Industry News

Below is an outline of the most recent changes to the ABA Book Buyer's Handbook online.

Publishers can update their online listings and add special offers at any time using the Publisher Editing Tools at http://handbook.bookweb.org/pubhome.jsp. Questions about access to the editing features of the Handbook online should be e-mailed to [email protected] or call (800) 637-0037, ext. 1263 or 1261.

Sometimes there's more to an investment than just profits. That was certainly the case when Deacon Maccubbin, owner of Lambda Rising, decided to take over operations of the New York City independent Oscar Wilde Bookshop.

Pocket Books wants to make mass-market paperbacks more "bookseller friendly." That, at least, is the goal of a new Pocket Book initiative that aims to drive traffic into bookstores, according to Roger Williams, vice president, director of field, online, and telesales for Simon & Schuster.

There is still time to nominate your handselling favorites for the 2003 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards (BSBY). Every current ABA-member bookstore is entitled to nominate five books in each category: Adult Fiction, Adult Nonfiction, Children's Literature, Illustrated Children's, Rediscovery, and Paperback Book of the Year. The Paperback category is open to both fiction and nonfiction titles.

Book Sense, HarperCollins, and the History Channel are launching a significant new promotional opportunity for independent bookstores participating in the Book Sense national marketing program.

In our ongoing coverage of the public debate regarding the retail makeup of a proposed government-subsidized development in Austin, Texas, BTW has cited an economic study commissioned by Liveable City and The Austin Independent Business Alliance (AIBA), local nonprofit groups. The study documents how local merchants contribute significantly more to the local economy than do retail chains.

The U.S. Senate has voted unanimously to adopt an amendment that would stop deployment of a Pentagon project that civil liberty groups contend could severely affect people's privacy.

Skylight Books, the six-year-old bookstore in the art-steeped La Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, will host an unusual photography exhibit from February 2 to March 1, titled Memorial for the Skylight Diaspora by Rebecca Tuynman. Artist and art educator Tuynman is a neighbor and frequent customer of Skylight Books. The exhibit will include a series of her portraits and responses to postcards distributed inside of books sold at the store.

Heightened Spanish-book industry activity is expected at BookExpo America 2003 (BEA) as the convention prepares for its return to Los Angeles, a city with more than four million Hispanics and the largest concentration of Latinos in the U.S. BEA 2003 is scheduled for May 28 - June 1 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. BEA was last in Los Angeles in 1999.

ABA, in conjunction with the New England Booksellers Association (NEBA), will be holding a Booksellers Forum and an ABACUS Sneak Preview at the Westford Regency Inn & Conference Center in Westford, Massachusetts, on Thursday afternoon, February 20. [The first February forum and ABACUS preview, as well as a Budgeting and Monitoring Workshop, will be held in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on February 6.

This is the last opportunity for booksellers to add their names to an important ABA letter calling for sales tax fairness. The letter will soon be sent to the U.S. governors in the 45 states that collect sales tax and will call on them to enforce existing tax regulations by making sure that retailers with a physical presence in their states collect sales tax on online sales.

While hundreds of booksellers have signed on to the letter, ABA is hoping that even more booksellers will join their colleagues before the letter is mailed.

The old adage, "When one door closes, another one opens," certainly rang true this month for Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena, California.

Here is an outline of the most recent changes to the ABA Book Buyer's Handbook online.

Publishers can update their online listings and add special offers at any time using the Publisher Editing Tools at http://handbook.bookweb.org/pubhome.jsp. Questions about access to the editing features of the Handbook online should be e-mailed to [email protected] or call (800) 637-0037, ext. 1263 or 1261.

By Bernie Sanders

A half a century ago, George Orwell used the famous phrase "Big Brother is watching you" in his novel 1984. Today, under the provisions of the USA Patriot Act, Big Brother will indeed be watching us every time we use a public library. Or buy a book.