Industry News

A new terminal for processing Book Sense Gift Cards is now available for purchase. The Elite 710 Terminal costs $295 and is a dial-up. A bit smaller than the Elite 510, the 710 has a built-in printer (that uses thermal paper) and a magnetic swipe. For more information and a photo of the 710 Terminal, click here.

Five authors in six cities in six nights. That's the plan for the 2004 First Fiction Tour, which will bring five debut authors representing five publishing houses to venues on the West Coast and in the Southwest from October 17 - 22. An independent bookstore in each of the six cities has organized an event that will be hosted onstage at a local bar. "It'll be like a rock 'n' roll show," said Craig Popelars, director of marketing for participating publisher Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.

Joan of Arcadia, the award-winning CBS dramedy, returned last week for its second season of spiritual, sexual, and ethical turmoil. The independent bookstore -- where in the first season the teenaged Joan, played by actor Amber Tamblyn, was instructed by God to work -- is the venue for some of the premiere episode's most compelling action. But observant viewers will notice that not only has Joan Girardi's hairstyle been revamped, so has the bookstore.

A slide presentation from the session "Identify Competition & Self-Evaluation: A Method to Conduct the Analysis," presented by ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz at September's Mountains and Plains Booksellers Association trade show, is now available to ABA bookstore members online in the Professional Development section of BookWeb.org or by clicking here.

Sifting through the complexity of a monthly credit card statement can be daunting for any merchant, but for Ralph Edward, comptroller for UConn Co-op Bookstore in Storrs, Connecticut, one thing was clear: The bookstore was paying a huge sum to its credit card processing vendor in transaction fees. He told BTW that what the store paid in credit card and Visa/MasterCard debit card fees was equivalent to 1.5 percent of the bookstore's annual income -- no small amount. "When you think about ["The 2% Solution"] ...

By Robert Gray

In July, NEA chairman Dana Gioia announced the dismal results of a survey of America's reading habits, including the news that those people admitting to having read fiction, poetry, or plays had dipped to 46.7 percent in 2002, down from 54 percent the last time the survey was done in 1992.

A copy of the study still rests on my desk, taunting me.

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.

The American Booksellers Association's Board of Directors and senior staff met from Sunday, September 19, through Tuesday, September 21, in Denver.

During the meeting the ABA Board:

This November 2, while people across the country take their turn casting a ballot for the next U.S. president, residents and merchants of Hudson, Ohio, will be asked to cast their vote on another matter that could significantly impact their future.

A tumultuous hurricane season continued last week for booksellers and millions of others in the hard-hit states of the Southeast. The latest storm to reach the U.S., Hurricane Ivan, buffeted the South and then traveled north as a tropical storm, leaving at least 52 people dead in the U.S., according to the wire services. Among the hardest hit areas was a 370-mile stretch of the Gulf Coast, from Louisiana to Florida.

Ten years ago, Donna Urey of White Birch Books in North Conway, New Hampshire, saw the potential of The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg, to bring even more comfort and joy to the book's fans.

Man Booker Prize for Fiction Shortlist Announced

The six shortlisted books for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2004, announced this week, are Bitter Fruit by Achmat Dangor, (Kwela Books); The Electric Michelangelo by Sarah Hall (Faber & Faber); The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst (Bloomsbury USA); Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (Random House); the June 2004 Book Sense Pick The Master by Colm Toibin (Scribner); and I'll Go to Bed at Noon by Gerard Woodward (Vintage).

After a season when 80 new or prospective booksellers enrolled for Paz & Associates Bookseller School at BookExpo America and more than a few new independent bookstores opened, there are further positive signs in a sometimes bleak economic picture. In October and November, a number of independent booksellers are expanding or opening new or additional stores.

Approximately 500 booksellers representing about 115 of the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Association's 240 bookstore members gathered in Denver from September 16 - 19 for the association's fall trade show. "The exhibitors were absolutely delighted with the show," said MPBA Executive Director Lisa Knudsen. "In some years they have catalogues left over at the end -- this year many of them ran out on the first day….