Marketing

The June 17 issue of The New Yorker -- on newsstands the week of June 10 -- will feature two ads highlighting Book Sense 76 selections. One ad will feature the 2002 Book Sense Book of the Year adult fiction winner, Peace Like a River (Atlantic Monthly Press), and Gould’s Book of Fish (Grove Press), a May/June 2002 Book Sense 76 pick.

The other ad in the issue will feature The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint (Vintage), which was a July/August 2001 Book Sense 76 selection.

Competing as smarter retailers has become a key strategy for independent booksellers, and the almost 400 independents attending a full day of ABA special educational programming at BookExpo America filled panels and seminars to hear the latest on everything from marketing and inventory control to the "best ideas" in newsletters and staff development. In addition to the panels on business operations and personnel issues, there was an extensive offering of programming on children's bookselling and African-American bookselling.

By Maret Orliss, Vroman’s Bookstore

Vroman’s has always been a big supporter of the Book Sense program. Through BookSense.com, the gift certificate program, and the Book Sense 76 list, Book Sense is an effective marketing program and a terrific way of promoting that independent bookstores, while unique, also share a common connection.

Booksellers around the country have more reasons than ever to sign on to the 2002 Prescription for Reading marketing program. This year, Prescription for Reading is sponsored by a partnership of ABA, Book Sense, Chronicle Books, Baker & Taylor, and the Pizza Hut® BOOK IT!® Program. All of these partners have a strong interest in improving literacy and the general well-being of children.

Soon after the Book Sense 76 list debuted, Shirley Muller, owner of Bay Books of Coronado, California, had an idea about how to drive local traffic into her store. She began imprinting 10,000 copies of each new Book Sense 76 list with the Bay Books name and address and had it inserted in the local weekly newspaper, the Coronado Eagle and Journal. Muller continues to promote her store with the 76 to this day. "I noticed people coming in with the list marked, already checked -- they get it at home and they read it," she said.

Oprah scales back, while USA Today and The Today Show announce new book clubs

By Carl Lennertz

When we first announced our initiative to branch out and have Regional Bestseller Lists as well as the National one, it just seemed logical to call them the Book Sense/NEBA Bestseller List or Book Sense/SEBA list, as the first two were known.

Rugged Land Publisher Shawn Coyne wants people to pay attention to books the way they pay attention to music videos. That’s why Rugged Land, a book publishing and film company, created a 40-second commercial trailer for one of its debut novels, Henry’s List of Wrongs, by John Scott Shepherd. The promo is due for release on the Rugged Land Web site on April 16 to coincide with the book’s publication date.

The April white box mailing to stores with Book Sense includes advance reading copies, a listening cassette, numerous sell sheets, blads, special offers, and other materials. Booksellers should be on the lookout for these boxes to arrive in mid-April. Here’s a preview of some the items you’ll find:

Advance Reading Copies

Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation, Olivia Judson, published by Holt

The Fruit of Stone, Mark Spragg, published by Riverhead (Penguin Putnam)

This week, BTW presents a preview of the latest Book Sense 76 list, but, increasingly, booksellers are using a backlist title’s selection as a Book Sense pick as an ongoing marketing tool, promoting the selection, for instance, in shelf-talkers or by stickering titles. In addition, earlier Book Sense titles are often great candidates for reading groups.

The first lady, Laura Bush, will appear on a Get Caught Reading (GCR) poster to be released around the time of her second annual National Book Festival, scheduled to be held in Washington, D.C., on September 21, 2002.

By Carl Lennertz

First of all, thank you for the great nominations, especially from all the first-time nominators, whether at a specialty or general store, who feel as if books in their specialty now have a national voice!

And people are noticing:

Now is the time for bookstores interested in participating in the 2002 Prescription for Reading marketing program to sign up and receive promotional kits, along with 200 copies of this year's book, Sylvia Long's Mother Goose, published by Chronicle Books.

Book Sense, as well as individual Book Sense 76 picks, will be spotlighted in several advertisements in upcoming issues of The Atlantic Monthly and The New Yorker.

The March 2002 issue of The Atlantic Monthly will feature Burning Marguerite by Elizabeth Inness-Brown (Knopf, 0375411968) in a black-and-white Book Sense ad.

This April, booksellers can celebrate National Poetry Month with a custom poetry CD (which was exclusively produced for participating Book Sense stores, by Sourcebooks, publisher of the book and CD set, Poetry Speaks) and a poetry writing contest for high school students. Stores can use the offerings -- from "Poets Speak Back, A Poetry Writing Contest," sponsored by Sourcebooks and Book Sense -- as the basis of their National Poetry Month events or as a complement to planned readings and activities.