Industry News

Independent booksellers in the Book Sense marketing program who wish to be a part of the inaugural Quill Awards Nominating Board must respond by e-mail to The Quill Foundation's Ann Binkley at [email protected] no later than Friday, April 15.

Osondu Booksellers is an African-named general bookstore in Waynesville, North Carolina, owned by a woman originally from Massachusetts, who then lived in Maryland and who planned to open a bookstore in Syracuse, New York. Margaret Osondu, who adopted her surname with spouse, Scott, when they married 15 years ago, is very pleased that seven months ago she ended up owning a bookstore in this small town at the eastern entrance of the Smoky Mountains.

WSJ: Retailer Backlash Brewing Over Interchange Fees

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) is quickly running out of its limited edition Harry Potter T-shirts and buttons. Since launching a clearance sale in late March, ABFFE has sold nearly 500 shirts and more than 3,000 buttons.

Frank Hodge's Hodge-Podge Books in Albany, New York, is a deceiving 240 square feet. By all accounts, it is a colossal bookstore: 23-years-old, with about $1 million in sales annually. Hodge-Podge and its owner have influenced thousands of teachers, parents, and students through renowned reading conferences, school appearances, and hundreds of face-to-face interactions with reluctant readers and their families and children's book illustrators and authors.

For Kerry Slattery of Skylight Books in Los Angeles, the timing of ABA's announcement of a new partnership with Constant Contact -- a company that provides services to manage e-mail marketing campaigns -- could not have been better. "I was just getting ready to do our regular e-mail newsletter for April and the announcement coincided with that," Slattery told BTW.

In the coming weeks and months, Bookselling This Week would like to shine the spotlight on booksellers who have developed special events to celebrate the Saturday, July 16, release of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Scholastic).

When Hawley-Cooke, Louisville, Kentucky's largest independent bookstore, was sold to Borders Books & Music on August 18, 2003, it sent a tremor through the town's retail community, a signal to perceptive local business owners that the commercial landscape could be shifting ... and not for the better. Less than a month after the Border's sale, John Timmons of ear X-tacy record store met with other "similarly concerned business owners" and in November, he quietly launched the "Keep Louisville Weird" campaign.

If you are a bookstore owner who has been in business for some time, you may have received the phone call: A customer service representative (CSR) is on the line and inquiring as to whether you, the owner, play music in your store. Assuming the answer is "Yes," the CSR explains that you need to pay his/her company money on an annual basis.

On Wednesday, April 6, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales appeared before the House Judiciary Committee (HJC) at an oversight hearing on the USA Patriot Act to answer questions from House Representatives about the 16 provisions of the Act set to sunset at the end of the year. Gonzales, testifying a day after appearing before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, reiterated his stance that the Department would consider amending Section 215 to clarify the law.

BookExpo America (BEA), which will be held from Thursday, June 2, to Sunday, June 5, at New York City's Jacob Javits Convention Center, is just eight weeks away! To help our readers prepare for the myriad special events and educational opportunities, today and for the next seven weeks, Bookselling This Week will shine a spotlight on one or more aspects of the four days of ABA and BEA program offerings.

Independent booksellers in the Book Sense marketing program who wish to be a part of the inaugural Quill Awards Nominating Board must respond by e-mail to The Quill Foundation's Anne Binkley at [email protected] no later than Friday, April 15.

American Booksellers Association Board of Directors ballots, which must be returned to accountant KPMG by May 4, feature the names of two new candidates for the Board: Michael Tucker of Books Inc. in San Francisco and Collette Morgan of Wild Rumpus Books for Young Readers in Minneapolis.