Book Sense

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.

Carl Lennertz, vice president of independent retailing at HarperCollins, former senior consultant to ABA's Book Sense marketing program, and friend to independent booksellers everywhere, shares his thoughts about his recently concluded weeklong book tour to promote May Book Sense Pick Cursed by a Happy Ch

The Haverford College Bookstore in Haverford, Pennsylvania, is a 6,000-square-foot independent offering a "hand-selected inventory of reading that runs wide and deep," as well as textbooks and pretty much anything else a student needs to get through a semester. This article, which originally appeared in Founders Green, the college's parents' newsletter, takes a look at how the store successfully competes with larger stores by meeting the needs of the college community and beyond.

This is not Mom and Dad's college bookstore.

The Summer Paperback Book Sense Picks, with booksellers' comments, is now available on BookWeb.org. To view the entire list, go to news.bookweb.org/read/2623. The printed list will be sent to stores with Book Sense in the July Red Box mailing.

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:

Friday, July 9, is the deadline for nominations for three Book Sense Picks lists: September Book Sense Picks; Fall Children's Book Sense Picks; and the Banned Books Top Ten.

Book Sense will be producing the Banned Books Top Ten, timed to coincide with Banned Books Week 2004, set this year for September 25 - October 2. Bookstores nationwide will be participating in the event, now in its 23rd year. We hope a Book Sense Top Ten will be a central component of this year's Banned Books Week.

As everyone returns from BookExpo America (BEA) to share new ideas, catch up with bookstore business and e-mails, and, hopefully, eliminate some of that sleep deficit, there will also be lots of discussions about upcoming titles, many of which were highlights of BEA.

While everyone is so closely focused on great new books, we hope that you will be especially primed to send in nominations for the upcoming Book Sense Lists.

Some deadlines to keep in mind:

At 27 years old and 16,000 square feet, Little Dickens and Givens Books is the oldest and largest independent bookstore in historic Lynchburg, Virginia.

For the four-week period ending June 6, 2004, and based on reporting from hundreds of independent bookstores across the U.S.

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

Attention Media: Please contact Kristen Gilligan at [email protected] for reprint guidelines for your newspaper or magazine.

Politics and business mixed on Saturday, June 5, at BookExpo America, as Day 3 featured a political lunch, an update on the Campaign for Reader Privacy, and a presentation of petitions to Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois, as well as ABA's comprehensive seminar exploring ways to improve profits.

To show their support for Book Sense @ 5, the fifth birthday of the Book Sense program, publisher partners exhibiting at BookExpo America (BEA) have planned celebratory events ranging from ice cream giveaways to wine and cheese parties to cheering for a horse trying to overcome the odds. Their events will be part of the Book Sense @ 5 Birthday Bash, which will be held at 5:00 p.m. sharp on June 5 on the BEA trade show floor.

This week, ABA announced the availability of a Book Sense @ 5 Publicity Kit for bookstores participating in the Book Sense marketing program. The publicity pack will be available at BookExpo America and in June's Red Box mailing and is online at www.bookweb.org/education/marketing/.

This week, Book Sense is announcing the Summer 2004 Children's Book Sense Picks, based on the nominations of independent booksellers nationwide. The mailing of printed fliers to stores began on Tuesday, May 25, and booksellers should be receiving them within seven working days.

To review the Children's Book Sense Picks, click here.

As part of its continuing partnership with Book Sense, The History Channel will be giving away prizes to booksellers at this year's BookExpo America. From Thursday, June 3 - Saturday, June 5, in the ABA/Book Sense Lounge (Room 401) in the McCormick Place Convention Center, a representative from The History Channel will be collecting business cards for a daily drawing in which five people will win a Day of Valor DVD.