BTW News Briefs

2015 Andrew Carnegie Fiction, Nonfiction Medal Winners to Be Announced on Saturday

On Saturday evening, June 27, in San Francisco, the American Library Association will announce the winners of the 2015 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction. The shortlist in each category features three titles chosen by a selection committee that included American Booksellers Association President Betsy Burton of The King’s English Bookshop in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The 2015 finalists are:

 Fiction

• All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr (Scribner/Simon & Schuster)
• Nora Webster, by Colm Tóibín (Scribner/Simon & Schuster)
• On Such a Full Sea, by Chang-rae Lee (Riverhead Books/Penguin Group USA)

Nonfiction

• Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, by Bryan Stevenson (Spiegel & Grau/Random House)
• The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, by Elizabeth Kolbert (Henry Holt)
• Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David, by Lawrence Wright (Alfred A. Knopf/Random House)

The awards are co-sponsored by Booklist and RUSA (ALA’s Reference and User Services Association) and are ALA’s first single-book awards for adult trade fiction and nonfiction.

ReadingGroupGuides.com Launches 2015 Book Group Survey

ReadingGroupGuides.com has launched a large-scale Book Group Survey that is aimed at providing a comprehensive understanding of what book groups are really interested in, said Carol Fitzgerald, founder of ReadingGroupGuides.com and president of TheBookReportNetwork.com.

Members of book groups who complete the survey, which asks readers to share how they discover and select books, are eligible to win gift certificates to the bookstore of their choice: a grand prize of one $250 gift certificate will be awarded, as well as 10 $100 gift certificates, and 50 $25 gift certificates.

The survey remains open until July 15, and readers who belong to more than one group are allowed to complete a survey for each. Booksellers who would like to share the survey with customers via in-store announcements, store newsletters, and social media can get exclusive graphics by contacting Emily Hoenig at [email protected].

Inkshares Allows Stores to Create Their Own Imprints

Inkshares, which offers indie bookstores the opportunity to create their own publishing imprints, was recently profiled in Publishers Weekly.

PW noted that the Inkshares publishing model, which combines crowdfunding with traditional publishing services, has the potential to deepen indie bookstores’ ties with the local writing community; offers an alternative to Amazon’s CreateSpace; and helps out midlist authors by publishing new books and republishing those that have gone out of print.

“With our model, an indie bookstore can run their own imprint on Inkshares, called a Collection,” said Matt Kaye, Inkshares vice president of marketing and operations. “Books published as part of a Collection are branded as that bookstore’s book. Because we use crowdfunding, only books that reach their pre-order goal get published, so this creates no financial risk for the bookstore.”

Seattle-based Ada’s Technical Books is the first independent bookstore to join Inkshares, PW noted. The store has begun to promote the program by putting up signage in the store as well as running a social media campaign to encourage people to check out drafts, manuscripts, and published works on the Inkshares website.

Inkshares will be including its first book in an ABA White Box this summer: Gary Whitta’s debut novel, Abomination, will arrive at bookstores in the August mailing.

We Need Diverse Books Welcomes New Members to Advisory Board, Executive Committee

We Need Diverse Books (WNDB) has announced several changes to its Advisory Board and Executive Committee.

Artist and writer Gene Luen Yang of Dark Horse Comics’ Avatar: The Last Airbender and DC Comics’ Superman has joined the We Need Diverse Books Advisory Board.

Award-winning author Meg Medina has moved from the WNDB Executive Committee to become Advisory Board chair.

The Executive Committee has added two new members: Dhonielle Clayton has been named senior vice president of librarian services, overseeing the Walter Awards and the Booktalking Kits, as well as the Summer Reading Series; Jennifer Baker will direct all WNDB social media and will chair the WNDB Festival, scheduled for July 2016.

Additionally, all current Executive Board members have been promoted to senior vice presidents.

Internally, WNDB has promoted Karen Baker to vice president of social media/branding and Tracey Baptiste to director of fundraising.

Winners of 2015 New England Society in the City of New York Book Awards Announced

The 2015 New England Society in the City of New York (NES) has announced the winners of its annual Book Awards, honoring books of merit that celebrate New England and its culture.

The awards were presented at a ceremony at New York City’s Grolier Club on June 3.

The winners, selected from more than 50 submissions, are:

• Fiction: The Bird Skinner by Alice Greenway (Grove Press)
• Contemporary Nonfiction: Wide and Deep: Tales and Recollections From a Master Maine Fishing Guide by Randy Spencer (Skyhorse Publishing)
• History and Biography: The Map Thief by Michael Blanding (Gotham Books)
• Specialty Title: The New England Kitchen: Fresh Takes on Seasonal Recipes by Jeremy Sewall, photography by Michael Harlan Turkell (Rizzoli New York)