Industry News

Lonely Planet, the independent travel publisher, will begin a whirlwind, grand scale tour of independent bookstores on Saturday, May 8. A Lonely Planet RV, decked out with large side panels advertising the "Lonely Planet 2004 Independent Bookstore Road Trip," will tote Lonely Planet staff and, intermittently, trade press reporters, to visit over 100 independent bookstores throughout the eastern half of the U.S.

On Wednesday, May 5, ABA's winter/spring Booksellers Forum tour concluded in Pittsboro, North Carolina, with a program that was postponed in January due to inclement weather. ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz and COO Oren Teicher conducted the forum, which was held in conjunction with the Southeast Booksellers Association (SEBA) at McIntyre's Fine Books at Fearrington Village. Topics at the forum ranged from the Book Sense Gift Card Program to the BookSense.com Co-op Reimbursement Program to the Campaign for Reader Privacy (CRP).

The Women's National Book Association (WNBA) has announced the winners of the 2004 Lucile Micheels Pannell Awards.

Sale of Dartmouth Bookstore Close

The first phase of the Campaign for Reader Privacy (www.readerprivacy.com/) -- a nationwide grassroots petition drive calling for an amendment to Section 215 of the USA Patriot to ensure the privacy of bookstore and library records -- continues through the weekend of May 15. ABA has been asking booksellers to send in signed petitions whenever they have collected a few hundred signatures, and then on May 17 to mail in all remaining petitions.

The results of ABA's semi-annual annual revenue survey of bookstore members indicate that almost 65 percent of the 243 reporting stores saw their sales increase, as compared to 2002. Meanwhile, 35 percent experienced a decline in sales in 2003, as compared to 2002.

Just over 26 percent of respondents saw sales increases of five percent or less, while 20.6 percent saw sales increases of more than five, but less than 10 percent, and 17.7 percent saw sales rise more than 10 percent over 2002.

As Book Sense gift cards gain in usage, booksellers are looking for ways to maximize the benefits of the program that for many has resulted in increased sales. In addition to new gift card sales, booksellers are finding that some customers continually replenish their cards, and others bring their card accounts to zero and return the cards to the store. To take full advantage of the Book Sense Gift Card Program, booksellers can legitimately increment the used card for a new cardholder.

April Fool's Day is not the precise day that Chapter One Book Store in Hamilton, Montana, opened 30 years ago. But it is close enough, as well as being the wedding anniversary of co-owners Russ Lawrence and Jean Matthews and a great day for a celebration. On April 1, over 100 people attended an evening of festivities at the store, which included eating, drinking, Celtic music, dancing, and a book signing.

Balloting to choose the winners of the 2004 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards ends on Wednesday, May 12, the final day that ABA member bookstores may fax the ballot to KPMG, the association's accountant. All ABA member stores are eligible to vote, but only one ballot per store is allowed (the first form received from a store will be the official ballot). A ballot was sent to all stores in early April and is available in a downloadable PDF format by clicking here.

The New England (NEBA) and New Atlantic Booksellers (NAIBA) associations will be holding a Shop Talk at the Holiday Inn Carrier Circle in East Syracuse, New York, on Tuesday, May 18, from 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. The regional associations are co-sponsoring the event in an area in central New York State where independent booksellers -- many of whom are members of NEBA or NAIBA or both -- have a tough time attending regional meetings due to the travel distances.

In the time you may spend browsing in a bookstore for the right book, you can now publish one of your own. With advances in Print-On-Demand (POD) technology, the equipment is easy, fast, and small enough to operate in a 5,000-square-foot bookstore.

On Thursday, April 29, BookSense.com announced that bookstore sites could begin taking pre-orders for former President Bill Clinton's memoir, My Life, which will be published at the end of June by Knopf.

BookSense.com joined other online retailers that had already begun pre-selling the highly anticipated book, which has not yet been assigned a price or ISBN by the publisher.

ABA's winter/spring Booksellers Forum tour concludes in Pittsboro, North Carolina, on Wednesday, May 5, with a program that was postponed in January due to inclement weather. ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz and COO Oren Teicher will conduct the forum, held in conjunction with the Southeast Booksellers Association, at McIntyre's Fine Books at Fearrington Village (near Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill).

The May 10 issue of the New Yorker, on sale May 3, will once again include a special insert featuring Book Sense and great gift book recommendations from independent booksellers. "Bound to Please" suggests appropriate titles for Mother's Day, Father's Day, and graduation gifts and notes that books " can both commemorate a special moment and later, offer the pleasure of rediscovery -- something few gifts can do."

With the Book Sense Gift Card program in full swing for about seven months now, statistics compiled by ABA bear out the fact that gift cards are extremely popular with book buyers. Moreover, recently released research is projecting overall gift card sales to increase to over $90 billion by 2007.