Independent booksellers in the Book Sense marketing program who wish to be a part of the inaugural Quill Awards Nominating Board must respond by e-mail to The Quill Foundation's Anne Binkley at [email protected] [6] no later than Friday, April 15. The invitation, which outlines the information that must be provided by each bookseller who wishes to participate, can be accessed here [7].

Reed Business Information and the NBC Universal Television Stations launched The Quill Awards, a new national book award that honors excellence in book publishing and includes consumers in the voting process, this past January. The awards will be presented in October 2005 during a red-carpet ceremony to be carried on the 14 NBC Universal television stations.

Nominating Board booksellers will vote on titles in 18 book categories over the course of three months -- May, June, and July -- with approximately six categories available for voting during each month. Voting will take place online at www.quillsliteracy.org [8].

From August 15 - September 15, consumers will vote electronically to select the final winners from the "short list" of nominated books.

Bookstores subscribing to Publishers Weekly are automatically on the Quills Nominating Board; however, stores with Book Sense that are not already receiving PW will receive a complimentary subscription during the nominating period, and all nominators from these stores will be entered into a drawing to be held by The Quills for a prize chosen just for Book Sense stores.

For more information about the Quills, visit www.wnbc.com/quills/index.html [9]. To read an earlier BTW story about the Quills, go to news.bookweb.org/read/3378 [10].