Quills Invite Booksellers to Join Nominating Board

The Quill Book Awards,which were established to honor books in a wide variety of popular categories, are returning for their second year. And once again independent booksellers are invited to join the Quills Nominating Board, which will create the shortlist of titles to be presented to consumers for voting. Booksellers who served on the Nominating Board last year will automatically receive information about the process via e-mail by the end of June. However, booksellers who are new to the Quills can join the Nominating Board by sending an e-mail to Quills Executive Director Karen Mender, at [email protected], by the end of this month.

The awards, sponsored by Reed Business Information (RBI) and the NBC Universal Television Stations, will be presented during a ceremony on October 10, 2006, at the American Museum of Natural History's Milstein Hall of Ocean Life in New York City. The ceremony will be aired on Saturday, October 21, on the NBC Universal Television Stations and will be syndicated through NBC Universal Television Distribution, a change that greatly increases the potential audience.

The Quills Nominating Board is open to booksellers, including all Book Sense participants and subscribers to Publishers Weekly, among others. The Nominating Board will select titles from the Quills long list, which includes Book Sense Picks and titles with starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, among others. Eligible books must be English language books published in North American between August 1, 2005, and June 30, 2006.

The nominating period will take place from July 1 through August 15, culminating in a ballot consisting of the top five nominees in each category. Beginning on August 22, 2006, consumers will vote for one of the five nominees in each of the categories and the Quills Book of the Year Award from all nominees in all categories.

"Everyone involved with the Quills was extremely pleased with the 2005 launch," said Mender. "Everything is in place for an even better event than last year." New categories have been added this year, including "Best Book to Film," and once again, a Quills Corporate Literacy Award will be presented.

Other new developments this year include enhanced technology for consumer voting through the support of MSNBC. The Quills will also have an exclusive presence on MSNBC.com, which will feature unique content about the Quills.

As a 2006 Quills Literacy Initiative, the Quills Board will provide financial support to rebuild and restore America's public libraries through its new "Save the Library" program. In partnership with Reed Business Information's Library Journal, The Quills Literacy Foundation will donate initial funding to the New Orleans Public Library's "Rebuild" program. In addition, the Quills Foundation is committing its support to Chicago's "Battle of the Books" program, a school student competition based on reading.

For complete information about the 2006 Quill Book Awards, visit www.thequills.org. -- Nomi Schwartz