Great news according to this Shelf Awareness piece today:

April Bookstore Sales: Who’s Doing So Well?

Although most booksellers and publishers say this has been a soft spring–”down a little is the new up,” as one bookseller put it to us at BEA–the U.S. Census Bureau says otherwise. Bookstore sales in April rose 8% to $1 billion, according to preliminary estimates from the Bureau. For the year to date, bookstore sales have risen 5.4% to $5.5 billion.

By comparison, total retail sales in April rose 3.7% to $375.5 billion. For the year to date, total retail sales were up 3.8% to $1.450.1 billion.

Also, general retail sales in May rose 1%, double expectations, according to Commerce Department data. Most economists attributed the unexpected gain to stimulus checks from the federal government and higher prices, particularly of gasoline. Sales were 2.5% lower than in May 2007. The New York Times noted that “on an annual basis, sales have fallen for the last six months when adjusted for inflation.”

Note: under Census Bureau definitions, bookstore sales are of new books and do not include “electronic home shopping, mail-order, or direct sale” or used book sales.

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