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Canadian Company to Host Summer Bookseller Academy

More than 100 booksellers from 50 independent bookstores are expected to participate in Canada’s first-ever BookManager Academy (BMA2015), a new educational and social retreat.

The event, which will run from June 12 to 14 in conjunction with Canada’s WBRA Book Fair, is the brainchild of Bookmanager, a British Columbia-based book industry software company. Booksellers from Canada and the U.S. will gather at the Coast Capri Hotel in Kelowna, British Columbia, to participate in education sessions, publisher meetings, networking opportunities, and social events including cocktail parties and a houseboat tour.

“We are striving for a mini (or modest) Canadian Winter Institute of sorts, possibly something to grow along the lines of what ABA successfully does each year,” said Diana O’Neill, a sales and data analyst at Bookmanager.

The conference is also open to publishers and sales reps.

Publishers Lunch Releases Buzz Books’ Fall/Winter Adult and YA Titles

Publishers Lunch has gathered excerpts from 54 buzzed-about books scheduled for publication this fall and winter in two free e-books, Buzz Books 2015: Fall/Winter and Buzz Books 2015: Young Adult Fall/Winter

Since its introduction three years ago at BookExpo America, Publishers Lunch’s Buzz Books series has previewed the upcoming season’s most anticipated books before they are published; in fact, 14 of the adult titles featured in last year’s Buzz Books 2014 were named to one or more “Best Books of 2014” lists, and 18 became bestsellers.

The Buzz Books 2015 e-book includes an overview of more than 100 titles and allows readers to pre-order or buy the full books on major digital platforms, while the new Buzz Books 2015: Young Adult, which was first introduced a year ago, once again provides excerpts from upcoming young adult and middle-grade novels.

The consumer edition of each volume is available on all major e-book platforms, while the trade editions, which feature more extensive trade information, can be ordered at PublishersMarketplace.com or through NetGalley. An in-print catalog of all individual Buzz Books titles can be found at the Publishers Lunch Bookateria

Kobo to Provide Free E-book Access to Southwest Airlines Customers

Kobo has partnered with Global Eagle Entertainment and Bauer Communications to provide Southwest Airlines customers with free access to hundreds of e-books from its digital reading platform via the airline’s in-flight entertainment portal.

The company’s May 12 announcement stated that passengers onboard a Southwest Airlines flight will be able to use their own WiFi-enabled devices to connect to Kobo’s library and access previews and full book versions of hundreds of top-selling titles and new releases. After landing, customers will receive an e-mail from Kobo with information on how to purchase the book and continue reading.