Some publishers send shelf-talkers to you in the monthly white box. The Northern California Independent Booksellers Association very generously sends out shelf-talkers for the Top Ten picks to any interested store in the country; let me know if you're interested! And, we have a blank Book Sense shelf-talker, downloadable from BookWeb.org, for you to write on or, literally, to cut and paste the quote from the 76 flier: Here's the link.

Quick, now: Who was the biggest-selling crime-fiction writer in the United Kingdom in 2001, according to official industry figures? P.D. James? Ruth Rendell? Patricia Cornwell? John Grisham?

Many booksellers have written to say they like to review past 76 fliers for books they may have missed and for ideas for reading groups. Also, they report that past fliers are a good resource for beefing up backlist, and even for going around and stickering past picks.

The word from publishers is similar in a way. Reminders to marketing staff and reps about past 76 picks provide a way to increase backlist sales. Publishers may also want to go back and prepare reading group guides, if you haven't already.

In a nutshell, I'd like to gather a list from booksellers of favorite books that have been out of print for a while and deserve a new life, AS WELL AS a list of recently published hardcovers that aren't going into paperback.

In 1992, Sonia Williams-Babers entered the world of bookselling with "the smallest ad available" in the June issue of Black Enterprise magazine. The ad read "Get Hooked on Black Books -- send $1 for a catalogue." On returning home to Fort Worth, Texas, from Anaheim, California, and their first ABA Convention, Williams-Babers and her husband and business partner, Elvis Babers, found an overflowing post office box.

Join your fellow independent booksellers in the first round of voting to nominate five titles in each of five categories -- Adult Fiction, Adult Nonfiction, Children's Literature, Illustrated Children's Book, and Rediscovery -- for the 2002 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards. Nominations will be drawn from the Top Ten Book Sense 76 picks of 2001. Only books published in the preceding year are eligible. Lines for write-ins are also provided on the nomination form.

Two major purveyors of the printed word came together recently when the United States Postal Service recruited a bookstore for one of the locations featured in its holiday advertising campaign.

The television commercial was shot at Reading on Walden in Chicago all day December 10, said bookstore owner John Presta. He told BTW, "It went very well. [The ad] is showing all the time now. It's called 'Holiday.'"

If your store has created an in-store display featuring the "Dog Stories" books -- and you'd like to win three signed books to offer to your customers, be sure to send in your entry no later than January 25. The three books are: Zen Dog, photographs by Toni Tucker with concept by Judith Adler (Clarkson Potter Publishers); Dog, photographs by Deborah Samuels (Chronicle Books); and Rover Saves Christmas, by Roddy Doyle, illustrated by Brian Ajhar (Scholastic Books).

For many booksellers, publisher co-operative promotions are an essential and cost-effective tool. As Dave Kaverman, co-owner of the Little Professor Book Company in Fort Wayne, Indiana, explained in a previous BTW piece last fall, utilizing publisher co-op allowances can help a store fulfill several goals at once: increasing a store's marketing exposure while also adding money to the bottom line.

We've been able to put together, due to the number of nominations, another wonderful Mystery 76 Top Ten. The pad is in the January white box mailing. Thank you for all the great picks … and click here for the full schedule for all full and specialty 76s for 2002.

There's one pad per white box; if you'd like extras, please e-mail mark@booksense.com.

1. A PLACE OF EXECUTION, by Val McDermid (St. Martin's, $6.99 paper, 0312979533)