Industry News

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.

On April 23, Borders Books & Music announced that it was pulling out of a proposed Austin, Texas, development situated across the street from two independent retailers, BookPeople and Waterloo Records. The bookstore chain's plans to open a store at Sixth and Lamar in downtown Austin had stirred up strong opposition. Liveable City, a local, nonprofit community organization, commissioned an economic study indicating that local merchants contribute significantly more money to the local economy than do retail chains.

On Tuesday, April 22, a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas ruled in favor of two Cedarville, Arkansas, parents, Billy Ray and Mary Nell Counts, who challenged the Cedarville School District's attempt to restrict students' access to the Harry Potter series in school libraries. In March 2003, more than a dozen national groups, including the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE), and author Judy Blume, filed an amicus brief in support of the parents.

For the past several years, David Walker has worked with ABA in different capacities to help resolve issues regarding trade practices of concern to independent booksellers. Walker recently spoke to BTW about the types of issues he's worked to resolve and the need for booksellers to keep ABA informed of the problems they are encountering.

The deadline for bookstores to contribute data to the ABACUS project is Wednesday, April 30. Instructions and an online form for submitting data are available at www.bookweb.org/read/5786. Questions about ABACUS should be addressed to ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz at [email protected].

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.

After the title of the book at the center of a landmark First Amendment case came to light last week, a Denver Post editorial once again praised the Tattered Cover Book Store for its decision to fight what could have been "a nasty precedent of allowing the government to stick its nose where it doesn't belong."

On April 10, in U.S. District Court of South Carolina's Charleston Division, Amazon argued to block a government's subpoena to turn over the purchase records of a Charleston real estate broker who the U.S. government alleged received child pornography. Ultimately, the government's effort to access the customer's book purchase records from Amazon officially ended after a plea arrangement was worked out between the defendant and authorities.

On behalf of his client, the lawyer representing the customer at the center of a landmark case involving Denver's Tattered Cover Book Store and its fight to protect the privacy of customer records recently authorized Tattered Cover's legal counsel to reveal the name of the book that had been sought by law enforcement officials for more than two years. The title, Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters by Kenneth G. Henshall, had nothing to do with the case involving a methamphetamine lab.

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.