Every three months I’ve been looking at Barnes & Noble’s quarterly conference call to get some insight into recent book industry trends and to see which books the retailer expects to be “big” in the coming months. Here are the highlights from CEO Steve Riggio on the Q4 conference call (courtesy Seeking Alpha):
- One of the big stories for book retailers this year was a lack of blockbuster titles to get shoppers into stores. “It was a year that produced two titles that garnered significant media attention. But while the lack of traffic producing new releases didn’t help our top line, what’s important is that our core booklist was solid.” I’m not sure which titles he’s referring to there – which says something about last year’s lack of blockbusters – but I’m guessing one of them was Barack Obama’s The Audacity of Hope.
- Riggio also noted how customer loyalty programs have made for “a vastly different environment than just three years ago,” and he alluded specifically to Amazon Prime, the online retailer’s popular shipping offer.
Riggio said the chain has high expectations for new books by Lisa Scottoline (Daddy’s Girl), Jonathan Kellerman (Obsession), Mary Higgins-Clark (I Heard That Song Before), David Baldacci (Simple Genius), Michael Chabon (The Yiddish Policemen’s Union), and Khaled Hosseini’s follow-up to Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns.- “The Oprah effect on books continues.” Oprah helped make YOU: On A Diet, Bob Greene’s Best Life Diet, and The Measure of a Man by Sidney Poitier. But the really big seller – much to the chagrin of many – was The Secret by Ronda Burn, which Riggio called “probably one of the fastest non-fiction selling books we’ve had in recent memory.”
B&N is also looking forward to some new non-fiction titles: Einstein by Walter Isaacson, Where Have All the Leaders Gone? by Lee Iococca, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver, and Paula Dean’s memoir, It Ain’t All About the Cooking.- Finally, “we are just beginning to see a wave of books about politics and those related to the 2008 Presidential election at this time and by far, Barak Obama’s The Audacity of Hope leads the pack.”
Previously: Barnes & Noble’s third quarter.
