Book Sense

The PDF files of the February Book Sense Notables fliers and shelf-talkers, featuring booksellers' comments, are now available on BookWeb's Picks page, along with the full list of February Book Sense Picks titles.

It didn't take long for the Renton, Washington's Wizards of the Coast to make its mark in the gaming and role-playing business. In 1990, Peter Adkison and six friends founded the company in Adkison's basement. Within three years, with the release of the first trading card game, Magic: The Gathering, Wizards of the Coast had created an entirely new genre of games.

The 2005 Book Sense Bestsellers, a special listing of the year's bestselling titles at independent bookstores with Book Sense nationwide, is a versatile marketing tool that booksellers can use to drive post-holiday sales.

Based on reporting from hundreds of independent bookstores with Book Sense nationwide for the eight-week period ending January 8, 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's a reminder about ABA/Book Sense programs and events. This list may also be downloaded in PDF format.

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

BookSense.com recently announced its first group of new features for 2006, as well as other important news:

In the crush of the holiday season, stores with Book Sense may have set aside materials sent in the December Red Box for a later look. But included in that mailing were materials for a special promotion tying into the premiere of The History Channel's documentary Lincoln on Monday, January 16 (8:00 p.m./7:00 C.). The program explores a little-known side of the 16th president, who suffered suicidal urges and called himself "the loneliest man in the world."

Book Sense Best Children's Books: Favorites for All Ages Recommended by Independent Booksellers -- a collaboration of Newmarket Press and the American Booksellers Association's Book Sense marketing program -- has been noted by media outlets nationwide as an indispensable resource for children's literature. The book's buzz has also garnered press attention for local independent booksellers.

In this, perhaps the most crucial week in trade bookselling, the Book Sense team at ABA sends out one very brief message to booksellers: Thank You.

Many thanks for all that you have done for Book Sense this year, from reporting to the Book Sense Bestseller List, to nominating for the Picks lists, to creating all of the great displays, and so much more.

The participation of so many knowledgeable and enthusiastic booksellers has helped bring a wide range of wonderful writing in fiction and nonfiction to readers coast to coast, and has helped sell more books.

Due to the Christmas and New Year holidays, bestseller reporting hours will be extended for 24 hours for the next two Book Sense Bestseller Lists. To accommodate the extended reporting hours, the Book Sense Bestseller List will be e-mailed to booksellers and posted to BookWeb on Wednesday.

Booksellers who are eager to get into the swing with Curious George, whose eponymous film opens on February 10, still have an opportunity to grab a yellow hat and other special promotional materials from Book Sense. However, quantities are extremely limited.

The 2005 Book Sense Bestsellers, a special listing of the year's bestselling titles at independent bookstores with Book Sense nationwide, was created to provide stores with a versatile marketing tool to help drive sales during the all-important holiday season and into the new year.

Book Sense wants to remind booksellers participating in the gift card program that they can direct consumers to the BookSense.com hub site to easily locate a redeeming store anywhere in the U.S.

Boston-based Beacon Press, a nonprofit independent book publisher founded in 1854 as the Press of the American Unitarian Association, has long been known as a house devoted to providing the public with thought-provoking, sometimes controversial, works focusing on social issues. Renamed Beacon Press in 1902, it remains a branch of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), often referred to as the Unitarian Church, although its titles are nondenominational.