a tool meant to help bookstores improve finances by controlling inventory costs and increasing staffing efficiency. At the time, four booksellers were using the software; today, that number has grown to 12. The company's founder, John Rubin, told BTW that he has improved his product and is seeking to add as many new booksellers as he can. "[Above the Treeline] is going to improve your financial performance," he said.

A "perfect fit" is how John Cross, co-owner of Foul Play Mystery Bookshop in Westerville, Ohio, described the store's sponsorship of Mystery! on WOSU, the local PBS station. "People have always come in looking for the books on Mystery!" he explained.

Not only was it a record-breaking weekend for independent bookstore sales -- fueled by the official publication of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix -- but records off the sales floor fell as well, as 441 bookstore locations reported their weeks' sales to the Book Sense Bestseller List. This was the largest number of selling locations to have reported sales, and their totals outstripped by far previous tallies.