a culture of practitioners

[Guest guest]

One of the biggest non-book growth areas in bookstores is in the

mind/body category. Products include tiny Zen garden kits (with

booklet), $5.95; mini-altars to Kali, the Indian goddess of creation

and destruction, $22.95; Pilates CD/book kits, $22.95; and decks of

50 cards featuring photos and instruction from yoga luminaries such

as Rodney Yee for $15.95.

 

 

''Decks are not books'' was the original response from reluctant

booksellers, says Reid Tracy, president of Hay House near San Diego.

That attitude has changed. The self-help publisher has produced a

number of successful decks and kits, including Doreen Virtue's New

Age decks. Virtue's Messages From Your Angels has sold more than

700,000 copies.

 

 

For the struggling bookselling industry, these kits are ''fun,'' says

Running Press' Carlo DeVito, the publisher of such hit miniature

books as the $5.95 Itty Bitty Buddha book (complete with Buddha

statue) and the Zen Gardening Kit, which has sold more than 1 million

copies since 2000. Displayed at the checkout counter, these

inexpensive impulse buys add a nice clink to booksellers' coffers.

 

 

''The whole wish on the part of spirituality and wellness consumers

is that they don't want to just read about these activities, they

want to do the activities,'' says Susan Piver, founder of Padma Media

in Cambridge, Mass. She designed Yee's deck, Cyndi Lee's Om Yoga

series and Brooke Siler's The Pilates Body Kit. ''It's a natural

evolution. We are growing into a culture of practitioners.''

 

 

Deirdre Donahue USA TODAY

 

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