Book Sense

March marks the 10th annual celebration of National Small Press Month (NSPM), co-sponsored by the Small Press Center; PMA, the Independent Book Publishers Association; and the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP).

What better theme for literature than love? And -- with all due respect to the chocolate, flower, and diamond industries -- what better way to show one's love than the gift of a book?

Already named one of the 25 best small towns in America, Jasper, Indiana, can now boast its own independent bookstore. Words of Wisdom, a general bookstore, owned by Michelle O'Connor, opened on November 11, 2005.

As far back as O'Connor can remember, there hasn't been a bookstore in the southern Indiana town of 12,000. The local Wal-Mart sells books, but the nearest bookstore is an hour's drive away.

Based on sales at independent bookstores with Book Sense across the nation for the eight-week period ending February 5, 2006.

Past Category Bestseller lists are available at www.bookweb.org/read/5677.

Attention Media: Contact Meg Smith at [email protected] for reprint guidelines for your newspaper or magazine.

Here is the full listing of the March 2006 Book Sense Picks, with booksellers' comments, as well as a preview of the month's Notables. Independent booksellers in the Book Sense program will be receiving their March Picks fliers in the February Red Box. (The flier includes jacket images, bibliographic information, and bookseller quotes.)

Retailing, specifically bookselling, is honorable and difficult work. Some might say it is not, however, on a par with saving lives or curing cancer. That's what makes Kathleen Jewell, owner of Wilmington, North Carolina's new store, Pomegranate Books such an intriguing addition to the bookselling community. She has a foot in both worlds.

February 28 is the deadline for ballots for the 2006 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards, which will be presented at the American Booksellers Association's Celebration of Bookselling at BookExpo America in May in Washington, D.C.

Voting for the 2006 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards is now open to the owners and staff of all ABA member bookstores through a convenient online form or by paper ballot.

If new bookseller Karen Emmerling could go back in time and listen to three words of advice before launching her general bookstore, Beach Books, in the small coastal town of Seaside, Oregon, she would want someone to tell her, "Do more research." After being open for two months, she confessed, "There's an awful lot more to think about than I probably considered, not having had a background in retail or books." But despite the warp-speed learning process, "everything has really fallen into place," she said.

Based on sales for the eight-week period ending January 22, 2006, in hundreds of independent bookstores with Book Sense nationwide.

Past Category Bestseller lists are available at www.bookweb.org/read/5677.

Attention Media: Contact Meg Smith at [email protected] for reprint guidelines for your newspaper or magazine.

While overall holiday sales ranged from slightly down to solid gains at bookstores across the country, sales of Book Sense gift cards showed strong overall increases. According to gift card sales figures recently compiled by the American Booksellers Association, sales of Book Sense gift cards in November and December 2005 increased more than 38 percent over the same period last year. Total gift card sales for the final two months of the year totaled over $3 million. Sales (both activations and increments) since the program's inception in October 2003 have reached almost $11 million.

The owners and staff of all ABA member bookstores can now vote for the 2006 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards. Presented to the authors of independent booksellers' handselling favorites in the categories of Adult Fiction, Adult Nonfiction, Children's Literature, and Children's Illustrated, the awards are a highlight of BookExpo America.

The ballot for the 2006 awards includes titles appearing on the 2005 Book Sense Picks lists. In addition, there is space for write-ins in each category. Only books published in 2005 are eligible.

Publishers' spring lists feature a number of compelling titles, and ABA's Book Sense staff is encouraging booksellers to nominate titles that they are excited about handselling to the April Picks list. In addition, next month's two specialty list deadlines -- for the Easter/Passover and Poetry Top Ten lists -- offer a chance to nominate both backlist and frontlist titles (in hardcover or paperback).

The deadlines for the three lists are:

Voting for the 2006 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards is now open to the owners and staff of all ABA member bookstores.

This week, Book Sense presents the 2006 Valentine's Day Top Ten. The list is produced in conjunction with the Association of American Publishers' (AAP) Get Caught Reading literacy campaign and is part of an ongoing initiative with AAP to create seasonal lists based on the nominations of independent booksellers nationwide.

Booksellers in the Book Sense program are receiving the Valentine's Day Top Ten in the January Red Box. The list is also available in PDF format.