Industry News

Since 1980, Thomas Cook, the U.K.-based travel giant, has been honoring the art of travel writing with its annual Travel Book Award, announced each fall. Aside from inspiring readers to travel, the award also spurs greater travel-book sales, according to Thomas Cook spokesperson Joan Lee. "Booksellers benefit … by the increased sales generated by the promotion of the [Travel Book] Award," Lee said in a statement.

Buying computer hardware and software often can be a daunting task for any business, but now ABA is offering a new member-benefit to make the job easier and more convenient. ABA’s new group-buying program partner, CDW Computer Centers, Inc., is offering customized technology solutions for independent booksellers -- often at discounted prices.

Booksellers to Celebrate Their Kinship with Small Presses

In talking to booksellers, it’s apparent that they feel a special camaraderie with small presses. The small press’s ability to offer a unique, independent voice and a breadth of choice in many ways mirrors their own talent for offering the consumer insight and individual attention.

Special ABA programming on Saturday, May 4, at the 2002 BookExpo America (BEA) in New York City will offer a wide range of networking opportunities with other booksellers, and a chance to learn the latest on ABA programs from association staff.

The number of consumers redeeming Book Sense gift certificates grew at a prodigious rate in 2001, and that trend continued into the first month of January 2002 -- with a record number of consumers redeeming gift certificates at independent bookstores around the country. This is according to recent Book Sense figures charting store-to-store gift certificate redemptions (the figures do not include gift certificates that were purchased and redeemed in the same store).

On Tuesday, February 12, approximately 20 booksellers attended a Booksellers Forum held at the Westford Regency, in Westford, Massachusetts, from 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. The Booksellers Forum followed a meeting of the New England Booksellers Association Advisory Council.

In conjunction with BookExpo America, a number of organizations have come together to launch a campaign to encourage New York City residents to join a citywide book group. Earlier this month representatives from the organizations voted to select as the featured title the novel Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee, (Riverhead Books).

Thanks to a great outpouring of booksellers’ recommendations, we were able to compile a fantastic Poetry 76 Top Ten. The flier will go on press this week; the pad of fliers will go into the March "white box," and they'll get to you in time for April poetry displays.

At the site of the venerable Chatterton’s Bookshop, closed in 1994 after the death of its owner, is Los Angeles's five-year-old Skylight Books, the result of great production, directing, casting, and location.

Bucking an uncertain economy, bookstore sales for December closed out the year 2001 on a strong note. Preliminary December sales of $2,291 million were 9.6 percent ahead of the $2,090 million sales for December of 2000.

Bookstore sales continued to outperform overall retail. Preliminary overall retail sales of $339 billion amounted to a slim 3.0 percent gain for December over the $329 billion in sales recorded the previous December.

Based on a February 12 visit to the American International Toy Fair 2002, it appears that designing a successful plaything this year involves selecting popular toys and games from three or four decades ago and making them edible or covering them with licensed brand or team names. Another popular option is creating something kids can play together with their parents, or even better, with their grandparents, in the safety of their own homes dressed in facsimiles of the uniforms of firefighters and police officers (also known as community workers).

Virginia Hamilton, an internationally renowned and award-winning author of children’s literature, died February 19, 2002, in Dayton, Ohio. She had been ill with cancer for a number of years. Hamilton was 65.

ABA announced this week that the distinguished historian and writer Doris Kearns Goodwin will serve as host for the 2002 Celebration of Bookselling -- ABA's and Book Sense's annual reception for attendees of BookExpo America (BEA). Goodwin is the author of several bestsellers, including No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The American Home Front During World War II and The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys, as well as the memoir Wait Till Next Year.

Sam Weller's Books, a downtown Salt Lake City landmark since 1929, is introducing the world to some of the best of Utah's writers while the Olympic Games are played down the street. The store is offering a packed schedule of appearances by about 30 local writers, musicians, and visual artists (many from the area) during the two-week period between February 8 and February 23, Roxann Campbell, Weller's events coordinator, told BTW.

The ABA Bylaws provide a procedure for candidates for the Board of Directors to get on the ballot via petition, in keeping with the association's strategic plan that "the nomination and election process [be] open and fair." However, all petitions must be submitted by February 28, 2002.

For more information on the petition process, click here.

For more information on the work of the ABA Nominating Committee, click here.