We Need Diverse Books to Launch Bookseller of the Year Award

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Revised: January 25, 2017

We Need Diverse Books (WNDB) is launching the Bookseller of the Year Award to honor 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.

We Need Diverse Books logoFrom now until October 1, 2017, independent bookstore customers and staff are invited to submit nominations for the award. Self-nominations are welcome.

The winning store will receive a $500 cash prize; an event with an author or authors 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.

The winning store will also be recognized at the 2018 Walter Dean Myers Awards ceremony at the Library of Congress in March 2018. At the ceremony, the store will receive one year’s custody of the WNDB Bookseller of the Year perpetual trophy.

Author I.W. Gregorio, a member of WNDB team, said the award has its roots in the 2015 controversy over A Fine Dessert, a children’s book that was widely criticized for what some saw as an overly positive depiction of slavery.

WNDB Bookseller of the Year award

“The award comes from the idea that booksellers really have this power to hand-sell to get specific books into people’s hands,” said Gregorio. “After the controversy over A Fine Dessert, WNDB really wanted to focus on positivity, rather than denigrating a book, to promote another book.”

During the 2015 holiday season, WNDB launched a campaign that put the organization’s weight behind Margarita Engle’s Drum Dream Girl (illustrated by Rafael López, HMH Books for Young Readers). The nonprofit encouraged authors serving as honorary handsellers at indie bookstores for Indies First on Small Business Saturday to “Drum it up for Drum Dream Girl,” an effort that resulted in increased sales of the title.

Booksellers are encouraged to let their customers and staff know about the yearlong WNDB competition by making contest information available on fliers, as well as promoting the contest on social media using #diversebooks and including a link to the nomination page.

Contest requirements include sending a nomination letter and e-mailing pictures of store shelf-talkers and displays promoting diverse books to [email protected], as well as social media involvement. Those who nominate a bookseller should tag the store with the hashtag #WNDBooksellers on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr.

By requiring that supporting materials include photos taken and shared by the nominator, “even if a bookstore doesn’t win, that store will get a higher level of engagement from their customers,” said Gregorio.

Sara Hines, the co-owner of Eight Cousins in Falmouth, Massachusetts, said she is excited that WNDB is recognizing the local and significant influence of individual booksellers and bookstores.

“Independent booksellers have amazing opportunities to model diverse and inclusive collections through buying choices, store displays, newsletters, book talks, and person-to-person interactions,” said Hines. “When we make conscientious decisions to showcase ‘window and mirror’ books, we help strengthen connections across our communities.”

WNDB will formally announce the inaugural award at Winter Institute 12 in Minneapolis. A nomination page is currently live on the organization’s website.