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rangement with Google. After that deal
fell apart, the American Booksellers As-
sociation announced in August 2012 a
three-year contract with Kobo and rolled
out an e-book and device program to
booksellers in time for the 2012 holiday
season. “ABA remains committed to
supporting those member stores that
want to offer digital content,” said ABA
CEO Oren Teicher. In addition to the
partnership with
Kobo, ABA is explor-
ing alternatives.
“While it’s too soon to
talk in specifics,” he
continued, “we believe
that as the market ma-
tures, a key goal will
be to help booksellers
identify and imple-
ment from among a
choice of options,
should they decide to sell e-books. ABA
has always understood that one size does
not fit all in our market, and that there
will be a wide range of solutions used by
our members.”
Booksellers who want to offer their
customers print and e-book options ap-
preciate ABA’s support in the digital
market, even though e-book sales have
been far from vibrant. Hudson Group,
which operates more than 65 bookstores
at airports and train stations and sells
books through several hundred news-
stands, saw its e-book sales through
IndieCommerce decline by 20% in 2014.
But it has no plans to stop selling them.
“It doesn’t cost us anything additional [to
sell e-books],” said
Sara Hinckley, v-p of
book buying and promotions at Hudson.
“And every sale helps.
We do hope that the
future will bring us
better opportunities to
become part of the e-book market.”
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ; JANUARY 26, 2015
Mixed Results for Bricks-and-Mortar
Stores with Digital Content
Retail
For many bricks-and-mortar book- stores, 2014 was a banner year, helped by the overall improvement in the sale of print books. Some
independents, such as BookPeople in
Austin, Tex., and Titcomb’s Bookshop in
East Sandwich, Mass., reported that they
had their best year ever. Barnes & Noble’s
physical stores reversed a downward
trend and posted some gains for the nine-week holiday season, which ended January 3, compared to the similar period the
previous year. But when it comes to
digital, the results have been mixed.
Holiday sales of digital content dropped
25% at B&N, and device and accessory
sales fell even further, down 68%. Indie
e-book and device sales haven’t taken the
same kind of hit, but indies have far less
invested in the digital side.
Indies first dipped their toes in the
digital waters in 2010 through an ar-
SOURCE: NIELSEN BOOKSCAN AND PUBLISHERS WEEKLY. NIELSEN BOOKSCAN’S U.S. CONSUMER MARKE T PANEL COVERS APPROXIMATELY 80% OF THE PRINT BOOK MARKET AND CONTINUES TO GRO W.
Unit sales of print books rose 2% in the week ended Jan. 18, 2015, compared to the
similar week last year, at outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan. As it did in the
first two weeks of 2015, the retail & club channel led the way in week three, posting
a 3% increase over the week ended Jan. 19, 2014. The gain offset a 6% decline in
sales through the mass merchandisers channel. One of the most significant
changes in the most recent week was the (small) decline in unit sales in juvenile
fiction. The category had a very strong 2014, but with no new big hits early in 2015,
sales dipped 0.08%. The top-selling juvenile fiction title in the week was Jeff
Kinney’s The Long Haul, which sold just under 22,000 copies; in 2014, there were
five titles that sold better than Long Haul, led by Veronica Roth’s Divergent.
Offsetting softness in juvenile fiction, adult fiction (which had a decline in units in
2014) saw a 2% unit gain in the week ended Jan. 18, 2015. Two new titles topped
the adult fiction chart in the week: Saint Odd by Dean Koontz sold almost 24,000
copies, followed by Paula Hawkins’s The Girl on the Train, which sold over 22,000
copies. In terms of format, increases in trade paperback and board books offset
declines in hardcover, mass market paperback, and physical audio.
JAN. 19, JAN. 18, CHGE CHGE
2014 2015 WEEK YTD
Adult Non;ction 5,254 5,392 3% 4%
Adult Fiction 2,391 2,445 2 2
Juvenile Non;ction 655 717 9 16
Juvenile Fiction 2,362 2,360 0 4
Unit Sales of Print Books by Format
JAN. 19, JAN. 18, CHGE CHGE
2014 2015 WEEK YTD
Hardcover 2,813 2,759 -2% 0.7%
Trade Paperback 6,289 6,683 6 8
Mass Market Paperback 1,331 1, 172 - 12 - 12
Board Books 334 387 16 20
Audio 89 75 - 16 - 11
Unit Sales of Print Books by Channel
JAN. 19, JAN. 18, CHGE CHGE
2014 2015 WEEK YTD
Total 11,308 11,505 2% 3%
Mass Merch./Other 1,635 1,538 -6 - 5
Retail & Club 9,673 9,967 3 5
Green Apple Books in San Francisco, the
2014 PW Bookstore of the Year.
