Hotel ABA Now More Than 75 Percent Booked
Just four weeks since the American Booksellers Association announced the opening of reservations for Hotel ABA at BookExpo America 2008 in Los Angeles, more than 75 percent of the available rooms have been reserved. The hotel, The Renaissance Hollywood, offers a special room rate of $164 per night exclusively for ABA bookstore and provisional members, as well as a package of other benefits.
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.
Participants in this January's Winter Institute in Louisville, Kentucky, who want to visit one of the area's local independent bookstores need only cross the Ohio River to find 
According to the National Retail Federation (NRF) Gift Card Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, gift card sales this holiday season will total $26.3 billion, compared to $24.8 billion in 2006.
It's Thanksgiving weekend, and that means one thing to retailers: the holiday selling season is finally here. While sleigh bells are ringing and cash registers jingling, booksellers can expect traffic to their BookSense.com websites and online sales to peak each Monday between Thanksgiving and Christmas. (What "Black Friday" is to storefront retailers, the Monday after Thanksgiving -- "Cyber Monday" -- has become to online retailers.)
The 
After managing a food co-op that grew from four employees into a 100-person operation, Brad Smith was looking for a business where he could once again know most of his customers personally. He found that in Paulina Springs Books in Sisters, Oregon, population 2,000.
