During February, bookstore sales fell 10.8% to $1.021 billion compared to the same period in 2008--down for the first month this year--according to preliminary estimates from the Census Bureau. For the year to date, bookstore sales dropped 3.2% to $3.318 billion.

By comparison, total retail sales in February dropped 12.8% to $273.006 billion compared to the same period a year ago. For the year to date, total retail sales were down 11.2% to $555.083 billion.

Note: under Census Bureau definitions, bookstore sales are of new books and do not include "electronic home shopping, mail-order, or direct sale" or used book sales.

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Cool idea of the day: Powell's Books countered the recent, headline-making #amazonfail furor on Twitter with its own #powellswin deal on the bookstore's website: "At Powell's, all books are created equal. We hold this truth to be self-evident. Whether any given title is deserving of a wide readership, we leave that decision to you, our customers. In the spirit of such freedoms that perhaps we too often take for granted, today we're offering friends a special, winning deal. Just enter the code '#powellswin' by 11:59 pm (Pacific) on Thursday, April 16, 2009, and you'll save 20% on your order of $20 or more."

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Little, Brown believes that The Horse Boy has legs. Published yesterday, the book by Rupert Isaacson about taking his autistic son to Mongolia to ride horses and visit shamans "just so touched so many points of interest--helping to heal an autistic child, traveling under difficult circumstances," publisher Michael Pietsch told the New York Times. "Most of all, I felt this was a story entirely driven by the chances you'll take for love, and I felt, who's not going to want to read this story when they hear the outlines of it?"

The first printing is 150,000. A documentary film about the experiences will be released in September.

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Yesterday Publishers Weekly laid off three more editors as part of a cutback of another 7% of Reed Business Information's staff. The three were managing editor Robin Lenz, who can be reached at 973-313-9123 or rilnj@yahoo.com; Craig Teicher, poetry review editor, tech writer and web man; and Dermot McEvoy, senior editor and a longtime contributor to the magazine.

Less than three months ago (Shelf Awareness, January 26, 2009), as part of another company-wide round of layoffs, Reed let go four PW editors and three other PW staffers. Yesterday RBI CEO Tad Smith he hoped this was the latest round of cutbacks, but wrote, "unfortunately, such a promise is impossible to make in light of the current economic uncertainty. As a consequence, we continue to look at our staffing needs and may need to make additional reductions to fit the business conditions." The company's hiring and wage freeze remains in effect, and Reed is considering requiring staff to take unpaid days off, as many as 5-10 in 2009.

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The owners of Flintridge Bookstore & Coffeehouse, La Cañada, Calif., which was severely damaged two weeks ago when a car transporter smashed into it (Shelf Awareness, April 2, 2009), plan on staying in the same location and are considering operating for a time from a trailer in the parking lot, according to La Cañada Flintridge Outlook.

Peter Wannier, who owns the store with his wife, Lenora, told the paper: "We intend to operate as far as we can. I cannot even begin to express how much support we've received from our customers. It just energizes you as a shop owner. We've gotten letters, e-mails, others have offered some legal advice, and free storage. All kinds of help all the way around. It's just very, very gratifying."

Check out the story in La Cañada Flintridge Outlook if only to see (near the bottom) a most amazing picture: a car transporter, with cars aboard, "parked" in the middle of a bookstore.

At a reading Monday night at the Indian Road Cafe, at the very northern tip of Manhattan: (l.) MaryElizabeth Williams, author of Gimme Shelter (Simon & Schuster), and Stacy Horn, author of Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena, from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory (Ecco). The final scene of Gimme Shelter, which chronicles Williams's hunt for an abode in New York City and was reviewed in Shelf Awareness in March, takes place at the Indian Road Cafe.

Three publishers have paired up to cultivate sales of their gardening guides. Timber Press, Storey Publishing and Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill--all imprints of Workman Publishing--are promoting the initiative Get Gardening with bookstore events and marketing materials.

Timber Press launched Get Gardening in 2007, working exclusively with Powell's Books in Portland, Ore. This year the company decided to expand the program by involving Storey and Algonquin and taking it to other independent bookstores. "The time is ripe for a renewed focus on gardening," Kathryn Juergens, trade field sales manager and marketing associate for Timber Press, said. "The recession has led people to take a second look at how they spend their time and money. Gardening has become a hot topic in the media, and it certainly helped that Michelle Obama planted a vegetable garden."

Whether they're following the First Lady's lead or simply looking for ways to spend less, customers at Powell's are showing off their green thumbs. "Portland has always had a passionate community of gardeners, but this year we've seen an overwhelming interest in vegetable gardening," said Michal Drannen, the store's marketing and publicity manager. Powell's is taking part in Get Gardening this year and is again pairing with a local garden center to promote the events as well as to provide plants for giveaways to attendees. The store is also establishing a booth once a month at the Portland Farmers Market at PSU (Shelf Awareness, April 7, 2009).

Thirteen additional stores have signed on to Get Gardening, and each will host a minimum of three events between March and September. Among them are Copperfield's Books in Sebastopol, Calif., Chester County Book and Music Company in West Chester, Pa., and Northshire Bookstore in Manchester Center, Vt. Other bookstores are making use of Get Gardening posters, postcards and shelf talkers to draw attention to gardening sections.

There will be seven Get Gardening events at Village Books in Bellingham, Wash., and three at BookPeople in Austin, Tex. Like Powell's, both stores have seen an increase in sales of gardening books. "It's likely seasonal in part and economic in part," noted Village Books' events coordinator Nan Macy. Additional farmers markets have recently cropped up in Austin, and there is "more of a focus on organic and sustainable foods," said Alison Kothe Nihlean, BookPeople marketing director. "I think we'll see new and familiar faces at the events."

Timber, Storey and Algonquin have cross-promoted titles in the past, but the Get Gardening initiative is the first time that a joint effort is taking place on such a scale. "Combined we have the best, most diverse selection of gardening titles in the market," said Juergens. Offerings range from vegetable and ornamental gardening to garden design and plant propagation. Some don't even require getting your hands dirty, like Amy Stewart's entertaining compendium Wicked Plants: The Weed that Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities, which Algonquin is publishing in May. (See our profile yesterday of Eureka Books, the store Stewart co-owns.)

Stewart is one of the scribes participating in Get Gardening, which features authors of both frontlist and backlist works. There is also Tom Fischer, editor-in-chief of Timber Press and the author of Perennial Companions, and Lee Reich, who has publications with Timber (Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden), Storey (Landscaping with Fruit) and Workman (Weedless Gardening). Said Juergens, "The authors are excited to be out spreading the gospel of green."--Shannon McKenna Schmidt

To request Get Gardening materials, contact Kathryn Juergens at kjuergens@timberpress.com.

Translated fiction seldom gets TV airtime, so it is notable that, due to a late scheduling change, last night's Charlie Rose featured a discussion of Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada, translated by Michael Hofmann (Melville House, $27.95, 9781933633633/1933633638). Rose's guests were Ulrich Ditzen, the author's son; Liesl Schillinger, who reviewed the novel for the New York Times Book Review; and Dennis Johnson, Melville House publisher. You can view the program today at Charlie Rose's website.

Today on Fresh Air: Craig Yoe, author of Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman's Co-creator Joe Shuster (Abrams ComicArts, $24.95, 9780810996342/0810996340).

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Tomorrow morning on Good Morning America: Steve Harvey, author of Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man (Amistad, $23.99, 9780061728976/0061728977).

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Tomorrow morning on Morning Joe: Suzy Welch, author of 10-10-10: A Life-Transforming Idea (Scribner, $24, 9781416591825/1416591826). She will also appear tomorrow on MSNBC's Power Lunch.

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Tomorrow on the Tyra Banks Show: Dan Clark, author of Gladiator: A True Story of 'Roids, Rage, and Redemption (Scribner, $25, 9781416597322/1416597328).

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Tomorrow on Fox's Hannity Show: Kristin Chenoweth, author of A Little Bit Wicked: Life, Love, and Faith in Stages (Touchstone, $25, 9781416580553/1416580557). She will also appear tomorrow on the View.

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Tomorrow on KCRW's Bookworm: Abdellah Taïa, author of Salvation Army translated by Frank Stock (Semiotext(e), $14.95, 9781584350705/1584350709). As the show put it: "Abdellah Taïa on breaking the silence barrier. In his family and in his native country, homosexuality is surrounded by silence. All sorts of behaviors are tolerated if they are not spoken of--obviously an intolerable circumstance for a writer. Taïa amiably and sociably discusses the secrets he is no longer willing to keep."

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Tomorrow on the Diane Rehm Show: Thomas Buergenthal, author of A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy (Little, Brown, $24.99, 9780316043403/0316043400).

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Tomorrow on the View: Tom Bergeron, author of I'm Hosting as Fast as I Can!: Zen and the Art of Staying Sane in Hollywood (HarperOne, $25.99, 9780061765872/0061765872).

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Tomorrow on the Colbert Report: Christopher Hitchens, author of God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (Twelve Books, $24.99, 9780446579803/0446579807).

Fanny Howe is the recipient of the Poetry Foundation's $100,000 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, presented annually to a living U.S. poet whose lifetime accomplishments warrant extraordinary recognition.

"Fanny Howe is a religious writer whose work makes you more alert and alive to the earth, an experimental writer who can break your heart," said Christian Wiman, editor of Poetry magazine. "Live in her world for a while, and it can change the way you think of yours."

Foundation president John Barr added, "The selection of Fanny Howe as this year’s winner of the Lilly Prize does honor to the traditions--of excellence, importance, and discovery--that the prize has stood for since it was established over 20 years ago."

Ange Mlinko won the $10,000 Randall Jarrell Award in Poetry Criticism. According to the Poetry Foundation, "From Sappho to the Language poets, from Nicolas of Cusa to the Brady Bunch, Ange Mlinko’s criticism is brilliantly wide-ranging; it is eclectic and astringent yet always lucid and generous. We are pleased to recognize a young critic whose distinctive sharp wit and formidable power have helped revitalize the art of writing about poetry.”

The prizes will be presented during the Pegasus Awards ceremony at the Arts Club of Chicago on Tuesday, May 19.

My name is Ryan Adams. I am going deaf from Ménière's Disease. I am 34. I am a recovering drunk and amphetamine addict. I am a visual artist first, a writer second, and I bang on guitars to sell my poetry to the dulled masses. I love, love, love donuts, skateboarding, my girlfriend, our dog, sunshine, Los Angeles, reading and daydreaming. I used to live in New York City for a long time. I fought like hell for the city when people left for Brooklyn and dumped every penny I could into the mission and the museums. I got shat on by the New York Times for long enough so I moved. I will always love David Letterman and 2nd Ave Deli forever. Akashic Books has just published my collection of non-music pieces, Infinity Blues.

On your nightstand now:

Cup of coffee, digital shitty hotel clock, broken channel changer holding up computer cable into wall socket and Reading & Writing Chinese: Traditional Character Edition by William McNaughton and Li Yang.

Favorite book when you were a child:

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, Light in August by William Faulkner.

Your top five authors:

Edward Estlin Cummings, Henry Miller, W. H. Auden, Sylvia Plath and Anne Frank.

Book you've bought for the cover:

Paul Auster's New York Trilogy.

Book that changed your life:

Roget's Thesaurus.

Favorite line from a book:

"Once you have given up the ghost, everything follows with dead certainty, even in the midst of chaos."--Tropic of Capricorn by Henry Miller.

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

The Bell Jar.

Why you write:

It feels like the noble thing to do in a world of fake smiles, cowards and so, so many undocumented miracles if standing in the middle of parking lots and laughing for no reason was one. And to see how many times I can get away with the word unicorn in otherwise unsettled text. And vanity. Vanity. Vanity.

Once upon a time, a long time ago,
in March 1979,
Valerie Lewis, Jan Gottlieb, Georgia Osborne and Vicki Villarreal
Opened the doors to Hicklebee's,
An independent bookstore specializing in books for
Children and young adults, on Lincoln Avenue
In the Willow Glen section of San Jose, California.
As new members of the Willow Glen Merchants Association,
The Hicklebee's partners joined with the City of San Jose
To plant trees along Lincoln Avenue;
It's been their address for 30 years.
Today those sycamore trees' roots are as deeply planted
On the avenue in Willow Glen
As Hicklebee's own.
 
Valerie's sister, Monica Lewis Holmes,
Soon joined the owner-partnership.
Together they helped create the Northern California Children's Booksellers Association;
Conducted preview presentations for teachers,
And set up author events for local reading councils,
Schools and libraries.
Artists Steve and Carol Schweppe established
The Hicklebee's Hall of Fame.
It began with the acorn that landed on
Chicken Little's head,
A tooth that Doctor De Soto pulled,
And soon spilled over from its special display case and onto the walls--
The Ghost Eye Tree dummy sent by Ted Rand
That shows children how a book is planned;
The plume from the smart red hat worn by the cat
In Fred Marcellino's Puss in Boots,
Noisy Nora's original dress,
Donated by Rosemary Wells,
Plus the traveling pants of the Sisterhood mounted on the wall.
And, as Valerie put it,
When Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith
Were visiting the store and "being batty,"
They signed their names on Hicklebee's door,
Soon to be followed by Eric Carle's very hungry caterpillar,
A portrait of Pinhead by Clive Barker,
Marc Brown's Arthur
And J.K. Rowling's drawing of the Sorting Hat decreeing,
"You belong in Hicklebee's"
(Take that Gryffindors and Slytherins).
Here you can take Valerie's tour.

The next 10 years saw Hicklebee's move across the Avenue
And partner Jan Gottlieb's move to Washington State.
Valerie began her 16-year stretch as a reviewer on CBS-TV's Early Show,
Hicklebee's worked with pediatricians to begin the Read to Your Bunny program.
They established a Resource Room for teachers in the bookstore,
And took their "Indie" bookselling cause global:
Valerie and Monica attended the Bologna Book Fair
And Valerie flew to Bulgaria and Latvia to share "Indie" bookselling.
At last year's BEA Day of Education and as an instructor at Bookselling School,
Valerie talked about her philosophy: "Turn Your Nose Around,"
Which then leads to "Turn Your No's Around."
"Try to run your business without ever using the word 'No,'" she suggests.
The fruits of her philosophy matured in Hicklebee's second decade:
When a customer asked, "Do you have a Book-of-the-Month Club?"
The response was, "Let me check on that."
They asked the customer to describe how she'd like the Club to work,
And Hicklebee's now has a Book-of-the-Month Club.
Another customer asked if the bookstore participated in SCRIP,
"Like they do at the grocery store."
(SCRIP is like currency: a Girl Scout troop, school or library
Buys $100 worth of SCRIP in ten $10 store vouchers but pays only $90.)
Hicklebee's now has SCRIP and supports the community.
"Generally you get the best ideas from your customer asking," says Valerie.
 
The key to Hicklebee's success, she says,
Is the people who work there.
"You have to make sure that the people you work with
Are the ones you want to spend your day with," she advises.
"I give more credence to if I'd want to have lunch with them
Than if they have bookstore experience."
Maybe that's why their roughly 20-person team
Averages about 10 years of experience apiece.
And perhaps that explains some of the innovations of this last decade:
The store established the Hicklebee's Book of the Year Award,
Given to a standout book each fall and spring.
(The first went to Kate DiCamillo's Because of Winn-Dixie in 2000.)
To highlight the backlist gems whose sales deserved a boost,
Carol Doup Muller, a former reviewer for the local paper,
 Created the weekly "Worth the Candle" title
(In homage to a time when the cost to purchase a candle meant
Serious deliberation before deciding to light one)
Featured in the store and on their Web site.
Most recently, it was their bookkeeper, who instigated an idea.
She noticed revenue was down and told Valerie,
"Last year you had an event at this time, and we need an event."
So, using Mo Willems' Naked Mole Rat as a springboard, they launched
"Project Runway: From Eek to Chic."
Everyone was invited to "Come in and dress your naked mole rats."
Hicklebee's set up tales with "big naked mole rats probably 18 inches tall,"
Cut out of heavy cardboard, and mounted on wooden sticks.
There were tables set up with "glitter, glamour and bling," fabric and glue.
After the decorating, the tables were cleared away and the fashion show began,
Complete with carpet and bright lights.
 
Community is the other key to Hicklebee's success,
And it goes both ways.
Just last week (Shelf Awareness, April 9, 2009),
Hicklebee's was proclaimed "champion in the world of reading,"
By State Senator Joe Simitian when he awarded Hicklebee's
The 2009 Small Business of the Year.
The biggest changes over the three decades they've been in business:
The Internet and Amazon's reach.
"This is going to sound strange," said Valerie,
"But Amazon coming on the scene was a marvel to me.
"It wasn't like 'Oh my God' shock. It was like WOW look what they did:
Anybody no matter where they are can buy a book."
But with the chains, there was what Valerie calls "monstergobble factor."
"With the chains, I felt there was foul play,
A gobbling up that was done with purpose," she says.
"There were excellent bookstores that could not survive and were taken from the community."
And when these independent-minded buyers go,
So does their unique taste and perspective,
And their connection to their community's needs and interests, she argues.
"You can add 50 more chains or Big Box stores,
But you're not adding 50 more buyers.
The fewer people buying those books that are edgy,
The fewer of those books [publishers] can afford to publish.
In terms of our freedom to read, and our freedom of speech,
We have fewer choices," says Valerie.
"We want as many of us to survive as we can
Because it's so important to the community."
Congratulations to Hicklebee's,
Celebrating 30 years with the community
On Saturday, April 18!--Jennifer M. Brown