BTW News Briefs

Phoenix Books Co-Owner Pens Op-Ed Criticizing Amazon’s “Smile” Program

Phoenix Books co-owner Mike DeSanto penned an op-ed piece for VTdigger.com, an independent investigative news site covering Vermont, that criticizes the online retailer’s “Smile” program, which allows customers to donate to a choice of charities.

The article, titled “No smiles for Amazon,” describes the program, which allows customers to designate a charity from a list of choices to receive one half of one percent of purchases as a donation. DeSanto, who co-owns bookstores in Essex, Burlington, Rutland, Chester, and Woodstock, argues that consumers who are serious about helping others can get a bigger bang for their charitable buck if they buy from indie businesses like Phoenix rather than buying from Amazon (and contributing to Smile).

“This year,” wrote DeSanto, who is also a member of the Main Street Alliance of Vermont Advisory Council, “Phoenix Books pledged $10,000 to a very public nonprofit, one of many organizations we support. Local Amazon buyers would have to purchase at least $2 million worth of qualifying items for the organization to net that much…TWO MILLION dollars!”

DeSanto goes on to explain that patronizing indie businesses, such as Phoenix Books, has a positive effect on consumers’ immediate communities in a substantial way, but nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and nonprofits that direct donors to buy from Amazon can actually hurt communities, causing job loss and creating vacant storefronts.

“The endgame in NGOs directing sales to Amazon would be that the 40 employees of Phoenix Books, some of whom may contribute to these same nonprofits, would be out of jobs, collecting unemployment, and maybe moving out of state. Local suppliers to our stores would lose another business who pays its bills. And five more storefronts would go vacant,” DeSanto wrote.

Read the entire piece here.

We Need Diverse Books Names Bookseller of the Year

We Need Diverse Books (WNDB) has named Sara Luce Look, the co-owner of Charis Books & More in Atlanta, its first annual Bookseller of the Year, Publishers Weekly has announced.

WNDB’s Bookseller of the Year Award honors an individual bookseller or a group of booksellers at a store that best embodies the literary nonprofit’s mission to promote literature that reflects and honors the lives of all young people.

Look, who has worked at the feminist bookstore since 1994, has been its co-owner since 1997. She is also the store’s general manager and head book buyer. Besides Charis Books, four other finalists were chosen from 15 nominations submitted by booksellers and customers: Oblong Books & Music (Rhinebeck, New York); Powell’s (Portland, Oregon); BookPeople (Austin, Texas); and Children’s Book World (Los Angeles).

As the winning store, Charis will receive a $500 cash prize; an event with an author from the new WNDB anthology, Flying Lessons and Other Stories (Crown Books for Young Readers); three one-year Gold Member subscriptions to the WNDB OURSTORY app; and a WNDB swag pack. Charis will also be recognized at the 2018 Walter Dean Myers Awards ceremony at the Library of Congress in March 2018, where the store will receive one year’s custody of the WNDB Bookseller of the Year trophy.

GLIBA Announces “Meet GLIBA” Feature on Social Media

Beginning this week, members of the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association (GLIBA) can check out GLIBA’s Instagram page for a new feature called “Meet GLIBA.”

Each “Bookseller Tuesday,” GLIBA’s Instagram will feature a new profile in which a GLIBA bookseller will answer questions about her or himself; “Bookstore Fridays” posts will feature an introduction to a GLIBA bookstore. Through the holidays, the Bookseller Tuesday series will concentrate on GLIBA board members, but booksellers who would like to take part after January 1 should e-mail Executive Director Deb Leonard.

Booksellers are invited to follow GLIBA’s Instagram page (@glibabooksellers) to catch up on more of what’s happening in the region.

Algonquin Books Announces Staff Changes  

Algonquin Books has announced several staff promotions and additions to the marketing department, according to Shelf Awareness.

Debra Linn, based in the Chapel Hill office, has been promoted to director of digital marketing. She joined Algonquin Books five years ago.

Jodie Cohen has been named director of marketing for Algonquin Young Readers and will be based out of the New York office. She formerly worked for close to 10 years at Penguin Random House, where she did marketing for Listening Library. Prior to that, she was part of the marketing department for Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

Hallmark Channel Movie Features Indie Bookstore Setting

Booksellers may want to check out the new Hallmark Channel movie A Gift to Remember, a new romantic holiday movie in which the main character works at an indie bookstore.

Starring Ali Liebert and Peter Porte, A Gift to Remember tells the story of a woman working in a small Manhattan bookstore who accidentally crashes her bike into a handsome stranger, thus causing him to lose his memory. The movie has scenes that take place at the bookstore, which is called Chaucer’s, and, at times, characters discuss the struggles faced by indie bookstores.

A Gift to Remember will next be available to watch on the Hallmark Channel on Wednesday, November 29, at 8:00 p.m. ET.

Nominees Announced for U.K.’s Costa Book Award
The 2017 Costa Book Award nominees were announced in five categories last week: First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry, and Children’s Book. One of the five winners will be chosen as Book of the Year.

The Costa Book Awards honors some of the most outstanding books of the year written by authors based in the U.K. and Ireland. The winner is announced at an awards ceremony in London each January.

This year’s nominees are:

First Novel

• The Clocks in This House All Tell Different Times by Xan Brooks (Salt)
• Montpelier Parade by Karl Geary (Harvill Secker)
• Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman (HarperCollins)
• The Haunting of Henry Twist by Rebecca F. John (Serpent’s Tail)

Novel

• Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor (4th Estate)
• Under a Pole Star by Stef Penney (Quercuz)
• Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie (Bloomsbury Circus)
• Tin Man by Sarah Winman (Tinder Press)

Biography

• Once Upon a Time in the East: A Story of Growing Up by Xiaolu Guo (Chatto & Windus)
• A Bold and Dangerous Family: The Rossellis and the Fight Against Mussolini by Caroline Moorehead (Chatto & Windus)
• In the Days of Rain by Rebecca Stott (4th Estate)
• Fragile Lives by Professor Stephen Westaby (HarperCollins)

Poetry

• Kumukanda by Kayo Chingonyi (Chatto & Windus)
• Inside the Wave by Helen Dunmore (Bloodaxe Books)
• On Balance by Sinéad Morrissey (Carcanet)
• Useful Verses by Richard Osmond (Picador)

Children’s 

• Moonrise by Sarah Crossan (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)
• Wed Wabbit by Lissa Evans (David Fickling Books)
• The Island at the End of Everything by Kiran Millwood Hargrave (Chicken House)
• The Explorer by Katherine Rundell (Bloomsbury Children’s Books