Book Sense

August may hold the slow-moving, humidity-filled "dog days" of summer, but the August white box offers fast-paced reading along with some great point-of-purchase sales aids guaranteed to step-up the pace in preparation for all of those new fall titles.

Here are some of the highlights.

Galleys, ARCs, and finished books:

Displays and party kits for the BACARDI Mixers & Book Sense Book Club Sweepstakes, which runs from July 14 - September 30, are still available. Participating Book Sense bookstores that would like to receive additional kits and stores wishing to join the promotion should send requests to Jill Perlstein, ABA director of marketing, at [email protected].

Based on four weeks of sales from over 400 independent bookstores across America.

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.

Trade Paperback | Mass Market | Hardcover

"Among the three of us, we have over 50 years of bookselling experience," said Lynne Almeida of Spellbinder of Bishop Books & Coffee, as she addressed the benefits of the recent merger of her bookstore, Spellbinder Books & Coffee, with Bishop Books & Coffee, which took place this past June.

The Book Sense Animal Bestseller List for the four weeks ended August 3, 2003.

Based on sales reports from well over 400 Book Sense stores nationwide.

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.

As the trade and consumer recognition of the Book Sense Bestseller list grows, bookstores that do not yet regularly report to the list have the potential of significantly helping to widen the scope and awareness of the list. Publishers already look to the Book Sense Bestseller lists as an accurate barometer of trends within the independent bookselling community, and consumer awareness of the bestseller lists (and the Book Sense program in general) is growing rapidly.

Since the news broke about the new national electronic gift card program for stores participating in the Book Sense marketing program, booksellers have had many questions. To help them easily find answers, we've provided an FAQ page to answer many of the common questions. To go to the page, click here.

Or visit http://www.bookweb.org/read/6303 to view gift card designs, a financial analysis and other news.

Here are independent booksellers' picks for the top ten small press titles for the fall. Pads will be in the August white box mailing and a downloadable PDF file will be available at http://www.bookweb.org/read/1474. This Web page also includes links to all past Book Sense 76s.

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

Friday, August 1, is the deadline for two upcoming Book Sense 76 lists:

Booksellers should make note and inform staff that Coca-Cola, The New York Times, General Mills, and Bausch & Lomb Book Cash checks are still in circulation. The Book Cash promotion, a nationwide program coordinated by the Properties Group, is driving traffic into stores and raising national awareness of Book Sense.

There are three Coca-Cola Book Cash certificates:

In late April, it was announced that Howard Frank Mosher's The True Account: A Novel of the Lewis & Clark & Kinneson Expeditions (Houghton, $24, 0618197214, June) was a Top Ten selection of the May/June Book Sense 76. Jean Matthews, of Chapter One Book Store, Hamilton, Montana, wrote about the novel, "Full of flamboyant characters and outrageous deeds, The True Account honors Cervantes and Twain in spirit and style, minting a fresh folk hero from the vein that produced Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill."

In 1980, Steven Morado Stout, now owner of New Mexico's largest independent bookstore, had a doctoral degree in anthropology and years of related work experience when the poor employment situation in Albuquerque left him jobless. Not wanting to leave the city, he needed to open his own business and create a job for himself. He considered an auto paint shop or a bar and restaurant, he told BTW.

Reminder: The deadline to submit photos of children's bookstores with Book Sense for the next Book Sense New Yorker insert is rapidly approaching! Photos for The New Yorker's consideration must be sumbitted by Thursday, August 7.

Children's titles will be the feature of the next Book Sense insert, which will appear in the October 6 issue, on sale September 29. To complement the story, the magazine is seeking photographs, especially good exterior shots, of children's bookstores with Book Sense.

Bacardi Mixers Book Club displays and party kits are still available. Participating Book Sense bookstores that would like to receive additional kits and stores wishing to join the promotion should send requests to Jill Perlstein, ABA director of marketing, at [email protected]. Materials supplied by Bacardi include a point-of-sale entry box with tear-pads, a poster, and a BACARDI Mixers Book Club party kit, which can be used for individual store events and includes glasses, coasters, drink charms, free BACARDI Mixers, and more.

Booksellers participating in the Book Sense Make Some Magic With Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix sweepstakes display contest must send photos by Thursday, July 31, to be eligible to win a $2,000 credit from Scholastic, Inc.

When Bob Contant and five partners opened the St. Mark's Bookshop in Manhattan's East Village in 1977, the neighborhood was home to counterculture businesses such as the Intergalactic Trading Post -- a drug-related head shop, the Electric Circus disco, and residents such as Abbie Hoffman. "It was a boom time for the East Village," Contant told BTW. "St. Mark's Place was the center of the hippie universe."