Book Sense

On Thursday, September 18, USA Today announced the selection of Mystic River by Dennis Lehane (Avon/Dark Alley/HarperAudio) as its next book club title.

Based on four weeks of sales ended September 14, 2003, at 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.

On Wednesday, September 17, author Scott Turow recommended The Time Traveler’s Wife: A Novel by Audrey Niffenegger (MacAdam/Cage) as the next selection to be read by NBC News' Today Show Today Book Club.

Here are independent booksellers' picks for the top ten university press titles for the fall. Pads are included in the September White Box mailing, and a downloadable PDF file of the University Press Top Ten is available by clicking here.

For past Book Sense 76 lists, go to http://www.bookweb.org/read/1474.

Many thanks to all the independent booksellers who shared their enthusiastic nominations for this top ten list.

The third and final installment of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Return of the King, will be in theaters this December, and once again Book Sense has joined with Houghton Mifflin and New Line Cinema to create a unique customer promotion for stores with Book Sense to mark the event.

Autumn has arrived, and with it, the September/October Book Sense 76. Given the wealth of wonderful, unique titles on the list, it can be challenging to select titles for in-store displays. Here are some suggestions for creating interesting title arrangements, from pairings to groupings to, well, piles.

When you celebrate a silver anniversary, whether it's a marriage or a business, people want to know the secret of your success. For Bobby Tichenor, owner of Annie Bloom's Books in Portland, Oregon, success was spawned by the realization that she had chosen the wrong career path.

On Wednesday, September 10, the following e-mail announcement was sent to BookSense.com members from Len Vlahos, BookSense.com director.

Greeting BookSense.com Bookseller,

Starting September 15, BookSense.com Co-op Reimbursement Program participants will be able to take advantage of a special offer from Algonquin Books. Booksellers who feature a special theme on their Web site based around titles culled from Esmé Raji Codell's new book, How to Get Your Child to Love Reading, and display the new book in their stores will be eligible to receive newsletter co-op from Algonquin.

Indigo Books & Music Inc., the Canadian bookseller, switched from paper gift certificates to plastic gift cards in November 2002, and has seen escalating gains since then, according to Keith Liu, vice-president of business development for Indigo. Instituting the gift card program, run by the Givex Corporation, increased Indigo's sales 35 percent over the paper certificates, and, Liu told BTW, "Our stores experienced an immediate uplift, and we're pretty happy about it.

Nominations Sought for a Very Special Top Ten 76

Book Sense booksellers should check the September White Box for the Entrepreneur Press "There's No Business Like Sports Business" Sweepstakes materials, publicizing The Business Playbook: Leadership Lessons From the World of Sports by sports marketing master Brandon Steiner.

Claire Cook, whose novel Must Love Dogs (Onyx Books) is a top ten pick on the Summer Paperback Book Sense 76, recently wrote to Dan Cullen, editor-in-chief of the Book Sense 76 lists, to express her appreciation for independent booksellers' support of her work and to acknowledge the power of the Book Sense 76 lists.

Based on four weeks of sales ended August 31, 2003, at 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.