By Michael Liedtke
The Associated Press

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Anyone shopping for a 2003 calendar has probably noticed there are plenty of themes. Publishers produced about 3,000 calendar varieties this year, offering everything from an ode to outhouses to a celebration of witchcraft featuring all the major Wiccan holidays.

"If it's a noun, there is a good chance that we have a calendar devoted to it," said Wendover H. Brown, who runs BrownTrout Publishing with her husband, Marc, and his twin brother, Mike.

The proliferation of choices reflects the dramatic evolution of a $550 million industry that didn't amount to much until 1986, when BrownTrout began making specialty calendars on a lark. Since selling about 30,000 calendars that first year, BrownTrout has grown into a very big fish in the industry.

The San Mateo-based company says it has sold 12 million calendars this year, enabling it to stake a claim as the nation's largest publisher of calendars sold by retailers.

"They have really taken things to another level," said Hillel Levin, general manager of Calendars.com, a major online merchant partially owned by book store giant Barnes and Noble. "They've become a powerhouse because they really excel at finding niches that people have a passionate interest in."

BrownTrout's 2003 calendars have accounted for more than $100 million in retail sales. As a wholesaler, BrownTrout makes much less than that. The privately held company says its annual revenues are about $35 million.

There are other calendar heavyweights, including Andrews McMeel and Workman Publishing, but none can match BrownTrout's selections.

Including titles released under other labels, BrownTrout this year produced more than 900 calendar themes, up from about 500 varieties just five years ago.

It took a 283-page catalog to list all the company's 2003 calendars. In 1986, the company put out a one-page flyer to promote a modest selection of three calendars devoted to Florida, Idaho and Salt Lake City.

Animal-themed calendars account for about 40 percent of the company's sales, which explains why there are 240 dog calendars in BrownTrout's 2003 catalog.

With online sales making it easier to connect with niche audiences, BrownTrout has been branching into more eclectic themes, including its popular outhouse tribute that offers thoughts such as: "When nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it."

The company's other esoteric efforts include calendars devoted to jackasses, lawn mowers and erotica in Renaissance art. BrownTrout even found enough material to fill a 2003 calendar called "Wild and Scenic New Jersey."

Retailers have responded to the rising calendar demand by opening more temporary stores devoted to the products. The 9-year-old Calendar Club this year operated more than 1,000 stores, mostly in malls, from October through December.

About 40 percent of calendars are sold between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

BrownTrout has stimulated sales during other times of the year by ensuring that popular tourist destinations are well-stocked with regional calendars by the time prime vacation season starts on Memorial Day.

The Browns, self-described "children of the '60s" were just looking for something that would help pay the bills when they decided to try making wilderness calendars in the 1980s.

Today, BrownTrout has 140 full-time employees in the United States and six other countries. The company also pays 500 free-lance photographers to take pictures for a calendar selection that the Browns plan to keep expanding.

"If you keep slicing deeper into a topic," Marc A. Brown said, "you have a better chance of getting people to react to it." Top 2003 calendars

5. The Far Side, wall

6. 365 Cats, daily boxed

7. Thomas Kinkade - Painter of Light, wall

8. Lord of The Rings - The Two Towers, wall

9. Dilbert, daily boxed

10. FDNY Firefighters, wall

Source: Calendars.com