Bookselling in a Crisis Not of Its Making

LOGOS 13(1)_CRC 9/4/02 12:04 PM Page 21

LOGOS Bookselling in a crisis not of its making

Herbert R Lottman I was in New York City during that tragic week in September. On a scarcely believable Tuesday morning, I was riding on a city bus when all public trans- portation was suspended – subways as well as buses – and not only lines going south to the tip of Man- hattan where the attacks had taken place, but going anywhere at all. I found myself on the street with all the other lost souls who seemed not to know Born and raised in New York where to go. But I knew where to go; I had to visit City, Herbert Lottman, my dying brother in a hospital, and needed a taxi. International Correspondent of The other passengers who had been on the bus with me simply abandoned themselves to fate; they Publishers Weekly, has spent walked around in circles. most of his adult life in France. The stores were still open that morning He first came to Paris as a but they were soon to close, as shopkeepers won- Fulbright fellow in 1949. In dered how they themselves would get home that evening. Later that day, the large Barnes & Noble addition to his work for PW, superstore on Broadway near Lincoln Center put up which has taken him all over the signs on the doors: at the request of city authorities, world, Lottman has contributed it would be closed all the following day (Wednes- to leading American newspapers day). The city apparently thought that this would and magazines. He is the author make it easier for storekeepers, who found it diffi- cult to reach their jobs, since Manhattan was virtu- of a dozen books, including ally shut off from the rest of the city. I personally biographies of Albert Camus, thought it a regrettable decision, for everyone Philippe Pétain, Gustave would be out on the street that day – and what bet- Flaubert, Colette and Jules ter destination than a bookstore? So on the day after the attack only food Verne. He became an Officier of stores and restaurants accepted customers. But on the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres the following day, Thursday, September 13, Barnes in 1996. & Noble was open again – and crowded. I waited patiently for my turn to mount the escalators to the upper floors, riding behind readers carrying new books up to the café,where they always seem to delight in spilling coffee on them; one or two young people held ice cream cones that would soon be melting on to other books they hadn’t yet pur- chased. (But that is another story – the story of the hospitality, the informality, the insouciance of those very American phenomena – the Barnes & Noble,

Herbert R Lottman

Borders, and Books a Million stores.) Returning to the September 11 horrors without visiting each and the street floor, I saw customers lining up at the every country concerned. In the US, the magazine cash counters. Clearly New York was open for busi- I work for, Publishers Weekly, obviously had a front- ness again. row view of what was happening. (Until the morn- A month later, at the Frankfurt Book Fair, ing of September 11, my own editor on the I met my Israeli friend Eri Steimatzky, who is the magazine could see the World Trade Center from owner of his country’s largest bookshop chain, with his office window, but by the time I visited him nearly one hundred outlets located in every signifi- later that week I saw only empty space and yellow cant city and town, as well as in airports and hotels. smoke.) One early effect of the attack became evi- Steimatzky told me that during the current troubles dent not only in the US but in large parts of the in Israel, when people avoid going out to restaurants reading world – the rush to buy books about Islam, and to cinema theatres, they do visit bookshops – in terrorism, holy war, and of course Afghanistan. order to find something to read in the tranquillity of If there were few available books about their homes. He knew that because his sales had the villainous Bin Laden, the lack would soon be risen noticeably. It made me remember the day that made up as existing books about central Asia and New York closed its bookshops, and I could tell Eri its perils were reprinted and new ones were that everybody felt better when they opened again. announced. Indeed, projects involving terrorism Any survey of the book market will obvi- proved to be the most in demand at Frankfurt. I am ously have to take account of what happened to the sure that we all hope that by the time these books World Trade Center’s twin towers. In the days that are written and published, terrorism and Bin Laden followed, America’s Nato allies declared their himself will no longer be at the top of our minds. intention to join the United States in a counterat- But, in the US at least, there were other tack against Osama Bin Laden and his Taliban immediate concerns of book readers, as reported to hosts. Soon there was trouble in the oil fields, or Publishers Weekly by booksellers and publishers rather in the counting houses, and the price of oil – both. In my country, religious publishing is a growth a determining factor in all major market countries industry, and there was a sudden demand for Bibles – became a bouncing ball once again. Nearly every- in different versions and formats. Or books about where – not only in the US – one found a certain the Bible. But then there was also a renewed inter- reluctance to go out on the streets, even to shop – est in books about sports and about exceptional ath- even to shop for books – and bookseller turnover letic performances. “Industry looks to heroes and declined across the board. European publishers who nostalgia to smooth America’s bruised psyche,” read depend on sales to America realized that they were the headline in Publishers Weekly over a report on going to have a very bad year. this phenomenon. Then came the Frankfurt Book Fair, held Americans also learned about the effect last autumn from October 10 to 15. Many Ameri- on young people of this event that dominated tele- can publishers who regularly attend the fair to vision screens continuously for many days. Clearly negotiate literary rights stayed home this time, children were watching, and in New York and which obviously had a considerable effect on the Washington there was little else that they could do fair’s activity – although not all the consequences in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. Parents would be apparent right away, for some of the lost had difficulty explaining what they themselves business concerned books not yet published (in found it hard to understand. some cases, books not yet written). One indication At Publishers Weekly our children’s book of how international the publishing world has editors discovered that while retail book sales were become came to us soon after the fair when a large down in the days and weeks that followed, a number group, HarperCollins, decided to reduce costs in its of booksellers specializing in children’s books found British book companies because of the expected their own business strong – sometimes better than decline in the results of its American operations. normal. Stores that devote space to storytelling ses- Thanks to the book trade journals, it is sions drew packed audiences, for of course this was possible to know a great deal about the effects of one way to keep children away from television.