Book Lovers Ask, What’s Seattle’s Secret?
From The New York Times........
TEN years ago, Nancy Pearl started a program for public libraries here that she hoped would get adults excited about literature. It was called, “If All of Seattle Read the Same Book.” Free copies of “The Sweet Hereafter,” a novel about a tragic school bus accident, were distributed to individuals and book clubs. Posters encouraged people to read the book and discuss it at library-sponsored events.
The novel became the top-selling book in the area. But Ms. Pearl’s program received little national attention despite its success. “We just weren’t on the map then,” Ms. Pearl, who is a librarian, said.
Today, her name is familiar to book lovers from coast to coast. She attracted attention in 2003, when she published “Book Lust,” a guide to must-read books. A few years later, a sequel to that book coincided with her promotion to national book commentator on National Public Radio.
While she doesn’t have as much clout as Oprah Winfrey, authors tell Ms. Pearl that her recommendations cause book sales to jump. She even has an action figure modeled in her likeness — a Seattle novelty company has sold more than 100,000 of them. (The toy makes a librarian’s shushing sound.)
In many ways, Ms. Pearl’s rise in the book world parallels Seattle’s rise in the publishing world. Though the big publishing houses are still ensconced in New York, the Seattle area is the home of Amazon, Starbucks and Costco, three companies that increasingly influence what America reads.
Books by relatively unknown or foreign authors become best sellers by dint of their anointment at the hands of Amazon editors. A forgotten older paperback, recommended and featured by the book buyer at Costco, can sell more copies in six weeks than it did in the last few years combined. Almost every book Starbucks stocks in its coffee shops sells more than 100,000 copies in its outlets alone. That pushes most Starbucks selections into the top 1 percent of all books sold that year, without counting sales in other types of stores.
The three companies settled in Seattle for different reasons, and each had its own motivation for choosing to sell books. Together, though, their combined power in the book industry has put the city in the position of tastemaker.
Each company, in its own way, “guides their customers, by selecting the books they will see,” Ms. Pearl said. “New York may publish the books, but Seattle significantly defines America’s reading list.”
INDUSTRY trends suggest Seattle’s influence will keep growing. More people are bypassing bookstores and buying at mass-market merchants, online retailers and specialty stores, says Albert N. Greco, a marketing professor at Fordham University’s Graduate School of Business Administration.
The novel became the top-selling book in the area. But Ms. Pearl’s program received little national attention despite its success. “We just weren’t on the map then,” Ms. Pearl, who is a librarian, said.
Today, her name is familiar to book lovers from coast to coast. She attracted attention in 2003, when she published “Book Lust,” a guide to must-read books. A few years later, a sequel to that book coincided with her promotion to national book commentator on National Public Radio.
While she doesn’t have as much clout as Oprah Winfrey, authors tell Ms. Pearl that her recommendations cause book sales to jump. She even has an action figure modeled in her likeness — a Seattle novelty company has sold more than 100,000 of them. (The toy makes a librarian’s shushing sound.)
In many ways, Ms. Pearl’s rise in the book world parallels Seattle’s rise in the publishing world. Though the big publishing houses are still ensconced in New York, the Seattle area is the home of Amazon, Starbucks and Costco, three companies that increasingly influence what America reads.
Books by relatively unknown or foreign authors become best sellers by dint of their anointment at the hands of Amazon editors. A forgotten older paperback, recommended and featured by the book buyer at Costco, can sell more copies in six weeks than it did in the last few years combined. Almost every book Starbucks stocks in its coffee shops sells more than 100,000 copies in its outlets alone. That pushes most Starbucks selections into the top 1 percent of all books sold that year, without counting sales in other types of stores.
The three companies settled in Seattle for different reasons, and each had its own motivation for choosing to sell books. Together, though, their combined power in the book industry has put the city in the position of tastemaker.
Each company, in its own way, “guides their customers, by selecting the books they will see,” Ms. Pearl said. “New York may publish the books, but Seattle significantly defines America’s reading list.”
INDUSTRY trends suggest Seattle’s influence will keep growing. More people are bypassing bookstores and buying at mass-market merchants, online retailers and specialty stores, says Albert N. Greco, a marketing professor at Fordham University’s Graduate School of Business Administration.
In the last two years alone, sales of consumer books sold through such nontraditional outlets grew by more than $260 million, Professor Greco said. The presence of Costco, Amazon and Starbucks ensures that “Seattle will keep making an impact on what we read,” he said.
When Kim Ricketts, founder of a book promotion company in Seattle, visited the big publishing houses in New York last month, she said she was repeatedly asked for advice on how to do business with the three Seattle heavyweights: “Publishers want to find the golden ticket — how to get their title beloved by one of these companies.”
Seattle’s literary seeds have been here for decades, with local authors, abundant writing courses and robust independent bookstores, according to J. A. Jance, the Seattle mystery author whose books have sold 15 million copies over the last 20 years. “Maybe it’s the rain, but Seattle has always been a reading town,” she said.
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