Book Sense

More independent booksellers than in previous years will serve as judges for the 70th annual National Book Awards. Submissions are now open for the awards.

Based on sales in independent bookstores nationwide for the eight-week period ending Tuesday, May 13, 2008.

New card to celebrate Ann M. Martin's Main Street Series coming soon

The popular Mary Engelbreit design "A Book Is a Present You Can Open Again and Again" is now available on Book Sense gift cards and presenters. The design also continues to be featured on a traditional paper card that can be used as either a gift certificate or as a greeting card, with space for a gift card.

The ABA/Book Sense Lounge at BookExpo America (BEA) -- Room 401 at the McCormick Place Convention Center -- is the place to go to learn about Book Sense Bestseller reporting. ABA staff will be on hand from Thursday, June 3, through Sunday, June 6, to explain how easy it is to report your weekly sales figures through the Nielsen BookScan, ABA Upload, or ABA Web Data Form methods.

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.

ABA recently launched a new set of features on the Book Sense Bestseller List reporting Web site, bestsellers.bookweb.org, designed to simplify the reporting process for booksellers who choose the manual-entry method each week.

According to many booksellers, independents can now transmit the data for the Book Sense Bestseller List before you can say "Kingsolver." Since the list debuted in November 1999, its importance to book buyers, publishers, and media analysts -- as well as booksellers -- has increased dramatically.

This month, reporting to the Book Sense Bestseller List has gotten a lot easier. Booksellers in the Book Sense program have begun reporting their store sales by uploading a file from their POS systems directly into the ABA system and by using an improved online Bestseller data entry form. [For an earlier BTW story about new reporting options, click here].

In 2002, reporting to the Book Sense Bestseller List will be easier and less time-consuming, thanks to two new electronic procedures and an improved online Bestseller data entry form. Booksellers who report their sales to the Bestseller List can now choose which method works best for them.

ABA UPLOAD