Industry News

Bookstores participating in the Book Sense marketing program were recently sent an e-mail requesting a response to ABA's semi-annual sales revenue survey. Responses to the survey, which was sent on September 10, provide the association with a picture of how its members are performing and enables ABA to answer questions from the press and other interested parties about the performance of independent bookstores.

ABA is asking booksellers to respond to the survey by September 24.

All responses are kept confidential.

On September 9, BookExpo America (BEA) issued an invitation to the book industry to submit proposals regarding authors and other speakers to participate in special events and education programs at next year's show. BEA 2004 will be held from Wednesday, June 2, to Sunday, June 6, at the McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago.

This is the second of four articles looking at the results of the recently released 2002 Consumer Research Study on Book Purchasing, conducted by Ipsos BookTrends and published by the Book Industry Study Group (BISG). This week's focus is the children's book market (13 years old and under).

There is still time to nominate candidates to serve on the American Booksellers Association Board of Directors. Any ABA member may submit nominations to the Nominating Committee, and all nominations will be held in the strictest confidence by the committee, which is chaired by Neal Coonerty of Bookshop Santa Cruz. Nominations must be received by October 6.

GLBA Announces Winners of "Get Caught Reading" Contest

On September 5, the Great Lakes Booksellers Association announced that Betsy Pangle, who shops at Schuler Books & Music in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was the winner of its first "Get Caught Reading" Photo Contest. Laurie Rivard, a customer of Butterfly Books in DePere, Wisconsin, was named the runner-up.

On Tuesday, September 9, an estimated 1,200 to 2,000 people gathered outside Boston's Faneuil Hall to voice their concerns about the USA Patriot Act. The gathering was in response to Attorney General John Ashcroft's stop in Boston during his nationwide tour to drum up support for the controversial act, which allows delayed notification of the execution of search warrants and authorizes no-knock searches of private residences, either physically or electronically.

The third and final installment of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Return of the King, will be in theaters this December, and once again Book Sense has joined with Houghton Mifflin and New Line Cinema to create a unique customer promotion for stores with Book Sense to mark the event.

On Wednesday, September 10, the following e-mail announcement was sent to BookSense.com members from Len Vlahos, BookSense.com director.

Greeting BookSense.com Bookseller,

Starting September 15, BookSense.com Co-op Reimbursement Program participants will be able to take advantage of a special offer from Algonquin Books. Booksellers who feature a special theme on their Web site based around titles culled from Esmé Raji Codell's new book, How to Get Your Child to Love Reading, and display the new book in their stores will be eligible to receive newsletter co-op from Algonquin.

As booksellers ready to celebrate Banned Books Week, which begins on September 20, some are putting money where their love of reading is, by sponsoring fundraisers for the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE).

In late April, over 8 million merchants won a significant victory in an antitrust lawsuit against MasterCard/Visa, in which the two card companies agreed to pay out a total of $3.05 billion in damages to merchants, to lower debit card transaction fees, and to drop the "honor all cards" policy. The total settlement is the largest ever in an antitrust case, according to the American Bar Association.

The Mid-South Independent Booksellers Association (MSIBA) held its fall trade show at the Renaissance Austin Hotel in Austin, Texas, from September 4 - 7. Austin, an apt choice for the trade show, was celebrating the "Keep Austin Weird" campaign, which promotes independent businesses and was created by Austin's BookPeople and Waterloo Records.

Indigo Books & Music Inc., the Canadian bookseller, switched from paper gift certificates to plastic gift cards in November 2002, and has seen escalating gains since then, according to Keith Liu, vice-president of business development for Indigo. Instituting the gift card program, run by the Givex Corporation, increased Indigo's sales 35 percent over the paper certificates, and, Liu told BTW, "Our stores experienced an immediate uplift, and we're pretty happy about it.

This is the first of four articles looking at the results of the recently released 2002 Consumer Research Study on Book Purchasing, conducted by Ipsos BookTrends and published by the Book Industry Study Group (BISG). This week's focus is the adult book market.

Booksellers in the Pacific Northwest, New Atlantic, and Southeast regions will be gathering next week for fall regional trade shows featuring extensive educational programming and a number of special author events next week. ABA will be providing educational sessions at each of the shows, as well as ongoing demonstrations of the new Book Sense Gift Card Program at the ABA/Book Sense booth on the trade show floors.