Book Sense

The number of national and local newspapers, magazines, industry publications, and Web sites featuring Book Sense Bestseller lists (national, regional, or category) continues to grow each month.

Four newspapers recently joined the list: Bellingham, Washington's Bellingham Weekly (Pacific Northwest list); Burlington, Vermont's Burlington Free Press (Northeast list); Park City, Utah's Park City Record (National list); and Seattle's Queen Anne/Magnolia News (Pacific Northwest list).

In a slight change of pace, this week we're announcing the entire July/August Book Sense 76, with the full bookseller nomination quotes for the Top Ten. This is to give you ample time to order titles from the full list. Next week, we will post the list with all the bookseller quotes. Between this list and the Summer Paperback 76, what a summer of reading! Many thanks to all the booksellers who contributed nominations for the July/August list!

For the entire July/August Book Sense 76, click here.

On the Eve of Massive Bookselling Weekend Booksellers Encouraged to Report to Book Sense Bestseller List

As consumer expectation continues to build amid a growing barrage of media coverage, independent booksellers nationwide finalized last-minute details for special Harry Potter events in anticipation of 12:01 a.m. June 21 -- when copies of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Scholastic) officially go on sale.

As promised, the full Summer Paperback Book Sense 76 with booksellers' comments is now available on BookWeb.org. To view the entire list, go to http://news.bookweb.org/read/1530.

Throughout the summer, as you complete your in-store displays of 76 titles, it would be great if you would send us photos. We can add them to the materials about Book Sense that we share with publishers when we visit them.

By Laura Hansen

Here, Laura Hansen, owner/manager of Bookin' It in Little Falls, Minnesota, shares her recent presentation to a local business group about the benefits to her store from working cooperatively with other booksellers to get the word out about their businesses and the availability of Book Sense gift certificates.

Booksellers exhibiting The History Channel/Hardcover History in-store display should be on the lookout for the next set of bookmarks featuring Fodor's titles that complement The History Channel's Hit the Road Week, to air July 14 - 18. The bookmarks, included in the June white box mailing, feature Fodor's The Thirteen Colonies and Fodor's Old West.

The literature of Los Angeles is written by outsiders.

By Raymond Chandler, for instance, of Illinois, by way of England. By John Fante, from Colorado. By Joan Didion, born in Sacramento.

And now, in the 21st century, by Nina Revoyr: born in Japan and raised in Wisconsin, before moving to L.A. at age nine.

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

It’s summertime and, as thoughts turn to travel, Book Sense presents the top 25 best-selling travel literature titles as reported by over 400 independent bookstores across America.

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

Bookstores with Book Sense should be on the lookout for June's white box, which is bursting with goodies from Book Sense Publishing Partners. Included in this month's mailing will be easelbacks, posters, fliers, special offers, postcards, buying guides, shelf talkers, brochures, excerpt booklets, coasters, catalogs, housewarming invitations, and more.

Here's a roundup of recent news related to the upcoming release of Scholastic's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

On Thursday, June 5, Good Morning America announced that Samaritan (Knopf) was the latest book chosen by the show's "Read This!" book club. The whodunit by Richard Price was a top ten pick on the January/February 2003 Book Sense 76.

"Stacks of books were piled high all over" reads a passage from the opening chapter of a new work by German author Cornelia Funke -- a passage that might almost describe the literature-laden aisles of the Los Angeles Convention Center last week, during the 2003 BookExpo America. "Small piles of books, tall piles of books, books thick and thin, books old and new. They welcomed ... with invitingly opened pages; they kept boredom at bay ... and sometimes you fell over them."

Booksellers with Book Sense participating in the Make Some Magic With Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix sweepstakes should have received a mailing marked "Harry Potter Promo Materials." All Book Sense stores were sent the materials unless a store chose to opt out of the promotion.

As was announced at this year's BookExpo America in Los Angeles, the American Booksellers Association has signed a letter of intent with Givex to launch a national electronic gift card program for stores participating in the Book Sense marketing program.