Book lovers browse at a bookstore in Burbank.
People are going to the movies in huge numbers this summer as well as catching up on favorite TV programs after the script drought created by the WGA writers’ strike, so maybe that’s why some book sales are sagging.
Bookstore sales declined in June, according to Publishers Weekly. During the first five months of the year, these sales were strong. Then in June, bookstore sales reportedly slipped 7.1%. Overall, bookstore sales for the first half of 2008 were $7.67 billion.
I take some of the blame for the dip in sales. I did not browse bookstores on some of those too hot to be outside days of June, like in the past. Recently, I did buy some books while attending a writers’ conference. That might balance things out.
Hopefully, the figures for July will be better. It makes a lot of authors nervous when book sales go south. You start to wonder, if only for a moment or two, if those well-intended, good friends who keep suggesting you forget about the “writing stuff” and “get a real job” just might be right.
