29 November 2008

My Black Friday

So, Black Friday came and went with little fanfare. Of course, I was at work at 6 am, the store opened at 7 and I was out the door at 3. In between, we had mad rushes, lulls and typical Saturday crowds. If I was to be asked what sold the most, what people seemed to buying, all I could say was one word: Twilight.

We have a Twilight center set up in the front of the store, where we have all four novels (in both hardcover and paperback) in the popular Stephanie Meyer series set up. Added to fray is a movie companion book, pens, posters, buttons, magnets, T-shirts, jewelry (there's also suppose to be a perfume, but we've yet to get that in), and a calendar. Now one of the good things is, Borders is the only place selling that 2009 calendar. Who ever got that deal over in HQ is looking really smart now, especially after last weeks $70 million opening.

Twilight, maybe, could be what saves our company. The sales of all four books have been steady and should remain strong through the holiday season. Even if the movie sinks -it should, theoretically lose about 65% of last weeks business - the books and other ancillary products will continue to sell.

All that can prevent that is not getting copies of the books in. Out of the four novels, we did not have the second book, New Moon, in hardcover (and we should be sold out of the paperback by the end of the weekend). My feelings are, that we should not be sold out of any of them, but there you have it.

Beyond that, I can't really say there was one book that people wanted, though Jon Meacham's American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House sold pretty well as part of the 11 titles we had at 50% for the holiday weekend.

Well beyond the Twilight series, I don't see any book being the one everyone has to have, unless Oprah chooses an obscure title from a small publisher or one that a publisher did not expect to hit big -much like what happened with The Secret.

Still, there is a chance Yes We Can: Barack Obama's History Making Presdiential Campaign by Scout Tufanjian could be the one book everyone has difficulty getting. The first print run of 55,000 copies have already sold out, and the publisher is going back to the press -and it does not go on sale until December 8.

But we'll see.

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