Industry News

Joseph-Beth to Open Its Eighth Store

The July 5 issue of The New Yorker, on sale June 28, features a special insert, "Book Sensibility: Celebrating the Fifth Anniversary of Book Sense." The insert is an ode to the uniqueness and rich character of independent booksellers, their importance to the book industry, and of course, Book Sense. Preceding and following the insert are full-page Book Sense ads.

BookSense.com is now offering Book Sense marketing program members the chance to launch their own BookSense.com Web site -- free of charge, with no obligation to continue after the free trial ends. The BookSense.com Free Trial Offer, which began June 1 and runs through September 30, 2004, offers booksellers a chance to test this valuable online sales and marketing tool.

On the first day of summer, National Public Radio's special correspondent Susan Stamberg turned to three independent booksellers for their top picks for "best beach reads." Stamberg, who regularly devotes segments to interviews with independent booksellers around the country, hosted the Morning Edition story, "An Independent View of Summer Reading: Bookstore Owners Offer Lists of Literary Picks," which featured booksellers representing the South, Midwest, and West.

Other Tiger Bookstore in Westerly, Rhode Island (above), will soon open a summer annex near the Atlantic shore.

The owners of Westerly, Rhode Is

On Tuesday, June 22, the on-sale date for former President Bill Clinton's My Life (Knopf), BookSense.com announced that it had made available to BookSense.com participants an audio clip and chapter excerpt from the book.

At this year's Celebration of Bookselling -- held on Friday, June 4, at BookExpo America (BEA) -- Joseph Marsh of Chaucer's Books in Santa Barbara, California, won the grand prize of the Book Sense at Five Contest drawing. Marsh won hotel accommodations and admission to BEA for the next five years.

On Tuesday, June 1, and Wednesday, June 2, the American Booksellers Association Board of Directors and senior staff met at the Hotel ABA - Chicago (Allerton Crowne Plaza), prior to the start of BookExpo America.

During a busy two days, the Board and staff:

Former President Bill Clinton, adored by many, reviled by some, is the booksellers' new best friend this season. His ability to create an enormous demand for his 957-page memoir, My Life, to be released by Knopf on June 22, is nothing short of magical. Only boy wizard Harry Potter has generated a similar anticipatory frenzy.

On Saturday, June 5, at BookExpo America, ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz conducted the two-hour session "The 2% Solution," a comprehensive seminar that suggested ways in which operators of bookstores could address issues related to lack of profitability. "The thrust of the session is to try to go from a negative profitability to a positive," Domnitz said in his opening remarks. "This used to be called a two percent industry…. The thing that struck me about it, is that it is doable."

A recent unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decision -- in a case in which chain store Christal's challenged a Littleton adult-business licensing ordinance on the grounds that it violated the retailer's First Amendment rights by not allowing for prompt judicial review -- ruled in favor of the city ordinance. And, while the judges' decision confirmed that First Amendment cases required a prompt review and ruling, they noted that accelerated procedures with two-to-three day time limits do not apply to city ordinance licensing.

This fall, one of the largest independent bookstores in the U.S. will open a second, even larger location. Larry and Gloria Abramoff, founders and co-owners of Tatnuck Bookseller & Sons, the 29-year-old, 24,000-square-foot institution in Worcester, Massachusetts, will open a 31,000-square-foot store in a former supermarket in the Westborough Shopping Center. "I'm so excited, I can't wait," said Larry Abramoff, who hopes to open the store in November.

Southeast Booksellers Association Announces 2004 Book Awards

On Tuesday, June 8, the Southeast Booksellers Association (SEBA) announced the winners of its SEBA 2004 Book Awards.

The winners are:

June is bursting with excitement as publishers provide copies of ARCs and galleys of their early fall releases for your approval, as well as other more current publications. Among the myriad titles: