NEBA 'Read Around' Now All Year Round

In October 2002, the New England Booksellers Association (NEBA) launched Read Around New England (RANE), a unique, 10-day celebration designed to highlight New England's rich literary talent and diverse array of independent bookstores. A year later, the event was expanded to one month.

This year, RANE has expanded yet again. With the August 6 launch of www.ReadAround.com, RANE is now a year-round promotion, said Rusty Drugan, executive director of NEBA. "[RANE] was meant to be a way to help independents do author events" and spotlight their importance to the community, among other things, he told BTW. The bookstores that participated in RANE celebrated the event in their own fashion, whether it was holding author readings, a panel discussion, workshop, or simply putting up promotional posters. "We had 60 or so stores … that were fairly active participants, but this [promotion] was happening at the store level. So, [we thought] where do we next take the program?" The answer was to bring the promotion to a central location on the Web.

Linda Ramsdell, owner of the Galaxy Bookshop in Hardwick, Vermont, who is past president of NEBA and a current ABA Board member, told BTW that bringing RANE online and giving booksellers a place to post events all year-round was the right the direction to take the promotion. For example, over the past two years, having a set time of the year for RANE was good for some bookstores but inevitably not for others. "For some, the time of year was wrong," she explained. "[Bringing it online] is a great benefit to more members."

With the ReadAround.com site, NEBA booksellers simply register and post their author events on the Web site.

Subsequently, having all the events listed in one central location with a searchable database means media and consumers can access all the events quickly and with ease. For example, it could assist tourists planning their trips to New England, or collectors seeking signed first editions, Drugan noted. Additionally, a user can click through to an individual bookstore's Web site for more information, too.

To post their events, NEBA member stores simply have to go to the Web site and click "Register Your Store." From there, they input their store name, address, phone number, choose a user name and password, and click "Register."

Ramsdell said, "I just love the Web site, it's so easy to use and visually exciting…. The feedback from booksellers has all been really positive." Both Ramsdell and Drugan credit the site's ease-of-use with its designers, Tom Bowler and Kim Daley of Ovo Interactive.

Since the site's launch 10 days ago, Ovo's Daley noted that 50 NEBA members have registered and posted events. "It takes about five minutes to [register]," she said. "Booksellers seem to be able to use it without much instruction." --David Grogan