The book is back in business

Book boom: Kim Pittar, owner of Muirs Bookshop, with some of her Christmas bestsellers. Picture by Liam Clayton.

Books are a popular gift at Christmas and for summer reading, and sales here have been on the rise lately. Wynsley Wrigley spoke to Gisborne's two leading book sellers about business over Christmas/New Year. What were their bestsellers and do readers still love the 'crinkle' of a turning page in the age of Kindle?

Book sales are booming in Gisborne. Despite the presence of e-book readers and online sales by the likes of Amazon, Muirs Bookshop owner Kim Pittar and Paper Plus manager Karen Parkinson have enjoyed great book sales over the Christmas-New Year period.

“Over the past three years we have seen a steady increase in sales of books during the summer months,’’ said Mrs Pittar. “This last year was our biggest increase yet on the previous Christmas period.”

Mrs Parkinson said 2013 had been a great year but 2014 had been better and 2015 significantly better again. She would have to go back a number of years to find a similar level of sales.

'Books are not dead'“We are very happy with the growth in sales. Books are not dead,” she said.

Paper Plus recorded a November-December increase in sales of 9 percent over New Zealand on the previous year, but the equivalent figure for Gisborne was 20 percent.

‘‘There are lots of good books,” said Mrs Parkinson. “I have never seen the children’s books cleaned out like they were at Christmas.”

Trade had remained at good levels since Christmas. Mrs Pittar said she attributed increased book sales to “the constant information feeding into the community that if you don’t use it, you lose it”.

Bookshops worldwide were decreasing in number due to the popularity of online sales.

Buying local supports community“Hopefully, New Zealanders will save their retail communities before they have nowhere to go and shop, other than their computer screens. It doesn’t take a genius to realise that communities will die if the people living in those communities don’t support each other. I could be employing at least four more people if our sales continue to increase.

“We can’t meet some online prices — that is just a fact of business — but we can provide employment and give sponsorship prizes to all sorts of activities that Gisborne people are involved in.”

Mrs Parkinson said relationships were important in a small community.

“Regular customers often come in seeking our recommendations.’’ The shop’s Book Lovers’ Club met most months and was proving very successful.

She agreed with Mrs Pittar that the public was catching on to the importance of buying locally. There was a whole vibe going on.

“It was going on last year and it is bigger this year.”

Pointing to numerous shoppers in the same aisle as her, she said, ‘‘There are so many people here — it’s a great buzz to see the store so busy.”

E-books not an issueE-book readers did not appear to be an issue.

“The trend in overseas markets such as London is that the demand for e-readers has plateaued,” said Mrs Parkinson.

Paper Plus had benefited from the closure of Whitcoulls, including making additional sales in stationery and such items. Its closure had been factored into Paper Plus sales.

“We are trading ahead of that.”

Mrs Pittar said Whitcoulls was more of a games, toys and mainstream fiction retailer and she expected Paper Plus to have benefited more.

Christmas bestsellersChristmas bestsellers at Muirs Bookshop were adult non-fiction, The Pacific by Simon Winchester, Being Mortal by Atul Gawande; sports books, Dan Carter, My Story; adult fiction, All The Light We Can Not See, by Anthony Doerr, The Marriage of Opposites, by Alice Hoffman and the Neopolitan series (all four books) by Elena Ferrante.

Mrs Pittar said all the Booker shortlisted books featured highly on the fiction sales list. Adult colouring books were still going strongly.

“We have been selling Secret Garden by Johanna Basford since its release in early 2012. It has been a constant backlist for us for four years, long before colouring became popular.

“Colouring books are not new to us. Before the big surge, HarperCollins Publishers said Muirs Bookshop alone had sold 15 percent of total sales of their Millie Marotta’s Animal Kingdom colouring book.”

In children’s books, Michael Morpurgo’s Eagle in the Snow and David Walliams’ Grandpa’s Great Escape were topsellers along with Wimpy Kid and the TreeHouse series.

Top-selling cookbooks were Rick Stein’s Venice to Istanbul and Nopi the Cook book by Yotan Ottolengi. There is also a huge following of the I Quit Sugar books in this region.

“Local books are also very strong for us, particularly Tangihau by Rebecca Harper, A Splendid Isolation by Sheridan Gundry and Feast — Our Food Out East.”

Paper Plus group marketing manager Lyle Hastings said there had been huge sales in adult colouring books and he expected that to continue in 2016.

“One positive thing we’re seeing is the growth of popular book series for young readers such as the Diary of a Wimpy Kid, by Jeff Kinney, the Treehouse series, by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton, as well as David Walliams’ titles.”

Cookbooks remained a popular genre. Mrs Parkinson attributed that to cookbook author events held in the store throughout the year.

Dan Carter’s book was the biggest-selling book of the year, despite its late release. But it had not bettered the sales achieved by Richie McCaw’s book published in 2012.

Pee Wee the Lonely Kiwi, by Blair Cooper, a Paper Plus exclusive, was ‘‘a huge seller’’ and had proved very popular with cruise tourists.