Book Sense

Nantucket Bookworks occupies a century-old, 1,500 square-foot building in the picturesque downtown shopping district of Massachusetts' 50-square-mile Nantucket Island. Founded in 1972, the store was purchased in 2000 by Wendy Hudson, a five-year employee of the general bookstore.

Based on sales in independent bookstores with Book Sense nationwide for the eight-week period ending December 17, 2006.

Past Category Bestseller lists are available on ABA's trade website, BookWeb.org.

Attention Media: Contact Meg Smith at [email protected] for reprint guidelines for your newspaper or magazine.

To complement the Book Sense 2006 Bestsellers -- a special listing of the year's top-selling books in Hardcover Fiction and Nonfiction, Paperback Fiction and Nonfiction, and Children's Fiction and Illustrated -- Book Sense has created the Book Sense 2006 Children's Series Bestsellers.

Although most stores may choose to sell just a few different Book Sense gift cards designs, there are now 36 different designs that may be offered for redemption at any store with Book Sense. The latest additions are six new custom cards from Kepler's of Menlo Park, California, and one from the Harry W. Schwartz Bookshop in Bloomfield, Wisconsin, in conjunction with the health resource center Small Stones.

Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe has thrived in Asheville, North Carolina, for just short of 25 years. The now 6,000-square-foot bookstore was founded on June 1, 1982, by Emoke B'Racz, a Hungarian emigre. In 2000, B'Racz was honored as Publishers Weekly Bookseller of the Year.

As a boy in India, Vikram Chandra -- author of Sacred Games (HarperCollins), the number-one January Book Sense Pick -- was surrounded by stories: the traditional tales of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana told him by his aunts and grandmothers; a cornucopia of American, English, and Indian books displayed by

This week, Book Sense is announcing the Book Sense 2006 Bestsellers, a special listing of the year's top-selling books across six categories, based on sales at independent bookstores with Book Sense nationwide. The list provides the year's top 15 titles in Hardcover Fiction, Hardcover Nonfiction, Paperback Fiction, Paperback Nonfiction, Children's Fiction, and Children's Illustrated.

The American Booksellers Association has signed an agreement with Ingram Digital Ventures that will enable bookstores participating in the BookSense.com program to sell ebooks in three formats -- Palm, Adobe, and Microsoft -- beginning sometime in 2007.

Here is the full listing of January Book Sense Picks, with booksellers' comments, as well as a preview of the month's Notables. Independent booksellers in the Book Sense program will be receiving their January Picks fliers in the December Red Box. (The flier includes jacket images, bibliographic information, and bookseller quotes.)

This Friday, December 8, is the deadline for the Book Sense 2007 Valentine's Day Top Ten.

Valentine's Day continues to grow as an opportunity for retailers. The National Retail Federation projects that spending this year will reach $13.7 billion, an increase from total holiday-related sales of $13.19 billion in 2005.

The Regulator Bookshop, an 8,000-square-foot, two-story general bookstore in a vibrant Durham, North Carolina, neighborhood, celebrated its 30th anniversary last weekend, and Durham's mayor issued a proclamation declaring December 4 "Regulator Bookshop Day."

As every retailer knows, thieves are an inventive lot. It seems that for every season, and for every technological advance, a new scam appears that hurts businesses and consumers alike. One of the newest involves the theft of gift card ID numbers that allow thieves access to card balances. Here's how it works: A thief will write down the numbers on gift cards displayed in a store, but does not purchase or steal the cards. The thief will then wait a few days before calling the store to ask what the current balance is for a card number he or she has recorded.

Fact number-one: This is absolutely the toughest time of the year for booksellers to send in nominations for the Book Sense Picks lists. Fact number-two: Your investment of a few minutes in sending in an e-mail nomination (or in using the online nomination form) will result in a fantastic return on investment when the February Picks list presents more outstanding fiction and nonfiction to your customers.

Readers' Books of Sonoma, California, owned by Lilla and Andy Weinberger, celebrated its 15th birthday on Saturday, November 25. Customers and friends marked the milestone with a large party at the store; a book-themed cake; music by Simka, a klezmer-cafe band including Andy Weinberger; and announcements of future projects.

For the eight-week period ending November 28, 2006, and based on sales in hundreds of independent bookstores with Book Sense nationwide.

Past Category Bestseller lists are available on ABA's trade website, BookWeb.org.

Attention Media: Contact Meg Smith at [email protected] for reprint guidelines for your newspaper or magazine.