Publisher News

HarperPerennial is relaunching this summer with a new logo, new jackets, most titles with P.S. sections, and an in-store display kit. Also included in this campaign is HarperPerennial's limited edition To Kill a Mockingbird Book Sense Gift Card and coordinating presenter. This new gift card design has room to add bookstore information and makes a great gift idea for teachers, librarians, students, and book lovers.

The ABA/Book Sense Lounge, Room 1E 07-08 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, will offer a respite from the BookExpo America show floor for weary booksellers. In addition to being a place where they can kick back, relax, and check e-mail, the lounge will offer booksellers information about ABA/Book Sense products and services and a place to meet with ABA staff and with representatives of ABA's affinity programs. A welcome addition to the light refreshments offered in the lounge this year will be select teas from Republic of Tea.

The approximately 1,000 ABA member booksellers staying at the Park Central Times Square Hotel, the "Hotel ABA -- New York City," will enjoy a host of complimentary benefits that have been designed to make their BookExpo America experience easier and more enjoyable.

Beginning with the June Red and White boxes, all Book Sense mailings are being outsourced to Transport Specialties International, Inc. (TSI), a dedicated mailing house in New Jersey. Book Sense Publisher Partners that plan to include materials in either of the June mailings should not ship them to ABA's Tarrytown address. All materials for June and for subsequent mailings should be shipped to:

Transport Specialties International, Inc.
9 Joanna Court
East Brunswick, New Jersey 08816-2108

MPBA Announces Regional Book Award Winners

The Mountains & Plains Booksellers Association (MPBA) recently announced its 2005 Regional Book Award Winners. The purpose of the Regional Book Awards is to honor outstanding books that are set in the MPBA region, which includes Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Utah, Idaho, Texas, Montana, Kansas, Arizona, Nebraska, and South Dakota.

The winners were:

On January 13, Scholastic, Inc., the publisher of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, posted on its Web site for retailers and distributors www.scholastic.com/custsupport/booksellers/harrypotter.htm, the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Agreement, which all retailers must sign and return by April 1 to qualify for pre-publication delivery. Scholastic also announced that the order deadline for delivery of the title before the July 16 on-sale date is May 6.

On January 10, Holtzbrinck Publishers trade book companies announced that beginning in November 2005 all trade book shipments from its Gordonsville, Virginia, VHPS warehouse will be shipped free freight. "Our customers have been asking for this, and our volume has reached a point where it is now possible to make this change," said Alison Lazarus, president, sales division, for Holtzbrinck. "We believe it will help us remain competitive and allow us to have more consistent marketplace distribution for our titles."

To help booksellers make the most of the July 16, 2005, publication of J.K.

When Brian Sweet of Trail's End Bookstore in Winthrop, Washington, wanted to refresh his store's offering of greeting cards, he took his quest for new suppliers to the newly redesigned Idea Exchange on the ABA Web site, www.BookWeb.org.

In the 19 months since Rubin Venture Consulting rolled out its online software product, Above the Treeline -- a tool meant to help bookstores improve finances by controlling inventory costs and increasing staffing efficiency -- the number of bookstores using the software has grown from four to over 50.

Artemis Records, a New York-based independent record label and home to artists such as Steve Earle and the late Warren Zevon, is expanding its selection of spoken word CDs to include authors Allen Ginsberg and Al Franken, among others. The literary CDs are, of course, a natural fit for independent booksellers, but so is music from Artemis, a Book Sense Publisher Partner.

In late June, Penguin Group (USA) announced the launch of a new direct sales division to be aimed primarily at the children's market, with a particular emphasis on preschool and young readers, called "Family Books at Home." Family Books will sell books via a network of "independent consultants," who will utilize a "party plan" method of selling books at gatherings in private homes. Penguin hired former Avon.com president and general manager Len Edwards as the new division's president of direct selling.

Below is an outline of recent changes to the data in the ABA Book Buyer's Handbook online at handbook.bookweb.org.

The Great American Writing Road Trip Adventure (RTA), sponsored by Writer's Digest Books, an imprint of F+W Publications, is making its way around the country in the Road Trip Touring Van, with bookstore events in over 30 cities. The Road Trip van is also making unscheduled stops at libraries and college campuses along the tour route, dropping off materials of interest to writers or prospective writers.