Book Sense

Book Sense is pleased to welcome Peachtree Publishers, Ltd. as a Publisher Partner.

Peachtree Publishers is an independently owned trade book publisher, specializing in quality children's books, from picture books to young adult fiction and nonfiction; consumer references in health, education, and parenting; and regional guide books about the American South, where the company is based.

In rural areas where the local mega-mall isn't an option, independent bookstores sometimes do double or triple duty in their community. Owners Rita Moran and Eric Robbins, along with their 13-year-old daughter Branwen, have certainly taken on that role at Apple Valley Books in Maine. Aside from new and used books, they sell jewelry, music, art, incense, tarot cards, imported and local pottery, stuffed animals, sculpture, cards, handmade soaps, Maine buoy bells, puzzles, candles, Pokemon cards…. The list goes on.

For May's white box mailing, which booksellers can expect mid-month, Book Sense Publisher Partners have provided sell sheets, easelback posters, postcards, bookmarks, and some fun promotional items, such as a promotional T-shirt for Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap ... and Others Don't, by Jim Collins (HarperBusiness).

On April 24, Book Sense and Levenger, Inc., a catalog and Internet company that provides high-quality tools for reading and writing, announced that the two companies had formed a marketing partnership to cross-promote their Web sites and merchandise. Starting in May, all BookSense.com Web sites will feature a Levenger link, and sales resulting from these links will earn participating booksellers an affiliate commission. Additionally, Levenger.com will have an affiliate link to BookSense.com.

At BookExpo America 2003, Recorded Books, LLC, a premier producer of audiobooks, will launch the Book Sense Audio Series, a joint effort between the American Booksellers Association and Recorded Books. The series of unabridged audiobooks bearing the licensed Book Sense name will be available exclusively to ABA member stores. Ordering information for the initial 10 titles, a combination of contemporary and classic literature, will be included in the May white box mailing to stores with Book Sense. Samples and ordering information will be presented at BEA.

The American Booksellers Association has announced the lineup for the 2003 Book Sense Reading Room, to be held at BookExpo America on Saturday, May 31, from 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m., in the Los Angeles Convention Center theater. The popular annual event -- a bookseller favorite -- features four outstanding writers reading in a relaxed, intimate setting. In the past, such authors as Paul Auster, Raymond Carver, Kate DiCamillo, Richard Ford, Michael Malone, Alice McDermott, and Ann Patchett have appeared at the Reading Room.

The American Booksellers Association is inviting publishers to participate in the BookSense.com Co-op Reimbursement Program. The new program helps publishers promote their books through both the Web sites and bricks-and-mortar locations of participating stores. ABA has been testing the program with the help of four publishers -- AOL/Time Warner, Harcourt, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster -- and 30 bookstores.

Based on sales from over 365 independent booksellers across America over the last four weeks.

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

(To view previous Book Sense category bestseller lists, click here.)

How many Ph.D.'s, J.D.'s, and locksmiths does it take to run a successful bookstore? If the Literary Bookpost in Salisbury, North Carolina, is any indication -- a total of four, with some help from Book Sense. Owner Deal Safrit, who formerly ran an industrial locksmith business, founded the store in 1998, and has built a small staff of part-timers comprised of doctors of philosophy and a lawyer. Safrit traces his dream of owning a bookstore to his preteen years spent scouring the shelves of the now defunct Bunker's Bookstore in Salisbury.

The June 21 on-sale date of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is now less than two months away, and booksellers who want to make the most of this long-awaited event should take note of the approach of a deadline and two promotional opportunities.

Ballots for the ABA Board of Directors and for the 2003 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards must be posted by April 30 and received by May 7. Both ballots were mailed to ABA bookstore members at the end of March, and a downloadable ballot for the Book of the Year Awards is available online at BookWeb.org.

The ballot for the ABA Board of Directors must be returned in the special postage-paid envelope addressed to KPMG. Ballots sent directly to ABA will not be counted.

In 1962 when Carlos Eire and his older brother, Tony, were airlifted out of Cuba to the U.S. in Operation Pedro Pan, they marveled at the force of the takeoff. Ages 11 and 14, they thought how wonderful it would be to have chewing gum again and to take their first sip of Coke in months. They relished their first panoramic view of the ocean as they flew toward a world they imagined from TV shows. And, like all the children being airlifted unaccompanied out of Cuba at the time, they believed they'd see their parents shortly, in a matter of months.

The full May/June Book Sense 76 listing, with booksellers' recommendations, is now online at http://news.bookweb.org/read/1345. The printed flier will be shipped to stores by the first week of May.

Starting in June, Book Sense and the History Channel will launch a monthly in-store promotion called Hardcover History, meant to entice readers to experience history through exceptional books and extraordinary television.