Industry News

Approximately 20 booksellers attended an ABA Booksellers Forum, held in conjunction with the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association (NAIBA) on Wednesday, April 14, at ABA's offices in Tarrytown, New York. ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz and COO Oren Teicher hosted the forum, with ABA Board member John Bennett of Bennett Books in Wyckoff, New Jersey, and other ABA staff members in attendance.

The American Booksellers Association wants to remind booksellers that they are invited to attend a Booksellers Forum to be held in conjunction with the New England Booksellers Association (NEBA) in Amherst, Massachusetts, on Thursday, April 22. The second ABA/NEBA forum of the season will be held at the National Yiddish Book Center on the grounds of Hampshire College and will begin at approximately 3:15 p.m., at the conclusion of NEBA meetings.

On April 14, Senator Orrin Hatch's Senate Judiciary Committee field hearing on the USA Patriot Act in Salt Lake City made for strange bedfellows, as liberals, libertarians, and conservatives joined together to voice their concerns over a half-dozen provisions in the Patriot Act, as reported in the Salt Lake Tribune. One such provision is Section 215, which gives law enforcement officials broad authority to demand that libraries or bookstores turn over books, records, papers, and documents.

Here's a reminder that the deadline to participate in the 2004 ABACUS study is Friday, April 30.

Booksellers who join the new ABACUS survey will receive valuable information that can help improve their bookstore's operations and will also help their fellow independent booksellers assess their store's operations. It could not be easier -- there are only three steps with the simplified, online version of ABACUS. For more information, click here.

The Book Sense team sends a very big thank-you to hundreds of booksellers who have shared their nominations for all the Book Sense lists that have recently gone into production. Currently, we are completing the Audiobooks Top Ten, the D-Day/World War II History Top Ten, and the June Book Sense Picks list, and we will soon go into high gear on the Children's Picks list. All will be very strong lists, based on the enthusiasm and insight from independent booksellers nationwide.

"I'm thrilled. Short of a million bucks, I can't think of a nicer prize," said Sharon O'Driscoll, the consumer grand-prize winner of last year's Bacardi Mixers/Book Sense Book Club Sweepstakes. O'Driscoll entered the sweepstakes at The Clemson Newsstand in Clemson, South Carolina. As the grand-prize winner, O'Driscoll will receive 10 copies of 12 different Book Sense Picks for her reading group as well as a supply of Bacardi Mixers.

The name might be Off the Beaten Path Bookstore, but Leslie Ryan wanted to make sure that the residents of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, didn't have to wander too far to find out about the Campaign for Reader Privacy (CRP). To help promote CRP -- a nationwide grassroots petition drive to raise awareness about the threat to the privacy of bookstore and library records posed by the USA Patriot Act -- the store ran two quarter-page ads in its local newspaper. "It was quite successful," Ryan told BTW in a recent interview.

At this year's BookExpo America, the Book Industry Foundation will be selling two book-related posters based on cartoons featured in The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker, coming from Black Dog & Leventhal in September. Proceeds from sales of the posters will benefit the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) and the Association of American Publishers' "Get Caught Reading" campaign.

With about 10 years in the bookselling and publishing industry, Rob Stahl, the general manager of Colgate Bookstore in Hamilton, New York, understands the value of regional booksellers getting together to discuss business issues. He also knows that, in central New York State, independent bookstores -- many of whom are either members of the New England Booksellers Association (NEBA) or the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association (NAIBA), or both -- have a tough time attending NAIBA's or NEBA's regional meetings due to the travel distances.

The 2004 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards will be announced at the Celebration of Bookselling, on Friday, June 4, during this year's BookExpo America (BEA). Here, BTW takes a look at the 10 finalists in the two children's categories -- Children's Literature and Children's Illustrated. (For the complete list of finalists, click here; for a closer look at the Paperback finalists, click here.)

After a flat January, retail sales at bookstores in February increased nearly 10 percent over February 2003, thus resuming the upward trend of recent months. This year's February bookstore sales were $1,145 million, compared to $1,043 million in February 2003.

Bookstore sales in February kept pace with overall retail. Overall retail of $296 billion for February 2004 was 10.4 percent better than the $268 billion of the previous year.

BookExpo America (BEA), in partnership with Publishers Lunch, has announced that its online directory, BEA Marketplace (www.publishersmarketplace.com/BEA/), which was introduced last year on a test basis, has been expanded to facilitate planning for this year's trade show.

Book Sense -- the campaign that embodies the passion, personality, character, community, and knowledge of independent bookstores -- has announced the Best Books: The Best of Book Sense From the First Five Years. The list is the result of voting by independent booksellers across the country, who cast ballots for the titles they most enjoyed handselling over the past five years.