BTW News Briefs

Canadian Booksellers Association Opposes Amazon Warehouse

The Canadian Booksellers Association (CBA) this week urged the government in Ottawa to block Amazon.com from establishing a physical presence in Canada. Amazon has applied to Canada's Heritage Department for permission to build a fulfillment warehouse, which CBA said would amount to a new cultural business.

In opposing the move, CBA wrote, "To allow Amazon to enter the Canadian marketplace will detrimentally affect independent businesses and would raise serious concerns over the protection of our cultural industries. Individual Canadian booksellers have traditionally played a key role in ensuring the promotion of Canadian authors and Canadian culture. These are values that no American dot.com retailer could ever purport to understand or promote."

According to Canada's The Globe and Mail, a senior official said that the government was leaning in favor of allowing Amazon to set up the warehouse and shipping center in Canada, "based on the belief the U.S. firm's entrance would offer a 'net benefit' for Canadians." The official warned that Amazon's proposal will still need to go through a review process and that no final decision has been made.

BEA & Above the Treeline Partner for "Books@BEA"

BookExpo America and Above the Treeline will work together to create "Books@BEA,” an online catalog of new titles on exhibit at this year's show. Participation in the online catalog will be free to all book publisher exhibitors at the trade show, which will be held from May 25 - 27, at the New York's Javits Convention Center.

"Books@BEA" will be created using Edelweiss, an Internet-based service from Above the Treeline that supplements or replaces traditional print catalogs. Edelweiss, which launched at BEA last year, is currently comprised of approximately 350 active catalogs containing more than 30,000 active titles from nearly 600 publishers and their respective imprints.

Access to the "Books@BEA" catalog by booksellers, librarians, the press, and anyone who wants to know more about new titles will be free, but will require a simple registration process. For titles from publishers who are not current Edelweiss customers, Books@BEA will be open to catalog readers for a limited period preceding and following the event.

Publishers interested in learning how to participate in Books@BEA should contact Mike Carlucci at [email protected].

Penguin Group to Launch New Science Imprint

Penguin Group (USA) is launching Current, a new science book imprint for general readers. Penguin President Susan Petersen Kennedy made the announcement this week. Adrian Zackheim, president and publisher of Penguin Group's Portfolio and Sentinel imprints, will assume the same roles for Current. The first Current titles will be published in July and September 2010. Plans call for Current to grow by about five to eight new titles per year.